Rehearsal Scheduling: Part 1 - It's kind of like baseball, but not really.

Recently I have made a significant change to the way that I schedule rehearsals. It is revolutionizing both the quality of our arrangements and the number of new songs that we are able to learn.

First, let me explain to you the dynamics of our worship teams. We are a small church with two bands; one for the youth program and one for the Sunday morning services (aka Big Church). We have set players in our bands 1) because I feel that playing with the same individuals week-after-week helps each band to develop its own unique sound and a bond with each other that keeps out sound tight and 2) because that is what our talent pool allows. None of our musicians are paid except for myself as the part-time Worship Arts Pastor.

In the past, I would schedule rehearsals with the intention of learning one song per rehearsal. So WEEK 1 we learn SONG A, WEEK 2 we learn SONG B, etc... The schedule was developed two to three months in advance. That way the musicians knew ahead of time how to prepare. I had used this method for years, but was never entirely happy with it.

It didn't allow us much flexibility. The songs were set months in advance. If I heard a new song that I really wanted to do, it would end up at the end of the rotation which could be two to three months out. Or worse, I would have to call an audible; Sticking the new song in and ruining the schedule.

Some songs are more challenging than others. Sometimes, we wouldn't get a song done in one rehearsal or we would discover (despite the fact that I had worked it out thoroughly in advance) that we needed to change keys or instrumentation. Once again the schedule would be completely thrown off.

To solve the problem, I sought advice from my vocal coach on how he directs choirs and bands. We decided to separate rehearsal dates (the when and where to show up) from the rehearsal schedule (the what we are playing). Now instead of attempting to learn a specific song on a specific date, we have a group of four songs which are "on deck" during a given rehearsal.

We spend about 15 minutes working on each of these songs. If for some reason a song isn't quite working because a player needs to spend more personal rehearsal time working out his part or we need to change keys, we move on to the next song. This way if you have a song that is particularly challenging, you can work on it for weeks on end until you are able to get it right, while still moving forward with other songs.

After we have run through all of the songs on deck for the week, one of them becomes "at bat". This is the song we feel that with a little more practice, we are most prepared debut in our next worship gathering. To tighten the song up, we give it an additional 30 minutes of rehearsal.

The "at bat" song is finalized, moved off the rehearsal schedule, and a new song is chosen from a roster of songs that are in waiting to be on deck. This is where the flexibility lies. We are able to keep a list of potential new songs and pull from any song on that list. Because the team has already been working on three new songs (the ones that are currently on deck) for a week or longer, it is ok if they are not completely familiar with this brand new song at rehearsal.

With the last 30 minutes of rehearsal, we are able to quickly touch the rest of the line-up for our upcoming set.

There are many advantages to this method, but I think the biggest is that it increases the quality of our music. Instead of a volunteer musician having to learn a new song every week, they are able to develop their parts over time. In addition, because we are going to be spending only 15 minutes per song each week, it challenges them to do more preparation on their own. Using rehearsals as a time to learn the songs is no longer an option, they must put in more time on their own.

One tip that didn't fit any where else. I find that keeping a 50/50 mix of simple and complex songs on deck helps to keep things flowing smoothly. Plus nothing is more encouraging than that one practice where you are actually able to bust out two brand new songs.

In part two (which will be much shorter, I promise), I'm going to talk about how I have started using Google docs to keep the schedule up to date and put a stop to the infamous "What are we rehearsing tonight?" emails/voicemails.