# How to keep your band motivated to practice effectively



## Poltergeist (Mar 2, 2013)

So I'm curious to hear from some of you who have experience playing in bands, ways to keep it fresh and exciting for each practice session. My first band I'm trying to start seems to fall into a stale routine when practicing sometimes, therefore leading the band to just playing or jamming random ideas/ old material already learned rather than moving forward and improving on current newer songs/goals (i.e. techniques, timing, & other theory related things). Anyone out there have tips to increase the work flow of your band, but keep it fun without becoming boring or leading to frustrations? Do you break your practice sessions into segments and rotate them every other week? Do you practice just one song at a time until everyone can play it in their sleep, or do you kinda just wing it and do what you think needs worked on in several songs? etc. Looking forward to what some of you suggest and find that works best for your band.


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## straightshreddd (Mar 2, 2013)

I've been in quite a few bands, some went well and others not so much. A good routine I found, was in my last band.

Practice a minimun of 1-2 days a week, about 2-4 hour sessions. Get a good flow working on the songs and when things start getting boring or too repetitive, take a 15 min break. Go smoke a cig, have a snack, whatever. Then, jump back in it. 

Some discipline is necessary. Set goals. Write out your set for shows, including intros, on a piece of paper and tape to the wall so everyone can see it. Make sure everyone's on board with getting the set nice and tight and consistent. Plays songs in different order to avoid repetitiveness.

Ex:

1.Intro breakdown with pic scrapes etc

2.track

3.Jazz interlude

4.track

5.track

6.track

Try to get it to where you guys play your whole set every practice. Even if someone messes up, don't stop and analyze. Push through and discuss after the song. Make sure criticism is constructive. Very important.

Random experimentation should take place after a good amount of time has been spent on your completed songs. Allow everyone to throw ideas in when you guys are experimenting. This is crucial because it can make or break a band. There was times I wasn't sure about an idea someone threw out, and when I gave it a shot, I liked it. 

Make sure everyone's practicing the material when they go home. Record dry guitar tracks for everyone to take home or download. Lots of practice will make you all confident and relaxed in the sessions and on the stage.

Also, very, very important: crack jokes and laugh with each other. Build a solid rapport and make sure everyone's comfortable and doesn't feel left out. Go to shows together. It always got me and the buds stoked as hell and amped to get back into the basement. If you guys smoke, after practice, smoke a blunt or jay together and have discussions about your guys' music, goals, plans, ambitions. You can do this without bud, but it makes it a little better. Don't smoke before or during practice though.

Welp, yeah. That sounds like a good place to start. Good schedule, implement a bit of discipline, build rapport, draw in different influences and styles, make sure everyone's on the same page and is trying to meet similar goals and you should be good, man. Good luck with your band, bud. Hope everything works out for you. 

Edit: Oh, and record your practice sessions so you can play it back and better identify any mistakes


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## Poltergeist (Mar 2, 2013)

straightshreddd said:


> I've been in quite a few bands, some went well and others not so much. A good routine I found, was in my last band.
> 
> Practice a minimun of 1-2 days a week, about 2-4 hour sessions. Get a good flow working on the songs and when things start getting boring or too repetitive, take a 15 min break. Go smoke a cig, have a snack, whatever. Then, jump back in it.
> 
> ...



Thanks! That is some solid advice man! I like how you put it all in perspective. We for sure lack structure in our practicing and I think this is a great template to try out. I'm the one who usually presents the songs ideas, records the music, tunes the drums/ guitars, finds what key/tempo the song is in. lol So it can be a bit overwhelming at times and its causes some stress and for sure affects my peace of mind during practice sometimes, and I think my band mates can see this, which is not only frustrating for me but them as well. I dont want our practice sessions to have negative feelings attached to them. You are so right about joking around and what not, I can be so serious sometimes during practice now that I think about it lol.. I agree that taking breaks is what we need to do as well when we fall "out of the zone" which we kinda just cram through our practice most of the time....and I like the idea of discussing the music and goals after the practice with a nice smoke, good ol' positive reinforcement lol.
Again, I really cherish your advice, and any other tips from experienced individuals regarding this matter..


