Rehearsal angst

Jalapeno

I rehearse jazz once a week, gypsy stuff once a month - no issue there.

Last night the covers band got together to get ready a 1hr set for other guitarist's wedding in June. Took the new Fano, played really well (though needs a wider strap as the Starcaster style was heavy).

Main issue is that - I'm playing different chords and melodies, ones that I haven't touched for a couple of months, and I'm crap, not only that totally knackered by the end of the evening.

Man I need to get my Pop/Rock chops back .......

Anyone get this sort of tailing off ?

It was fun being moaned at for being too loud by bass player with a 350w amp, I had my 10w 10" Pro Junior ... volume on 3

thomasross20

I thought if you could play ripping jazz / country / fusion then pop/rock would be no issue!?

p90fool

thomasross20 said:

I thought if you could play ripping jazz / country / fusion then pop/rock would be no issue!?

I find at my age that all skills atrophy if you don't use them. I've been leaning towards country, rockabilly and Western swing styles over the last couple of years and my string bending technique and stamina for playing rock music has gone to shit lately. I've had to start using stress balls to get my hand strength back for what used to be second nature to me.

thomasross20

Crikey! 

Rock will always be my number one but I'll make sure to to neglect it as I dip my toe into other styles... 

Danny1969

Tonight I'm giging with a young funky group playing RHCP and Bruno Mars, tomorrows gig is classic Rock covers, Sunday my main band is giging it's usual brand of U2 \ Radio Head  \ KOL and stuff and on Monday my eighties band is doing a gig open air at Port Solent. 

I'm playing so much stuff now it's got to the point I have to focus on what's next rather than as a whole ..... so today I will listen to nothing other than what I'm gonna gig tonight, then on Sat I will listen to the tunes I'm gigging Sat night etc. The old grey matter can only cope with so much ..... I don't know how many Kb of memory I have but I know it's full ..... any more songs and I will have to delete the kids names or something ..... maybe even empty the porn bank !

Course being a glutton for punishment (or more precisely a greedy bastard) I've agreed to cover guitar for a Rockabilly band over the next coupe of months so there's another 30 songs .... luckily it's a lot of 12 bar 

So my advice is focus on the immediate, a couple of days before covers rehearsal listen and play nothing but that. When a jazz gig is coming up focus entirely on that

ESBlonde

Like @Danny1969 I have played and should know a thousand+ tunes, but the recall on a given night is limited. I have been known to go blank and ask "how does this one go" to which someone hums or whistles or sings the melody/intro and I'm off again. Dep gigs are good fun but a crib sheet discreetly somewhere with keys and even chords of middle 8s is a sensible insurance policy. I do Pit work for a panto each year and for those couple of weeks I'd struggle to make sense of any regular band gigs!
I sufferred embarresment about a month ago at rehearsal when we launched into 'Easy" which I've played on and off for best part of 30 years, got to the lead break and I went blank, wtf!! Tried it two more times and gave up. Just had a total mind warp on the timing to come in.

p90fool

I completely blanked the chorus chords to Under the Bridge on Saturday at a duo gig. It's just a singer and me on guitar, so to say there was a bit of a hole was an understatement!

Luckily about 15 pissed girls sang the chorus so I sat out the whole thing - even my singer thought it was deliberate.

David5150

Had a shocking rehearsal last night - took the kemper and my marshall 20 20 poweramp and all was OK for a good 14 seconds before the amp started getting even hotter than usual and the room fills with the smell of dying electrical components.

Plug kemper into PA which is usually OK but sounded utter gash. Half an hour wasted fiddling with that to find out the singer had set the desk up in a seemly random manner.  Suggested we all ease off on the volume so we can hear one another - may have well asked the band to travel back in time. Volumes all over the place - drummer hitting cymbals so hard my teeth are still on edge. Bass player volume down for songs he doesn't like and then drowning out everything for ones he does like.

Why do we do this???

Danny1969

@David5150 Don't know about yours but my 2020 used to try and draw air in from the side so I had to cut ventilation holes  in the side of my rack. I don't think they are all like that though

David5150

Thanks Danny - I tend to leave mine out of the rack these days as it does indeed vent from the side