Pigeons ahoy!
We need your advice!
PeaceBang has received two identical requests in the past two weeks (unless it was one person writing twice) about where to clip one’s mic pack on the Sundays one is not robing.
My solution is always just to wear a blazer or something with a belt or pockets, but what if you want to wear a nice dress? Certainly one can’t hike one’s skirt and tuck the mic pack into one’s stocking top like Catherine Zeta Jones in “Chicago,” but it certainly would make for a memorable moment. Also memorable, but not in a good way: tucking the mic pack down one’s front. Don’t do that even if you’ve been blessed with ample enough cleavage.
In the theaters I work in we have these very glamorous contraptions made of Ace bandages and little cloth bags. The mic goes in the cloth baggie, the baggie goes on the Ace bandage with a little loop, and the whole works gets fastened around our waists under our costumes. It totally ruins the line of anything form fitting, but if you tuck it into the small of your back under your pantyhose, it’s not that bad. Of course if your mic goes out, you’ve got a whole wardrobe situation to deal with (I have “fond” memories of standing backstage with all my skirts up around my head while a technician feverishly works to replace the mic battery and get me all strapped back together before my next number).
So honestly, darlings, my imagination fails me here. I think you should simply choose church clothes that accommodate your technical equipment or take to tucking it under your wig. Someday mic pacs will be so tiny you’ll be able to wear them around your neck on a pretty chain and we’ll all laugh about how bulky they were once upon a time. Until then, I’m afraid I have no real solutions. Maybe your brothers and sisters here will offer some up.
Or maybe some of the designers who cater to our kind might think of taking the challenge: how about something like an armband with a pouch on it, sort of like the ones runners use for their iPods? Wait, should I be inventing this? Or how about a stole with a strong enough pouch for a mic pac in it? Wait, I should DEFINITELY be inventing these!
A mic pouch in the back of a stole? Fab idea!!
To do the mic pack on back of stole, you would probably have to counter-weight the other side of the stole so it doesn’t get all cock-eyed on you as the weight of the mic pack pulled down on only one side. Also, it would only work if your stole was one sided–a lot of stoles I have seen are reversible, so you have one stole that’s (say) red on one side and purple on the other, and another that’s blue on one side and green on the other, so you have two stoles instead of four.
If you are going the ace bandage route, you don’t even need the bag. Wrap the ace bandage securely around your waist, and then clip the mic pack to the bandage such that the mic pack is between your skin (or undergarments) and the ace bandage. There will be some bulge, but it creates a cleaner line and is more secure.
Perhaps a counter-balanced equipment stole to go under the read stole, so you don’t hurt the reversibility?
Nancy Beach has a whole chapter about this in one of her books and its a recurring subject of discussion among women preachers in the evangelical world. (I’m a baptist lay preacher, but our pastors don’t wear robes either). I have never seen a good solution – other than to wear a skirt or pants with a solid waist band that you can clip things too. My dh is the sound guy and I have threatened on more than one occasion to just stick the battery pack down the back of my knickers – but the potential for disaster feels too high.
The real solution is to have a mike on a stand – but then you have to stand a bit still. Swings and roundabouts.
Hello, unrelated to your post, but on BBC radio4 extra at the moment, “All Gas and Gaiters” is being re-run, and the current episode involves black bri-nylon shirts with white collars for clergy. I believe that you can access radio on the website from outside the UK. The radio programme was made in the early 70s, but was a radio version of an earlier TV programme, so probably 60s. I hope the bishop continued with his “properly starched linen collars”.
Mal
When this became a distracting problem for me, our church replaced the mic pack and clip-on mic with a wireless unit. All I have to wear is an earpiece. The battery pack with the on/off switch sits behind my ear, and there is a flexible wire with the microphone positioned in front that easily adjusts. It was under $200 and works great.
I’ve thought that some wonderful jewelry designer could come up with a beautiful cross necklace that doubles as a lavalier mic.
I have known people who’ve clipped it to the band of their bra…no idea how that works for turning it on and off, but I suppose if you have a sound person to do that it would be doable.
Susan, do you have a link to the type of mic you now have? I have a similar style, it sounds like, but it still has a battery pack I have to clip on…I’m trying to imagine how it works all in one piece. (and I might want one!!)
When I have this issue, I use a safety pin to attach the metal clip of the mic to the waistband of my tights or slip through my dress or skirt. If I pin it to the dress without going through to the next layer, it pulls the line of what I am wearing and does not look good. I am careful to place it where I can find the mute switch and it can be covered by my jacket or sweater. I find this one of the most daunting problems when I am choosing outfits to lead worship. Kind of ridiculous when I think of how much energy I need to spend on making sure the mic is functional and unobtrusive.
