Why Your Needs To Record Its Rehearsals---Or Become The Band That Does Nothing---And You Don't Want That

Why you should Record Your Practices

Mark Grove Originally posted on July 28 2009

Yeah, this is a re-post but very important. Or you can totally ignore it thinking it's total bullshit and go back to being a do nothing musician.The best musicians, athletes, actors and painters are the best because they practice and record it for bloody posterity so they have something to refer back to.

Yes painters. Not the guys who get paid to paint your house.

Okay, pro athletes see how they're doing during game films and practice, why shouldn't Musicians?
Yeah, I know guys who don't practice but most of you need to. Hell, I need to practice writing everyday. I even look at ads in magazines and re-engineer them and give them a new twist.

Most musicians, even the best ones can't get away without practicing.

Makes sense doesn't it. Yes it does.

Here's the reason. By recording your practices you get an idea not just of how you're doing, but how everyone else is as well. Make copies and have the others in your band follow suit. If you're the frontman and the rest of the band says no to doing this, I would think very hard about keeping people in your band who won't follow suit.

That's not to be a bad guy, but so your other players get better.

Don't just record your set list songs. Take some of the songs you just jam to as well and see how everyone is doing. I know some of you are thinking, forget that bull-shit! I don't have time to do all that.

Well, you won't be a musician for very long. Yeah, I'm a jerk. You're now saying, Shutttt Up!

You should do this on a regular basis. Not just when your band's playing like crap during shows. Dickie Betts the great guitarist for The Allman Brothers once said, and I'm paraphrasing, for every 5 shows we play it takes months of practice.

Along with recording your practices, you get an idea how well your own tone is and if your gear is being set up properly before playing.You'll also get an idea of whether or not you need to rehearse certain gig tracks, and if you're screwing up certain parts. Your parts don't need to be perfect.

This takes a lot of time of very boring study and practice. It's not all fun and games just jamming and playing original tunes just good enough. Ask some of the best bands you know whether they record their practice sessions.

If they don't, they should. And so should you. Big industry people will know if you actually take the time to get better through practice, jams and playing with other players.

Yeah, you want to have fun being a musician, but you also need to have due diligence on certain things like being the best you can at your instrument. Also, take notes on what songs whether original or covers you need to work on.

Always keep notes you can refer back to, that way you know what you need to work on and when to just forge ahead on new material.

Peace and success to all players. The prick to all players---me.

Mark G