I saw a clip where a pianist was playing and someone was turning her pages for her, but they fumbled and dropped the sheet music. The pianist kept on playing, but it got me wondering why have the sheet music if she knows the song anyway. Do they really need it? Why can’t they just learn the songs like all bands do?
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I am a drummer in a metal band and I agree with a lot of what people have already commented. I have all the songs memorized so I don’t really need sheet music. Hell, I can’t even read sheet music that good haha… I’ve played the songs so much that they’re basically stuck in my muscle memory at this point. I can go without playing them for months and when I finally sit down and play them again I can play them just as good as I usually do. Because we write our own songs I also already know much of them before I even start to rehearse them. I usually already know about 50% to 75% of a track on the first rehearsal. The rehearsals are mostly just to dial in those more complex fills and rhythms (melodies and solos for the other members of guess). This makes rehearsals really easy. On average it takes me about 2-3 days to rehearse a full 45 minute set. Aaaaaaaand I have the option to improvise a lot. Fills can change constantly from day to day depending on the energy on stage.
This depends on the band but we rarely rehearse together. We usually learn the songs in our own time and then a couple of weeks before a tour we get together and do a big production rehearsal. Usually over a weekend. At that point we already play the songs perfectly together and are just trying to get all the stuff around us to sync, like lights, mixing, backing tracks (sorry to break that bubble for you but A LOT of bands rely on Backing tracks, like, A FUCKING LOT), logistics and so on.
I don’t know much about orchestras but I would imagine it’s like most people have already said. The players don’t get much time to familiarize themselves with the music and arrangement. They probably only get a couple of days to actually rehearse completely new material, which is also pretty darn conplex. So they need that extra help to remember the parts while they play. Sure, I would bet that some orchestra player do memorize a full concert but even then, it’s a good thing to have that sheet music readily available if you happen to get a brain fart and forget parts while playing.
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