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## leechmasterargentina (Mar 2, 2013)

Take a gun to rehearsal.

Lol, jk. I guess motivation is directly connected to the members liking the music coming out of the band. It also helps not being extremely perfectionist, or that a band rehearsal involves alcohol, drugs, etc. Just my oppinion.


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## JSanta (Mar 2, 2013)

The only band I ever played in was several years ago, and they are all still my best friends. Sometimes when things just weren't going right, even during one of the practices before a show, we would just put the instruments down and play a game (Heroes of Might and Magic and Risk were our favorites) or we would just go do something else.

I think this helped a lot with our chemistry as it was not just about music at that point. There is something to be said about that I think.


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## Poltergeist (Mar 2, 2013)

leechmasterargentina said:


> Take a gun to rehearsal.
> 
> Lol, jk. I guess motivation is directly connected to the members liking the music coming out of the band. It also helps not being extremely perfectionist, or that a band rehearsal involves alcohol, drugs, etc. Just my oppinion.



haha! Yeah man, I mean we all dig each others styles, and we do click when we write music together, but I'm really the one who's a bit more versed with music theory etc. So that's why I feel like i kinda have to take the perfectionist/disciplinary role.... and you are right.. Drugs and alcohol can put a dampener on the quality/value of the practice session but shit, so many bands disregard that factor obviously. If they can get things done as band, whatever I guess.. lol


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## død (Mar 4, 2013)

Making sure that you have fun together is THE most important thing! Having that all-band-bender is important to keep the spirit up, makes for some great stories and motivates good rehearsals/writing.


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## Deadnightshade (Mar 4, 2013)

Promise them hookers afterwards?


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## Idontpersonally (Mar 4, 2013)

Deadnightshade said:


> Promise them hookers afterwards?


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## Perge (Mar 4, 2013)

leechmasterargentina said:


> Take a gun to rehearsal.
> 
> Lol, jk. I guess motivation is directly connected to the members liking the music coming out of the band.



This, a MILLION times this. This is what led to the break up of my first band. Our drummer was just looking to play radio rock. And the other guitar player was his own personal yes man (as much as I like the guy, it's true). I wrote mostof the music, and it got to a point I'd bringin songs 1/2-3/4 done, and they would shit all over it, saying it was to "hardcore" for what we were going for. Our bass player and singer were on my side, but if the drummer REFUSES to play...not a lot you can do.

needless to say, practices became: run through set-list, while playing, act like the rest of the band had raped your sister, go home.



We started out as a metal, LOG type band.


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## leechmasterargentina (Mar 4, 2013)

Poltergeist said:


> haha! Yeah man, I mean we all dig each others styles, and we do click when we write music together, but I'm really the one who's a bit more versed with music theory etc. So that's why I feel like i kinda have to take the perfectionist/disciplinary role.... and you are right.. Drugs and alcohol can put a dampener on the quality/value of the practice session but shit, so many bands disregard that factor obviously. If they can get things done as band, whatever I guess.. lol



I don't know if I put it right, but what I wanted to express is that alcohol and drugs don't help, in my oppinion, for a long-term relationship in a band. I'm tired of seeing bands which end up wasted and think they make decent music. I'm not against alcohol or weed, and it's ok once in a while, but not always or as a habit.

I think it also helps doing other things than just rehearsing. I think my band is going the wrong way in that area because we hardly see each other outside rehearsal. After all, we're friends, we're supposed to hang out, right?


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## troyguitar (Mar 4, 2013)

Lead by example. Learn your parts at home like everyone is supposed to and hopefully others will follow suit. 

If people are still learning the songs at rehearsal then you are wasting time.


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## drgamble (Mar 4, 2013)

I've been in a lot of bands over the years. In the beginning it's a lot of fun because people are interested in something new. Bands are funny and each one is different in their own aspects. The last band I was in got to a point that we were never writing anything and when we did it was just stale. A lot of it had to do with people that did not work at home and people who were scared to break out of the little bubble that we put ourselves in. Eventually, rehearsals ended up going nowhere and practice dropped off to a point that people couldn't remember how to play the old songs because the only time they played them was at practice.

