The pre-gig rehearsal: what to run and what to skip

The last rehearsal before a gig is the one bands most often waste, by running the whole set from top to bottom, feeling reassured, and then discovering on the night that nobody knew how song 6 ended or how the band gets from the ballad into the party set. A pre-gig rehearsal has one job: make sure the show goes from the first note to the last without anyone having to think.

When to hold it

Two to five days before the gig. Closer than two and there is no time to fix what you find; further than five and the details fade. For a band with a regular weekly slot, that usually means the Tuesday or Wednesday before a Saturday show. If the setlist for the gig is one the band has played in the last month with the same line-up, skip the pre-gig rehearsal entirely and hold a working rehearsal instead. Rehearsing what already works is what makes bands stale.

First: build the setlist, then rehearse it

The pre-gig rehearsal follows the setlist, so the setlist has to exist before the rehearsal, not be decided in the room. The person who builds it sends it two days before, with:

• The set order, with keys and tempos.
• Any client must-plays, and where they sit.
• The first-dance or special-moment song, if there is one.
• The planned breaks and their length.
• Which songs are new to this line-up (a dep on drums, a new singer).
• What each song's ending is, if it has more than one.

Members read it before the rehearsal and flag anything they cannot do. That is the rehearsal's agenda. The thinking behind the set order is in setlist pacing.

What to run

Transitions, every one of them

The part of a live set that most exposes an under-rehearsed band is the six seconds between songs. Rehearse the setlist as a sequence of joins: the end of song 3 into the start of song 4, the count-in for 5, the segue from 7 straight into 8. Play the last 30 seconds of one song and the first 30 of the next, all the way down the list. In a 40-song night that is 39 transitions and about 40 minutes of rehearsal, and it is the best 40 minutes you will spend.

Decide and say aloud for each join: who counts in, whether the tempo is set by the drummer or the click, whether there is talk between the songs, and how long the gap is. "Straight in" and "Anna talks, then drums count" are two different transitions, and both need to be known.

Endings

Every song has an ending that everyone knows, or it has a train wreck waiting. Run the last 16 bars of each song that has ever been a problem, and any song with a cold stop, a tag, a ritardando or a cue from the singer. Endings are where deps get lost; if there is a dep, run all of them.

Starts

Intros are shorter than endings but just as visible: the riff that starts on the "and" of 4, the keys pad that has to be there before the drums come in, the song where the singer starts alone. Run the first 8 bars of anything that begins with fewer than the whole band.

The problem songs

Three, at most, chosen from the recordings of recent rehearsals or from the band's performance ratings. Work them in sections, then run them once in the position they hold in the set, with the transition in and out. Do not add a fourth because "while we are at it".

The client's songs

Anything specifically requested for this gig gets run twice, in full, at the position in the set where it will be played. A first dance gets run three times, with the ending exactly as it will be, because it is the one song the client will remember note for note.

The set timing

Run the set list on paper against the clock. Add up the song lengths, the transitions (average 20 seconds, 60 if there is talking) and the breaks. A 45-minute set with 12 songs at 3:30 each is 42 minutes of music plus 4 minutes of gaps: already 46. Cut a song now rather than at the gig. Knowing the set is 44 minutes, not "about 45", is what lets you start the last song on time.

What to skip

• The whole set, top to bottom. It takes two hours, tells you nothing you cannot learn from the transitions and the problem songs, and leaves no time to fix anything.
• New material. Nothing goes from "learned last week" to a wedding. New songs go into a bar gig first. If the client insists on a new song, it was learned two rehearsals ago; see learning new songs fast.
• Songs the band has played 50 times without incident. Play the transition in and out; skip the song.
• Solos. The soloist practises at home. The band rehearses the cue out of the solo.
• Tone and gear discussions. The guitarist's new pedal is a soundcheck subject, not a pre-gig rehearsal one.
• Arrangement changes. The pre-gig rehearsal freezes the arrangements. A better idea for the bridge is a note for next month.

The last 15 minutes

Not a song. The logistics that the gig sheet should already say, said out loud so that everyone has heard them: departure time and place, who drives, load-in time, dress code, who brings what from the packing list, when the balance is collected and by whom, who talks to the client on the night. Then the recording of the rehearsal goes to the dep, if there is one, with the setlist.

With a dep

A dep changes the pre-gig rehearsal into a full run of anything they have not played with this band: all the transitions, all the endings, the client's songs, and any song with a band-specific arrangement. Send the dep the setlist, the charts and the recordings a week before, and run the rehearsal from the setlist in order so the dep's notes match the night. The full briefing is in deps and substitute musicians.

Do this today

1. Check when the next gig is and whether its setlist has been played by this line-up in the last month. If not, schedule a pre-gig rehearsal 2 to 5 days before.
2. Build and send the setlist two days before that rehearsal, with keys, tempos, endings and must-plays marked.
3. Write the rehearsal agenda: transitions, endings, starts, three problem songs, client songs, set timing, logistics.
4. Put a recorder in the bag; the dep and the absent member will need the take.

Where expert.band helps

A setlist in expert.band shows the running time calculated from the song lengths, per set with the breaks marked, so the timing check is done before anyone picks up an instrument. Each item can carry a note ("drums count", "straight in", "tag ending, watch Anna") that prints in small type under the song on the stage copy. Attach the setlist to the gig, and the participants see it with the times, the address and the packing list (a dep joins free by invitation link and sees the same page), and the printed gig sheet is the document the band runs the last 15 minutes from.