As with any successful endeavor, once an instrumental program is well established, the challenge may be to maintain interest and prevent boredom, which can lead to burn-out. A certain amount of routine is necessary and desirable. It achieves a comfort level and saves time. A danger, however, is that a routine can become a rut. If you feel that your instrumentalists sense this to be the case, you might want to try one or more of the following ideas. Any one of them will probably involve others as well.

Unusual location. If the instrumentalists usually play from a rear balcony, occasionally change their position to the front of the nave, or to a side transept. Once in a while, if space permits, have them play in the narthex as people enter or leave the worship space. This is especially effective at Christmas and Easter. When weather permits, they might play outdoors as people enter or leave the church building. For echo effects, some people could play from an adjoining room or hallway.

Unusual events. Schedule the ensemble for a different service time or style from the one in which they usually play. Occasionally ask the group to play for parish events, such as rally days, mission fairs, new member recognition dinners, congregational meetings, youth functions, talent shows, etc. This idea can be extended to playing for community events, such as charity benefits, town meetings, Christmas tree lightings, Christmas shopping in shopping centers and malls, and so on. Playing for occasions such as these can identify your parish and your instrumental group as part of your community, and can bring your church to the attention of the general public.

Unusual literature. The unusual events already mentioned may provide their own unusual literature, including secular music. For a service on or near July 4, a religious/ patriotic selection may be appropriate if the service theme includes

thoughts of country. This autumn, during a blessing of the animals service in observance of St. Francis of Assisi, the Symphonic Winds of St. Martin's Lutheran Church in Austin, TX will play several selections from Saint-Saens' “Carnival of the Animals”—something they would usually not be able to play in a church service! If there are enough instrumentalists, you might try a double choir composition, placing the instrumental choirs in two different locations; or a piece with an “off-stage,” echo trumpet; or an antiphonal style duet with the players at opposite sides of the balcony or in opposite transepts.

Unusual rehearsal techniques. For their warm-up, your instrumentalists, given only the key and starting pitch, might be asked to play a familiar hymn tune without the aid of printed music. For another type of ear training, one person may be asked to play a random pitch, and another asked to try to duplicate it on the same or a different instrument. Relieve mental and physical fatigue by asking your instrumentalists to sing or whistle some of their parts. They may sing on an assigned syllable (such as “doo”), or they may sing the rhythmic count (such as 1, 2 &, 3 e & a, 1).

Finally, a variety of techniques that become somewhat usual can maintain interest. These could include background information and anecdotes about the music or the composers, explanations about the place of a particular composition in the service, instructional aids for certain problems (such as a difficult fingering or rhythmic figure), and the like. Keeping your musicians informed about parish activities (especially the ones that affect them), people needing special prayers, etc. illustrates their function as part of parish ministry, and at the same time makes them feel that as members of an instrumental group, they are "on the inside track." To keep your instrumentalists out of ruts, surprise them with the unusual, and intrigue them with variety!