Timeline and Benchmarks for Training a Music Director
An eight-step training track that stacks skills one at a time — orientation, the MD checklist, audio routing, hand signals, MIDI controllers, and more. It's not eight literal weeks; raising up an MD is a months-to-years time investment.
How do you actually train this person? Mike lays out eight benchmarks to measure progress against. (He gives the full benchmark template away as a free gift — adapt it to your context.)
”Eight weeks” really means eight steps
These are eight lessons, not eight calendar weeks. The whole track can realistically take six months to a year. The principle is to keep stacking skills, each one building on the last:
- Step 1 — Orientation: hand them the handbook, introduce your track software.
- Step 2 — The MD checklist: setup and teardown, plus more time in Ableton Live.
- Step 3 — Audio routing in Ableton, and introduce the hand signals.
- Onward: MIDI controllers, deeper track-software skills, and so on — the track software and routing knowledge keep building the whole way through.
A prerequisite before anyone starts
Mike won’t put someone through this leadership track until they’ve been on the team at least six months. That window confirms the buy-in, the four qualities from the “who” lesson, and proficiency in the number system — the foundations the training assumes.
It’s a time investment worth making
This asks a lot of time from the MD and from you. But it’s a disciple-making opportunity — you pour into a person and end up with a capable teammate for years. And it’s a win even if they leave: you’ve built something in someone who now carries it to wherever they go next. A labor of love, and worth it in the end.
Application
- Sketch your own eight-step track, ordered so each skill builds on the previous one.
- Set your prerequisite (e.g., six months on the team) before anyone enters the track.