Who Should Be the Music Director?
Four qualities to look for in an MD — and notice that being your most talented musician isn't one of them. Core values, prepared and early, influence with the team, and (last) musical excellence.
Up front: your MD does not have to be your most talented musician. At Bloom, the most talented person on the platform is not an MD. Here’s what actually matters, in order.
1. Exemplifies your core values
Whatever your team or church values are, your MD must live them out. Without that alignment you’ll never get full buy-in from the team. This is first for a reason.
2. Prepared and early
Notice it’s not “on time” — it’s early, and prepared (parts learned cold). If the person you put in charge is always late, it quietly tells everyone else that late is fine. These first two qualities are the most important things to look for.
3. Influence with the team
Will this person build real relationships? Are they aware of people’s personal journeys and what’s going on in their lives? The MD is primarily responsible for understanding and supporting the people they lead — notice we haven’t even reached the musical part yet.
4. Musical excellence
Last, and intentionally so. Are they exceptional enough on their instrument, and able to learn other people’s parts, to inspire confidence and set a higher standard? Without it the band’s performance suffers — but it ranks below the other three.
The good news: musical excellence and the “producer’s ear” can be trained. Sit down in your track software, solo the individual parts, and show them how a song breaks into sections and arrangements. (This even helps vocalists who’ve never grasped verses, choruses, and bridges.) What you can’t manufacture is the desire to be an MD — look for someone who actually wants it.
If you don’t have defined team values yet, our Team Building course walks you through crafting them (plus a done-for-you onboarding documents template), and the Musical Excellence course is great material for training arrangement skills into your MD.
Application
- Name one person on your team strong in qualities 1–3, even if their musical excellence still needs developing.
- How could you train the “producer’s ear” — soloing multitracks, walking through song sections — with that person?