1

RUNNING EFFECTIVE REHEARSALS

Planning The Rehearsal
1) Be prepared - it is an essential key to leading successfully.
a) Know what you want to achieve in the rehearsal. Have correct music charts ready
and enough copies for everyone.
b) Prepare the venueie. have all the musos got their equipment set up and ready ? Is
the soundman ready ? Does he have the sound system ready ?
c) Make sure you have worked through what you are going to do yourselfso that you
can successfully and confidently lead them in the rehearsal.
2) You must know clearly the purpose of the rehearsal
The content of the rehearsal should be determined by the purpose and function of the
worship team. If the worship team are to lead others into Gods presence (as they should
be doing), then they will pray, worship, flow in the Spirit (prophecy on their instruments)
as well as rehearse the chorues they play regularly working on rhythm, intros, endings,
accents, dynamics and phrasing . You should be aiming not only to develop them in their
craft to a place of excellence but to see them develop more and more as leaders in
worship.
3) When learning new songs, make sure you have worked out the song enough to
then be able to work with the other musicians.
It is a good idea to first establish the feel of the song with bass and drums then add the
rest of the band. Remember that it is not always necessary to copy a song from CD.
Sometimes you may be able to improve on the arrangement heard on some songs.
4) Practise various chord progressions having the band improvise over them.
This will not only develop their ear but open up many possibilities for God to move
through your musicians in times of spontaneous worship. However, before you do this,
it is important that you teach them theory so that they are aware of what scales or patterns
are availabe to them when playing over certain progressions.
5) Everyone should be at the rehearsal
It is very important that every person in the band is at the rehearsal. It is very difficult to

2
achieve what you hope to achieve if any person is absent, especially a member of the
rhythm section or if you are rehearsing the brass separately, one of the section players.

Working With The Band

i) Charts make sure you give your musicians clear charts to read. Apart from when
youre teaching new songs, it is good if you can get your team into the habit of playing
by ear.
This is important especially when your changing quickly from song to song. It also helps
you to interpret the songs with more feeling. Too many a time musicians who play with
their heads buried in the music have a sterile sound to their playing and quite often miss
important signals etc.
For your frontline instruments such as woodwinds, brass, lead guitar etc. it is best if you
can have written charts for them. Leaving them to their own devices is dangerous and all
of them playing melody is very boring. It is a good idea to write them in at the end of
vocal phrases or to accent certain parts.
ii) Drums and Bass these are the foundation of the band. .They must be located in
close proximity with each other.
Before you start each song, establish what type of feel the song has and what the kick
drum and bass guitar will be playing. If you have a chorus manual with all the choruses
that you sing regularly, it is a good idea to gradually go through the manual and write
down next to each song a basic drums and bass pattern for each song and the type of feel
you are after. This becomes a ready reference when you go to do the song each time. If
you dont know how to write a bass or drum chart, list a song track from a CD that has
the same sort of feel you are after. Try and get your bass player to start thinking of
patterns for each song. In other words, setting up a groove on say three or four note
patterns when you arent moving quickly from chord to chord. eg. In the song All
Honour, here is the type of patterns the bass would play over the first few bars. Notice
it is corresponding to the bass drum (kick) pattern in the drums chart.
ALL HONOUR
BASS

3
DRUMS

REMEMBER: If bass and drums are tight the rest of the band will fit in without much
trouble.
The hardest thing for many worship drummers and bass players is to keep a pattern going
for a whole verse or more without changing the pattern somewhat and thereby confusing
each other with what they are doing.
Try and get your drummer and bass player to keep things simple without trying to get too
sophisticated. It is better to have a simple tight sound than a technically impressive, but
loose sound.
The drummer in a worship band is so important that if he plays correctly the other
instruments can make some mistakes and the song and performance will still survive.
However, no matter how good the other musicians are, if the drummer plays poorly, you
cannot save the song
iii) Guitar and Keys once you have established the style of the song you must work
out what the piano, keyboards and guitar will be doing. Keep parts simple with
complementing rhythms and contrast in sounds ie. If using keys, you wouldnt have
two piano sounds together. You would possibly use an electric piano sound or a synth
brass sound (especially if you want to reinforce what the brass section are doing) or if a
ballad, then a pad sound (strings).
Depending on the style of the song it is sometimes good to have the rhythm guitar accent
on the offbeat ie. 2nd and 4th beats (especially if the song has a Reggae feel). This helps
to accentuate what the snare drum is doing.
Always be aware of the type of song and whether it lends itself more to a solid rhythm
from guitar or from keys. If you want to achieve a drive rock sound by using distorted
guitar, then the keys would back of and play underneath the guitar.
Also, dont be afraid to shift away from always using piano for intros and if you are using
a synth with different sounds try certain organ sounds or synth effects to add certain
colour to songs.
Points To Remember With The Band
The following points are very important, not only for the worship service, but in your
rehearsals:

a) Make sure you can see each member of the band and they are able to see each
other.
This is especially important if the drummer is bringing the band in or bringing the
final accents at the end of a song. It is amazing how much better you can play
together as a unit when you are physically located in a position to see each other.
b) If you have a song with a number of accents or certain dynamics, every player
should play them, with the possible exception of the drummer whom you may
wish to stay playing straight time.
c) Dont overplay. Impress upon the band the importance of keeping things simple and
leaving plenty of space so that you have somewhere you can take the music.
It is probably best to work out in your rehearsals who is going to fill some of the spaces
and where. This saves the confusion of the guitarist or vocalist for instance, doing one of
their favourite lines in the spot where you propose to have some brass phrasing. Make
sure the team sees the importance of listening to each other.
d) Work on intros, bridges, endings, any musical transitions into the next song and any
special accents or phrases. Spend time on any trouble spots.
Introductions
You can devise your own special intros such as the start of Church On Fire, Friends In
High Places or All Things Are Possible or you can use the last line of the song as an
intro. The main thing to remember with intros is that they establish the tempo and the
style of the song and they must be played confidentally so everyone has the cue when to
come in. Make sure that the count in is correct and that someone is responsible for the
count in. This can either be the Chief Musician or the drummer. Think of the tempo of
the song before you count in because it is difficult to pull a song back in speed if it is
started too fast.
Also, try and look at variety with your introductions, ie. bass and drums starting by
themselves or just acoustic guitar or maybe just a synth pad. Let us get out of the
mentality that the whole band must always come in together or that the song must be
introduced by the piano.
Endings
The important thing with endings is that the band finishes together. The ending can be a
sustained chord or a sharp staccato accent. Usually the drummer is the one to lead the
rest of the band in on the last note so it is important that you have good sight lines to the
drummer. Remember that the ending is the last impression people will have of the song,

5
so it must be tight.
Musical Transitions Into The Next Song
The importance here is to change from one song to the next as smoothly as possible. To
achieve this, it certainly helps if you change to a song in the same key and same
underlying meter. Eg. The Lord Almighty Reigns changing to The Lord Reigns.
If you are changing key, use the V chord (also called the Dominant) of the key youre
going to. For example, if you are in the key of C Major and the next song is in the key of
G Major, you would use a D chord (Vth of G Major) to get to the new key. The chord you
use as your pivot chord to the new key can be any variation of the Vth chord. In other
words, it could be a triad chord, a 7 th chord, a 9th chord, an 11th chord or a 13th chord.
If you are changing to a song which has a different rhythm and tempo, it is best to have
the drummer lead you in to the new tempo and rhythm. The most important thing to
remember with musical transitions is flow. Try and avoid stop/starts because people will
think the time of worship has finished.

Developing Your Musicians

Develop your musicians by giving them some basic theory each week. eg.
Intervals, common scales for improvisation, chords built on the major scale, how to read
chord charts including various symbols used in charts etc.

Improvisation
i) Giving your musicians set chord progressions and getting them to improvise over them.
It is important that as you do this you also give them some of the basic theory mentioned
earlier so that they have some understanding of chord symbols and what scales and scale
patterns to play with each chord given.
ii) Improvisation over familiar choruses. Take a section of a song at a time and have
them improvise over the established progression of the song.
iii) Over common chord progression used in free worship.
With improvisation it is important that your musicians practise scales and scale patterns
regularly. It is also good for them to sing the improvised line as they play it. They should
be able to get to a place where they can quickly interpret what they hear in their heads.
Ear Training
To develop their ear further you can try the following:

i) Let your musicians know what key you are in, then play some mystery chords - the
other musicians then have to name them.
ii) One musician plays a simple 2 bar phrase and another musician repeats it then vise
versa.
iii) Get individual players in the brass section to make up their own improvised line over
an easy progression or well known song. One person would establish the phrase then the
other players play it.
iv) After giving them an established key, play various intervals and get them to sing the
interval then quickly find it on their instrument.
Separate Rehearsals For Your Brass and Rhythm Section
It is always good to try and have separate get togethers for your bass players and
drummers. When you practise as a full rhythm section (piano, bass, drums, guitar), it is
very hard to sometimes get to the nitty gritty of what the bass and kick drum are doing. I
suggest that they get together separately and listen to CDs of great players and work out
patterns together for the various choruses or hymns they may be playing.
Start of with simple patterns aiming at a tight sound where both bass and kick drum lock
into the same patterns. Many drummers try to complicate what the play and dont listen
to what the bass player is doing. It is far better to have a simple pattern and have it
sounding tight than to complicate and not quite be together. Also teach your drummer to
play with dynamics, and if he is only use to playing one style eg. rock, broaden his
outlook by getting him to play all different styles and rhythms.
Just as this is important, so too is it good for keyboards and guitar to work out what they
will play so that they complement each other. Look at a contrast in range of playing ie.
keys playing mid range and guitar high up the neck or guitar playing mid range and keys
playing up high. Like bass and drums, you should work on accents, dynamics etc.
If time permits also rehearse your brass section separately and work on such things as
phrasing, dynamics, accents etc. Take each phrase at a time, at a slower tempo if
necessary, until all parts are sounding together.