31. Rehearsal Success: Building Trust and Efficiency

In this episode of the Music Executive Podcast, hosted by Cinnamon Denise, the focus is on making rehearsals efficient and productive. 

Cinnamon shares five critical steps to improve rehearsal experiences: making an agenda, being prompt, leaving time for fun, following up with participants, and recording the rehearsal for future review. The episode also emphasizes the importance of camaraderie, punctuality, and continuous improvement, providing valuable insights for musicians at all levels.

Transcript

Episode Premise

Let’s talk rehearsals. Rehearsals, for all intents and purposes, are our version of meetings. They are where we get together to build camraderie, solve issues, and identify areas for improvement.

But, if we’re not forward thinking, rehearsals can be inefficient, ineffective, and ultimately, frustrating for everyone involved.

So today, I’m going to share 5 steps that have helped improve my overall rehearsal expereiences…regardless of what type of show or project I’m preparing for.

Intro

Hey Music Executives, this is the music executive podcast, a show where we talk about what it takes to build a sustainable, efficient, and holistic music career. 

I am your host, Cinnamon Denise, and I started this podcast because as I have been on this journey myself I noticed that there were challenges that I was experiencing that were not unique to me. 

And a lot of these challenges were not always related to my musical abilities. They were “hidden” challenges that no one talked about…

how this career path impacts our physical, mental, and spiritual well being. 

So, if you’ve been wondering if you’re the only one going through X, this show is here to remind you that no you’re not. 

And this show is also here to help us overcome these challenges as well. 

Whether you are a part time, full time, or hobbyist musician, I’m sure that you will find value in this show. 

If you are enjoying the show, give us a 5 star rating wherever you listen to your podcasts, and if you think this show would be helpful for someone you know, share it with them. 

Alright, let’s do this music executives.

1. Make an Agenda

Step Number 1. Make an agenda for your rehearsal. 

I know it sounds very simple but how many rehearsals have you been to that had an agenda? 

And if it did have an agenda, what impact did it have on your experience and the rehearsal?

Make an agenda for your rehearsal and send it out at least 2 days, ideally 7 days beforehand. Make sure it includes the following 5 sections:

- A Recap from the last rehearsal - with ideas that you went over and even want to cover at some point but you aren’t necessarily prioritizing that idea right now. Put this recap section in your rehearsal agendas for your own record keeping, acountability, and a little bit of social pressure.

Also, this recap from the last rehearsal gives you a good starting point for the next rehearsal. If you spent an hour rehearsing something and locking it down, use the first 10 minutes of the next rehearsal to solidify the group’s collective muscle memory. 

Make sure your agenda includes 

- Focus areas of what you will be rehearsing next time you get together. 

For example, it might say that “next rehearsal we will be working on the transitions between all of our songs, or the endings for all of our songs. We will be rehearsing the verse of this tune, and the bridge of this one. We will try this tune in the following 3 keys.”

This allows you and your colleagues to prepare and there will be little to no room for coming unprepared because we have all of these things here in the agenda.

The third section that your agenda should include

- Is an action item section. You can put things like “next time, Bass player will bring their live looper to rehearsal to practice the intro of a song. Or Vocalist will bring water for everyone.” 

If someone needs to follow up with a venue about a rider that you have, you can put that here. Be sure to put dates on your action items because it won’t happen otherwise, that’s just basic human nature. 

And if there are no specific action items, then of course, leave this blank. 

The fourth section of your agenda should contain a brain dump, section

This can be some ideas that maybe got thrown around but of course you’re staying on track with your focus areas section so you won’t tackle these things quite yet. But they are viable ideas. 

Last but not least, your agenda should include the date, time, and location of the next rehearsal. 

I don’t care if rehearsal is the same exact day, time, and location every week. 

Put this on your agenda so that there is no confusion amongst the group.

This is also great for your record keeping. I’m not a tax professional and this is not tax advice but this record keeping will help you prepare to file taxes as well as be prepared for a potential audit.

With agendas that contain a date, time, and location, I know where I was, when I was there, every day of the year because when it comes time to cross check any of my mileage usage for business related items, I’m not fumbling around. 

So for your agenda the sections are: Recap, Focus Areas, Action Items, Brain Dump, and the date, time and location of the next rehearsal. 

For context, it should take no more than about 5 minutes to get this agenda done, and if you manage to create a template for your agenda, or a living document like a google doc, and you create your agenda right at the end of rehearsal, it does not take long and it is worth it. 

