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Paid rehearsals

pklima

pklima

Commercial User
May 2, 2003
8,459
7,051
Kraków, Polska
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Karoryfer Samples
#1
People on this forum sometimes say that under some set of conditions (like a bandleader dictating everybody else's parts), rehearsals should be paid. Does that happen much in reality, though?

I passed on a theater gig recently which paid one lump sum for both the performance and rehearsals, and I just run across an ad today from somebody who wants to play krautrock and is offering to pay the bassist and drummer for rehearsals "out of desperation", but other than that I've never run across such a thing.

How often do paid rehearsals actually happen, and in what kind of situations?
 
#3
Paid rehearsals crop up in a lot of pro gigs. Basically all theatre/pit work, some orchestral work, and pro tribute/function band work. Also, session/backing band jobs for artists with management/label representation usually pays for rehearsal time.

Gigs that do pay are generally those that do all-day rehearsals and don't rehearse too often - when I did some musical theatre work not long ago we did three days of rehearsing and then went out to do the show, with no rehearsals during the run at all.

Nowadays I'm mostly doing dep work for covers bands and solo artists and they don't pay for rehearsal time. I do, however, always charge my travel expenses and only do a rehearsal immediately before a paying gig (so I can factor that into how much I'm getting paid for the show).

Jim
 
#4
In my previous life as a pro, I generally did long term residencies at cabaret clubs, holiday camps and cruise ships and rehearsal time was specifed in the contract, or agreed when taking on the gig.

I would be paid an amount per week for x number of hours on y number of days with a possible z hours rehearsal time.

In the case of the cruise ship, if we exceeded the contracted rehearsal hours we would get overtime. We once did the show "Ain't Misbehavin'" and we had one 4 hour call to work it up, for which we were paid o/t, but this was an exception.

In the case of the Cabaret club, we would have a 1 - 1.5 hour rehearsal at 6:30pm on Tuesday with the act for the week to run through their charts. This was agreed when I joined (5 nights/week, 8 - midnight, with a Band Call on Tuesday @GBPxx.xx a week + a meal from the al la carte menu - cool!).

In all cases if we needed to rehearse any band numbers we'd generally tack that onto a normal rehearsal. Of course we were of a standard that we would be able to sight read pretty much anything that was thrown at us and unless there were tricky stops/starts or time changes we wouldn't need to rehearse anyway.

I recall on joining a band for a summer season we had one 3 hour rehearsal where we ploughed through the whole pad in one sitting and that was it for the whole six months I was with them.
 
#5
It happens sometimes. Cabaret gigs, though sometimes, it's lumped into the pay. Know what the gig is worth, understand how much extra time they expect from you and make sure the bottom line is right. I don't worried about being handed money transactionally after every session if the money for the package engagement is sufficient.

In jazz it tends to come up when "singers" (quotes intentional) want to form bands or play with existing bands. If you call them because you know they are a good singer and good to work with, that's one thing. If they are trying to become a singer and want their own band, the rehearsal is really for them, not for the musicians and sometimes they have to pay the musicians for rehearsal to make that happen.

I don't need to rehearse "Take The A Train" to play it live and neither does anyone else I play with. If the singer needs to rehearse it with us to sing it live so that she knows when to come in or so that we can tell her what key she is capable of singing it in, she's probably going to have to buy that time, unless she has a package of well paying gigs to guarantee us.

In my world, it's not common, but it's not unheard of.
 
#7
IME paid rehearsals are the most productive, by far. There's a certain focus you only get when rehearsal period is limited and time actually is money. The performers are certainly more motivated. Everyone has a pencil & makes notes and arrangement modifications get discussed once and only once. (No amateur group arranging - none of that @&#%$*!# where you spend 45 minutes going back and fourth over some nonsense no one's going to remember, the next time.)

Unfortunately, I don't encounter paid rehearsals very often - mostly for theater/pit shows, where pay is divvied equally between rehearsals and performances (they're both considered as a "call").

In my ideal band, funds would be set aside on high-paying jobs to cover rehearsal. That would solve a lot of things I have come to loathe about the typical unpaid rehearsals.
 
#11
Jefenator said:
IME paid rehearsals are the most productive, by far. There's a certain focus you only get when rehearsal period is limited and time actually is money. The performers are certainly more motivated. Everyone has a pencil & makes notes and arrangement modifications get discussed once and only once. (No amateur group arranging - none of that @&#%$*!# where you spend 45 minutes going back and fourth over some nonsense no one's going to remember, the next time.)

Unfortunately, I don't encounter paid rehearsals very often - mostly for theater/pit shows, where pay is divvied equally between rehearsals and performances (they're both considered as a "call").

In my ideal band, funds would be set aside on high-paying jobs to cover rehearsal. That would solve a lot of things I have come to loathe about the typical unpaid rehearsals.
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+ 1
IMHO Most amateur bands tend to need a lot of rehearsals. and during those rehearsals, a lot of time is wasted on non productive things. Pro players don't want to waste time, they have to get to or prepare for the next gig. If you want them to show up and be productive, you need to pay them for their time. Otherwise they may not take it seriously and look to make money elsewhere.
 

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