Practical ideas to improve rehearsals (part 2)

Practical ideas to improve rehearsals (part 2)
As promised, we’re going to dive into some practical stuff to help us practice our stuff.
The temptation is to start with the band and vocalists and “laundry-list” them with what they should be doing to prepare. But it needs to start with us leaders. As worship pastors, music directors, lay leaders, etc., it is our job to serve the team so they can serve the congregation. The first practical step to helping the team practice their stuff is to give them the right stuff to practice. Here’s how I attempt to serve my team when it comes to charts and music.
Distributing music well in advance
Early in my ministry, I planned music the week of. Being a fly-by-the-strap-of-my-guitar kind of guy, it worked for me. But it didn’t allow for any personal prep – especially since it was the days before e-mailing PDF’s or downloading MP3′s. It took me a year or so to get comfortable planning a month at a time. But now that I’ve done it for several years, I couldn’t imagine going back. (This can be difficult for those of you with ministry philosophies that tie all songs to the sermon topic – especially if your senior pastor doesn’t work ahead. I’d love for you to chime in on the comments if you’re in that situation – can you plan ahead? If so, how do you plan ahead, etc.)
Making distribution as easy as possible
I’ve got an interesting situation. I serve at a church that has two campuses that reach into both suburban and rural settings (and when I say rural, think AMISH rural – I literally dodge black buggies on the way there). Some on my team are technically competent and appreciate that they can download pdf charts and mp3s at their convenience. Some on my team still have dial-up because DSL and broadband isn’t offered in their area. [Moment of silent pity.]
Because of the divergent levels of technology use and the distance between the two campuses, I maintain a simple website to allow team members to download mp3s and pdfs AND I make hard copy charts and CDs for those who don’t have (or can’t figure out) the technology. Would I prefer that everyone just use the website? Sure, but that doesn’t serve the whole team in our current reality.
Consider the different learning styles and preferences of your team
There’s a spectrum of musicians you’ll encounter. On one side, you’ll have the person [most often a piano player] who only reads. This player needs fully arranged piano charts. At the far end, you’ll have a player who only plays by ear. The extreme case of this is the player who doesn’t even know what notes or chords he’s playing. Hopefully the bulk of your team lands closer to the center.
I take a “wide middle” approach and offer leadsheets, chord charts, guitar charts (chord charts with “capo chords” instead of the original key) and lyric sheets. Sound excessive? Yeah, a little. But 90% of my songs I can get from SongSelect in each of those forms.
Honestly, I’d love it if I could use only the lead sheet. But my team is made of different types of personalities with diverse musical backgrounds, AND I have an administrative assistant that helps out. If you’re a volunteer leader, or a paid leader in a church with no admin help, you need to draw a line in the sand. In my last church, I had to get myself flowers for Administrative Assistant’s Day, so serving the team in this way wasn’t feasible. I simply used lead sheets and mp3s.
If you want to find out more about the different  kinds of charts I use, how I make chord charts/capo charts, how I transpose mp3s, and why I vehemently hate fully arranged piano accompaniments, check out this supplemental post I created that goes into more detail.
Find that balance between serving the needs of the team and what you’re realistically able to do. And make sure you communicate why you can’t give the vocalists a score with their part written out or why you’re requiring the guitarist to transcribe his own capo notes. People will have grace (and they just might offer to help out…).
The last point I want to make about serving my team with charts/music is this…
Maintain a manageable repertoire
If you’re choosing from 100 – 200 songs on any given week, chances are you’ve got a bigger repertoire than your team (and congregation) can handle. There are exceptions, but I know my church isn’t one of those exceptions. So I have a list of about 30 – 40 songs I call my Current Rotation. There are classic hymns and choruses I can add to that, but for the most part, I like to keep the numbers down. If you’re interested in learning more about this, I have a free e-training on this called, “What’s in Your Playlist?” at www.worshipteamcoach.com/resources.html.
The next post we’ll dive into some practical stuff for rehearsing together as a band.

As promised, we’re going to dive into some practical stuff to help us practice our stuff.

The temptation is to start with the band and vocalists and “laundry-list” them with what they should be doing to prepare. But it needs to start with us leaders. As worship pastors, music directors, lay leaders, etc., it is our job to serve the team so they can serve the congregation. The first practical step to helping the team practice their stuff is to give them the right stuff to practice. Here’s how I attempt to serve my team when it comes to charts and music.

