The first rehearsal was the regular church band, getting ready for Sunday. I have to fire up the PA system - not a simple feat, given our system's capabilities, plus get the keybboard stack ready to play, etc.
The second rehearsal was for a band we've put together for an event happening next week, for a different church. What struck me was that to get ready for this rehearsal, I had to listen to 8 tunes on 5 cds, burn copies of the tunes we're learning, listen to the songs enough times to get the feel for them, create charts for everyone (transcribe the chord progressions by ear), and then lead the rehearsal.
That is a fairly significant skill set: technique on my instrument, ear training/theory to do the charts, director skills to keep the rehearsal moving... and then the technical aspects.
They never told me in music school that the music jobs all demand much more than just playing!
