some jive turkey
01-13-2007, 01:27 AM
Okay, after playing with a slew of musicians, I've discovered the reason why most bands suck, and never get very far.
The weakest link, the achillies heel, almost always seems to be when it comes to arranging, the learning of arrangments, and importantly, remembering the arrangments.
It seems most musicians like to avoid arrangments, or want to make them up as they go along. This rarely works from my experience. Rarely is there some magical moment when everyone decides collectively to go to the change(although it may seem that way to a listener who didn't learn or study the arrangment).
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You show up at your buddies house week after week, you all know the songs, you played them great last week, but what about this week? You trainwreck on the first couple of attempts, but then finally get it on the third,... What happened?
The first step to the problem is writing them down. Everyone should write down the arrangments if they are seriously committed to learning tunes and performing them at gigs. Otherwise, you're just jamming, and screwing around. this is fine, but don't kid yourself.
Lazyness is always a big factor. It's the bane of human nature. But if someone is too lazy to write it down, why even bother picking up the instruments. It takes a hell of a lot more work to haul an amp or a drum set around than to write down an arrangment.
Dependency is an extension of this lazyiness. Relying on the other musicians to know where the changes are is a huge problem if half the band is doing it.
Another factor is cockyness. "I'll remember it", they always say. A lot of time people are partying a little at band practice and that doesn't ever help.
All this stuff contributes to very counterproductive band rehearsals. Jamming with friends in the garage is one thing. Performing music so that it's entertaining for others is another thing. it takes a little work, and actual group coordination if you want to sound good. I would venture to say that arranging is even more important for a band to sound good, than musicianship. Mediochre musicians who learn tunes like sponges and can perform them decently, will sound much tighter than 3 or 4 vitruosos who consistantly screw up the arrangments.
Even performances of "simple" song structures like any old 12 bar blues song, could drastically benefit from some arranging. Figure out: how exactly the song starts, who solos first, where any of the little signature stops and fills , or dynamic shifts are, and importantly, how the song ends.
Just some food for thought.
Discuss.
Anyone have some good tips about being a band's arranger?
The weakest link, the achillies heel, almost always seems to be when it comes to arranging, the learning of arrangments, and importantly, remembering the arrangments.
It seems most musicians like to avoid arrangments, or want to make them up as they go along. This rarely works from my experience. Rarely is there some magical moment when everyone decides collectively to go to the change(although it may seem that way to a listener who didn't learn or study the arrangment).
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You show up at your buddies house week after week, you all know the songs, you played them great last week, but what about this week? You trainwreck on the first couple of attempts, but then finally get it on the third,... What happened?
The first step to the problem is writing them down. Everyone should write down the arrangments if they are seriously committed to learning tunes and performing them at gigs. Otherwise, you're just jamming, and screwing around. this is fine, but don't kid yourself.
Lazyness is always a big factor. It's the bane of human nature. But if someone is too lazy to write it down, why even bother picking up the instruments. It takes a hell of a lot more work to haul an amp or a drum set around than to write down an arrangment.
Dependency is an extension of this lazyiness. Relying on the other musicians to know where the changes are is a huge problem if half the band is doing it.
Another factor is cockyness. "I'll remember it", they always say. A lot of time people are partying a little at band practice and that doesn't ever help.
All this stuff contributes to very counterproductive band rehearsals. Jamming with friends in the garage is one thing. Performing music so that it's entertaining for others is another thing. it takes a little work, and actual group coordination if you want to sound good. I would venture to say that arranging is even more important for a band to sound good, than musicianship. Mediochre musicians who learn tunes like sponges and can perform them decently, will sound much tighter than 3 or 4 vitruosos who consistantly screw up the arrangments.
Even performances of "simple" song structures like any old 12 bar blues song, could drastically benefit from some arranging. Figure out: how exactly the song starts, who solos first, where any of the little signature stops and fills , or dynamic shifts are, and importantly, how the song ends.
Just some food for thought.
Discuss.
Anyone have some good tips about being a band's arranger?