Productive Band Practice

It all starts here, unless your bands practices are completely productive and structured you won't get very far. There are a couple of critical points to a productive and structured band practice and those are having a good working relationship with the other band members and also knowing what your goals are. Having a good working relationship isn't rocket science... just be courteous to your fellow band members and always listen to what anyone has to say. The key here is to be sociable and respect one another. You may also want to arrange a going out once in a while... the usual is to arrange a piss up at the local boozer on a Friday night, but that's up to you! You will definitely need to set out goals to achieve before each band practice; those can be as such: writing x amount of song(s), perfecting an already written song, listening for discrepancies in an already written song and re-writing it so that it suits your image better. Unless you have similar targets laid out before a band practice it will have no structured benefits for you, you will merely be playing some music for a little bit of a hobby like fun. Music should be fun granted, but if you want to hit it big time it should also not be taken lightly; you will get your fun through a productive session and feel great after it for achieving your goals. A lot more enjoyment is to be gained through a productive session than the usual band practices you see and hear of. The band practice is one of few times you will all be together apart from at a gig etc. you should also make the most of this time by discussing certain topics about the band whilst everyone is there. This is also the time to be discussing what the goals should be for the next practice, write it down on a piece of paper so that no-one will forget. Don't feel threatened to speak your opinion at any time and don't make others feel threatened to do the same! Last thing on productive practice is frequency; it is ALWAYS better to have more frequent shorter practices than large jaunts once in a while. For instance... a 3-4 hour session once weekly rather than 8 hours once a fortnight. You also want to make use of the practice to increase your stamina... when you're practising, practice as if it was your gig night... perform and enjoy it, make sure you're standing up or in a position as you would be at a gig!