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2. Be Prompt

Step #2 for having an efficient rehearsal is be prompt. Start and stop on time. I don’t care who is or isn’t present. This may sound a little harsh but trust me, social pressure is a thing. A very effective thing.

Small tangent, when I was going through yoga teacher training, we were learning about the 8 limbs of yoga which are essentially these yogic pillars that we we’re committing to live, teach and thrive by. 

One of these subpillars, if you will, is nonstealing, or asteya. Stick with me. I’m going to land I promise. 

Something that my teacher said that really stuck with me was that when we don’t start and stop our classes on time, we are stealing our students’ time. 

Regardless of what you want to call this, starting and stopping rehearsal at the agreed time is important to maintain the morale and trust between everyone involved. 

If you start your rehearsal on time, every time, your colleagues will be expecting that. If you end your rehearsal on time, every time, your colleagues will be expecting that.

And, we owe it to ourselves to do this as well. So that when we are rehearsing, that’s what we’re doing. 

When we’re done rehearsing that’s what we’re doing. 

Focus is supremely important when it comes to creativity and promptness allows you to tell your mind that “for this allotted rehearsal time, I am focusing on this.” 

And if your mind sends you elsewhere, sned it back to rehearsal. 

Also, promptness, forces everyone to tighten up. Social pressure.

If you’re rehearsing alone, be prompt. If you’re rehearsing with only one other person and they aren’t there yet, be prompt. 

Start playing the music and then when they walk in, they will see wow she’s started rehearsal. 

Of course, things happen, there is a random accident on the highway, the dog has an accident right when it’s time to leave the house blah blah, but we as music executives we do what we’re say we’re going to do. And that’s why we charge what we charge. 

3. Leave Time for Fun

Step #3 for having an efficient rehearsal is to leave time for fun. 

Remember when we were talking about the agenda, and we had that recap area? Take something from that recap and throw it in this time. 

Or take 10 minutes at the start of rehearsal to just jam out and have a good time. Have fun. 

This is so important for a myriad of reasons…the main one being…this builds trust amongst the group. 

And if trust is already there this builds friendships. And if friendships are already there this builds camraderie. And if camraderie is already there, it is much easier to hold each other accountable. This creates a safe work environment.

I can go on and on. So, leave time for fun.

4. Follow Up

Step #4 for having an efficient rehearsal is the follow up. 

After every rehearsal, follow up with everyone. If it’s most efficient to do so via email, cool, or via text or phone call that’s cool too. 

And you decide what’s natural for you. Even if the rehearsal didn’t go particularly well. Actually, especially if the rehearsal didn’t go particularly well.

As we build our sustainable and holistic music careers, never forget that we are all humans having human experiences. So, stay in touch with your people and care about them. 

Remember AKA write down their birthdays, their anniversaries, etc. And after rehearsal, follow up with them. 

Sometimes it’s just “hey, I enjoyed our rehearsal yesterday, see you at the next one.”

I promise you the follow up makes a difference and it does matter. 

5. Record the Rehearsal

Step #5, the final step, for having an efficient rehearsal is to record the rehearsal and watch the recording. 

After and often during their games and practices, athletes are watching tape. Music executives, watch your tape. 

Study how you can improve and even study what you’re doing well that maybe you didn’t even know you were doing well. 

It is very interesting seeing how often musicians don’t want to see or hear their own playing…usually when they know it wasn’t their best performance at the time. 

But trust me, you gotta watch it. 

I have a video of a performance that found its way into the universe that I absolutely do not like.

This performance is now almost 10 years old and I still cringe when I watch it. Or bless me, someone tells me that they watched it. 

I sang like an entire 4-5 lines completely out of tune and I still to this day don’t know why or how it happened but I hate watching that video. 

Watch the video. Watch your tape. Because it will help you improve the fastest. Learning how to objectively watch myself, has helped me to not be so hard on myself. 

I am just another human who is trying to improve. It is not that big of a deal to have a bad performance or rehearsal. I mean like, let’s not do that again you know, but for real, it is ok.

Whew, I think I just needed to get that out but ultimately, record the rehearsal, so that you and everyone really, can watch it and learn from it. 

Outro

So to quickly summarize this episode: 

Make an agenda, be prompt, leave time for fun, follow up, and record the rehearsal. 

What other ways can you think of to make your rehearsals more efficient? 

Text the show and I’d love to share that insight with the audience so that we can keep helping each other grow. 

Alright music executives, that is it for this episode. If you enjoyed it, share it with the homies. 

Remember, this isn’t easy, but it is fun.