My new band is completely different. Where the old band didn't like using a home studio, the new band embraces it. They seem to understand that just because I tracked everything at home by myself that it doesn't mean it's set in stone and usually changes in practice just cause it feels different with the whole band. We make our rehearsals what we want to make them. If we have shows coming up, we work on the set list. If the next show is several months or weeks down the pipe, we work on new stuff. Now when I say new stuff, I mean demos that various band members have put together. The caveat to that is, everybody already knows there part on a previously unrehearsed song because they work on the demo version at home and come to practice ready to work. We may even discuss arrangement/parts for something before we ever play it together. We also record every practice. I got one of those Tascam handheld recorders and it definitely does the trick. Between home studio demos and practice recordings, we have a really good idea what the finished product will sound like.

I guess my main point to all of this is, that there is no way to motivate someone that is not motivated. It took me a while to figure out that the guys in the last band just wanted to be just that: "That guy that's in the band". They really didn't care about making music they just wanted to be the guy on stage at the bar on Saturday night. It's good to get to know your band members to see what they are in it for and you can't find that out by asking them. For example, the old singer used to tell me how much he was about making music, but he didn't have money for stuff like studio time( mind you, he has one of the biggest video game collections you've ever seen for Xbox and Playstation), and he never wrote lyrics for anything until we were getting ready to commit it to tape @$65/hr. The rest of the guys only played their instruments when they were at rehearsal. You can probably tell I'm a little frustrated by this, but you asked. I would just consider some of these points. The best case scenario is that you are with like minded people. It has to be one of the hardest things to do, but is very rewarding when you find it. Oh yeah, above all remember this is supposed to be fun. I left the last band because it really wasn't any fun anymore. Oh and one more thing, don't take yourself too seriously. There's a billion bands out there, and only a few make a career out of it. If you aren't happy doing it than maybe it's time to move on.


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## eaeolian (Mar 4, 2013)

straightshreddd said:


> Good suggestions



This. Also, I've found making an agenda for each rehearsal to be pretty effective - they don't have to be complicated, just something like:

1.) Play set for XX show.
2.) Work issues from last rehearsal.
3.) Work issues arising from 1.
4.) New material - song idea a, b, etc.

You'd be surprised.


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## TonyFlyingSquirrel (Mar 4, 2013)

Knock out the easiest and funnest stuff to play first, to warm up your playing/voices, and motivate you with all the positive chemistry, then pick the weakest things to work on like, transitions/difficult parts, keeping the energy high while making instrument changes due to different tunings, etc... At least this way, you're intentional about what you are working on, but have made it fun to do so by getting all of the fun/motivating/easiest playing stuff out of the way first. 

Then, after you'eve worked on all of that, finish the rehearsal with something fun, whether it's another fun song, or just an open ended jam that might inspire a new riff or melody.


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## knifefightintheor (Mar 9, 2013)

Get a schedule put together in advance instead of doing it on the fly. Too much of a hassle to get things organized in a whim if things aren't pre planned.

Play through your songs once or twice, or say, whichever songs you want to play at your next show. 

If you've got new material in the works, take a break, then work on it.

End by playing a couple of your other songs. Have a break, have a smoke, talk about how the jam went, plan the next one.


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## scottro202 (Mar 11, 2013)

1) Have goals
2) Make everybody work for those goals
3) Do what it takes during band practice
4) Have a good time at band practice, it's fucking music. Enjoy it! 

Just making sure everybody's on board with the goals of the band, people will know that we need to practice for those goals. Always keep writing songs, playing shows you need to practice for, recording when possible, and practicing regularly will come with that.


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## Poltergeist (Mar 11, 2013)

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has provided their advice over this subject. Wanted to let everyone know I've implemented a lot of it into our practice and now our band is practicing 2 times a week now! 

