Creating a Band (series) - Part III, Rehearsals & the Set List

So far in the "Creating a Band" series, we've worked out what we expect from the band, and we've found other musicians to work with. With these steps out of the way, it's finally time to roll up our sleeves and get to work making music. In Part III of the series, we're going to find a rehearsal space, and go over some fundamentals of rehearsals. We're also going to discuss a few good habits for rehearsing, which will hopefully allow you to make the best, most efficient use of your time.

For some, finding rehearsal space is going to be easy. You might have a garage or a basement you can use, or perhaps you know someone who can connect you to a spot. But some readers might face one of the biggest challenges any new band must overcome: finding a place for the band to call home. If this is true for you, then your first step should be to ask around amidst your family and friends to see if anyone has some space they don't mind your using. If this doesn't work, try asking other musicians, preferably ones who are already in established groups, where they rehearse or if they know of any rehearsal studios with vacancies. Also, it's usually a good idea to phone local music stores, commercial and/ or industrial property Realtors, theater companies, and music venues to find out if there are spaces available that your band could rent. If your music isn't too offensive, you might also try contacting your church to see if they might allow you to rehearse there. For some bands, this is a simple step that requires little more than a vacuum cleaner and an afternoon of moving old boxes around. For others, it's an arduous task that takes months to solve. But keep networking with musicians and contacting establishments, and you should find something.

What qualities does an ideal rehearsal studio have? First and foremost, you're going to want enough free space that the full band can set up without being crowded or cramped. Walkways should be clear, and the entire area should be easily accessible by everyone. Because your band will hopefully be heading out to play gigs in the future, another consideration is the difficulty one must endure to move equipment into and out of the space. The ability to quickly, easily, and safely transport equipment to and from the studio is vital to the success of your future shows. Security should also be taken seriously, as thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars worth of musical equipment being stolen or otherwise lost would be a disaster of epic proportions. Make sure the space has doors and windows that safely and securely lock, that other tenants nearby are trustworthy and honest, and that the landlord, if applicable, is a responsible person. If you can manage it, find a space with thick walls, preferably distanced from residential areas, so that you can play late at night without disturbing others. And last but not least, make sure there are no fire, water, or other natural hazards which might threaten your safety or the safety of your equipment.

Decorating the studio has long been a favorite tradition amongst musicians. hanging up posters of your favorite acts and playfully arguing over which poster should go where can be fun. But there are a few items which might prove particularly handy for any studio. If you can, hang up a dry-erase board and/ or a bulletin board. Both will definitely prove their value over time. You'll also want seating, like a futon or an old couch, where visitors can kick back and watch the band rehearse or perform. Make sure you have trash cans and recycle bins, too, because soda cans and junk food wrappers have a tendency to accumulate in studios. Having at least one class-C fire extinguisher is also a great idea, because electrical fires are a serious risk in areas where a great deal of musical equipment is being used.

Once your band has suitable rehearsal space, it's time to start scheduling rehearsals. It can often be challenging to make everyone's schedules blend together perfectly, and if you can't get the entire band together at least a few times each week, then it might be time to reconsider your band-mates. You'll want to schedule as many days in a week as you can for rehearsals, particularly early on in the band's life; three days per week should be considered a minimum, and five days per week should be considered perfect. You don't want the band getting together every single day, and likewise, you don't want the band playing together only once or twice per week. Each rehearsal session should be scheduled for at least four free hours. They mind end in an hour, and they might go on all night, but four solid hours of work should be considered the ideal session, because it's enough time to get a great deal of work done, but not so much time that everyone will get fed up with working together.

The first five times the band gets together to play, expect very little work to be done. The group should jam, and get to know each other personally as well as musically. You might write a few decent songs during these very early sessions, and they might even be keepers, but don't start playing out your Behind the Music special in your imagination just yet! These early sessions should be treated as fun, passive jams where you're all getting to know each other, and fine-tuning your playing to each other. Also, don't set your expectations too high within the first five jam sessions, either. Bands are like tube amps: they take a while to warm up!

After five sessions, the group should have developed a few "go-to" songs which can be jammed with relative tightness on demand. In your next session, focus on those songs, playing them repeatedly to tighten together everyone's playing. If you're going to be an original band, try to jam original songs, if the group knows any. Taking the time to carry out this "tightening the bolts" jam will help the group develop fluidity and precision, will develop those songs a bit further, and most importantly, it'll allow you to observe your new band-mates to see how they work together in a more professional, serious session.

