How to conduct efficient band rehearsal?

Jonathan Feist's translator's note: I wrote it in square brackets, some of which are spit, and more are supplements to my own experience. There are many ways to rehearse a band, and how to arrange it depends on your goals-long-term goals or short-term goals. Only when the goal is clear can the band have the direction of collective progress and maintain the progress of the team. Low-quality rehearsal will make some members feel that the arrangement is inefficient and a waste of time, and even feel that the band as a whole has gone astray and fallen into chaos, while high-quality rehearsal is just the opposite. Planning ahead is the key to efficient rehearsal. All members should be prepared during rehearsal and pay attention to every tune. If you are mainly responsible for a song, you'd better distribute some music scores or even a short recording to members in advance, so that they can have enough preparation time to make their own arrangements for your song. (For detailed reading, please refer to Berkeley Practice Method Series. The Berkeley practice method series mentioned here is a set of books specially edited and written by the author of this paper to guide the rehearsal of electro-acoustic bands. It has been divided into volumes according to different parts such as guitar, bass, keyboard and drum. All the demo tracks in different volumes are the same, but according to the different instruments needed, the rehearsal plan can be communicated in advance by passing the target list. In order to put forward a practical plan better, imagine whether you can finish two or three new songs after three hours of rehearsal. If you think you have to spend more time, you should have at least half an hour's collective rest after two or three hours, and take a few minutes' rest every hour of rehearsal. Lead singers and wind instruments usually need more frequent breaks. If they are injured due to excessive competition, it may take several weeks to recover, which is not worth the loss. In addition, musicians who need extra time to prepare in advance should arrive early. For example, drummers need to tune drums and install cymbals and plucked instruments (guitar, bass mandolin, etc.) in advance. ) It also takes time to plug in the power supply and tune the strings, and people who play brass instruments need to warm up. Everyone should know how much preparation and time they need, so they should make targeted preparations so as not to delay others. Supplement: This part of the original text is not specially written for tuning in the rehearsal room. I might add that wiring should be orderly rather than disorderly. The power cord and musical instrument cord should be arranged as neatly as possible, bypassing the places that people often step on, so as to avoid accidents caused by sudden drop of the cord. After the tuning and timbre of each instrument are completed, please adjust the volume collectively with reference to the drum volume to ensure that each instrument part will not be covered by the drum sound, because in many cases, it is difficult to adjust the drum sound volume. Even if PA is picked up, try to refer to the drum, especially the bass. Please don't pick up the drum too loudly, and don't pay too much attention to the low frequency of guitar and woofer. Many times we think that the low frequency is not strong enough because the points of guitar, bass and drum are not aligned. In addition, the guitar speaker should be placed at the height of the chest as much as possible to avoid turning on too many high frequencies. When rehearsing in the rehearsal room without PA, if you think the volume of the instrument is too high or too low, it may be a standing problem. Adjust your position or the angle of speaker exhaust to improve it. Don't adjust the volume directly. In this case, the volume is determined by the lead singer standing in the middle and the drummer sitting in the back row. Even if you still think there is something wrong, please respect other people's ears. Some bands like to start rehearsing with JAMJAM, which means that many musicians improvise blues or other simple rhythms or tunes that everyone is familiar with. This can quickly warm up your instrument and body, and greet other teammates with music. Jam takes about ten minutes, and then get down to business. Jam is usually happy, but be careful not to spend too long. The general rehearsal time is planned to be 2-3 hours. Leave time to rest on the way, and you can also prepare some drinks and snacks to avoid distracting anyone. It turns out that food and drink still have this magical effect. It's best not to drink unless you just want to be manic and have fun. Please write it down if you can. This means recording the rehearsal results on the spot, rather than going into the shed. Some bands like to record the whole rehearsal from scratch, while others only record one or two arranged and completed. You don't have to care too much about the sound quality of the recording. An ordinary microphone, notebook or other portable recording equipment is enough. What you need to record, besides the whole song, is usually some arrangements and rhythms that need to be improved. These are the materials that each member can practice later. You'd better distribute all these recordings as soon as possible after rehearsal, and it's most convenient and quick to convert them into MP3 format. If you are in charge of recording this, you'd better put the recording equipment away before other players appear. The purpose of recording is to make the most effective use of everyone's time, so try not to let the recording process interfere with anything. Personal experience: Recording is really necessary. I don't know the true face of Lushan Mountain just because I am in this mountain. Recording can objectively expose almost all problems. You just have to try. Here are some examples of rehearsal methods. Many rehearsals are nothing more than this, but the different purposes of these different ways will have a far-reaching impact on your band's macro goals in different ways. First of all, JAMJAM usually plays all kinds of music, and we usually don't rework it. It feels like an informal random performance. On the surface, JAM seems to be just for fun, but in fact JAM has many functions. JAM can have many opportunities to create new