To clarify the above post ….I clip the mic pack to my slip, not the mic. That would be silly.
Susan, I also would be interested in where you got that mic. I am looking for a mic that would fit over my ear to replace the one that clips onto what I am wearing.
I served in a joint Lutheran/Episcopal church for 8 years where, at our contemporary service, we did not wear albs (or even stoles – much to the bishop’s consternation). Our mics were what we fondly called “Madonna mics” – the flexible over-the-ear ones. They had a battery pack with a wire. For my body type (pear-shaped, of varying sizes of pear), I favor dresses, not suits and almost never pants. I avoided anything too terribly form-fitting (see comment on “varying sizes of pear, above). To accommodate the battery pack, I wore a thin belt under my dress, and clipped the mic to that under my right breast shadow (because I’m right-handed), where there was usually some space that disguised MOST of the mic lump. I always wore a full slip, because belts are hot and sticky on bare skin. I also put a small auxiliary clip – like a name badge clip- on the main wire clip on the mic and clipped that 2nd clip to my belt as well. Why? because those mics were designed for guys with straight down lines, and, well, back to that pear thing again. With the auxiliary clip, the mic almost never worked itself up and over the belt. I fed the wire down under my collar and to the belt. I quickly learned the feel of the mic buttons and could turn it on and off unobtrusively.
Changing the batteries or the mic was simple enough – but I had to go into a side room to do it. Always have an exit strategy!
Like I said, I did this for 8 years, changing mic packs between services because we had two spaces with 2 different systems and 2 different pack styles and 2 different transmitters and so on and so on. It worked. I’ve gone to serve a different church with the same style mic, but I always wear an alb now, which makes it easier. I still put the pack on a belt, not in the “mic pocket”, because the weight pulling on the cloth makes me feel off balance.
The other pastor (a guy, but more of an apple shape) put the mic pack in the small of his back, on the outside of his clothes. No reason it couldn’t work underneath, though.
FWIW.
I generally use a stationary mic at the pulpit, it suits my style and size of congregation. In my setting we share leadership among three ministers, when we did experiment with a wireless mic, it was worn by whichever of us was preaching. I am just Victorian enough to be deeply uncomfortable sharing an item with two men that been strapped to my thigh, or otherwise worn in a relatively intimate way. I wore something with a waistband or a jacket.
yes another pro-vestments argument!
I have used a small fair trade over the shoulder bag to hold the mike pack when I have gone without robes while wearing a dress. It is one of those simple envelope sort of bags about the size of a passport holder that has a long enough strap that can either go over the shoulder or across the front. Because it is simple and beautiful and colorful it looks liturgical, i.e.not like a purse. This also gives me access to a pen, a 3×5 card for notes and tissue should the need arise.
Saying this makes me wonder if a passport bag worn under the clothing might be the solution.
Teri and another Teri, we bought the unit at our local music/audio store. I live in a small town, so this is probably something that can be obtained in any similar store. I’m sorry, I don’t remember the brand of the mic unit. But we just asked for a wireless, earpiece mic, and they know what we wanted. There is a small unit that plugs into both a power source and the main audio system, which charges the earpiece and broadcasts the signal. I’ll check on the make and model and repost.
One church I supplied simply tied a cord to the battery pack so that everyone wore it as a necklace. Worked fine.
The main mic I use for worship is stationary on the pulpit, so no worries there. We do have one portable mic and it’s a hand-held microphone. The reason behind purchasing this is that it can be handed around to people when we have more than one person participating in the service. No need to worry about clipping and unclipping battery packs. We also have a stand that we can use with it, which I do when I have weddings. When I do my interactive time with the congregation, I just use the hand held – it works well for us and our context. However, I have seen the “headband” ones with the battery pack on the band that could work for worship as well.
Sorry, just realized that I didn’t help provide any solutions… other than be thankful that it’s not a problem I need to deal with….oops 🙂
This is something I’ve struggled with since we started our new worship service 6 years ago. I just wear “church clothes” and a stole in there. I can’t tell you how many times I haven’t purchased a dress because I couldn’t figure out how to make the battery pack work. I’ve added pockets to some dresses. It has actually encouraged me to try to accessorize better with a belt or blazer with pockets. That’s a good thing. I do look forward to the rare days I don’t lead that service so I can wear the few dresses that don’t work with a mic.
My bigger problem is where to clip the actual mic. We have the little black one with the foam ball on the outside. My male colleague doesn’t get it. He just clips it to his tie. I have to deal with collar or cleavage or stole… And if it’s not centered then when I turn my head it goes in and out. I have been told I’m getting a “countryman” style mic (the flesh-toned kind that tapes to your cheek) but I haven’t seen it yet (been waiting 2 years).
