Practice is handy for finding out that your second guitarist never bothers to learn his parts and keeps turning down his amp at gigs in the hope that no one will find out.

I was always a fan of the twice-a-week practice with the first practice being about "playing the hits" and the second being more of an exercise in smoking weed, drinking beer, and experimenting with new noises. at least we had fun.

This is awesome, Mike. Something that doesn't get written about, but is important to consider. I have worked with at least band that practiced EVERY DAY and it pretty much destroyed them. I have found certain specific musicians need to hone up on their own away from the hive dynamic, but in general forcing unbearable shared tightness decreases the flex of the group's vocabulary. I am sure there are exceptions, but this is comparable to bands that are preoccupied with the "sound" at a show over simply putting on the most expressive, ecstatic experience they themselves can deliver as performers. Anyways, my two cents -- yours were golden, in my opinion.

@1
great imagery and humor. and brief. your comment is worth more than the last 10 verbose Slog music posts . As Elliot Smith sang, a "Needle in The Hay" is all I need.

Once a week, you have a hard time remembering the changes in your songs.

Twice a week, great, but you don't get as tight as a band as you should.

Three times a week is perfect, but with people's schedules it's hard to accomplish that often.

Here's something I remember: "Everybody's working for Mike Nipper... cause he's in so many different bands"

Nipper you are onto something here...just last night I went and saw the new/neo soul band St., Paul and the Broken Bones and this was exactly my criticism of them - they were TOO tight. I mean, it was very bothersome as they had nothing loose to them whatsoever...everything was on point and not in the James Brown kinda way - more in that way where you have soul but you seemed to have purchased it somewhere.

Ok, you can say I went and saw a frat boy soul band but really, they are exceptional but that is just not enough for me. I want grit...too much practice can kill grit.

You don't address how you practices, only on how often. That, to me, speaks to the real issue. If you don't know how to rehearse, to get the most out of your time together, it doesn't matter how often: You'll still suck. Learning a song is one thing. Learning how to play together is quite another.

And your point about Steve Cropper is ludicrous. If all of you knew how to play like the Colonel, then you'd have a point. But you don't. It's like those heads who'd talk about how Coleridge wrote Kubla Khan while high. So taking drugs must be the answer to writing great poetry. Um, no.

I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that too much practice is not a problem for 99% of the bands I've shared a bill with. To counter your example with Steve Cropper, I present the Blood Brothers. No one, even non-fans, can say they give half-hearted, over-rehearsed performances, but I seem to remember an article suggesting they practice 4x a week.