This blog reviews the political and economic significance of the music rehearsal space sector to our wider cultural life.
Success starts in the rehearsal space
Research in to music spaces has focussed on commercial music, acoustic design and music education. However, a growing numbers of ‘bedroom musicians’ now commit considerable time listening to music, experimenting with software and exploring a range of music sources. Many informally create music on computers and devices often in isolation and with no assistance or assessment.
It would be misleading to think such musicians are ‘outside’ or independent of the music business, or that they are only tenuously connected through their consumption and appropriation of various products (instruments, amplifiers, recordings, etc.).
Music rehearsal spaces offer useful meeting places where such amateur music-makers can exchange ideas and practice with potentially far reaching social, economic and artistic benefits. Indeed, spaces provide critical progression routes to musicians who create music that contribute to the music economy.
Paul Willis (1990) in his book Common Culture argues: "If it’s more ‘producers’ we want… we should, instead, focus on a general lubrication of the connections between the everyday forms of musical and cultural activity and the more formally recognized practices, to make the passage from the role of ‘consumer’ to that of ‘producer’ easier."
Much of the commercial success of unsubsidised spaces is due to the relatively unknown enthusiasts who play music week in, week out who may gradually move up the scale to professional work.
Amateur and professional musicians alike rub shoulders while playing an important role in the music industry’s economic and cultural production cycle. The writer Rick Rogers researched in to the work, education and training of professional musicians in 2002. In his landmark study he attempts to redefine the musician's role as one that: "… bring the benefits of music to a wider range of people as participants and audiences. Any redefinition therefore must embrace, and make explicit, musicians’ creative energy and influence within different, but related, artistic and social contexts" (p.4, Rogers, 2002).
A policy to encourage greater participation in group music-making can bring many benefits in areas such as audience development, health promotion, cultural and social regeneration. Trends already show in the coming decades more money will be spent by those over 40 on leisure and recreation where music-making will come to play a huge role.
How it works
When a group of musicians organise themselves to pay to hire a rehearsal space, this act is the start of informal music-making in the social realm.
It can easily be quantified in financial terms, demonstrating participants’ commitment and value in collective making-music.
Once a group has found a satisfactory and affordable rehearsal space they are perhaps likely to make regular bookings, perhaps taking advantage of a block booking discount scheme. This is also good practice as regular rehearsals disciplines the music-makers before performing live. Indeed, money earned from performing can go towards paying to hire a rehearsal space.
Groups who play together for any length of time find a group style and empathy. As Cornelius Cardew (Cardew, 1971, p. xviii) said: "Training is substituted for rehearsal, and a certain moral discipline is an essential part of this training."
Playing music of one’s choice, with which one identifies personally, with like-minded friends, and having fun doing it must be a high priority in the quest for increasing numbers of people to make music meaningful, worthwhile and participatory.
A defining feature of a good music rehearsal space nurtures this artistic process, helping musicians feel comfortable and providing a safe place for free expression. As Keith Negus (Negus, 1999, p. 13) explains: "…musical sounds and meanings are not only dependent upon the way an industry is producing culture, but are also shaped by the way in which culture is producing an industry."
The music rehearsal space economy
There remains little data on the size of the music rehearsal space sector and its importance to the wider music industry. Its significance can often be eclisped by music venues and recording studios.
The music rehearsal space sector is dominated by small and medium sized commercial enterprises. Professional musicians derive their income from performances and recordings which in turn subsist rehearsal spaces. Spaces also exist in educational institutions and performance venues.
As most of rehearsal spaces are small, their overall economic significance goes unnoticed, over-shadowed by the massive economic force of the corporate record companies. With any other industry, a closer look can reveal the inherent intricacies and inter-dependencies.
Many music rehearsal spaces function as independent business units, some subsumed within the activities of other businesses such as a recording studio, PA Hire, gig promotion, etc.
Popular music artists who sell hundreds of thousands of tickets, albums and singles, sit at the top of the tree whose roots fan out to numerous bands aspiring to similar success. For commercially successful artists, pickings can be rich indeed. Meanwhile, music rehearsal spaces provide a tangible first foot on the wrung of the ladder to ambitious raw talent.
A strong and vibrant independent scene is essential to maintaining an ever developing exciting music industry. Without it, contemporary music can become led more by market forces than artistic innovation.
Appropriate support is needed for all phases of the production cycle. When questioning musicians, Rogers found they highlighted three main perceptions of performance:
Straightforward concert or gig
Technical or production element of performance
Any music-related situation others are engaged including teaching and mentoring (p.5, Rogers, 2002).
The report argued any definition of music has much stronger organisational and culture cycle linkages with the functions of the audio-visual domain rather than with purely performance-based arts (p.13, DCMS, 2004). Music rehearsal rooms are ubiquitous, if not crucial, to musicians and music groups in all these cases.
The Space
‘The Space’ is where it all happens – the performance, the workshop, the rehearsal, even the brain. Unfortunately, The Space can often be overlooked in favour of the creative process. Many music organisations provide opportunities for musicians to rehearse music that has to fit the performance venue(s) for a number of reasons, such as size and financial. This suggests the audience who come to behold have not seen the journey the musicians have made to fit their music to meet these considerations.
This raises the question about the quality and location of rehearsal and production settings.
Typically, better equipped and larger music rehearsal space businesses are situated in major cities where musicians find most of their work.
Sports Centre analogy
To the casual observer, the quality and number of physical spaces for local sports groups are not as proliferate as with those for enthusiastic musicians. At the top of the business pickings are rich indeed, like those for our top sports men and women, but what of the groups struggling to get on the ladder. Certainly in the most part, the record companies, national music promoters and agents have little direct input in helping many of these groups.
To draw a comparison, most people have access to enjoying participation in a sport at an affordable price. Sports centres provide a menu of activities across purpose-built and standardised rooms to develop a healthy physical lifestyle. Sports Centres are located to serve a critical mass of supporters.
Sports and leisure centres are indeed a good model. They can offer:
a management structure, including active involvement within the local community
a mixed economy and pricing structure for all abilities and incomes
offer a balance between fixed and flexible space
often financially supported by a public authority
similar ethos in providing active physical participation linking to healthy living
More research is required
There is growing evidence music rehearsal spaces can play an important part in contemporary lifestyles. A number of academic researchers and consultants have written papers relating to this area of culture.
Andrew Missingham working for the Musicians’ Union and BASCA found: “The healthy state of live music in the UK is underpinned by the high quality of UK musicianship and composition. If we are to maintain and better the standard of playing and composition, the UK music sector will have to continue to invest in research & development… from rehearsals, working on new material, through to exploring the potential of new techniques, instruments or effects" (Missingham, The Musicians' Union/BASCA, 2006).
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