REHEARSING WHILE HURT
If you are lucky, all you have scheduled are rehearsals while you are on the mend. If you play instruments, talk to other members of your group and see if they can work around your injuries and allow you to try working in ways that will allow you to play but not make your problem worse. Playing with dropped tunings and seeing how a slide guitar might sound is a great way to get around injured fingers, as is trying alternate fingerings for usual chords played. If you've hurt your legs, see if you can practice seated. If you are a non-instrument playing singer and have a sore throat, try working on your stage choreography, or see if you can talk the other musicians on trying a little songwriting to allow you to work on lyrics, instead, while your throat heals up. If you are a drummer, this might be a great time to try out those drum patches you've been working on, and seeing how well you can trigger them and cutting back on actual hits you have to make.
GIGS WHILE INJURED
Gigs are really tough to get as it is, so it is always best to try and play unless you absolutely can't. First, you might try rescheduling, but we all know that this might just get us labeled as flaky by that venue and not asked to return as well as have our gig cancelled. Many venues won't object if a band member has to play seated rather than standing up, though, if it is a leg or back problem that makes standing difficult. You might try changing your setlist to accommodate the injured band member, or even replacing them temporarily if all parties don't mind the switch for at least that one night, if not for other gigs until the injured party is back in good shape. You might also try doubling up that position, allowing the injured person to do what they can, with the backup person now having the much simpler task of just getting those bits the hurt member is unable to do, and not for the whole, and probably more difficult entire job to learn at short notice. If it is your singer, and their voice is intact, just try the seated route. If voices are strained, though, see if you can sneak by improvising by rapping out notes you can't hit, try pointing the mic at the audience to see if a fan can hit it, or see if another band member can hit the low or high unreachable thingy with their instrument or their voices-sometimes the comic relief more than makes up for the missing notes, and can become a new bit of your act.
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