[Harp-L] Re:Practice



Rick wrote:

My preferred method is to play a song, have everyone suggest
changes/improvements to the arrangement, play the changed parts several
times, and then play the song again all the way through to make sure the
intro, changes, and ending are good and everybody has his parts down.


snip
...When I played varsity sports we practiced

hard as a team, and when we were well prepared we did well.

and Mike Rogers wrote:
We work out all songs. We don't do just blues, but some are blues. I. M.
O. a band that has tight breaks, intros and outros keeps the audience's
attention. If you jam all the time, you sound like a jam band.



I couldn't agree more with the both of you. The last band I was in never practiced. The way we learned new songs is the leader would call a song out and we'd fuddle through it the next 5 or 6 gigs until we got it right. The only time the band practiced was to be in the IBC competition and that was only 2 practices. The band leader thought practice would ruin the spontaneity of the moment. He also thought getting stoned before during and after gigs would get him in the moment as well. <sigh>


The current band I'm in is more like Mike's band. We take a song and make it our own. We add tight breaks where there were non before.
We add horn like hooks where there were non before. Our drummer is very good at arranging the intro's and outro's. There is a real sense for everyone to get equal time on stage. A very democratic band. We are getting a lot of attention from the local blues fans because of our serious attitude to learn new songs, re work the standards, and put a twist in sometimes that no one expects.


Mike






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