OK, so you need to find a place to get your regular rehearsal on. Now if you are a band or musician, you already own all your own gear which for an average band might be guitars, drums, bass, keyboards, and your PA, or any one of these. This is the same gear if you are a working band that you will take along to do your gigs with also. Now there are two different types of rehearsal space rentals. We have rented in both types with mixed reviews.
Pay by the hour (also known as New York or LA style):
These places charge you anywhere from $25 to $50 an hour. The rehearsal room generally comes with a used PA, and some gear hanging around. You are on the clock the minute you walk in the door. Now after rehearsing for ten hours in an effort to get as much done in the shortest amount of time, guess how many songs we completed at $50 an hour? Hey your pretty smart! So after dropping $500 bucks in one day, and getting nothing done we realized we were in the wrong place. We have only rented this way twice in our bands history, once in New York City because building space is so expensive down there and we were stupid, and once in Boston, the ladder of which we were yelled at for eating in the room. They didn't even thank us for draining our wallets, and paying for gear we didn't want or need! These hourly places are so hard up for business that they disquise their tactics by holding open mics and jam sessions where they charge you to play, and the only people in the audience, is other hardup wannabees paying to play just like you! The only person who wins in this situation is the rehearsal space out of desperation. Why not just go down to your local club at a real open mic, play for free, have a real audience, and get some real exposure, and maybe next time you’ll having a paying gig, instead of paying to play at one of these places!
Pay by the month (also known as permanent or lockout style):
OK, so we realized we needed something more permanent and regular, where we could put a project together long term, leave our stuff there, and still have some cash left over. Permanent rehearsal space fits the bill, and you can expect to pay around $300 a month or so for a pretty decent size room. Sounds easy enough right? Wrong!
STOP! and read every entry on this blog before you decide on a permanent rehearsal space. You need to exercise smart judgement, good common sense, and know the risks of what you're getting into. Our experiences will help navigate you through this, considering we rented in nearly all of them in the three states our band is from.
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