rhythms, adjust the overall sound, practice how to communicate with other parts, listen to many new materials, and of course, experience the fun of playing music together more directly. Jam can also expand your musical ideas, sharpen your calluses, and even try some crazy ideas that you don't usually use-sometimes it works miracles. At this time, mistakes are often not important, what matters is the inner feelings. Want to barbecue in the wild? Then you can take your band to improvise. In order to make JAM more meaningful instead of playing randomly, all members should be able to follow the music. This means that either this song can be familiar to everyone in advance, or its framework is really simple and easy to remember. So you may have to send some materials to everyone in advance, unless you are reviewing something. Otherwise, if you are not careful, you will feel that you are playing a saliva song. If you are a jam host, send some lead charts in advance, which are just a rough score of structure, chord, rhythm and bar, or MP3 samples, and then it is better to have some extra copies when everyone is here. And if you are a JAM participant, you need to be familiar with this piece as much as possible, and prepare some solos and some accompanying jokes-these are tasks that you must complete in advance in private. No matter what instrument you are in charge of, try to play melody, chord, bass, etc. Sometimes JAM needs some videos, especially if someone writes songs and wants to try his new ideas. In short, be prepared. If your band only plays jam, and jam is the greatest pleasure of music for you, it doesn't matter unless you want to apply your skills to future official performances. JAM doesn't care about details and performance, so if you want to do these things, you'd better practice your songs. The picture above is the so-called lead sheet. In fact, it may be simpler to use, and there is no second connection spectrum. Contrary to JAM, rehearsing new songs and practicing songs need to practice and arrange new songs carefully, pay attention to artistic expression and deductive details, and prepare for performance and recording in the shed. This is a rehearsal method that should be centralized and organized. Again, you need to prepare in advance. If you are browsing other people's ready-made works, everyone should have an original audio, and the accuracy of your singing depends on yourself. Sometimes it is easier to have a score, but in order to make progress, try to tear it up, and the score is often inaccurate. Try to avoid that when rehearsing together, everyone spends too much time on a certain part of your instrument-this is cheating people. You will think that although these places may be more difficult and crucial, they are the highlights of this song-even so, for the benefit of the group, we should try our best to finish them in the shortest time. One's own careful preparation is most helpful for efficient rehearsal. If it is original, the creator should make a sample, even if it is rough, and give the player information about the beat speed and rhythm, so as to make full use of each member's time before rehearsal. Here are some common ways to arrange new songs. A: Start with the chorus. Generally speaking, chorus is simpler than the main song, and chorus is often repeated. When rehearsing other parts, once you get into the chorus, you always know how to play and feel "home". B. Find the difficulties and break them down one by one. Slow down and wait in line again and again until you can play perfectly, and then start to speed up. And so on. Slowing down is really useful! Sometimes it is helpful for several key instruments to play a passage alone, for example, only guitar+bass or guitar+bass+drum, which can reduce the interference of other instruments. This method may be used frequently by everyone. Of course, listening to other people's voices can also help you find your own part. Don't forget the solo practice. Because some beats played by soloists are usually irregular, how to make everyone "in tune" in the solo process requires special practice. Don't stay in a particularly difficult place for too long. Sometimes you may just say "I want to go home and practice this part more", and teammates must be tolerant at this time. If it is still difficult to win here next time, simplify it, which is better than separating it during the performance. D once the whole team can play the song completely, we can discuss the arrangement more. This question is similar to: How many times do you need to sing in chorus? Is there a prelude, an interlude or an ending? Where do you stop? When and where do I need to fly solo? If you are hosting a rehearsal, please bring a pen and paper to make sure everyone knows the structure and arrangement, and remember any changes. Even if you don't sing, you should have a lyric. Lyrics are often an important part of prompting song arrangement. A good memory is not as good as a bad writing. Huang has kept this habit for many years and finds it very practical. Make sure you can play it completely, because sometimes, although the band can play it together, you are actually careless about the structure, so you should practice slowly when necessary. Then work hard towards the perfect performance of the whole team. Don't practice for a song too long. If you still find it difficult after more than an hour, record the current situation before moving on to the next song (unless you only have one task today). This will prevent your rehearsal from becoming boring and frustrating. The mood of rehearsal is very important. Third, rehearse! Before the official performance, you must arrange time for rehearsal-try to arrange all the songs once and solve some final problems. First of all, we should arrange the position of you and the equipment reasonably. After wiring and tuning, start playing like a formal performance-don't interrupt whatever mistakes occur. After playing a song, listen to the response of the audience or organizer, and improve and correct the performance effect and mistakes. The translator added: First of all, we should solve the problems of power supply and layout, such as whether the power supply can withstand, whether the patch panel is enough, whether the length of the musical instrument line is enough, and how to arrange the cables reasonably. , except professionals.