Distributing music well in advance

Early in my ministry, I planned music the week of. Being a fly-by-the-strap-of-my-guitar kind of guy, it worked for me. But it didn’t allow for any personal prep – especially since it was the days before e-mailing PDFs or downloading MP3s. It took me a year or so to get comfortable planning a month at a time. But now that I’ve done it for several years, I couldn’t imagine going back. (This can be difficult for those of you with ministry philosophies that tie all songs to the sermon topic – especially if your senior pastor doesn’t work ahead. I’d love for you to chime in on the comments if you’re in that situation – can you plan ahead? If so, how do you plan ahead, etc.)

Making distribution as easy as possible

I’ve got an interesting situation. I serve at a church that has two campuses that reach into both suburban and rural settings (and when I say rural, think AMISH rural – I literally dodge black buggies on the way there). Some on my team are technically competent and appreciate that they can download pdf charts and mp3s at their convenience. Some on my team still have dial-up because DSL and broadband isn’t offered in their area. [Moment of silent pity.]

Because of the divergent levels of technology use and the distance between the two campuses, I maintain a simple website to allow team members to download mp3s and pdfs AND I make hard copy charts and CDs for those who don’t have (or can’t figure out) the technology. Would I prefer that everyone just use the website? Sure, but that doesn’t serve the whole team in our current reality.

Consider the different learning styles and preferences of your team

There’s a spectrum of musicians you’ll encounter. On one side, you’ll have the person [most often a piano player] who only reads. This player needs fully arranged piano charts [or Musicademy’s Worship Keyboard DVDs to teach them how to play using chords]. At the far end, you’ll have a player who only plays by ear. The extreme case of this is the player who doesn’t even know what notes or chords he’s playing. Hopefully the bulk of your team lands closer to the center.

I take a “wide middle” approach and offer leadsheets, chord charts, guitar charts (chord charts with “capo chords” instead of the original key) and lyric sheets. Sound excessive? Yeah, a little. But 90% of my songs I can get from SongSelect in each of those forms.

Honestly, I’d love it if I could use only the lead sheet. But my team is made of different types of personalities with diverse musical backgrounds, AND I have an administrative assistant that helps out. If you’re a volunteer leader, or a paid leader in a church with no admin help, you need to draw a line in the sand. In my last church, I had to get myself flowers for Administrative Assistant’s Day, so serving the team in this way wasn’t feasible. I simply used lead sheets and mp3s.

If you want to find out more about the different  kinds of charts I use, how I make chord charts/capo charts, how I transpose mp3s, and why I vehemently hate fully arranged piano accompaniments, check out this supplemental post I created that goes into more detail.

Find that balance between serving the needs of the team and what you’re realistically able to do. And make sure you communicate why you can’t give the vocalists a score with their part written out or why you’re requiring the guitarist to transcribe his own capo notes. People will have grace (and they just might offer to help out…).

The last point I want to make about serving my team with charts/music is this…

Maintain a manageable repertoire

If you’re choosing from 100 – 200 songs on any given week, chances are you’ve got a bigger repertoire than your team (and congregation) can handle. There are exceptions, but I know my church isn’t one of those exceptions. So I have a list of about 30 – 40 songs I call my Current Rotation. There are classic hymns and choruses I can add to that, but for the most part, I like to keep the numbers down. If you’re interested in learning more about this, I have a free e-training on this called, “What’s in Your Playlist?”

The next post we’ll dive into some practical stuff for rehearsing together as a band.

Guest post by Jon Nicol – a worship pastor, guitarist, songwriter and all-around-lover of helping people use their gifts and abilities to worship Jesus. This series first appeared at WorshipMinistry.com and Jon’s site worshipteamcoach.com. Thanks for permission to reproduce. Photo of basement worship rehearsal from http://nclchurch.com/go/ncl/photos/worship-rehearsal/

 

Other posts you might like:

The difference between practice and rehearsal (part 1)

What to include in a music chart

A question of balance – tailoring your feedback to your worship team

Sustainability – the reasons we blow it

Ask the Expert – How do I tell someone in the worship team that we won’t be using her any more?

Worship Team Dynamics – the phases a new team must go through