Rehearsal

[fleetfootmike]

I love this band, I really do.

stevieannie, Tim and Mal turned up yesterday evening for a rehearsal with Fleetfoot Mike.

Having spend the last one just running through everything once to remind ourselves what we do and don't suck at, we picked on a small group of songs to work on, pull apart and reconstruct properly, which we're going to be doing for the next few rehearsals till we're happy with everything in the set list - IMO every band should do this from time to time: certainly in our case little sloppinesses creep in that detract from what we're trying to do.

So, last night was:

"Say You Love Me"

This has never really grooved properly: I finally nailed it down, with some help from Rich-the-guitar-teacher, a better than average tab book and several live versions, to me being very lazy with the rhythm guitar. I get all the in-between lines licks in fine, but the guitar never really pushed it along. Also, stevieannie was being a bit restrained on the backing vocals (Stevie Nicks clearly hasn't heard of the term - if she's singing harmony, it's delivered as though she's singing lead, and with a lot of Mac songs where the chorus goes to three-part harmony, the only way you can define the melody is 'the bit the person who sang the verse is singing'!), so we cleared that up. ("Annie? More ego in the chorus vocals?") Result: much improved.

"Oh Well"

Ran through this once while stevieannie got a drink. I seem to have figured a strategy for counting the (to me) odd gap between the first riff and the second, so this now sucks less.

"Rhiannon"

Anne's been unhappy with her piano part for a while, so we worked on it a bit together over the weekend, and she drove off to work in WIsbech yesterday with 19 versions cued up on the iPod. Half an hour's determined work as a band yesterday really gelled it, especially the bit after the solo, which now has some definite form and structure from all of us.

"Say You Will"

Another one guilty of Not Grooving in the harmony section in the chorus. We tracked this down to a vocal phrasing issue - all three of us singing "Say you will, say you will / give me one more chance at / least give me time to change your mind it / always seems to / heal the wounds if you can / get me to dance" because that's where the musical stresses seem to fall. So we changed it to "Say you will, say you will / give me one more chance / at least give me time change your mind / it always seems to heal the wound / if you can get me to dance" - which feels odd at first against the melody, but suddenly made it all work.

"The Chain"

Me getting sloppy again, playing an odd hybrid of the studio guitar part and what I thought Lindsey was playing live. Ish. Maybe. Sat down last week on my own and fixed that misapprehension, then had to introduce it to everyone else. Still needs a little more work, 'cause it's hard to sing over until it's completely autopilot, but again much improved.

Then ran through Say You Love Me and Rhiannon, during the end of which Mal blew the speaker on his son's bass amp (since his son was borrowing his AGAIN). Time to buy your own, Grant!

We relaxed in front of the Tokyo '77 DVD before everyone went home - watched "Rhiannon", "Gold Dust Woman" and "Go Your Own Way", everyone taking mental performance notes.

I love this band.

Comments

[agentrayevyn.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a wonderfully good time. :) I would loved to have been there... and I'm growing closer to thinking that that kind of interaction with other musicians is really what I've been longing for for a while now as opposed to just writing and practicing on my own. To feel like I'm part of something... even if I wasn't good at it... would be gratifying.

I would love to see you guys sometime. :)

[rickbooth.livejournal.com]

Nothing makes you grow as a musician like working with other musicians. Just jamming is good, and helpful, but *being musical* together, taking it apart and building it up right - that's where you learn to be more.

Do it. Everyone thinks they're not good enough when they haven't put in the time with others yet, but that's how you get to be good enough. Anyway, chances are you're better than you think :).

[agentrayevyn.livejournal.com]

You are absolutely right. I was remembering back to the one time I actually did get to jam with someone - talent show rehearsal with a friend who decided she wanted to sing a song I just happened to know at the last minute, and one of the drummers drifted onto the stage... and everything clicked. The one moment when I got to do what I was born to do. I don't even remember the song, but I remember how it felt.

And that's what I want to do. Now it's just a matter of doing it.

if I don't say it, I'm sure Rick will...

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

So do it.

Like I said to you on AIM - no-one ever found a keyboard player by knocking on random doors until one turned up. (Ok, so in fact Peter Bardens found Mick Fleetwood 'cause he was practising drums upstairs from him, but...!) Network. Talk to other musicians. Hang in music shops. Put a *card* up on the local music shop board. Go to local gigs, chat to the musicans (when they're not busy), etc etc.

[bardling.livejournal.com]

Sounds great - and it's lovely to read the detailed description of you people working together... :)