MichaelAndrew3435
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Between covers and originals, how many songs do you typically run through during a 2 hour rehearsal, and how many songs does you band know and keep in their back pocket? I ask because I'm starting to believe my band is just trying to do way too much by adding song after song to our weekly rehearsal list and I'm struggling to really understand the end goal here.
My band does a mixture of covers and originals and I've been playing with these guys for nearly a year. It took us several months to find a singer/song writer and we added someone just recently and so far, this person has been an excellent addition. We're actually starting to finish the instrumental OG's we've been working on the past year. And oh boy, there's about 20+ instrumental demos/rough cuts. Some are finished and some still need work with arrangements, leads, etc. Our singer joined the band three weeks ago and already has lyrics/melodies for 6-7 of them, which is terrific and I'm very happy with how this is progressing. In addition to these OG's, we probably know and occasionally play 20 something covers, so that's about 50 songs total if you factor in OG's and covers. Our singer is also in the process of learning some of the covers too, which is also great!
Here's my problem however, as I'm sure many of you know from experience, most musicians aren't the most organized folks on the planet. At this point, I think it'd be ideal to begin focusing on fewer songs and actually getting good demo recordings of originals with lyrics, but my band keeps wanting to do new covers just for the hell of it and I can't stop scratching my head. Most of the covers we play are deep cuts, and there's no intention on ever playing these at a gig. We basically do them for shits and giggles. We were doing them for awhile when we didn't have a singer, so it wasn't totally pointless I suppose (we'd take turns singing them). We're probably adding at least 2 new covers a week and to me, it's just a waste of time learning, and breezing through songs without taking more time to actually perfect them together. Every time we add, we gotta drop a few we never really got right because we probably only rehearsed it once or twice. See the problem here?
We've discussed trying to record some of the OG's and actually have something to send people, so I don't know, maybe we can play at a dive bar in a few months? Recording original material is what's most important to me. No, I don't think my band is ever going to win a grammy, but I'd like to create/record music we're all proud of. I have brought this to the attention of the mates, but I'm kinda getting the run around by being told something like "we'll get professional recordings eventually". But in my mind I'm thinking, how the hell are we EVER going to record anything if we don't finish the songs, get a rough recording with vocals, and rehearse the songs to a point where we're comfortable paying someone money to do a professional recording.
The intention of my band mates is not bad by any means, but at some point I think we need to stop adding/rehearsing new covers and focus our attention on something rather than try to do everything at the same time. What do we want to do or accomplish? If it's to get a good recording of a couple of our songs, then let's focus on this. There are only so many hours in a day, and we all have full time jobs lol. I'm sure there are professional bands and musicians out there that can handle constantly adding new songs to their repertoire and nailing them while simultaneously writing/recording their own music professionally, but we're not one of them LOL. Learning and memorizing 2-3 new covers for me is time consuming depending on what it is. This is time we could spend doing something much more productive in my opinion.
I'd much rather focus on recording at this point and I'm trying my best not to get frustrated. It's like my band has ADD and can't focus on anything. I know recording and playing a smaller group of songs, or working on finalizing arrangements is less fun than just BS'ing, but please stop adding covers to our repertoire we're never going to play live or record if you actually want to record an original. We can't do both. I recorded an OG with a previous band and we probably spent 3-4 rehearsals working on getting a good recording for it.
My band does a mixture of covers and originals and I've been playing with these guys for nearly a year. It took us several months to find a singer/song writer and we added someone just recently and so far, this person has been an excellent addition. We're actually starting to finish the instrumental OG's we've been working on the past year. And oh boy, there's about 20+ instrumental demos/rough cuts. Some are finished and some still need work with arrangements, leads, etc. Our singer joined the band three weeks ago and already has lyrics/melodies for 6-7 of them, which is terrific and I'm very happy with how this is progressing. In addition to these OG's, we probably know and occasionally play 20 something covers, so that's about 50 songs total if you factor in OG's and covers. Our singer is also in the process of learning some of the covers too, which is also great!
Here's my problem however, as I'm sure many of you know from experience, most musicians aren't the most organized folks on the planet. At this point, I think it'd be ideal to begin focusing on fewer songs and actually getting good demo recordings of originals with lyrics, but my band keeps wanting to do new covers just for the hell of it and I can't stop scratching my head. Most of the covers we play are deep cuts, and there's no intention on ever playing these at a gig. We basically do them for shits and giggles. We were doing them for awhile when we didn't have a singer, so it wasn't totally pointless I suppose (we'd take turns singing them). We're probably adding at least 2 new covers a week and to me, it's just a waste of time learning, and breezing through songs without taking more time to actually perfect them together. Every time we add, we gotta drop a few we never really got right because we probably only rehearsed it once or twice. See the problem here?
We've discussed trying to record some of the OG's and actually have something to send people, so I don't know, maybe we can play at a dive bar in a few months? Recording original material is what's most important to me. No, I don't think my band is ever going to win a grammy, but I'd like to create/record music we're all proud of. I have brought this to the attention of the mates, but I'm kinda getting the run around by being told something like "we'll get professional recordings eventually". But in my mind I'm thinking, how the hell are we EVER going to record anything if we don't finish the songs, get a rough recording with vocals, and rehearse the songs to a point where we're comfortable paying someone money to do a professional recording.
The intention of my band mates is not bad by any means, but at some point I think we need to stop adding/rehearsing new covers and focus our attention on something rather than try to do everything at the same time. What do we want to do or accomplish? If it's to get a good recording of a couple of our songs, then let's focus on this. There are only so many hours in a day, and we all have full time jobs lol. I'm sure there are professional bands and musicians out there that can handle constantly adding new songs to their repertoire and nailing them while simultaneously writing/recording their own music professionally, but we're not one of them LOL. Learning and memorizing 2-3 new covers for me is time consuming depending on what it is. This is time we could spend doing something much more productive in my opinion.
I'd much rather focus on recording at this point and I'm trying my best not to get frustrated. It's like my band has ADD and can't focus on anything. I know recording and playing a smaller group of songs, or working on finalizing arrangements is less fun than just BS'ing, but please stop adding covers to our repertoire we're never going to play live or record if you actually want to record an original. We can't do both. I recorded an OG with a previous band and we probably spent 3-4 rehearsals working on getting a good recording for it.
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