A WEEKLY COLUMN ON MUSIC MINISTRY
This Week — On the Musician’s Dress and Bearing
The Best-Dressed in the House
A word to young musicians on dressing for the calling, not just the gig
By Robert Wright • Minister of Music, New Light Baptist Church
There was a time when the musician was the best-dressed person in the building — and not by accident. We went to the summer workshops and came home with the suits, the ties, the shoes, and the choir-leader robes that caught the light. The congregation looked for it. During a given service, the man or woman at the organ was, in many respects, more visible than the preacher — and we carried ourselves like we knew it.
Somewhere along the way, that standard relaxed. I see it in young musicians — and a few seasoned ones who ought to know better — sliding onto the bench in jeans and a T-shirt. To them it is a gig: you play, you collect, you leave. But the seat was never just a gig.
Even on my down days, I put on a dress shirt and slacks, and I am seldom without a tie. Not because the church watches the way it used to, but because I believe the position asks it of me. I am the minister of music, and I am the successor to a long line of well-dressed musicians who treated that bench like an office. I feel duty-bound to dress accordingly.
There is a scriptural case for it, too. When King Jehoshaphat sent his people out to battle, he appointed singers unto the Lord to praise “the beauty of holiness,” and he set them out front, before the army (2 Chronicles 20:21). The singers led — set apart, visible, and clothed for the beauty of the work they carried. So to the young player just starting out: put on a shirt and tie. Dress for the job. You are not background — you are, and have always been, one of the most visible people in the room. Look like it.
“Dress for the calling, not just the gig.”
THE CHOIR STAND PULPIT • By Robert Wright • Minister of Music, New Light Baptist Church
A reflection for the young musician
