Five Do’s and Don’t’s of Band Practice

It’s Saturday morning. You and your friends are about to meet in your buddy’s garage to have band practice for your original project. As you pack your guitar (or bass, or many many drums), you feel the rush of adrenaline start to hit you: you get to play music with your friends and share your creative side with them.

There’s something special about playing in a band; being in a room with other musicians while feeling the pulsing air flow from each instrument brings us all closer together. Maintaining a good band dynamic is key to keeping your band members happy and feeling like everyone is on the same team. 

With that said, there are some DO’s and DON’T’s of being in a band that will help you keep band practice fun and productive:

• DO show up on time. DON’T show up late.

Imagine showing up to band practice ready to play with your buddies when you get a text from your drummer that he will be running an hour late. You and your bandmates decide to get practice started, but playing with the group doesn’t feel complete without every member being present. Additionally, you have to take practice time to wait for your drummer to set up when he does arrive so you can teach him what you’ve worked on so far.

Being early is to be on time. Being on time is to be late. Being late is to find a new gig. There are exceptions to this rule, but this is a general rule of thumb to live by when playing in a band.

• DO come prepared. DON’T expect your bandmates to teach you.

Your guitarist is incredibly talented. He knows how to play that cool Slash lick and can shred up and down the neck like no one else you’ve seen before. However, he NEVER shows up learning the material you agreed to work on at home, and now YOU have to spend practice time either teaching him how to play the tune or waiting for him to figure it out by listening to the song on his phone. 

When in a band, there are productive activities you can do together during practice, such as writing a new song, working on your setlist, cleaning up a song you’ve been working on, and more. Each person should expect to go home and work on the new material individually (writing new parts, learning a new song, etc.) so that when it comes time to practice, you don’t waste time by rehashing old topics.

Note: this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t teach a new song you wrote to your bandmates in practice.

• DO be flexible. DON’T have an ego.

Let’s say you come in with a new song idea. You share the song with your bandmates, who all love the song except for the intro. Collectively, they ask if they can workshop the intro in practice. What do you do in this situation?

When playing and writing with a group of people, it’s important to remember that, together, you are all a part of something larger than each individual piece of the band. Sharing in the creative process helps shape your band’s sound. So, it’s important to try other people’s ideas, even if you’re hesitant to change a part of your song. You can decide later whether it fits the song or not, but be sure to share in the process.

• DO communicate. DON’T not communicate.

A band is a relationship and a business. When you work together for extended periods of time, there are bound to be issues within the band.

Understanding that, it’s best to have clear and respectful communication with each of your band members. Problems arise, and the last thing you want is for one of your members to feel as if he/she can’t speak up to help solve a problem.

• DO have fun. DON’T forget to have fun.

At the end of the day, you started playing in a band to have fun together. Is being a band hard work? Absolutely. But sharing in the expressive and creative process is totally worth the minor inconveniences, and there’s nothing like performing your music with your friends.