When do you rehearse? How do you find the time to practice? This seems to be one of the most common difficulties for musicians – making time to rehearse. The lack of time causes some singers to hesitate to be involved in the music ministry.
I work with a worship team consisting of about 40 musicians – lead singers, band members and a worship choir. When I schedule rehearsal times it’s almost impossible to find a time that works for everyone. After all, there are only 24 hours in a day and for most of us those hours are filled. Between jobs, family responsibilities, school and extra-curricular activities for the kids and then church there’s very little time left. Truth be told, singers can be fully committed to being involved in the music ministry but can’t seem to figure out how to fit it into a busy schedule. So how do you find time to rehearse and learn new music?
The only answer is to “multi-task” – make the most of your time. If you spend much time in your car, take your track with you and rehearse while you’re running errands, carpooling, waiting in line at the bank or waiting in the school line for your kids. Do you spend a lot of time in your kitchen, cooking? Play your track and rehearse while you’re chopping up those veggies or washing the dishes. Or maybe you love to take long showers in the morning – sing your heart out and rehearse that song. I like to listen to new music that I need to learn while I’m getting ready in the mornings. I can put on my make-up, fix my hair and rehearse at the same time.
If you get creative you’ll find all sorts of times where you can double up and rehearse while you’re doing something else. Now, best case scenario is to have slices of time each week where you have nothing else to do but focus on rehearsing your music but sometimes that’s just not going to happen. If your life seems to get a little crazy and you don’t have extra time which makes you back away from singing, take this advice. Try rehearsing while you’re doing something else – driving, cooking, even drinking your coffee in the mornings – whenever you can “double up.”
You’ll be surprised how much you can accomplish by just listening to your track while you’re doing other things.