How to run a rehearsal that finishes on time
A rehearsal that runs thirty minutes late costs more than thirty minutes. It costs the person who now cannot get their lift home, and it costs a little of the goodwill that made everyone turn up unpaid on a weeknight.
Why it goes wrong
Rehearsal is being used to learn the songs. If people arrive not knowing the material, the evening becomes a lesson. Learning is individual work, and it is the one part of the job that does not need everyone in a room together.
The hardest song is left until last. By the time you reach it, you are behind, people are tired, and the song that needed the most attention gets the least.
Nobody is watching the clock, or the person watching it has no permission to interrupt. Working a song until it is right feels responsible. It is how you spend forty minutes on song two.
The gear eats the first half hour. If setup starts at the same time as rehearsal, rehearsal starts late every single week.
What works
Rehearse the joins, not the songs. Assume people arrive knowing their parts, and spend the time on what nobody can practise alone: the intro, the transition, who leads the last chorus, where it ends. This is the change that saves the most time, and it requires sending the setlist early enough to be fair.
Do the hardest thing second. Start with something familiar so the room settles and the sound gets sorted, then go straight at the difficult one while everyone is fresh and there is still time to abandon it.
Give every song a time before you start, and say the times out loud. Not to be strict, but so that a decision to overrun is visible. Six songs in ninety minutes is fifteen minutes each. When song two takes twenty-five, everyone in the room can see what it cost.
Decide in advance what happens if a song is not ready. Simplify it, move it later in the service, or cut it. Having the options named beforehand turns an awkward moment into a quick choice.
Set up before the start time, not at it. If rehearsal starts at seven, the first note is at seven, which means the room is ready at ten to.
What it looks like
A ninety-minute rehearsal for a five-song set:
| Time | What |
|---|---|
| 18:45 | Setup and line check. Not rehearsal. |
| 19:00 | Song 1, the familiar one. Sound settles while you play. |
| 19:15 | Song 3, the hardest. The most time, and the freshest ears. |
| 19:40 | Song 2, then song 4. Fifteen each. |
| 20:10 | Song 5, and the ending. |
| 20:20 | Run the joins only. No full songs. |
| 20:30 | Finish. |
The last ten minutes are the ones teams cut first and should protect hardest. That is where the set stops being five separate songs.
If you only have an hour, do not fit five songs into it. Rehearse three properly and trust the other two, or shorten the set.
Common mistakes
- Starting the clock when setup starts.
- Teaching a song from scratch with eight people waiting.
- Working the first song until it is perfect, then rushing the rest.
- Leaving transitions until the end, then running out of time for them.
- Letting a rehearsal overrun quietly, week after week, until people stop coming.
Doing it in OnStage
Send the setlist far enough ahead that people arrive knowing their parts, and put the running order in the order you will rehearse it. Notes on a song carry the things you would otherwise repeat every week.
- What to send your team before rehearsal
- Add a rehearsal
- Add notes to a song
Frequently asked questions
How long should a rehearsal be?
Ninety minutes is the common shape for a volunteer team on a weeknight, and about as long as concentration lasts after a working day. Two hours works when it starts on time and finishes on time. What does not work is ninety minutes that regularly becomes two hours.
What if a song is not ready on the night?
Decide before you get there. Simplify the arrangement, move it later in the service so it is not the opener, or cut it. Cutting a song on Thursday is a decision. Discovering on Sunday that it never came together is not.
Someone is always late. What do I do?
Start anyway, at the time you said. A rehearsal that waits teaches everyone that the start time is a suggestion, and the people who arrived on time pay for it. Then have the conversation privately, once, rather than through the rehearsal.
Should we run the whole service?
Not in a midweek rehearsal. Rehearse the music and the joins between songs. The service as a whole, with readings and announcements, is what the Sunday run-through is for.
Related
- What to send your team before rehearsal
- Rehearsing when not everyone can be there
- The Sunday run-through