Service Preparation/Rehearsal Cycle Example
Start with a Game-changing Discussion
I’ve cultivated this rehearsal cycle based on leading over 2,000 rehearsals at churches ranging from 50 to 18,000 people. But as you talk about these ideas with your team, consider what makes your situation unique. Modify these suggestions and add your own steps. What are everyone’s expectations? What special challenges or pain points need to be addressed? What fresh solutions can your team create? Who can step up to help?
As your team talks, keep the conversation fun. Rather than focusing on identifying everything that’s wrong, the goal is to increase the band’s impact and set up your own rehearsal cycle to make the most of everyone’s time, skills, sacrifices, and relationships. You’re turning tasks into opportunities for passionate worship and growth. Enjoy the journey.
Have a singular goal for your rehearsals. What’s yours? Is it avoiding a train wreck? Is it giving the audio engineer a chance to set up the board for the service? Is it finessing the song arrangements so that every part fits well musically? Is it creating something artistically satisfying? Is it spending time connecting relationally as a team? Is it growing musically? Is it experiencing a prayer time together with music as the medium? Is it having everything unfold so smoothly that everyone can focus on worship? Determine your goal and then ensure that each person can begin every step along the way with everything ready to go. Bake success into your process.
Be willing to ask tough questions. As you identify needs, you’ll clarify moments when you may be rushing through something rather than creating space for your musicians to grow. Celebrate the sacrifices that people have been making and look for solutions to better enable their investment of time and resources to bear more fruit.
Start with an overview then work out baby steps. The big picture of my rehearsal cycle begins with identifying the structures that the team will be working within, including its vision, time frame, transitions, and order of elements. These factors determine song flow and part arrangements. Then assignments and resources are sent ahead of time so the musicians can prepare. Rehearsals become a time for gluing everything together and identifying what to polish before the service. Each rehearsal concludes by recording the entire set’s tracks for later examination and a virtual soundcheck to polish up the effects and settings. By the day of the service, each team member should have everything in place so they can succeed. This approach allows everyone to focus on the main thing without distraction.
Here’s how.
Before the Rehearsal
Craft the Plan
Preparing for an effective service starts with a touch-base meeting with the senior pastor, service planner, and anyone with the authority to adjust service parameters. This meeting confirms the theme, scripture, content direction, call to action, mandatories, and time constraints. While this content could simply be listed in an email, I prefer a face-to-face interaction so questions can be clarified immediately and ideas can be explored before people have begun to prepare. The timing of this meeting may vary depending on the sermon series and schedules, but it needs to occur at least three weeks before the service.
One to two months before the service, the musicians, techs, and other participants are scheduled based on a regular rotation modified by schedule block-out requests.
Pro Tip: Incorporate new or potential team members into the roster so they can play along and learn how things work. Keep it low-pressure by removing their channel from the house and in-ear monitors (IEMs) except in the mixes for themselves and their coach — which means that they have a coach! Record their channels when capturing stems for possible progress evaluation.
Put the Plan in Motion
By two weeks before rehearsal (earlier if the set includes new content or requires sectionals), the set list has been created and resources allocated. Each song’s purpose in the overall service determines the tempo, the key, the song’s road map, and the dynamic flow. Transitions between songs are added, including music, scripture, exhortation, talking moments, prayer, and other elements. Blocking, stage design, and tech decisions are determined for musicians, lighting, props, cameras, projection, video, and so on. Everything is communicated to everyone using the music director’s second home, PCO.
The musicians are armed with all the necessary resources, including song arrangements, tabs, lead sheets, master charts, target versions, and multitracks/click/guides. MultiTracks.com and training tools like WorshipTutorials.com and WorshipOnline.com help simplify these tasks with PCO integration and compatible musical song parts. Now the real work can begin.
Personal Practice and Sectionals
In this stage, individual musical parts are prepared by each of the scheduled musicians. The musicians are trained to create parts that don’t compete but instead enhance what everyone else will be playing. They know how to fill in the spaces between melodic lines, leave room for other musicians to have impact, and give listening ears interesting things to highlight the songs’ messages.
These articles explore important training concepts for worship musicians:
Once the musicians have begun developing their parts, it’s time for any needed sectionals. Common sectionals may include drums and bass, vocals, guitars, and keyboards. Section leaders or new musicians not scheduled for that service may be a part of sectionals for training purposes. The structure of a sectional rehearsal is similar to a full team rehearsal but allows symbiotic instruments to tighten their parts without taking up the limited group-rehearsal time. Sectionals can occur in person or through an online platform like JamKazam, Jamulus, or SonoBus.
During the Rehearsal
When everyone arrives at the rehearsal ready to play, this time can be fun and fairly short. Rehearsals often include activities like prayer, study, or sharing; however, this article will focus on the musical-preparation component.
Load-in
There are actually two different load-in times, one for the audio techs and one for the musicians.
The audio techs need to have the sound console, musician stations, and in-ear monitor (IEM) system (with scribble strips) ready to go and have the line check completed before the musicians arrive. This frees the audio techs to troubleshoot issues and begin dialing in levels even before soundcheck. Consider having the musicians set up facing one another to improve communication and the sense of team collaboration. Then have the frontline vocalists turn to face the auditorium for the final run-through. The musicians will need to arrive with enough time to set up their station, warm up, say hi, tune, warm up some more, find their joy, and get the noodles out so they are ready to start at the downbeat.
