Rehearsal Standards¶
Owner: Worship Lead + Tech Lead + Director
Purpose¶
Rehearsal is for ensemble problems — blend, transitions, tech, and feel — not for first exposure to the songs.
Group rehearsal is also how we confirm who is actually ready to serve the linked Sunday (or midweek service). Personal practice is assumed; attendance is not optional theater.
Band and tech rehearse together. Production is not a Sunday-only add-on.
Policy (must)¶
- Personal practice happens before group rehearsal.
- Prior-rehearsal attendance: If you are scheduled to serve a service — band, vocals, or tech — you must attend the prior group rehearsal tied to that service (normally the midweek rehearsal before that Sunday).
- Rehearse production the way we serve: house / overhead lyrics and confidence monitors run during group rehearsal, not only on Sunday.
- Call time means ready: tuned, patched, mic’d, app open, water filled (tech: show file/deck live, outputs verified).
- Phones don’t run the room; emergency use only during runs.
- Notes are normal; defensiveness slows everyone down.
- If you will be late or absent, notify Worship Lead / Tech Lead / Director ASAP — before rehearsal starts whenever humanly possible.
- The Song Selector publishes the proposed set by the weekly deadline; it is fixed when the Director confirms (silence by the confirm-by time counts). The Worship Lead publishes keys, forms, and charts by the keys/charts deadline. Everyone prepares from that plan. Rehearsal may amend keys, forms, arrangements, cues, and production elements; wholesale song replacement is an exception led by the Song Selector / Director. Clocks: Our Congregation.
- The normal group-rehearsal flow is: review the previous service, warm up with an easy song or focused exercise, work every part of the set, rehearse every transition between those parts, and run the set in sequence.
Prior-rehearsal attendance (detail)¶
Rule¶
No prior rehearsal → default is you do not serve that service.
Accepting a schedule is accepting the rehearsal that belongs to it. Pre-service run-through is a confirmation pass, not a makeup rehearsal.
Who this applies to¶
| Role | Prior rehearsal required? |
|---|---|
| Band players | Yes |
| Vocalists | Yes |
| Worship Lead / Director (when leading that service) | Yes (or pre-cleared exception) |
| All scheduled tech (FOH, Monitors, Media, Lights, Stream, Stage) | Yes — same bar as band |
Tech is not “optional if the board looks familiar.” Media especially must be present to drive slides; FOH/monitors need the rehearsal to settle gains and cues with the actual players.
Exceptions (must be granted, not assumed)¶
If you cannot attend the prior rehearsal, do not accept the slot unless a lead has already granted a named exception (cover, simplify, or release). Telling the scheduler you “work Wednesdays” is disclosure, not permission.
Director, Worship Lead, or Tech Lead (for tech roles) may release someone when:
- True emergency or sudden illness
- Pre-approved absence with a qualified cover already confirmed
- Intentional “sit in / shadow” invite that was never a full serve slot
- Rare pastoral or operational judgment (documented in the schedule notes)
Feeling underprepared after missing rehearsal is a reason to step down, not to wing it on Sunday.
What leaders do when someone is out¶
- Confirm whether the teammate is released or replaced.
- Simplify arrangement and/or production if the cover is thin.
- Do not shame in the group thread; follow up 1:1 if a pattern appears.
Slides at rehearsal (overhead + confidence)¶
Group rehearsal uses the same lyric system as Sunday:
| Output | At midweek rehearsal? |
|---|---|
| House / overhead | Yes — operator advances the real deck |
| Confidence monitors | Yes — band/vocals rehearse eyes-up |
| Stream / broadcast | Optional unless stream tech is training or the set is stream-critical |
Why¶
- Media learns the real forms and cues with the Worship Lead
- Players build muscle memory on confidence, not stands
- Broken slides, bad breaks, and unreadable confidence get fixed before Sunday
- “We’ll figure out lyrics on Sunday morning” is not a plan
Media / tech bar for rehearsal¶
- Deck loaded to the plan before downbeat
- House and confidence routed and visible
- Operator present for musical working time (not only strike)
- Note deck fixes before leaving
Details: Lyrics & Stage Displays.
Preparation bar¶
| Role | Before walking in |
|---|---|
| Vocals | Parts learned; ready to use confidence monitors |
| Band | Changes known; patches set; confidence-first (not a forest of stands) |
| FOH / Monitors | Show file staged; input list current; ready at tech call |
| Media | Deck ordered to plan; house + confidence ready for rehearsal use |
| Lights / Stream | Cue plan staged when scheduled for that service |
Use the simple role-by-role guide in Midweek Rehearsal Runbook. Local teams fill in both a present-by time and a later ready-to-rehearse time; readiness, not merely entering the building, is the standard.
Stage reading default¶
Default staging is confidence monitors (also called video monitors) for lyrics/cues and charts where provided, rather than music stands. Stands are exception-only — see Lyrics & Stage Displays.
Etiquette¶
- Talk between songs, not over the Worship Lead
- Tune quietly; fix buzzes without a TED talk
- Guests and kids on stage only if planned and safe
- Leave food/drinks away from consoles and snakes
What “rehearsed enough” means¶
- Forms are stable
- Every planned part and the transition into the next part have been rehearsed
- Key, range, tempo, and arrangement are reachable for the congregation, not only the Platform lead
- Entrances are clean
- Loud/soft map is shared
- Tech can execute without heroics
- House + confidence slides tracked the set without panic
- Team ends with margin to pray
- Anyone serving Sunday (band or tech) was present (or formally released) at the prior rehearsal
