Practicing

Today, my band (it's called Bella Novella) tried out a new way of practicing, utilizing headphones, a drum machine, microphones, etc., to attempt to minimize our impact on our neighbors/housemates. It was a strange experience to sit in a garage with three others, listening to each other's instruments through headphones. I think it was a mixed bag in terms of results; on the one hand, we had to concentrate on timing to a greater extent than normal, and were able to pipe a metronome through to keep the tempo consistent (revealing some things to work on that we might not have noticed otherwise). On the other hand, it is difficult to practice on instruments/amplification different to what we use in concerts (we certainly couldn't play this way every practice, or when learning new music). However, practicing this way does open up the opportunity of practicing more often, as well as at more convenient times of the day. I imagine that us huddled in a circle around a bunch of equipment singing without accompaniment must have looked quite strange to any passers by, though!


Here's a link to our first EP

http://bellanovella.bandcamp.com/album/in-uniform



What I've been listening to today:
Symphonies 1, 4 by Mozart
Le Tombeau de Couperin by Ravel
Symphony No. 5 (Choral) by Philip Glass
Sun Giant EP by Fleet Foxes
Serenade by Leonard Bernstein