Hi, Nan Beth!  I've done pretty much "all of the above," but you don't give enough information to make a decent estimate of time.

 

But to take things in order, first is arranging the music.  (Although you don't say whether you're talking about arranging from scratch, adding sweetening to existing instrumental parts, or actually composing new pieces!)  It would take me about one day or less to add instrumental parts to an existing arrangement, perhaps up to a week to start from scratch.  But that's going to depend entirely on how experienced your arranger is, how quick with copying or computer engraving, and how creative you want the music to be. 

 

If you want something brand new composed, the range of time can be much wider, from about a week if you ask someone who is used to working commercially up to a year for someone who has to agonize over every measure.  And it obviously depends on how busy the people are.  The same is true regardless of the capabilities of the players, although I would definitely keep that in mind before writing anything.  But you also say "finding" appropriate music, and I would assume that you would know before planning your program just which works have readily available music that can be purchased or rented.  And obviously this all depends as well on how many pieces you're talking about.

 

By "organizing rehearsals" I assume that you mean actually contacting and contracting your players, but that also depends.  If you have done this before and have people you regularly work with, it can be done pretty quickly.  If you have to beat the bushes, ask people for recommendations and wait for their answers, and then wait for people to get back to you it will obviously take longer.  I have my own "A list" of 1st and 2nd call people I will always call first, but sometimes I have to scramble to fill the last chairs.  If you're hiring professionals you might choose to ask one of them to handle the contracting, which normally involves additional payment.  (In a union contract the leader gets paid double, and the contractor gets an additional percentage of the total bill for doing all the paper work, but many producers feel that it's well worth the cost rather than spending their own time.)

 

Rehearsals:  Standard around here is one rehearsal with instrumentalists for a pickup gig, regardless of whether they are professional players or good community musicians.  Inexperienced players, including high school players, may need more than one.  And this assumes that you have the music in their hands 2 to 4 weeks in advance.  But from your description, you plan to have three completely DIFFERENT instrumental groups who never play together, so that complicates your actual rehearsal schedule.

 

But in any case, then one final dress rehearsal with your singers.  And I've played a good many gigs in which the instrumental rehearsal was called early before the choir's regular rehearsal time, so it was all done in one evening.  Again, a union contract with union musicians may call for very specific minimum rehearsal time with specified breaks.

 

I would have replied privately, but it's worth pointing out to others in your situation that it's hard to project timelines before the music itself has been selected and finalized in usable form.  And while you did not ask, it's also clear that commissioning either special arrangements or new works is going to be LOT more expensive, in most cases, than simply using published works, if you don't have the skills or the time to do it yourself.  And I say that as someone who has been writing special arrangements for quite a few years, and is always willing to consider a new project!!  There are some pretty talented people on this website.

All the best,

John

 I wouuld estimate that from past exeprience I woul;d estimate  depending on programme scheduleing  at least 1 hour per group but I normally work on a two hour slot per group to take in new music and polish the next piece to be used out and then keep other music fresh  

 

Thank you all so much!  And John, I probably didn't give enough information, but I was looking for the responses you would make initially before I do that.  The in depth responses of both John and Scott are quite helpful to me.  Let me tell you a bit more about what I am doing, for those of you who might want to respond based on that information.  It is hard to pull out the specific amount of time spent for various things, as I am certain that it is for most of you.  The council has a lot of business folks who don't really understand how all of this gets put together, and I am trying to find a way to give them the most helpful information.

 

My general prep for the season takes the greatest amount of time.  Our new pastor, now here about 18 months, is quite collegial and our planning time is more than it had been under other pastors, but greatly treasured.  For the two biggest seasons, Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter, we have an initial meeting of about four hours to discuss and make some global plans regarding the types of services, what sorts of music inclusion there will be, how the services will be structured, what additional art, dance, litugical pieces will be included.  Then the two of us go off to continue to develop our plans.  Our ideas inspire one another (I sooooooo love working with her!), and that propels me into more time to research, of course.

 

My part of things following the meeting includes selecting the hymns, gathering the musicians, both vocal and instrumental (definitely an ongoing process), and as my pastor designs her parts of the liturgy, I find music for the participating groups.  Like Scott, I create hymns for all of the instrumentalists, and my library of those is quite large, but I find that it takes me about 3 hours to prepare each hymn book (usually 8-12 hymns for these most festive services), checking the contents three times against the most recent versions of the bulletins, considering that I may not have parts for certain instruments for certain of the hymns (and therefore have to produce them), gathering the existing hymns from the files, refiling following the services (for some services I have binders of hymns that I leave "loaded" as there can be at least some overlap from year to year), adapting some parts to the particular instrumentalists playing them (for instance, some cellists prefer to have the alto parts written in the actual alto range, while others prefer the lower octave) or adapting the ranges for the particular group of instrumentalists that are playing that service.

 

The researching of appropriate music for the season and for the instruments is probably the hardest to allot, since I keep some open files on my computer, and as I am browsing, if I come upon a piece I would like to use with the choir or with instruments for an upcoming season, I keep notes of these.  I would say that I sepend about three hours per week in general in research, and when I am working specifically on a particular seaon the research for all things music is quite easily 8-10 hours per week.  But I may be trying to look at too many things.  I just always hope to make each season fresh with the musical content, while still including enough that is familiar, so that worship is as rich as possible.