Things that are helping:
Recording our practice session: taking it home and discussing it next practice
Starting with easy/fun material first in our sessions
TAKING BREAKS!
customizing a weekly practice log for each member


Moral to the story : If you want better result, you've got to do something different....

Anyone else?


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## Konfyouzd (Mar 11, 2013)

Tell them you got a job offer in another state. I swear I've never seen my band mates more motivated to get songs done til now... 

But seriously most of the advice given in here is good.

What I've done in the past is, if it looks like no one else is motivated, I started learning their instruments and recording entire songs by myself. Seems to prod at their egos a bit that I just recorded their instruments.

So... 

They began showing up to practice more regularly... Practicing individually more during the week and things have done nothing but get better. Not to mention I vaguely understand things about their instruments now thus facilitating easier discussion during the writing process as well.


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## Poltergeist (Mar 11, 2013)

haha! you're the man, Konfyouzd. I noticed that if you practice exactly the same every session it does develop a sense of boredom for everyone because of the same old predictable practice session; so you gotta switch it up somehow.... Last practice session, I introduced everyone with a brand new song that I wrote lyrics to (which I don't normally write lyrics) since we don't have a vocalist at the moment, I decided to take that role and I think in that moment we felt like a full band, and everyone was stoked as hell.. They cant wait to get back in this week and work on the rest of that new song.


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## Tyler (Mar 11, 2013)

One thing my band does pretty effectively is we pretty much live together on the weekends. We practice for an hour or so, go hang out and do whatever then come back later and go again and just have fun with it. If you're close with the members it makes it even better than just being the type of band that just shows up, does the business and goes home.


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## Konfyouzd (Mar 11, 2013)

nellings6 said:


> One thing my band does pretty effectively is we pretty much live together on the weekends. We practice for an hour or so, go hang out and do whatever then come back later and go again and just have fun with it. If you're close with the members it makes it even better than just being the type of band that just shows up, does the business and goes home.



The trumpet/keys player spends the night every Friday and we spend the majority of that time, playing music, talking about ideas, etc...


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## sage (Mar 12, 2013)

You have to set goals, both short and long term, and come up with a plan on how to achieve them. This should be something that is done as a group. Not everyone is going to have the same goals. The best way to see what the entire band's priorities are is to get a white board (every band should have one in their rehearsal space anyway) and have everyone write down some goals. You'll end up with 20 or so out of a four-five person band. Then get everyone to put their initials by the ones they find to be the two most important ones. You'll see then which are the most important to the band as a whole.

Once you have those, you need to come up with a holistic approach to achieve them. Band rehearsals are going to be a big part of that, but writing, solo practice, promotions, etc. will also play parts.

The long and the short if it is that it is easier to motivate people to achieve goals that they helped set themselves.


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## Poltergeist (Mar 12, 2013)

Oooo! I like that White Board idea... Or just having one in the rehearsal spot in general. sounds like a good way to get everyone involved in knowing what they want out of the band. Thanks for that advice!


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## Moolaka (Mar 26, 2013)

We try to not take it too seriously actually. We smoke (never drink) at/during practice, sometimes we just jam nonsense for 20 minutes and run the set, but it's a blast. I guess we see ourselves as just a group of friends that play music together, more of a confederacy than a band, but we try to be professional about our image and bookings.

It's not always productive but it's fun. As the guy that brings all the material to the table, it's nice to stop and just jam or talk about band stuff instead of banging our heads against a wall.


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## Solodini (Apr 3, 2013)

Outside perspective helps. Not from the partner of a band member. Invite a few friends over, play a mini show for them and get their feedback. Do it every couple of months so while they might not be too forthcoming with opinions the first time, after a couple they'll be able to compare to where you were before and see "you guys sound much better but the drums sound weird." If they can't point out specifics beyond that, just try stuff out and see what they think. Bounce new songs off them as they develop.


