working on your live set: getting 'tight'

[departed]

so my new band have written/recorded 5 tracks that we're ready to start practicing as a full band. now I have never started a band this way where all our recordings are mega tight sounding so when we start practicing we will expect to sound like the CD immediately, unfortunately i know it never happens this way. We're booking out a practice room but really, from my experience the sound in the practice room beats that of the live venues we will be playing at so when it comes to playing live the experience gained in the practice room goes out the window as its a whole different ball game.

So my question is, even in awful venues, how can you become tighter as a band? evidently there is the obvious answer of practice as much as possible and play some initial small shows to get used to playing on stage together.

Any pointers from Sneapsters in bands?

 

[Chryst Krispies]

Playing on stage. In my experience excessive practicing isn't needed. Practice a few times to get it happening then get in the game and play shows.

 

[Dimaura]

As long as everyone knows what they are doing at every moment and can follow the drummer. That's one thing.

But you always need to know those tiny parts in transitions. That moment may only be 1 second long but, making sure that fill was all upbeats and not a triplet feel can we the difference. That more goes for bands writing in room...so...never mind

As a drummer going into a live situation. If I can see/hear the place has sub par monitoring. I will work with my guitarists on cab angles to maker sure we can all hear each other. Outside of that...it all comes out on the road?

 

[Charlie E.]

Have the drummer play to a click during practice and maybe even live too.

 

[Moonlight_Seeker]

If drummer is super tight and musicians are not really off it will sound "ok" for small bar/venue me tends to think.

 

[JonWormwood]

Get in ear monitors with a click to keep everyone tight when you cant hear shit

 

[Fragle]

Get in ear monitors with a click to keep everyone tight when you cant hear shit

good idea, but pricey.

imho, it all comes down to the drummer. solid drummer = win. assuming that all the other guys are good at their instruments, a good drummer is what it takes to make the band groovy and tight.
drummer has shaky timing? drummer always relies on the monitoring to hear the guitars so he can follow the riffs? drummer plays way above his abilities? speeds up like a madman in a live situation?
have fun.
clicktracks are one way, and a pretty good one. having the drummer play to a click in a live context will keep the tempo steady, will give the drummer more click experience (good for studio work), and enables you to use samples etc.
it just doesn't groove like it does without a click though.


stage monitoring is another pitfall....and an epic one. it's easy to get lost if you can't hear shit. YOU NEED TO HEAR THE DRUMMER AT ALL TIMES. EVERYONE ON STAGE. playing captain obvious here.
now, this is where the shit can and does hit the fan. a couple of guidelines:

- monitor mix: monitor mixers are retards, so don't flood them with too many monitor requests. my experience is that you don't need anything but kickdrum and vocals on the monitors. maybe snare if it's a large stage.
- set your amp levels so that you can hear yourself well, but don't overpower anything.
- if you absolutely need to hear the other guitarist (i can't think of one reason why you would want that), go back into the rehearsal room and practice just with the drummer.

that's it. everyone needs to be able to play tight to a drummer.
i made that mistake when i started out, i always played along with the other guitar player basically....which works fine in a rehearsal space or venues with good monitoring. bad live monitoring, and shit hits the fan.

 

[Auroras]

good idea, but pricey.

imho, it all comes down to the drummer. solid drummer = win. assuming that all the other guys are good at their instruments, a good drummer is what it takes to make the band groovy and tight.
drummer has shaky timing? drummer always relies on the monitoring to hear the guitars so he can follow the riffs? drummer plays way above his abilities? speeds up like a madman in a live situation?
have fun.
clicktracks are one way, and a pretty good one. having the drummer play to a click in a live context will keep the tempo steady, will give the drummer more click experience (good for studio work), and enables you to use samples etc.
it just doesn't groove like it does without a click though.


stage monitoring is another pitfall....and an epic one. it's easy to get lost if you can't hear shit. YOU NEED TO HEAR THE DRUMMER AT ALL TIMES. EVERYONE ON STAGE. playing captain obvious here.
now, this is where the shit can and does hit the fan. a couple of guidelines:

- monitor mix: monitor mixers are retards, so don't flood them with too many monitor requests. my experience is that you don't need anything but kickdrum and vocals on the monitors. maybe snare if it's a large stage.
- set your amp levels so that you can hear yourself well, but don't overpower anything.
- if you absolutely need to hear the other guitarist (i can't think of one reason why you would want that), go back into the rehearsal room and practice just with the drummer.

that's it. everyone needs to be able to play tight to a drummer.
i made that mistake when i started out, i always played along with the other guitar player basically....which works fine in a rehearsal space or venues with good monitoring. bad live monitoring, and shit hits the fan.

My band pretty much learned this the hard way *sigh* after the first gig i was just so upset i basically told the drummer and everyone else that we play only to him because you never know how shitty the venue will be and as long as hes tight as fuck we'll be good.

Next show went down splendid currently writting our E.p so taking a break from playing atm

 

[Ionei]

Click track for the drummer.

My drummer loves it.
He has soooooo much more confidence about live shows now.
Doesn't have to deal with shitty monitor mixes or not being able to hear me/vocals.

So good.

Live practice is great for getting tight I think.
It helps everyone get tight in a live situation and with stage prescence/movement involved.
Its good.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Just practice a lot. Don't be afraid to put a foot down if you notice someone playing a part wrong or is out of tune or out of key. that's one of my biggest problems with the band, is just telling people "No, maybe try it like this"...

Live/stage practice is always good too. But, for me, I'd rather practice up at home and then hit the stage more comfortable rather than shakey and nervous.

 

[Pot]

redudant post but that´s it : pratice a lot with a metronome , as someone pointed out if the drummer is solid your at least 50% there

 

[departed]

thanks for all your replies. we had our first practice as a full band today at a local studio and it was SO MUCH better than i thought it was going to be. we already have 2 and a half of the 5 songs really tight. I think with another 3 practices the songs will be good enough to play. The one thing we need to work on is transitions and whatnot which could take a little while but i agree, we will gain experience/practice on the road.

 

[updog]

I've been doing this with my band; we play ours songs at rehearsal but we move as if we were playing it live. It's pretty fun, but helps as well. I think we've gained some tightness in our "live-playing" although we haven't played any live gigs for quite some time now...

One thing I did notice was that sometimes headbanging while playing fucks with my kicks a bit. It was good to notice that before hitting any stages