Learn the Song on Your Own Time

Quite often, when you are in a band situation, you may not be building your repertoire as fast as you should. A sure tell-tale sign would be having only 3 or 4 songs down after a few months of rehearsals. It would be obvious, at that point, that something is going seriously wrong.

Now you could ask yourself how many songs your band should have down after a few months. It generally takes longer to get original material together than it would cover tunes, so that should be taken into consideration when making this assessment. However, even if the 4 songs were all originals, it would still be an indication that something is definitely wrong.

To play out at a number of venues you will need more than 50 songs. That’s a fairly conservative estimate; more-or-less a best case scenario. That’s also assuming that the songs are over the usual 3.5 minute average run time. If not, you will need significantly more.

A band that does mostly covers or all cover material should have at least ten songs down after a month of rehearsals. People who really have their act together, will more than likely have more.

Now there are multiple causes for not getting your material together quickly enough but I have found one cause to be very common. The one I have found to be among the most common causes is that some members of the band are not learning the songs on their own time. To simplify matters, we’ll assume that you’re in a cover band and you are building a repertoire of all cover material. So here’s a scenario:

Jimmy Jam, is your bass player. He’s pretty good but he’s the least disciplined member of the band. All of the members of your four piece band have decided to learn three songs over the previous week and have them ready for practice. Unfortunately, Jimmy only learned one of the agreed upon songs. The other two, the guitar player had to show him how to play. Though it was fortunate that the guitar player knew the bass parts for the songs, the other members of the band just sat around while Jimmy was learning the song on the time they should have been using to rehearse it as a group.

It’s okay though, if it’s a one time thing. Oh no, it’s not? You mean he did the same thing this week too? Seems like a pattern developing here. It could be a problem if you want to get out there and play any time soon.

It’s all a matter of simple math. You need at least 50 songs (conservative estimate again) to play out. If you are only learning one song a week, it will be a year before you will be ready to play out. You know, since there are only 52 weeks in a year. Two songs a week means six months. Four songs a week means three months. So how long do you want it to take?

In order to maximize the effectiveness of the band’s time, everyone should be learning their parts on their own time. The band’s time should be used for the band to rehearse the songs each member has already learned. Otherwise you may find, after a few months of rehearsals, that you don’t have that many songs together.

Learning the material is a responsibility that each band member has. If a member falls short in meeting that responsibility, you have to wonder about his dedication or ability to meet his commitments. Somebody needs to have a little talk with Jimmy Jam.

There are other ways of people learning the songs on the band’s time. Like having the CD ready for Jimmy Jam to listen to and learn it by ear. This would all be done while the other members of the band go out for lunch, make a beer run or something else that would be a complete waste of time.

If you are like Jimmy Jam, you need to think about one thing: Do you really think it’s fair to the rest of the band, for you not to have your parts learned? I think if you give it some thought and if you are a somewhat reasonable person, would answer that question with a no.

The next question you need to ask yourself is: Am I able to meet my commitments to the band? Obviously learning the material is one of those commitments. If you really feel that you are able to meet those obligations then you need to make the necessary corrections. You can start by learning the songs on your own time.