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## Pezshreds (May 21, 2013)

There's a tonne of sweet ideas here to spice it up.
One thing that helped me with previous band mates who are only "the guy in the band" is give them something else during the week to motivate them. 
Like sussing out new designers for new logos/album artwork, picking shirt designs and presenting them to the band.
Yes they can be "that guy in the band" but you can still put them to good use, and usually having some input and having a say about something can lead them to actually starting to take it a lot more seriously and potentially start practising at home.

I think breaks are mega important though. Jam for 45 minutes/1 Hour, have a 10-15 minute break, chat about random shit (Try to keep it not band related and save that for the end of jam). Then after your break/chill go back and play for another 45/1hr or however long you want to jam, but have it set so after jam, or just before it ends you all sit down and have a chat about the band.
Points to bring up are
1. New Material/How everyone is going practising at home.
2. If anyone has ideas on how to better the set/make it more efficient etc.
3. If anyone has any ideas they want to share which may make the band sound better live etc.
4. If anyone has any issues or concerns about the band, or are finding it hard to practice.
I'm pretty much recycling everything else I guess, but this is my personal take on jam and how to make it fun.


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## MWC262 (May 26, 2013)

IT really depends on the people in the band. I have been friends with the members of my band for years. We all just got together and started making music we liked. For us it depended on what was on schedule for us. Do we have to go in the studio in a month? Ok then we have to practice differently than we would for a show. An average practice lets say for a show or recording for us is:

-Warm up individually
-Talk about the songs we want to play
-Make a "set list" for that practice
-Go through the set at a 50% pace
-Discuss any issues we have with a song(s)
-Play through the issues a couple times
-Finally go through the whole set with 110% pace 

As far as writing new material its:

-Warm up individually
-BS for a bit
-Jam on new material
-Talk about the direction of where we want the material to go
-Play through the material again
-Pick a couple songs from our catalog of songs and go 110%

I think each practice is a 2-3 hour way for us to come together and play music we wrote and we love. To us its about the fun, not how many breakdowns or "hooks" we can put in our songs. A bands success depends on the what each member is willing to contribute musically and even sacrifice, such as not putting a certain riff or vocal line in a new song. Also it helps that you are best friends with your bands mates. We all have a love for metal and know what we like. We usually talk about new ideas after practice and come to practice with an intention to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world and any other bs that's bothering us. I think if you can't talk and collaborate with your band mates about music you're writing, it's just not going to work. For some reason bands can either bring out the best in people or the worst, it depends on chemistry.


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## Forkface (May 29, 2013)

I would say, show interest in your bandmate's instruments. I play guitar, but sometimes I pick up my bass for shit and giggles and end up writing a killer bass line, and when I arrive to practice and show it to my bassist he gets all happy and shit, and we end up writing songs from that. Same with drums, I don't play, but I have superior drummer on my comp. and I write stuff for him to play/improve on.

If you're one of those "meh, I don't care what the rest plays, as long as i get 4 minute solos" they'll end up hating you.


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## Ghost40 (May 29, 2013)

It was tough. When my band was doing 90% covers, practice got really repetitious so no one wanted to be there. It was just like, "lets get this over with and move on about our day". It was fun in the beginning, but after 2 years. We just pushed through each song. If there was a part that needed work, we would just pass it off and use the excuse, "do it at home before next practice". 

About January, we switched over to all original music. We've only written about 10 songs as a band, but practice is FAR more productive now. If there is a part that isn't quite clicking, we will run through it multiple times now. Practice jumped from about 2 hours to about 4 hours with the change. Its nice. Except our singer, he only aspires to sing for a cover band. All he wants is to make money, and creepily try to impress women. 

Anyway, what works for us is to lay everything out on a white board (a huge one). In sections for each song. Verse 1, Chorus 1, Verse 2, etc... And each of those sections is broken down into riffs. Since I don't seem to write entire songs at home, just come up with a handful of riffs, shoot them to the other guys, they get ideas, then at practice, it just sort of comes together. 

So it seems that a lot of "changing things up" works for us. We also take time to grab lunch/dinner as a group. Being in a band is more than just guys playing instruments. Sort of like a retarded little family.


