How often should you rehearse, and for how long? It depends.

Your performance goals, the other players’ abilities, schedules, and the kind of music you play are all factors.

Are you preparing for a performance or working on your musicianship?
Learning an entire set of tunes or just adding a few to your repertoire?
Are you playing jazz standards, pop cover tunes, or original music?
Are the musicians you perform with amateurs or professionals?

This quick overview outlines how often musicians typically rehearse and how much rehearsal time you’ll need for different types of performances. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, but it’ll at least give you an idea of what kind of time is usually required. But every situation is unique, so I’ve also included a simple formula for calculating your rehearsal time.

Side note:

Before we begin, let’s make sure we’re on the same page when it comes to defining what a rehearsal actually is. Practicing is what you do on your own. Rehearsing is what you do when you get together with other musicians.

Rehearsal can be non-existent for some gigs — for instance, when you’re playing jazz standards. If you have well-written charts and players who are expert sight-readers, you can show up at the gig, talk through the chart if there are any problem spots, count off the tune, and play.

If you’re performing a jazz concert with complex arrangements, that’s a different story. One or two rehearsals beforehand are essential so that everyone can play their best. Depending on the performance’s length, plan on spending 1 ½ to 2 hours rehearsing.

If your group is new, you’ll have a lot of music to learn. How many times a week you rehearse hinges on how many songs you’ll play in your first performance and how much time you have to prepare beforehand.

PERFORMANCE

First, let’s figure out how many songs you’ll need to learn for a performance.

Imagine you’re on a multi-band show. Typically, 45 minutes to 1 ½ hours is how long you’ll perform. If each song lasts about 4 minutes, you’ll need to learn between 10 and 20 songs to fill your time slot.

But songs aren’t the only thing that takes time. Stage patter, instrument changes, and tuning need to be accounted for too, so add at least 30 seconds between songs.

So let’s do some simple math.

Here’s the equation for your performance:

Performance time = x
X divided by 4 (the average length of the song) plus 30 seconds for transitions between songs = the number of songs you’ll need for your performance.

REHEARSALS

Now let’s figure out how much rehearsal time you’ll need to prepare for your show.

In rehearsal, you can expect to run each tune at least twice. That’s about 8 minutes for both run-throughs. Add time for tuning instruments, finding and looking over charts, and talking about what needs fixing or improvement. If people are focused and the rehearsal’s well run, you might only need an extra 5 to 10 minutes per song. That all adds up to about 10 to 20 minutes per tune or three or four songs per hour.

Here’s a quick equation for how much rehearsal time you’ll want to schedule:

The number of songs you’ll need for your performance x approximately 15 minutes.

For example, if you need 9 songs for your performance, plan on rehearsing for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Add 15 minutes for good measure, and your time commitment is 1 ½ hours.

But not all rehearsals run like clockwork. Most don’t!

If your group is new to working together, experiment with how many tunes you can run through in an hour. Then you’ll have a better idea of how much time you’ll need to develop your group’s repertoire.

You’ll also want to run through the songs you’ve learned in previous rehearsals. Are they holding up? Are there any new problem spots?

When you know the music well, it’s time to dive deeper into those things that impact the audience during a performance — the song’s dynamics and emotional content.

If everyone in the group has learned their parts beforehand, you’ll cut down on the amount of time it takes to run through the songs. Then you’ll have more time to focus on the other aspects of your performance — like stagecraft.

(Read my blog post, A Singers Guide To Successful Rehearsals, for more on how to get the most out of yours.)

If you have performances on the calendar every week, you’ll want to rehearse at least once a week to bring new material into your repertoire.

In the early Nu Shooz days, we had between two to five performances per week and played four hours a night. We’d use our one or two days off to rehearse new material to keep things interesting.

If you’re rehearsing to create, a whole different set of parameters is brought into play. My friend, singer Holly Pyle, has done a lot more of this kind of rehearsing than I have. When she creates with other musicians, they spend some time up-front sharing ideas they’ve brought to the session and then around 30 to 40 minutes jamming on ideas while recording. Then they listen to see if there are any ideas worth saving, or the person who brought in the original concept takes the recording home to listen on their own to cull and refine the ideas that work best with the composition.

Holly and her band also spend some time at the end of rehearsal working with previous compositions and refining them.

If you’re rehearsing for a tour or a string of dates and you’ve already been performing the songs you’ll play, then use your rehearsal time to focus on your stagecraft. Creating a visual presentation is a powerful way to enrich your audience’s experience.

You’ll also need to set aside some time for tech rehearsals. After all the hard work and time you’ve invested in your show, you’ll want to make sure that the technical side of the performance runs smoothly. Plan on two to three hours for these types of rehearsals to ensure that your lights, sound, and visuals are working well and that your tech crew knows your show as well as you do.

If you haven’t been performing the songs you’ll play, and the material is new to everyone, you’ll want to get together as many times per week as possible to learn the material. Remember to schedule some time for performance and tech rehearsals too!

Musical Theater Productions

My friends Beth Noelle and Susannah Mars have a lot of experience with musicals. Here’s what they told me about what they’ve experienced when rehearsing for musical theater productions.

Community Theater

When you’re in a community theater production with three shows a week for a three to four-week run, you can expect to rehearse several times a week for up to three months. If you’ve got a lead role or are a musical director, you’ll rehearse every night. The week before opening is reserved for technical and dress rehearsals.

Beth adds, “Smaller shows with fewer cast members can be a bit more quick and dirty.”

Professional Theater

Generally speaking, a professional musical theater production uses union (Equity) actors and runs for about six weeks worth of shows with up to five or six shows per week.

Susannah told me that when she’s under an Equity contract, she’s available to rehearse six days a week with Mondays off. Rehearsals can last three to four weeks, or in the good old days, it could even be six weeks!

There is no right or wrong way to rehearse.

And there aren’t any hard and fast rules for how long your rehearsals should be. But I hope this guide has given you some idea of what to expect in different types of rehearsal situations.

If you have some experience with rehearsals that would be helpful to their singers,
please share in the comments below!