It's like the church scene in Blues Brothers: fade out James Brown, fade in Wagner, clouds part and reverend James asks "do you see the light?" As the bright rays pierce through the stained glass and light up the aisle, Jake starts to shudder. "Yes!" Elwood looks at his brother, not understanding. Again: "do you see the light?" "The Band, Elwood, the Band!" Now the church is hardly there anymore, just vibrant white light all around. And Wagner. Elwood sees the light. He sees Jake and remembers the Glory. "The Band!"
So I quit the band two hours, seven days and eighteen months ago. Career, family, study, that sort of thing. I wasn't the first to quit, we struggled for long time going through personnel changes. Now they have come back to ask if we can try once more. Mark Twain once said that doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome, that's insanity. I would like to do it differently.
Let's face it: playing as a band takes a lot of practice, apart as well as together. If you're making a career out of it or if you want to live off of little, this can be done. But in our case we have a couple of careers between us, day jobs of note. The result: not every practice everyone's there. Some practices get cancelled. Are there any bands that achieve satisfactory results from, on average, an hour and a half every fortnight? I think unlikely.
So I am asking: are there any other ways that you guys use to practice as a band? Do you, for instance, record (parts of) sessions to use as back tracks later? Do you split up tasks, like the drummer and bassist practising apart from the guitarist and singer? Do you go over one song until it is right or do you go over a number of songs in succession, critiquing and moving on until next week? Is there a minimum of time per week that needs to be spent together? What equipment do you use, if you record? Do you go track by track or one shot live?
So I quit the band two hours, seven days and eighteen months ago. Career, family, study, that sort of thing. I wasn't the first to quit, we struggled for long time going through personnel changes. Now they have come back to ask if we can try once more. Mark Twain once said that doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome, that's insanity. I would like to do it differently.
Let's face it: playing as a band takes a lot of practice, apart as well as together. If you're making a career out of it or if you want to live off of little, this can be done. But in our case we have a couple of careers between us, day jobs of note. The result: not every practice everyone's there. Some practices get cancelled. Are there any bands that achieve satisfactory results from, on average, an hour and a half every fortnight? I think unlikely.
So I am asking: are there any other ways that you guys use to practice as a band? Do you, for instance, record (parts of) sessions to use as back tracks later? Do you split up tasks, like the drummer and bassist practising apart from the guitarist and singer? Do you go over one song until it is right or do you go over a number of songs in succession, critiquing and moving on until next week? Is there a minimum of time per week that needs to be spent together? What equipment do you use, if you record? Do you go track by track or one shot live?