 

Because I am working with volunteers, some who are professional, and some who are fairly new to their instruments, but eager to play, the contact time is fairly significant.  I can gather certain folks and get the rehearsal schedule to them sufficiently in a couple of pieces of email, but there are others for whom much conversation and frequent attempts to complete the contacts are required.  Some instrumentalists are concerned about the composition of their particular group and we have to spend some time talking about what works best for everyone.  Others are simply not quick to respond, or their response initially is maybe.  Some families do not make final plans about where they will be for Christmas holidays until fairly close to the date, and if they are in town, they want to participate msuically.  I try to be very flexible with that, but I do generally set a deadline of about two weeks before the service for the final answer, so that I can gather (or most often, arrange or compose) for the group as configured for that service.  I also email pdf files, and in some cases, audio files, of the music for the service to each instrumental participant as soon as possible, by the way.  With all of these things considered, I would say that contact per instrumentalist averages about 2-3 hours per event, with some of those taking a great deal of time, and others being fairly minimal in the needed contact time.

 

Rehearsal times.  For events like Lessons and Carols services, I set aside rehearsal spaces, load them with the chairs, stands and music, and usually allot 30-45 minutes for their rehearsals.  They are mostly self-directed, but I try to get to everyone to hear a run-through prior to each service, and if a group needs me to conduct, I will do so.  Since I am also rehearsing the choir and handbells prior to these services, there is only a little bit of me involved in the instrumental rehearsals.  For our larger pieces for services, such as Messiah, I set aside a three-hour rehearsal time, with a break, and usually the isntruments are there for the entire time, while the choir often leaves after an hour and a half.  In that last part of rehearsal, we work on intonation issues, bowing changes, and the parts of the services that are for instruments only, as well as playing through one verse and the introductions to all of the hymns.

 

We do very little hiring of instrumentalists, and when we do it is usually to bolster up the violins or to add a viola (our former pastor was a violist and always played for these larger works and sometimes played for the smaller works).  I have been fortunate to have the same folks for well over a decade, now, so they fit in quite well with the rest of our forces.  We spend about $800 total per year for these few parts, for our biggest works that are a part of a large msuic service in Advent and Lent.  Like Scott, my orchestra has some semi-professional and even a few professional folks who play for free for us, thankfully.

 

My arranging and composing are tasks that I keep separate from what my assigned work is, in that nobody has ever asked me to do this, and I want to keep the intellectual property rights crystal clear.  The church did not pay for the computers I use, the softwars I use, the keyboards I use to input music, and the time taken (rather enormous, of course) is from my own time outside the work I do for the church.  I do include the publishing of scores as part of my work for the church, but not the actual creative process.  Since I do nearly all of the small group arrangements (our music budget is $100 annually for sheet msuic, and by the time I know who is participating, it is far too late to research and find already composed arrangements), that is probably in the ballpark of 10-15 hours per arrangment/composition per group.  The publishing of scores is another 1-2 hours per piece, usually, unless there is a lot required in terms of articulations, phrasings, bowings, and dynamics, or if there is a greater need for editing.  I have usually had to turn in titles to the pastor and the administrative assistant before I know the composition of all of hte participating groups.  This is certainly a good creative challenge each time.

 

Bottom line, for me, I think I spend about 10 hours per instrumentalist per service in which they participate (not including the arranging/composing).  I am wondering if I am way off in what it takes.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your responses thus far and for any future responses!

 

Nan

 

 

 

 

Nan Beth

 

I think you are on the right track in speaking with the business people with something like an axiom such as "1 instrumentalist = 10 hours of time".  In my experience that is speaking thier language.  However, as you probably know, they may challenge you and you'll need to be prepared to show your calculations. To do that fairly you should only be counting the time spent above and beyond that which you'd normally spend researching and selecting hymns and developing the service.  

 

For comparisons sake, if this is helpful to you, I've been given an entire day once a week for research, design and development of worship services.  That doesn't mean I can afford the time and that I am always able to take it--but it is, at least, an acknowledgement of what it takes and what they want me to spend my time doing.

 

As far as calculations go, taking one of my examples from my previous post, the trombone choir, adds up to about 14 hours when they play, not including time in the service.  Divided by 10 players that is only 1.4 hours per player so comparitively 10 hours per player seems to be excessive, comparitively anyway.  But it is what it is in each of our situations.  

 

It sounds like you may have two issues: one is to convincingly communicate the amount of time it takes to bring instrumentalists into the service, the other is the value it brings.

 

They (or some of them) may also conclude that the cost is not worth the benefit.  That is where the real debate begins and the discussion turns to theology and philosphy of worship, music and ministry, which is in your favor, and to which I would think your senior pastor would add her support.  

 

You may also consider other associations, such as hours per hymn with instrumentalists (e.g. with the average number of instrumentalist you may use on any given Sunday) or hours per service (i.e. one service that is designed and, uh, executed). Taking the trombone choir again, they play three hymns and one to two solo pieces in a service, so, 14 hours divided by 4 pieces = 3.5 hours per piece, or simply stated 14 hours per designed and prepared service.  

 

But I've found that, for the business people especially "the lower the cost the greater the benefit" so dividing the cost by beneficiaries, that is those attending worship, has been most successful for me.  For example, a Christmas Eve orchestra that costs $15K and ministers to 3000 people in worship costs $5.00 per person, not much more than what people here in Seattle spend walking into a Starbucks.       

 

I admire what you are doing with the incredibly limited financial resources you've been given.  They have an incredible gift in you and the ministry you are bringing to them. 

 

Best wishes,

 

Scott