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## kevinjames (May 29, 2013)

I always think. WWDMD. What would Dave Mustaine do? Here's what he'd do. 
This is what I do. LOL


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## kevinjames (May 29, 2013)

LOL. I just saw that I'm not the only one that uses a white board. LO fu****g L.


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## p0ke (Jun 30, 2013)

Haha, that's some major overkill there IMO 

One important thing is to work out your differences. You can't have things piling up in the back of your head, or you'll most likely snap at the worst possible time (in the middle of a world tour or whatever...). We've had a fair bit of arguments in my band, but it's really nice to see that people actually can change for the better if they're encouraged to do so  But seriously, if two people simply can't get along, they shouldn't be in the same band.

Anyways, in my band, we usually practice twice a week, and we usually practice 4-6 hours depending on the mood. On the first day (usually friday) we mostly just practice our old material and drink beer, sometimes randomly throwing some new ideas in the air. It's a nice way to relax after working the whole week too.
Then, on the other day (usually either saturday or sunday) we'll mainly just work on new material. We always warm up by playing our old stuff first though, and if we get stuck we might play an old song or two and think "how the hell did we compose that thing back then... ?". We don't have any kind of plan on how or when the songs should be finished, and I think that's important to keep things interesting. You'll turn into a shitty song factory if you make it too systematic.
Oh and we also take lots of breaks. Our keyboard player smokes a lot and has the tiniest bladder ever, so he has to go outside at least twice in an hour  Luckily our rehearsal place is in the middle of nowhere, so you can basically just step out of the door and take a leak anywhere 



Ghost40 said:


> When my band was doing 90% covers, practice got really repetitious so no one wanted to be there. It was just like, "lets get this over with and move on about our day". It was fun in the beginning, but after 2 years. We just pushed through each song. If there was a part that needed work, we would just pass it off and use the excuse, "do it at home before next practice".
> 
> About January, we switched over to all original music. We've only written about 10 songs as a band, but practice is FAR more productive now. If there is a part that isn't quite clicking, we will run through it multiple times now. Practice jumped from about 2 hours to about 4 hours with the change. Its nice.



I guess that's why my band's always been so interesting  We never played any covers in the first place, actually we just practiced our first cover ever yesterday. Alestorm's Wenches and Mead  But we practiced it the same way as we would compose our own songs, we gave every riff a name and wrote them on paper and then just played it. Took us three attempts to nail it 



Ghost40 said:


> We also take time to grab lunch/dinner as a group. Being in a band is more than just guys playing instruments. Sort of like a retarded little family.



Yep, we do that too. Sometimes we also have random parties at my place and get really drunk, and sometimes we invite other friends too and show them our music. Exactly like a retarded little family.


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## FallOfHumanity (Jun 30, 2013)

One thing I found that works is actually spending time with the band outside of a band environment. A couple of times a month we all go out for drinks / food / etc and just hang out. Try not to discuss too much band stuff unless there's something that really needs to be said.

We usually find out next few practices after that to go very well, and it also helps evolve some of the friendships.

Another thing we do is encourage all of our members to record / write random song ideas while they practice on their own, and we always try to make SOMETHING happen with what they came up with. This prevents any one from feeling like they're not being used to their potential.

This obviously may not work for some, but it's worked for us and we're moving ahead pretty quickly.


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## wheresthefbomb (Jul 30, 2013)

Strike a balance between practicing your set and jamming. Your set can get old and repetitive, especially at first when it is small, and no-pressure jamming will help you get better at playing with each other, anticipating changes, etc. 

democracy is pretty radical, encourage people to bring their own ideas to the table. No gods, no band leaders!

My personal philosophy is that the things I choose to devote my time to are things I feel passionately about. I love what I'm creating, and that motivates me to work hard both at practice and at home. I need to be surrounded by people who are similarly motivated. If there are any issues, they should surely be addressed, but motivation is mostly the individual's responsibility. 

If love of making the music isn't motivation enough, you have to wonder how badly they want to be in your band.


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## Fktpguitfiddle (Jul 30, 2013)

+1 on the white board. that works great, we've used that in every band i've been in


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