DRUMMER CAFE

Well ... if it's the leader's band, there's not a lot you can do. It may mean that you need to move to other things.
But before we do something drastic, let's look at a few things.

The whole booking, promoting, networking and organization issue could/should be handled by a manager or management company.

I think that it's very easy to address the "not being prepared for rehearsal". Simply state that you are concerned about wasting rehearsal time ... which happens when someone is not prepared. Everyone should be practicing their own parts at home, then putting it all together at the rehearsal. There's a big difference between practice and rehearsal; you practice at home, you rehearse together.

Becareful about the whole "wasting time" as it's very evident that your leader finds your "jamming" to be a waste of time.

Jamming can be a waste of time if it's allowed to happen every time you rehearse a song. Often time players who lack the discipline needed to work on a tune over and over until it's right ... just want to jam. It's easier to jam because you just play what you want.

Perhaps your leader doesn't feel that there needs to be creative time during this rehearsal time.

So with all of this, I would examine yourself first. Are you a good follower? Do you take direction well? Do you have your parts down? Have you done your leader's way first, or do you jam on every tune?

It goes both ways. For your leader to lead well, you've got to be a good follower and supporter of his/her direction. Trying doing it the way the leader wants FIRST. Don't jam!!! Then, after a few weeks, approach the leader about having a time at the END of the rehearsal where you guys can jam.

I've been in enough bands where the word "jam" is used to describe what is really nothing more than screwing around. Giving it some cool name doesn't justify the lack of discipline in the rehearsal ... in my opinion.

Perhaps if the band would follow the leader, the leader would then be able to focus on the other things that he/she is lacking in. When the tribe doesn't follow well, it can be a distraction to the chief ... who then drops the ball in other areas.

My favorite quote is:

Lead, follow, or get out of the way!

Thrak -

I understand where you're coming from. I've gone through the same thing as you have with band members who were rigid towards jamming. It's hard I know. Remember though, it's just a difference in personal preferences. It's neither right or wrong. You'll play with people who'll love the freedom and exploration that jamming provides and you'll play with people that only prefer a structured enviroment (i.e. songs and arrangements). However, if your leader is the one writing all the songs and supplying the vision, then your sort of obliged to go his way. If you have reservations about the overall creative direction and continue to feel unfulfilled, you can attempt to talk things out but, I wouldn't hold your breath especially, if he's already told you that he's not into jamming. In a perfect world, it'd be great for you and the other bandmates I'm sure but, save face and start a side project if need be. This way, you'll have an outlet outside of the norm. If you continue to have reservations about the creative direction and you feel that you've done everything you can to resolve it and nothing improves, your only delaying the inevitable. I've been in so many bands man and at some point through it all I had to ask myself this question: Is it worth sticking with band x or not? Remember, have fun and be happy what your doing musically because with all the other work and sacrifices it takes to be successfull, the music is sometimes the one thing that will carry you through rough times.

i would like to add that the primary songwriter doesnt need to necessarily be the leader of a band.  writing music and leading a group of people are two totally different things.  ask syd barrett, dave gilmour, and roger waters

interesting thread. I can definitely relate to the feeling about jamming being a waste of time during rehearsal. i've been in so many situations where we just jam and jam and jam, and the tunes never come together in a complete way. and when they do, the songs usually turn out formulaic and boring. can anyone else relate to this? I've come to the feeling that to get a good batch of tunes together that are interesting and have some depth and content to them, we have to force people to bring in tunes or ideas ahead of time, and keep the mindless jamming to a minimum. When I think about any of the bands that have truly great songs, songs that have shape and direction to them, it's clear that they had the discipline to concentrate on carefully structuring and performing the songs. for me, Elvis Costello, Radiohead, the Beatles, Talking Heads, Tom Waits and many more groups like this have really well thought out tunes, and it seems to me that this doesn't just come from jamming away forever.

experimenting with different approaches to playing the tunes is a different matter. I think its very useful and productive to improvise a little within the tune structure to see if the group can find smoother more creative and organic ways to go from section to section.

good point 563. it's important to relax and get to know your bandmates, personally and musically. jamming does a lot to show what everyone is capable of musically, which is important when writing tunes. I like to play with people I know in numerous distinct contexts if they can handle it. play straight jazz with them, experimental noise, cheesy covers, jamming, improvising. you get to really know everyone's voice.

but I do like to get down to business when its needed.

if it happened now, it was bound to happen later ... and usually later equals uglier.  

congrats on the positive attitude, keep it up.

It can be quite difficult to get all the noses in the same direction during band rehearsals... We want to get our songs right and tight, so we want to stick to the songs the way they are written.

Then again, we want to have some fun and want to experiment and 'get to know each other' as well. So we want to jam.

In my band we try to do both. First off: we know where we want to go that day. We discuss that before we rehearse. So we try to focus on three or four songs. Whenever something's not right in the song, we stop and start over, or just go over and over that one transition in the song... That's good...

When we have done that, we take some time to just jam... it's not only fun: it's the way a lot of our songs are written. We just hear somebody play something interresting, be it a nice groove, guitar-riff or whatever.
If it is good, we will work the song out at home.

Jamming is good, but if you only jam, your band will never grow... When I practise at home, I have the time to try new grooves and fills to existing songs. If I think it's better than what I used to play, I will play it and ask what the others think about it. But only if I can get it really really right. If we all like it, it's a new thingy to an old song....

This method works for us!

Erwtje

I believe if you want a jam session then stay later, or everyone show up earlier to do this.  There should be a lead person in the group that has an open mind to allow the players to have a little fun playing.  But if you can't get the songs down for a gig your only kidding yourself and every song tnat you play comes out sounding different.  A leader leads a team of players to a performance level to be noticed and make some money as the goal.  He would generally get the gigs too.  But it helps if all of the members in the group participate in getting work.  That way you suddenly pay more attention to getting things right for the gigs.

Groups need to be tight, like the "Blue Angles".  These guys are aces in the air, but the manuvers that they perform are tight, and impressive.  They just don't fly around to just show off, they could kill each other out there.  The leader calls the shots, but they have a group meeting to discuss the stunts that each want to do for the show.

In essence there is a time and place for everything.  I would walk out too if the band that takes forever to get together just full around when a rehersal takes place.

If some of the members didn't show up for a rehersal, we would try to fix some playing errors on a couple of songs first.  Then we would attempt to do a couple of new songs with the players on hand.  Or we may do jam session to have fun anyway, so it wasn't a waste of time for those who made it to the session.

Just my opinion.......

My fade out..........

Jazzman