WORSHIP LEADERS REHEARSAL PREP (PT 3A)
Picture this. Rehearsal starts at 7:00 pm and the band and vocalists leisurely stroll in for the next 15 minutes. Once everyone is finally there, it's time for a devotion and prayer time, which turns out to be choppy and unprepared and doesn't really make sense. By the time the devotion is over and you've prayed, it's almost 7:45 pm. So everyone gets up and starts plugging in and tuning up. Then it becomes obvious that there is a problem with the bass channel, because it's either humming or not working at all.
So after troubleshooting for another 10 minutes, it's been an hour since rehearsal started and nothing productive has actually gone on.
Unfortunately, this is scenario is more common than most would like to admit. However, it doesn't have to be this way. Preventing this scenario boils down to each leader’s responsibility to doing effective worship rehearsal preparation. It is possible to run a smooth and effective rehearsal, but it means understanding that rehearsal starts before rehearsal starts.
There are some crucial pieces of the puzzle that need to be in place before anyone ever shows up for rehearsal.
Finalized order of worship/tech sheet- It's important to know what the service is supposed to look like in its finished form. That means knowing the flow of the service from beginning to end. This includes notes on who is leading each song, and who is doing spoken elements such as the welcome, calls to worship, or meditation. Additionally, any video clips or special elements should be finalized. Make sure to include any cues for lighting, staging, or usher movement. Journey Church in New York has what they call the Thursday midnight rule, which means nothing is added or subtracted to the service after Thursday night at midnight. This prevents having those last minute glitches or breakdowns in communication. Print out the tech sheet for the band and the tech team before they arrive to rehearsal, so that they have a road map that shows how they fit into the overall picture.
Transitions- Once you have your major pieces in place, it's time to fill in the gaps and weave them together in a way that is smooth and natural. This means thinking through musical underscoring, key changes, and scripting out any spoken elements like prayers, welcomes, or meditations. Many times, this is the last 10 percent that is missing from creating really powerful worship services. You might want to check out my post on speaking well from stage. In addition there is a website called worshipscores.com that has some really great musical underscores as well as key changes available for a low yearly subscription.
Finished presentation and lighting cues- We use Proclaim for our presentation software. This program has the ability to project lyrics onto a screen on a back wall to be used as a confidence monitor for lyrics. In addition, we play any media such as video announcements or mini-movies from Proclaim. All of these need to be loaded and completed before anyone ever shows up to rehearsal. Part of helping the band do a complete run-through to prepare for Sunday morning is getting used to how they interact with the other elements of the service. It is also really helpful to have the lyrics available to get practice at not staring at a music stand. Practice should involve engaging with each other and preparing to engage with the congregation.
Prep and test the stage- One of the best possible uses of pre-rehearsal time is pre-wiring the stage and testing the channels so that the musicians can come in and set up quickly and easily. This means having direct boxes, microphones, wireless units, in-ear components, mic stands, instrument cables, extension cords, and power strips pre-set. A guitar player should be able to bring their amp in and walk backstage, plug it into the extension cord laying right by it, place the mic on the cab that is right next to it and plug in the Radial Guitar Interface. They should be able to walk on stage, plug in their pedal board into the power strip in their regular spot, grab their guitar and plug it in, tune up, and then put it on the guitar stand that is preset. This should require at most, 10 minutes from start to finish of set up. The same should be done for every other instrument. It's often helpful to have two people helping to set the stage so you can have one person setting and testing the channels and another at the soundboard checking levels and inputs. I recommend the whirlwind Qbox cable tester. This thing is a bit pricey, but when it comes to saving hundreds of valuable hours of your time troubleshooting, it really pays for itself. The same goes for the vocalists. It's a good idea to have a table set aside for the purpose of placing mics, in-ear packs, and batteries. Some black gaffer’s tape and a silver sharpie go a long way in labeling parts of the table with people’s names so they know where to put their stuff.
