I’ve noticed a few incidents over the past several weeks that have a single cause. From missed rehearsals to delayed gigs to unorganized events, they all had one thing as the cause – unclear expectations.

The most egregious of these problems is an uncertainty with time. When you announce a time, make sure that you also announce the details with the time. For example, don’t say that an event will start at 5 and then open the doors at 6. Or, even worse, announce that a band will start at 5 and then push them back to 9.

For many in the music business, when a time is set it means the activity will begin at that time. Whether it’s an interview, business meeting, lunch, or a gig, the announced time translates to “This event will start at time X.” So, as a consequence, most people get to the venue early. In the corporate business world, this is fairly standard practice. When it comes to gigs or rehearsals, well, not so much.

In one situation from my past, all the band members were trying to get to rehearsal as soon as possible after their day jobs. We wanted to fit in as much practice time as possible into our schedule. Unfortunatley, one of the members was consistently running late from work, which left most of us sitting around twiddling our thumbs. Things only escalated from there. Once the pattern started, the other guys would delay their arrival because they knew we weren’t starting on time. It created a vicious circle. We finally fixed the situation, but not after lots of frustration and missed practice time.

My philosophy is this – If you can show up 5 minutes before the gig, plug-in and go, then more power to you. If it takes you longer to set up, then you need to show up sooner.

If you are running into that problem, here’s how to handle it. State the time and include the detailed action. Be specific. Don’t say, “We’ll meet at 6.30.” Say, We’re going to meet at 6.30 to setup and start playing at 7.” Or, “We are meeting at 8 to load up the van and leaving at 9.” Be fair, but be clear. Usually that solves the issue.

There can be other issues with this method, but it helps 90% of the problems. If you’re in a situation in which you are consisitently juggling lateness and missed rehearsals, then you’ll find being specific about the time and the actions will create an instant improvement.