I play in a band with up to 6 folks, non of whom with the exception of my wife and myself live in the same town. Our membership actually spans 200 miles along Florida's east coast, so it's absolutely necessary for us to be as efficient as possible with the little rehersal time we actualy have. What worls well, at least for us, is exchanging tapes. Two of us in the group write the group's original material. New songs are distributed to all on cassette and each person is on their own to develop their part. We then woodshed the details when we are able to get together. We are also constantly updating our presentation of our old standby's, which are also exchanged on tape. We are also fortunate that our basic styles and musical instincts are very similar and we've been able to avoid petty artistic squabbles. One of our unspoken rules is that the person who either writes or introduces a tune to the group owns the arrangement and direction rights to the song, even though we all get to put our individual ideas to the test. This whole process works very well for us even though we may only formally regerse once every 4 to 6 weeks.

Good Luck! Paul G.