Downbeat: Set the Focus
Gather the team on the platform to circle up for a short huddle. This is the opportunity to share plans, resolve any concerns, pray, and set the pace for the rehearsal. It shouldn’t need a lot of explanation. “We’re going to set our levels and then run through each song once to refresh ourselves on it. Then we’ll loop through song parts to work out any trouble spots, focus on the new song, hit our ins and outs, break for five minutes, and go back and record the whole set as if it were the service. John, pray us in, please.”
Adjust the Monitor Mix
Have the team play an upbeat song section that everyone knows, looping the chorus, bridge, and chorus. It’s fine to use the same song every rehearsal. While keeping stage volume minimized, the musicians need to play with regular-performance-level intensity so the audio engineer can set the gain level appropriately. Once gain levels are set, the musicians can adjust their IEM mix levels and panning settings while everyone continues playing. If monitor levels are set from the board, then the audio engineer should ask each person sequentially for adjustments while everyone else continues playing. After this step, the musicians should not adjust their output levels — it will mess up everyone’s monitor mix. This is not the time for the audio engineer to adjust EQ, compression, effects, or the mix; those can be addressed once the musicians have started working on the songs or dialed in later using a virtual soundcheck.
Work Each Song
Start with an overview. Although instructions were included in the rehearsal resources, a quick verbal reminder is helpful. Play through the first song once as a refresher. Include loop tracks or even the original version with a click, especially if the song is new or it’s been a while since the song was used. Afterward, explain any suggestions. Then replay the song with only a click, guide, and the tracks that you plan to use during the service (if any), this time looping each section and focusing on dynamics, layering, and issues. It’s important that the musicians all know what you’re trying to improve. Otherwise, they may slide into reinforcing mistakes or disengaging mentally. If there’s an issue, respectfully point it out. Continue to loop that section until it becomes smooth then move onto the next section. Because every musician should ask questions and participate in discussions, non-singing musicians may need a mic to be heard in the IEMs. Have everyone (or a leader in training) take notes so the musicians can continue individually practicing the song at home until they can’t get it wrong.
Focus on New Songs
Because everyone has had the resources to understand their roles in new songs and the time to prepare beforehand, new songs should not be a heavy lift for the team at rehearsal. Still, it’s good to allocate plenty of time to ensure that everyone is locked together with the groove, dynamics, layering, and major song components.
Reviewing Transitions
Work through the ins and outs between songs and service elements. Play the last chorus of song A, the transition between songs, and the intro of song B then jump to the last chorus of song B, play the transition, and so on. Make sure everyone knows who is responsible for what and clarify any musician’s questions about musical roles. Musicians not playing during a particular transition can be thinking about how they can silently model worship for the congregation. Prayers and talking points should also be included for timing and focus.
Break
If the rehearsal lasts over 90 minutes, then plan a short break before recording the final run-through. This gives a chance to refresh, refocus, clarify questions, and turn the front-row musicians to face the congregation instead of the team.
Final Run-through
Record the entire set in a single take, including transitions and everything, just as if it were an actual service. In addition to providing an accurate overall length, you can use the playback for evaluation. The audio engineers can go back later to massage the EQ and effects. One side benefit of this process is that you build a library of stems that can be used to train musicians and sound engineers, create lighting modifications, enhance backing tracks, and substitute for a missing musician.
Wrap-up
Before dismissing the rehearsal, celebrate what went well. Quickly summarize the goals that everyone will be working on before the service. Ensure that everyone has everything necessary to do their part successfully. Then strike the stations, tidy up, and move on.
After the Rehearsal
This important time allows any jagged edges to be smoothed before the service. Following the rehearsal, I like to review the playback and communicate any solutions or areas for adjustment to the musicians so they can prepare well. The musicians especially appreciate when I point out special touches that I noticed and want to make sure to include during the service. Paying particular attention to the ends of phrases can be insightful — musicians tend to be more accurate at the beginnings of phrases but cut off ends of notes more raggedly. The audio engineers can use the recording to rehearse mixing the set and as a virtual soundcheck to improve EQ and effects. If necessary, have sectionals to tighten up issues. The goal is to have everything ready so that the team can be prepared to make the most of the service.
During the Service
Similar to rehearsal, everyone comes prepared for their roles. Line check is completed before the musicians arrive. Last-minute details are addressed. The soundcheck, monitor levels, and playthrough should go quickly and smoothly. Working in larger churches taught me the importance of an all-hands-on-deck run-through that covers every avenue of the service. Between services, there is a touch-base standing meeting with the principals to communicate anything that needs adjusting. During the final service, I like to have a quick debrief with the team to celebrate the good things that unfolded during this cycle and to address the challenges. Before the team leaves after striking the stage, the other spaces like the backstage, green room, and tech areas should have everything in place and accessible for the next use.
Then it’s time to do the whole cycle again!
- Troubleshooting Tips
- No noodling — don’t play when someone is talking.
- Stay focused on your task with minimal distractions (like cell phones).
- Address issues in positive and restorative ways.
- If dynamics or timing is off in a song, then tighten up by playing differently (reversing the dynamics or playing staccato) then playing regularly again.
- Occasionally rehearse a song without a click so everyone concentrates on listening carefully to one another.
