5 Tips on How to Become an Effective Music Director at your Church

Jun 12

Written by Steve Lensink
GMA Producer of the Year 2019
Music Director for Brooke Nicholls

I’ve been Music Directing in a lot of different scenarios over the last five years. My wife Brooke is a Worship Leader and Songwriter who travels across Canada leading at around 100 different church services/conferences/events a year in addition to leading at our home church about 20 Sundays a year. In all those scenarios, I act as her Music Director (she might use the term ‘micro-manager’… potayto, potahto). Both at our home church and in the hundreds of different scenarios we’ve been in over the years, the biggest game changer I’ve noticed across the board when it comes to the quality of musical worship is the use of a Music Director; yes - even more than the quality of individual players.

Music Directors (we’ll use “MD” for short for the rest of this) look different in lots of different settings, but for the sake of common language, we’ll say that an MD is one member of the band who’s responsible for guiding the musical performance. In some settings, that’s just guiding the band through rehearsal(s), but in a lot of modern contexts bands are using a live MD, where that band member is communicating with the rest of the band during the set, either with a dedicated microphone in the band’s in-ears, or with hand signals.

The first time I ever MD’ed, my wife was guest leading at a church years ago and their Worship Pastor asked if I would MD the band. I didn’t know he meant talking to the band throughout the set. Needless to say, I had no idea what I was doing and it was a complete trainwreck.

Since then, I’ve learned a lot about MD’ing. When Brooke and I travel we often play with local church bands and people that we’ve never played with before. While the quality of the musicians is important, it matters a whole lot less because of what I’m able to do as an MD.

Here’s a few tips I’ve learned about MD’ing (mostly through mistakes) over the last few years:

Know Your Role

The Music Director is a crucial role in the band and it can really take the quality of music to the next level, but the MD has to understand where they fit in the big picture. While the MD is leading the band and has authority to give instruction, it’s vital to remember that they’re still serving the direction given by the Worship Leader. In lots of ways, the MD is a translator, responsible for understanding the Worship Leader’s vision and direction and helping the band achieve that.

I’ve been in lots of situations, especially when everyone is a volunteer, where there’s disagreement between the Worship Leader and the MD about where a song should go, or what needs to happen, etc. It’s so crucial for us to remember that the Worship Leader has the spiritual responsibility (and authority!) to set the tone and direction for the music, and the MD is responsible for executing that vision.

2. Know Your Instrument, Songs & Arrangements

The essence of MD’ing is multitasking - you’re playing an instrument while also listening to the band and keeping them on the right track and thinking about where we’re going next. If you haven’t got a good handle on your instrument, your attention is going to be constantly divided between thinking about what you’re playing and what you need to do as MD. Your instrument has to be second nature, so that you can put your playing on autopilot while you perform your MD duties. (Side Note: one of the biggest things that helped me make my playing second nature was the Nashville Number System. That’s a whole other conversation, but I highly recommend getting familiar with it - it will change your musical brain!)

It’s also crucial to know your songs and arrangements. One of the beautiful things about using an MD in a band setting is that it takes the pressure off the rest of the band to memorize every arrangement. If the MD knows the flow and dynamics, they can cue and remind band members what’s coming next so the band can relax and just worship. This only works though if you as the MD know your songs and arrangement cold. This is especially true if you’re using tracks and are more married to a specific arrangement. Too many times I’ve gone into situations where we’re playing an older song or doing a different arrangement and we’ve really tanked it because I wasn’t as prepared as I should have been. (Like when you pull out Forever by Kari Jobe annually at Easter and you can’t remember where that 2m chord is supposed to go in the bridge. Every. Single. Year.)

3. Know Your Worship Leader(s)

Like all good bands, the more you play together, the tighter you become. This is especially true of the Worship Leader & MD relationship. If you haven’t been playing together long, make sure you spend time getting to know your Worship Leader and understanding their vision for the songs & set. Fortunately for me, the Worship Leader that I MD for the most is my wife, so we’ve become pretty familiar with each over the last 5 years and 400+ worship sets together (there’s lots of other interesting relational dynamics there, but that’s probably a whole other blog post).

4. Keep It Light

The bulk of the MD’s responsibility is technical; they’re counting everyone into songs, reminding the band which sections are coming next, guiding dynamics, and correcting mistakes. At our church we use common language between all of our MDs to call out song sections; these will be obvious, but things like ‘verse’, ‘chorus’, ‘bridge’, etc. We also use common language to direct dynamics; things like ‘breakdown’, ‘pick it up’ or ‘build’, ‘drums & vocals only’ (obviously my personal favorite). While all these technical things are really important, it’s easy for MD’ing to become robotic or to create a sterile environment. One of the most valuable things I’ve learned in fostering a good atmosphere for worship within the band is to keep my MD’ing light. A well-placed joke in the band’s ears as the countdown video is running, or an encouraging quip to the drummer after a great fill can make worlds of difference in the band’s morale. Most importantly, when the band is on stage having a good time, that translates to the congregation.

5. Keep Your Eyes Open

This is maybe the most important one, and the one that I’ve been working on the most lately. The essence of our musical worship is encounter with the Spirit of the Living God and often that requires deviating from our best laid plans. That’s why, as the MD, I have to keep my eyes open, both for what my Worship Leader is doing and for what’s happening in the room. It doesn’t matter what we planned to do, if we need to stay in a section or repeat something because it’s connecting, we have to pay attention to that. Keep your eyes open!

That’s been the biggest shift in the worship department in our church in the last year or so. We spent a long time perfecting the whole in-ears/MD/click/tracks setup and got into a place where we were really dialed in and tight, but the shift we’re feeling now is towards more freedom in our worship. We’re still using those technical tools like click & tracks, but we’re figuring out ways to be flexible with them so we can adjust on the fly as we need to. For that to happen, our MD’s have to be paying attention to what’s happening in the room. I can’t tell you the number of times in the last couple of years that we’ve bailed on tracks completely because we needed to do something different in a given moment, and those are actually the most meaningful moments of worship, but they wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t paying attention.

I hope that’s helpful. Introducing the role of the MD has been a game changer in our home church, not just in the quality of our worship, but in the ability to facilitate the best possible atmosphere for worship.

Written by Steve Lensink
Toronto, Canada