How to Encourage a Bandmate to Practice More?

Recently, I was browsing The Gear Page and stumbled across an interesting thread. The user was asking how one should go about asking their bandmate to get better at their instrument. I thought it was an interesting question and one that is especially relevant in a worship team context. After all, most of us are unpaid volunteers who are already offering what little spare time we can muster. So... how would I go about doing this? 

Evaluate Your Culture.

I think one of the most important elements, when you are thinking about leading a team, is 'culture'. Your team's culture defines a lot of the most important factors in how your team operates. Does your team have a high-performing, highly motivated culture? Or does your team's culture encourage the bare minimum? Your culture is what is going to define acceptable behaviors among your team. It's going to define what's normal and abnormal. It's the driving force behind the expectations that are placed on the band members.

If your culture does not encourage practice, then a conversation encouraging another bandmate to practice more is going to feel foreign and out of place. The first step in this process is to sit down and evaluate where your culture is, and where you want it to go. 

At our church, we try to foster a culture of excellence, but we try and bring it down to a more specific goal of "being a little bit better than we were the week before". Some ways that we try and accomplish this are that we regularly have conversations centered on improvement. Bandmembers are going back through our live streams and looking for areas to improve. Our band practices are devoted to making sure that we are playing the music cleanly. This is coupled with a lot of encouragement, a lot of recognition and praise for fellow members, and a lot of fun. But there's an understanding that we are trying to play to the best of our ability. In our context, a conversation around encouraging each other to practice more is a pretty regular occurrence.

Set the Standard Yourself.

There have been seasons of my life where I've wanted to encourage a bandmate to devote some more time to practice. However, when I took a step back and evaluated myself, I found that I wasn't making the time myself to practice. When you're thinking about asking a bandmate to devote more time and more practice, a critical step is to check yourself and make sure that you're not asking for something that you either aren't doing or haven't done.

I understand that there are seasons in a musician's life where more practice is required. However, if you are the worship leader, you are the standard. It rests on your shoulders to set an example for what personal practice looks like. And if you aren't the band leader, set the example for your team.

Be Specific.

I think there's a good chance that this is an important component anytime you are giving a critique. When you come to a bandmate with criticism, I would encourage you to be as specific as possible. If there are multiple areas where you see that there needs to be growth, focus on the most important area and address the others at a (much) later time. When you're specific in your criticism, it makes it easier for the criticism to be digested, because it's not a boundless critique.

Another suggestion would be to have resources or ideas for improving that specific area readily available for your teammate. If they are struggling with pitch or timing, try and think about how you practiced those areas. Look for resources online that you can provide them. Strive to be a part of their solution before you even bring up the criticism.

Build Trust. 

The final piece of all this is to evaluate your relationship with your bandmate. If you are in conflict, work on building trust and relational bandwidth before you bring up your criticism. The goal is to be helpful and encourage your teammate to improve. It's not to further add strife to an already-deteriorating relationship. 

This might seem like something that is relatively insignificant. But I would argue that your relational health with your bandmates is one of the most important things that we foster and grow as worship leaders. The way we interact with each other is, hands down, the most tangible expression of our faith. When you bring criticism, remember that. Remember that it's a 'we' problem, not a 'you' problem. Emphasize unity. I'm extremely confident that the Lord is more pleased with a band where the members love and honor each other, rather than a technically perfect worship set.