The last rehearsal before a gig.

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relic245relic245 Frets: 944

What is your experience of the last rehearsal before a gig and which would you prefer:  a great rehearsal before a gig or one that leaves you with some things to think about and work on?

For context - our band doesn't do a lot of gigs. Maybe 1 a month. 

We rehearse most weeks. Partly because we're good friends and it's social. Partly because none of us seem to retain songs unless we keep playing them. 

Very often, our last rehearsal before a gig goes really badly. People forgetting stuff, getting timings wrong, just poor playing. 

Then on the night we usually ace it. We rationalise it by saying we allow ourselves to get complacent, then the poor rehearsal focuses us and we play well. 

Last night we have possibly our best rehearsal ever (and maybe the best we've ever played) and we have a gig tomorrow. Without wanting to be superstitious there is a part of us going 'oh oh' does that mean that we'll f**k the gig up?

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Comments

  • RolandRoland Frets: 8590
    Normally when you gig your brain is working much harder than usual. Certainly harder than at rehearsal. You are in the flow, you remember better, and you notice more of what’s going on around you. This helps your personal performance. You also react better to what your band mates are doing, and compensate faster for cues they miss.

    Personally I don’t subscribe to fatalism: good rehearsal => bad gig. There is a linkage between performance at a rehearsal, but it’s not a hard and fast bad:good. For example, if something goes badly at rehearsal you’ve got a chance to revise it before the gig. 

    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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  • We always used to say, bad rehearsal means a great gig!
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  • JalapenoJalapeno Frets: 6378
    Preferred the full run throughs earlier, and last practice to be about absolutely nailing beginnings and endings, so it's not all over-cooked.
    Imagine something sharp and witty here ......

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  • merlinmerlin Frets: 6598
    Most people practice until they can get it right. I think it's better to practise until you can't get it wrong.  ;) =)
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  • SupportactSupportact Frets: 895
    I reckon some people benefit from the focus that playing in front of an audience brings. I've certainly had band mates who really seemed to pull it together at gigs, but at rehearsals gave the impression they were just trying stuff out and winging it. 
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  • PolarityManPolarityMan Frets: 7273
    We always tend to play better if the last rehearsal wasn't great. 
    ဈǝᴉʇsɐoʇǝsǝǝɥɔဪቌ
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  • My band hasn't rehearsed in well over a year now!  :#

    We just turn up at gigs and wing it. Usually seems to go down well enough! 
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  • mudslide73mudslide73 Frets: 3049
    I think @roland has it spot on - there's no connection once you've bedded the songs in. New ones, maybe there's a bit of a connection. Once we're through the first couple of tunes the nerves have gone and I relax a bit. On a good night, I'm able to autopilot most things and concentrate on looking like I'm enjoying myself.

    As an aside, I've always found a good night's sleep is more beneficial than staying up late running through stuff at home the night before a gig. I might run through some of the solos and anything I find difficult but try to keep it minimal.
    "A city star won’t shine too far"


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  • fastonebazfastonebaz Frets: 4065
    Good rehearsal suggests good gig

     BAd rehearsal suggests bad gig unless everyone practices alot at home between times

    I found if I set up multicoloured led mood lighting in the rehearsal room and switch off the hospital bright overhead lights, rehearsal goes much better, everyone gets really into the zone. 

     It's probably partly because we're all imagining we're on stage with the lights and start to feel that buzz of a live gig,  but partly because we feel less self conscious since the lighting is less bright and we can focus on playing, more than what we look like.
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  • grappagreengrappagreen Frets: 1340
    edited May 2022
    IMHO disassociate causality from your mind.. some days are good, others less so. If you don't, you stand the risk of developing a negative mental association. Next you'll be wearing your lucky pants to every gig..

    I deliberately play different guitars and stand in different places etc. to avoid as far as possible any way to mentally hook on success/failure factors that just aren't real.

    I'm with others in that playing live at a gig is different thing from practice and I approach it as such. It's way more fun
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  • relic245relic245 Frets: 944
    IMHO disassociate causality from your mind.. some days are good, others less so. If you don't, you stand the risk of developing a negative mental association. Next you'll be wearing your lucky pants to every gig..

    I'm with others in that playing live at a gig is different thing from practice and I approach it as such. It's way more fun :)
    To be honest we don't take it that seriously. It was intended more as a light hearted observation than a serious problem. 

    It's something that we tend to use as a way to stop us getting worried if we don't have a particularly good rehearsal "ah it's ok we always have a good gig if we had a shit rehearsal."

    I was just interested in other people's experience.
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  • grappagreengrappagreen Frets: 1340
    relic245 said:
    IMHO disassociate causality from your mind.. some days are good, others less so. If you don't, you stand the risk of developing a negative mental association. Next you'll be wearing your lucky pants to every gig..

    I'm with others in that playing live at a gig is different thing from practice and I approach it as such. It's way more fun :)
    To be honest we don't take it that seriously. It was intended more as a light hearted observation than a serious problem. 

    It's something that we tend to use as a way to stop us getting worried if we don't have a particularly good rehearsal "ah it's ok we always have a good gig if we had a shit rehearsal."

    I was just interested in other people's experience.
    Taking it 'not too seriously' is actually a great strategy for playing well (for me anyway). By this I mean the gig - I take knowing the material seriously :)
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  • MusicwolfMusicwolf Frets: 3627
    If we have a good rehearsal before a gig I always say to the others "play like that and we'll go down great".  If we have a bad one then I'll say "good to get the bad one out of the way before the gig".  It's all bollocks but, as a Senior Manager, it's the sort of shit that I was trained to say.
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  • DesVegasDesVegas Frets: 4510
    It is my experience that this always goes bad but the gig ends up stellar
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  • MajorscaleMajorscale Frets: 1553
    Just had a stellar rehearsal even though we haven’t played together for months. Hoping the gig on Saturday goes as well!
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