Getting people to help you
I find as a music leader it's simple to do things myself. Getting the gear down, plugging all the instruments in, setting up the music stands etc, sorting the sheet music out. Oddly, while I'm doing this though, the other musicians are standing around chatting or playing their instruments.
I somehow feel like because I'm running the rehearsal I'm responsible for all this stuff. But I shouldn't be. The whole team should be involved in setting up and packing down. But as long as I keep on doing this stuff I think they assume the same thing that I did – that's it's my job and not theirs.
Lately I've started actively asking people to do things that I normally have done myself: Mark, can you test the mikes for me?, John can you set up the stands?, Tim can you give everyone a copy of the music? Dennis can you take this stuff upstairs after the meeting's finished? It works fine. Things get done more quickly and everyone's involved.
I do think it's worth going a bit further though and communicating regularly what needs to happen so musicians come ready to help. If they're too busy to help because they're practicing their part – that's a whole nuther issue for another post …
-N