Next comes the hard part: writing songs. In your following sessions (however many it takes), the band should focus on writing new material, rehearsing those songs enough that they can't be easily forgotten, and assembling a rough draft of a set list. A "set list" is a list of songs that the band can play. When you perform a gig, you'll be playing your "set," and your set list will present the order in which the band is playing those songs. As a freshly-built act, you're going to want to develop a very lengthy set list to be on the safe side, consisting of no fewer than twenty songs, and not being shorter than one hour. In other words, even if you reach the hour mark in ten songs, you should write ten more, and if you write twenty songs and the set can be played in forty-five minutes, then you need to develop another fifteen minutes of songs. This is important because you wouldn't want your band to miss out on an opportunity or experience an embarrassing stage moment because the group ran out of songs.

If you can, try to record these songs in whatever way is easiest and cheapest. The sound quality doesn't need to be stellar, it just needs to be audible. Also, when a new song is written, make sure guitarists and bass players write down guitar tab or sheet music so that they don't lose what they were playing to posterity! If you can have some form of recording running throughout your entire rehearsal session, do it, especially when the band is in the process of writing original songs.

After your band has developed enough songs for a full, first set, organize a meeting outside of the studio to discuss the arrangement of the set list. Doing this in a restaurant, a park, at home, or in some other quiet environment is essential. Everyone should be sober and attentive, because designing the set list is a crucial step for the band! You're going to need to bring along some blank paper and a copy of your current rough-draft set, complete with the average running times (lengths) of each of your songs. Oh, and a pen or pencil wouldn't hurt, either. You won't be designing one set, but several, so be prepared for quite a bit of work!

To begin, have everyone in the band rate each song in the set on a scale of zero (0) to ten (10), with zero being terrible and ten being their favorite. When this is finished, add up the scores that each song has received. This will give you a list of your band's songs in order of general quality, from the song everyone perceives to be the best, to the song that everyone perceives to be the worst. Don't worry about ties, and don't let anyone's votes be swayed by other members of the band. Each member of the band should be honest with themselves and with each other!

You're going to design not one, but three distinct set lists. The first should be thirty-minutes long, the second should be forty-five minutes long, and the third should be one hour long. This way, you can space out your material evenly and fairly, and ensure that your best songs make it into each set that you play live. But because emergencies will always come up, each of these sets will also be designed for contingency; should you be booked for a thirty-minute show, but end up on stage for a full hour, you'll have the sets prepared for that.

Start off each set with the song that best describes your sound, and speaks to the overall character of the group, without being your very best (highest-rated) song. In other words, if your band is characterized as being loud and heavy, you should have a loud and heavy song first, but this should not be your best song. This way, you can display the group's style and sound right out of the gate, without spending up your best material. This song should be one of the bests, though. The best way to captivate an audience is to hit them with quality early on! Next, you should take your best-rated song and put that at the end of each of your three sets. This way, you're leaving the stage with your audience wanting more. Fill out the sets between the first and last songs with your best material, organized however your band feels they should go together. When that's done, take whatever remaining songs you have and place them at the end of the set, to make sure you don't run out of material on stage. Try to save the best song of whatever's left at this point for last, so that you can still leave the stage making a good impression. If the overall quality of your songs prevails, this shouldn't be too much of an issue, though.

After you've developed all three set lists, the band will be prepared for proper rehearsals. Head back into the studio and run through your full list of songs, from beginning to end, without erroneous breaks between each song. Fire off each song as close to the one before it as you can, to maximize everyone's experience shifting between songs. If someone makes a mistake, don't stop playing! Keep moving through the band's foul-ups no matter what happens, and muscle your way through the full set in its entirety. This should be done at the start of each and every session. After playing through the set fully, the group can focus on those songs that aren't as tight and professional-sounding as the others. If you have time before the session ends, run through the full set list once more before everyone goes home. There's no telling how many times the band might need to repeat this process. Some bands might get the set down quickly, within a few sessions. Other bands might take months to get it right. But keep working hard at tightening the set, and before you know it, the band's music should be good enough to play live.

When the band has tightened up the set list to the point where the group can play each song from beginning to end, on demand, without screw-ups and start-overs, you'll be ready for the next step. I'll leave you with one final thought for part III: input from people outside of the band can be a tremendous help, but it can also lead to divisions in the group and even a loss of quality in your music. Don't hesitate to invite guests to the studio to hang out and listen to your group play, but always take their input with a grain of salt. If several people repeatedly tell you the same thing about your group, then perhaps you should take it into consideration, but everyone is a critic and a self-confessed musical expert, so never take one person's word as the know-all, end-all, be-all of professional advice.

Coming Up Next: In Part IV of the "Creating a Band" series, we'll discuss the group's image, and we'll begin preparations for the band to head out on stage for the first time.