How far are you willing to travel for practice

bearblastbeats

bearblastbeats

Senior Member
Whenever I look through the CL to see if bands are needing drummers... most of the ones I would concider are always towns away averaging an hour one way.

Would you travel an hour, to practice with a band, not get paid or reimbursed just for the heck of it?

I've been playing with a few different guitarists in my home town, but it's nothing I want to play so I've been just not wanted to do a band. I think it's mainly because no one wants to play what I want to play, so I might as well just play by myself.


Thoughts?
 
bearblastbeats said:
I might as well just play by myself.
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I hope you are talking about drummer there lol.

If it was with a friend, I would do it for free.

I would only do it with new people if I would break even with expenses.
 
I would travel an hour, one way, but only if it met two requirements. 1) It was music that really really intrigued me 2) There was a probability that gigs were very soon-to-come

I am having the same issue as you...living in a small town makes it somewhat harder to find a group of folks that are on the same page as you are. I still get to play weekly, and it's not my dream band, but it's a 5-minute drive to practice and at least I'm helping to make music. If something were to come up a couple of towns away, I would definitely think about it...heck, maybe they'd be willing to alternate practices between there and your place.
 
StickIt said:
I would travel an hour, one way, but only if it met two requirements. 1) It was music that really really intrigued me 2) There was a probability that gigs were very soon-to-come

I am having the same issue as you...living in a small town makes it somewhat harder to find a group of folks that are on the same page as you are. I still get to play weekly, and it's not my dream band, but it's a 5-minute drive to practice and at least I'm helping to make music. If something were to come up a couple of towns away, I would definitely think about it...heck, maybe they'd be willing to alternate practices between there and your place.
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Yea true..

I practice in my living room. and I live in the biggest city in the state, manchester, nh. The thing is that most people my age are just wanting to play generic metal and or hardcore.

I simply just want to do a prog-rock band. Unfortunately, being 26, most kids think it's too "dad rock". I guess I'm also kind of shy/weird when meeting new people and would prefer playing with people I all ready know.
 
bearblastbeats said:
Yea true..

I practice in my living room. and I live in the biggest city in the state, manchester, nh. The thing is that most people my age are just wanting to play generic metal and or hardcore.

I simply just want to do a prog-rock band. Unfortunately, being 26, most kids think it's too "dad rock". I guess I'm also kind of shy/weird when meeting new people and would prefer playing with people I all ready know.
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Play up with some older people who like Prog Rock?

When I was 18 I played in a Shadows cover band with some old farties (like I am, now).

Didn't half move my drumming forward.
 
The thing is that most people my age are just wanting to play generic metal and or hardcore.
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I simply just want to do a prog-rock band.
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Just an idea for you...Most competent metalheads around our age group (I'm 32) that I know have at least some respect for Tool...you might be able to find some of those guys and see if they'll lean more toward the progressive musicality and not-so-much just the heavy riffage. I dunno....just thought I'd throw that out there.
 
I am willing to travel an hour because I live in a tiny town, and all of the musicians I know live a hour away in a small city, Alexandria, Louisiana. Peace and goodwill.
 
In my mind, once you get outside of 30 minutes of driving, the gigs had better start paying. In this day and age, gas isn't cheap, and practices don't pay. Not that I have anything against practicing, but I also like to get out there and make the time pay back.
 
I'd love to drive 1 mile, but it all depends on what's available and how bad you want to play. I've driven an hour to weekly rehearsals more times than you can imagine, but you gotta do what you gotta do if you want to play.

Some of that was playing in original bands (like right now, actually) that doesn't make a dime. To some, that would be stupid. But I'm not satisfied playing at home by myself all the time.
 
Tons of god insight, but I just dont think it pans out to travel for free.. Even when I was playing in a band regularly and having to travel all over NE, it definitely takes a toll.

Last "practice" I had this week was decent, but when we ended I just played for 30 minutes alone and had more fun with that than the actual practice.

I think it's partially me wanted to learn new stuff, expand, and grow. I doubt I would travel and hour or more for a practice.


I think I should just learn all instruments... write and record my own cd and just have it my way ;)
 
For me, it would depend on if good paying gigs I wanted to take were on the horizon or not.
With my current financial mess I'm careful about buying gas etc when I don't need to.
 
Prog's a tough one. You have to basically practice together all the time to get it right. I used to do this, (band share house etc), but it got a bit ....close.

Then I got hired in a blues band that practiced tons but then gigged a lot so practice became obsolete, except when learning new songs. And then we just threw 'em out at gigs.

It's gotten to the point where I hate rehearsals...send us a CD or a song list to look up on Youtube and we're golden. But that's where I'm at.

To travel to rehearsals for me MUST entail gigs. Several, in fact.

To each their own.
 
Heck, I've moved just to be closer to the band before.




bearblastbeats said:
most people my age are just wanting to play generic metal and or hardcore.

I simply just want to do a prog-rock band. Unfortunately, being 26, most kids think it's too "dad rock". I guess I'm also kind of shy/weird when meeting new people and would prefer playing with people I all ready know.
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I am a dad. Trying to find other dads to plays dads rock isn't that easy either. LOL.
 
I travel an hour for rehearsal with my original 6 piece band. In addition to the gas, there's like a $10.00 turnpike toll round trip. Whatever. You do what you gotta do. Goes with the territory.
I try not to worry about money. I've lived hand to mouth my whole life. If I start worrying, I always tell myself...things have always worked out for me in the past, they will continue to work out for me in the future. Believe it or not this really helps.

The good part is I do get fed well though, the guys wife always has a nice spread. Oh my, that didn't come out right at all. Ooops there I go again. I'd better stop here.
 
bearblastbeats said:
Would you travel an hour, to practice with a band, not get paid or reimbursed just for the heck of it?
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It would depend on their skill level and how long the session was. An hour is a long damn drive IMO but, for the right band, It could happen.

If it was a long term thing I'd damn sure make sure that everyone was doing their homework and learning their parts before we got together.

If everyone knew their parts, you could get a LOT done in a 4 hour session. If there were all kinds of issues, you wouldn't get jack done.
 
Last year I played in a little jazz trio (piano, bass & drums) to which I had to travel about 25 min. to practice. It just clicked the first time we all sat down together. There was hardly any rehearsing, just playing through a number. It was gig worthy from the time we sat down. Problem was we couldn't find gigs where anyone was willing to pay us decently. We temporarily disbanded around Christmas as we all had too much to do. I haven't gotten around to getting them back together. If we had a gig we could probably almost do it cold. It's too bad, too, because I considered it a very cheap form of therapy.
 
bearblastbeats said:
I practice in my living room. and I live in the biggest city in the state, manchester, nh. The thing is that most people my age are just wanting to play generic metal and or hardcore.

I simply just want to do a prog-rock band. Unfortunately, being 26, most kids think it's too "dad rock". I guess I'm also kind of shy/weird when meeting new people and would prefer playing with people I all ready know.
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Just wondering if you'd consider placing your own CL ad and let people come to you (probably not given your shyness/ weirdness with new people)?
As you say, you live in the biggest city in the state. If you were to place your own ad stating exactly what you wanted to do, preferable age for bandmates, influences, etc, chances are you'd get a few replies at least?
 
I only have to walk out my door and into my garage to practise :)
 
The distance I will travel is directly proportional to the skill of the musicians I'm going to practice with.
 
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