2. Prepare Your Team – Is your team prepared for rehearsal? You may not have thought about that. But a great rehearsal is where all the team members know the plan in advance. Songs are chosen. Parts are practiced. Then, the team shows up and worships together, flows together and works on making one sound together. Make sure you are ahead in your planning and your team understands that rehearsal means to show up ready.
3. Define a Most Important Item – Not all tasks on the agenda are created equal. Every rehearsal needs a most important item. This could be a new song, a topic of discussion, a creative service element or something else. This is the item you’ll spend the most time on. The rest of the songs can be covered, but not belabored. There’s just no need to waste a ton a time on songs you already know and there’s no need to reinvent the wheel with every tune. What is your MII?
4. Prep the Room – Most rehearsal hang-ups are technical issues. Long sound checks. Instruments aren’t plugged in. DI’s are missing. As the leader, set the stage for your band long before they arrive. Create an organized, clean, appealing room so they can come in, set up and be ready to go. I’m a big fan of rehearsal start time being actual rehearsal start time. That means show up early to set up your gear.
5. Add an Element of Surprise – It’s great to have a rehearsal system set up. But over time, the spark can be lost. Periodically add an element of surprise to your rehearsal. Shake things up. Here are some examples: Order pizza, plan a training night with a special guest instructor, bring everyone Starbucks, work on flow and spontaneous worship for an entire rehearsal. The possibilities are endless.
What about you? How have you engineered effective rehearsals? What has made the biggest difference in your team?
This article on how to lead effective rehearsals originally appeared here.
