Practice Regimen Part Deux

[Dr.Zayus]

How often does your band practice and for how long?

Just curious what other bands do. I like to have practice for 2&1/2 - 3 hours twice a week. Seems like that's the minimum to stay really tight.

Opinions?

[Danny G]

Depends on where the band is as a band and what they do/how often they do it.


Eric Tessmer Band plays 2-5 nights a week and only rehearses to write new material or add new covers. Been working on a new album so we have been rehearsing 1-2 times a week as time/health permits.

Another band I just joined (Timothy Abbott & Arcana Mundi) practices 2 or so times a week, and is still in the process of forming a solid lineup.

As for individual practice at home I rarely have time to do that. I will be going over the new ETB songs on bass at home to finalize my parts as we will (hopefully) be debuting 3 new songs next weekend.

With Arcana Mundi (I play guitar) I spent lots of time first learning the songs. The album is amazing, 2-4 guitar parts each tune and it's just me on guitar for now... yeah, it was a very welcome challenge...! Still putting a lineup together, so playing the songs at home not really good use of time as parts are changing/songs coming together. But playing in general at home would help. Just wish I had more time.

[Discö Rice]

3 days a week. Two 3 hour days and one 4-6 hour day. I try to get solo practice in when I can, too.

[clockwork green]

Jesus...you guys practice a lot.  With the Worship of Silence we were twice a week for 2-2.5 hours each.  Towards the end though it was maybe twice a month for 1.5-2 hours each.  We weren't writing and these were songs we've played a million times.  With the new project it's once a week for 3 hours or so at best but often once a month since our drummer is in a billion bands.  I'd like to practice more but we're still writing songs and that's mainly on me so it's not a big deal. 

[mawso]

the ideal amount is somewhere between 3 times a week and once every 2 months.  it just depends where you're at.

currently i'm aiming for twice a week but that's cos there's a new drummer on board.  before that, we'd play out 2-3 times a month and we'd only rehearse on top of that to get new songs down.  we'd been playing together about 2 years to get to that point though.

[Dr.Zayus]

My band schedules practice twice a week, but for one reason or another, twice doesn't usually happen. It feels like we're progressing extremely slow. Do you guys who don't practice that often work on stuff at home?

[chille01]

Once a week, for about 4-5 hours, with a half hour beer and bullshit break in there.  I'd prefer to practice twice a week for shorter duration, but we only have one night in the shared jam room, and the bass player is in two other bands.  We make it work.

[spookstrickland]

I like to practice once a week for 8 to 12 hours.  Of course we take break for lunch or dinner and of course Drink and Smoke breaks too.

[jibberish]

if our little open-mic nite duo can be considered that, we manage to get together roughly every other friday for about 2 hours.   We have more than 2 hours usually, but trombone has limited "lip" time unless you REALLY put in the steady practice, and my buddy is busy as hell, so like others have said:   we make do with what we can.

but i put in lots of solo practice of my parts and use the drum machine most of the time to tighten things up with the tunes we do(see other thread heh). that actually helps me keep time when there is no metronome/drummer involved..not sure why, maybe just residuals from the practice of doing it locked in to a beat..

[moose23]

Usually once a week for 3 or 4 hours for two bands and then the other two bands I'm in practice much less regularly but do 6 or 7 hours at a time.

[rayinreverse]

once a week for a couple hours. that once a week sometimes doesnt happen.