Soundcheck always runs long. Always. Doesn’t matter if you’ve got 20 minutes or 2 hours, someone’s monitor mix isn’t right, someone’s guitar isn’t in tune, and the drummer wants “just a little more kick, just a touch” for the fourth time.
Here’s a trick that’s saved more of my sets than any piece of gear I own: before anyone plays a single note, I go around the stage and ask every single person one question, in this exact order.
“What do you need to hear, and what do you need to hear it over?”
Not “how’s your monitor.” Not “you good?” Those get you a shrug and a thumbs up that means nothing. This question forces a real answer, because it’s actually two questions stacked on top of each other, and most musicians have never had to articulate the second half out loud.
A vocalist doesn’t just need “more vocal.” They need their vocal loud enough to sit over the kick and snare specifically, because that’s the thing eating their pitch reference. A guitarist doesn’t need “more guitar,” they need enough guitar to hear their own timing against the click, because that’s what’s actually throwing them off.
Once you know the “over what,” you stop guessing. You stop doing the slow, awkward dance of pushing a fader up, getting a vague “a little more,” pushing it again, getting another vague “a little more,” until you’ve fed back three times and everyone’s annoyed.
Do this in order, stage left to stage right, before you run a single song. It takes maybe 30 seconds per person. On a five-person stage that’s two and a half minutes, and it will save you fifteen minutes of trial and error later, plus a much better first impression on anyone new sitting in with the team that day.
The bonus move: write the answers down. Not in your head — actually write them. “Drummer: needs vocal over kick.” “Bass: needs click over everything, doesn’t care about anything else.” Next time that same lineup plays, you already have your starting point before anyone steps on stage. Soundcheck goes from twenty minutes of guessing to five minutes of confirming.
It’s a small thing. It is not a small result.