KNOW. YOUR. MUSIC.
This cannot be stressed enough. Showing up not knowing your music is such a disrespectful act towards your staff and teammates. It might not seem like a big deal, but you PHYSICALLY perform differently when you don't have confidence in your music.
Understand there is a difference between not knowing your music and not being able to play it well. Many times if something seems too hard for a student, they won't practice it and will try to work it out in rehearsal.
BUT PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!
Even if you're not performing the music very well, you still need to know measure numbers, rehearsal markings, rhythms, dynamics, etc. Because when everyone at least KNOWS the music, you can get some real work done to fix it rather than learning the beats for the first time at rehearsal.
