Utilizing a Music Director

Backing tracks help a band stay tight because they provide two things: a click to lock the timing, and guide cues — the little voice saying “chorus, two, three, four.” But long before tracks were popular, a music director (MD) did the same job, speaking into a mic only the band could hear in their in-ears and guiding everyone through the tricky spots. Even though Alex’s church runs tracks on about half their songs, they still use an MD to keep everyone on the same page and catch the passing chords and transitions people forget.

If you use in-ear monitors at your church, I would highly, highly encourage you to train up a music director.

It can be a volunteer or a part-time staff member. Here are six keys to doing it well.

1. Accomplish it technically

You can’t run an MD without the right setup:

• In-ear monitors are required. You can’t pump the MD’s “go to the four chord” out of floor wedges — it’d be awkward, obvious, and distracting for the church. No in-ears means no MD yet.
• An extra console channel routed to the in-ears.
• A microphone for the MD.
• A gate, ideally. An OptoGate plugs into the back of the mic and uses a laser to open only when someone steps up to speak — keeping out stage noise and drum bleed. If you can’t get one, just keep the MD mic away from the drums so bleed doesn’t ruin your mix.

2. Find the right person

You want someone genuinely musical — usually a bass player or keyboard player (as long as the keys parts aren’t too technical). Avoid the electric guitarist: lead lines, pedals, and footwork are already overwhelming, and asking them to also reach the mic in time and talk while playing is too much. A rhythm/second-acoustic player can work too. If someone struggles with their own part, they won’t have the bandwidth for this.

3. Teach them the proper mindset

There are three things an MD must understand about the role:

• Be one step ahead at all times. Stay hyper-focused and hyper-in-tune with the worship leader, anticipating trouble spots and which musician is about to forget something. The MD can’t be absorbed in their own part — which is exactly why it has to be a musical person who doesn’t have to think hard about their own instrument.
• Know everybody’s parts. Not how to play each part, but what’s supposed to be there — the key elements of the arrangement — so they notice when something’s missing (“isn’t there a keyboard line there?”). That means dedicating extra study time to learn the essence of everyone’s parts, structure, and dynamics, not just their own.
• Stay cool and calm under pressure. When the band falls off the click, the computer dies, or someone’s in-ears cut out, the MD is the one who steers the ship — making split-second calls about what’s best for the worship leader, the band, and the congregation, and communicating it instantly so everyone stays together.

4. Decide on the lingo

Pick one set of words everyone uses every time — otherwise one MD says “intro” and another says “turnaround” for the same thing and the band gets confused. Define your vocabulary: is it break or rest? Instrumental or riff? Down chorus or bring it down? At Alex’s church, for example: “break” = a rest, “sub drop” = the synth/sub coming in, “riff” = a short catchy hook, “instrumental” = a longer mid-song solo section. Then say the action plus the count — “sub on four,” “break on three.”

5. Teach proper timing

When you say something is as important as what you say. Call it early enough that the band doesn’t scramble or panic — but not so early they get confused about what you mean (“we’re going to the G now?” “No — in eight bars”). Finding that sweet spot is a skill worth coaching directly.

6. Over-communicate

If you’re going to err, err toward saying more, not less.

It’s better to over-communicate than to under-communicate. Remind people of anything they might possibly forget.

Better to say “bridge, two, three, four” than to hope everyone remembers to go to the bridge. Call out the easily-missed entrances — “bass and shaker” on a down chorus, “kill the click” when someone’s praying at the end, “start the next song.” If you think the bassist might forget the passing chord or the keys player the intro line — say it.

How it works in practice

At Alex’s church, the worship leader gives all the directions on the first run-through of rehearsal — “sub drop on four, break on three, drums come in, shaker.” The music director listens, remembers, and then parrots those same calls on the second full run-through and again live during the service (when the worship leader can’t). You can watch this in action in the live examples linked above.

If you have the in-ears to make it possible, adding a music director will give you a tighter, more together team.

Application

• Do you have the technical pieces — in-ears, a spare channel, a mic (and ideally a gate)? If not, which gap do you close first?
• Who on your roster is musical enough, with enough bandwidth on their own instrument, to be a great MD — your bassist or a keys player?
• Write your lingo sheet: one agreed word for each cue (break, sub drop, instrumental, down chorus, ending…) so every MD and player speaks the same language.
• This week, practice the worship-leader-then-MD pattern: you call everything on run-through one, and have your trainee parrot it on run-through two.