[Harp-L] re: Band arrangements

[Jim McBride <jpmcbride@xxxxxxxxx>]

Band arrangements,
 
The professionals on this list can give you good advice on this topic. But I'll also respond because I'm an amatuer player in band and am fairly new at this and this sounds like where you are at. Maybe our experiences are similar.
 
What you describe is typical. I'm an intermediate harp player and play a little guitar, and I play in a band with two other guys. Its can be a struggle because there are varying levels of talent and skill in the band, and there are different approaches to the whole process. As Iceman said, someone has to step up and lead, or at least guide. 
 
In our band, the typical process is that one of us brings a song to the others to see if they would like to add it. Usually they come with at least a printout of the lyrics and guitar chords and a CD of the original recording (we play all covers) and are able to play a little of the song. We'll listen to it and talk about it and if we like it and think we can pull it off, we'll start talking arrangements. At this point its pretty casual - "you play the rythm part on the accoustic guitar", "I'll try to come up with a harp solo that to replace that guitar solo after the 2nd verse" .. that kind of general stuff. Then we go home and work on our parts and come back to practice next week and try to play it. Usually its really rough and requires some number of weeks of work out - we're not professional musicians and it takes us time to learn our parts.  Once we can play through the song we start fine tuning the arrangement - things like adding/removing verses, adding/removing solos,
 removing or changing parts that we can't pull off because of lack of the proper instrument (example keyboard).
 
Things can be tough - its hard to get a group of people together to do something creative and get everyone onthe same page. Why do you think so many bands break up. Things we struggle with:
- Tempo. Without a drummer we tend to vary the tempo. Its a struggle to keep it consistent.
- Timing. When you play with a group you have to get in sysnc - solos start on a certain note, intros with multiple instruments have to start together (you have to learn to countoff to start), fills and riffs have to come in right.
- Improvising. We're not professionals so someone is always screwing up ;-) You have to learn  to improvise on the spot and salvage a song even when someone goes to the wrong chord in the middle of your solo! Or when you reach over to adjust your amp and miss the start of your solo!
- Another big issue for us, and I hear others say the same thing, is differences in approach to the music. Two of us are very detail oriented and want to nail the arrangements exactly and practice them over and over to get them right. The 3rd guy is loosey-goosey, likes to improvise, and wants to just "go for it" and always wants to move onto new stuff and not practice the old songs. I'm not saying which approach is right, its just hard when you have different philosophies in the same band.
- Another problem is ego. We all have it and we all have trouble being told something we're playing is not good. But its necessary many times in a band to tell someone that something is just not working. Or that they are consistently missing the timing on a part. The challenge is in dealing with these things without getting feelings hurt to the point that it affects the ability of the group to play together. This is especially touchy in a band of non-professional musicians, like us, where sometimes the problems are due to lack of ability. Sometimes you have to tell someone that they are playing over their head and just can't pull something off. I've been on the receiving end of this conversation and its hard for your ego to be told you aren't playing your part well enough to use it in the song. But you have to remember that its better for your bandmates to tell you this than the audience at a gig!
 
I've found a few things that seem to help in keeping the band focused and moving ahead.
(1) Before practice starts, we sit down and agree on what we are going to do and how long we'll spend on it. Without this discipline, rehearsals turn into jam sessions and go nowhere.
(2) At the end of practice we assign homework - songs to learn, solos to work out, things to practice that need work, etc...
(3) Again, as Iceman said, someone has to step up and lead. And it doesn't always have to be the best musician in the group. Sometimes one guy is good at organizing and keeping things on track. Find this guy and let him lead. Since you recognized the problem and asked the question, I bet you are this guy in your band.
 
Jim
 
 
 

 

		
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