When I’m jamming with lots of musicians, I often ask myself how I can enhance the sound by not playing. That sounds counter intuitive I know. One of my lecturers at College used to make us set up our instruments and just stand there for 45 mins while everyone else played. It was his little way of getting me used to being in a band and not playing. And here’s why – because making an impact with your vocal part, or guitar line, or drum groove is as much about the space you leave around it as it is about the line itself. If you want impact with your bass part, an absence of bass will provide just the fanfare you need to come in with impact. If you want to have vocal impact in your chorus, less vocals in the verse is essential. If you want to enhance a groove, it may be that starting without drums creates more impact later by being quiet now.

Another question to ask is “how does me being silent enhance other elements of the music?”
I may play electric through the intro then pull out of the verses to create space for the bass, drums and acoustic to showcase those parts. Then we subtly re-introduce it in the pre-chorus. This helps with dynamics, highlights the other instruments by your silence, and creates a new opportunity to highlight the electric part again later on.

So maybe part of your rehearsal time needs to be committed to teaching yourself not to play?