I’m just glad to know I’m not alone.
Trustee minutes do include the purchase of the “Madonna Mic” for the pastor…LOL…works for me as I work through this dilemma.
This also points out the need for great caution when selecting (or designing) one’s main preaching robe. Way back in the last century, my ordaining congregation gave me a beautiful black academic robe with the velvet panels and crimson piping in the tradition of my school. $400 was quite a handsome sum for a little 50-member church (and a beginning pastor with student loans to repay), and I was deeply grateful. I should have made sure there were pockets. I should have made sure there were side seams into which one could have pockets added later. Oy.
I have the old fashioned mic that I need to turn on and off during the service. (It’s not a bad voice I have, but I don’t need to be on the mic when singing the hymns!) When wearing a dress, I clip it to the back of the neck of the dress. That way, I’m reasonably discrete when turning it on and off. It can go either inside of the dress or outside, and isn’t particularly noticeable unless someone’s looking at my back.
I just carry the darn thing around with me. I rest it on the pulpit when preaching, on the table when presiding over the elements. If it’s a wedding/funeral I make sure to wear a suit with pockets.
I ran into this problem in my internship congregation, where the mic pack has such a narrow clip that is would slip off the wasteband of my slacks everytime I sat down. There were 2 services where we wore albs, but mine simply had slits in the side so the pastor could reach into “his” pockets (small whine about so many clergy vestments made without thinking of the needs of women!). I tried clipping it on those slits but it would slip off and the clip was way too small to go over the cincture. I asked one of our quilters to put a pocket in my alb – she even put a loop in the pocket to securely clip the mic! My current congregation uses a Madonna style mic with a battery pack, so I had to snip a small hole in my pocket to thread the wire thru. I’m still stymied when I don’t wear an alb – most of my outfits don’t have pockets or belts and I don’t have a sound guy to turn the mic on and off for me, so wearing it in the back or under clothes is not an option. @Rev Dr Wil – you have given me an idea with your ‘necklace’ – maybe I could design a amulet style beaded necklace that the pack would fit into!
Teri and Teri, the system I use is the Samson AirLine Micro Earset Wireless System. Price has gone up some, but it’s worth it.
Another slightly off topic comment – as someone mentioned hand-held radio mikes. We discovered a totally unexpected benefit of investing in one of these. We started using it for congregational meetings, so that the recordings (for those who can’t be there) picked up comments and questions. The effect has been to make our meetings much calmer and more considered. Only one person can speak at a time, and there is a pause between speakers while the mike is passed along – which has the effect of giving people time to think before they speak. Also, as no-one needs to raise their voice just to be heard people tend to get less aggressive. Unexpected but beneficial and worth the outlay for us.
Hi,
long time reader, first comment: here in Sweden many hipster stores sell leather pouches with a leather string attached to it that the young and hip wear round their neck to hold their iPhones etc. Something to take a closer look at?
We have many more issues about where to clip the mic itself. (We are very casual, so it’s fairly rare that someone’s not wearing either pants or something with a pocket for the transmitter.) My advice is always to clip your mic as close to the center as possible – even if that means on the neck of a stretchy jersey top or sweater – rather than a blazer lapel, because of the sound problems created when the speaker turns her head.
If it’s in the budget, I recommend a Countryman wireless mic (mounted on an earwire – we refer to it as The Britney Spears.) We had TONS of trouble with our message speakers, and it has solved 99.99% of them.
Timely discussion, as I spent a good part of today looking for a few nice Sunday ensembles to wear this summer (we robe except for summer.) Actually found quite a few lovely (though sleeveless) dresses which would have worked, although NOT A ONE had pockets. I mostly wear very nice Ann Taylor pantsuits with different shells underneath. Would like more variety but just can’t find it. The skirts out now are mostly very short and tight or else super bright/striped/floral…
As 1 who sent in the email asking for help with the mic, I so appreciate your ideas and suggestions! At this point things are very temporary and investing in a robe is just in the budget. Plus there is no air conditioning in the sanctuary. The 1 hot day I experienced was enough, it’s way too hot to wear a jacket. Unless they want to view “watch the pastor faint”! The sound tech is a delightful gentleman and even a brief discussion of where to clip the mic if I was a dress was too much for him. So I’ve turned here and as always, you’ve been great! Thank you again
So I always clip the mike below my alb (being a good Anglican (Episcopalian cleric, I almost always wear one)… In the last one I had made, I had a button whole slit put in about two inches above my cleavage, and clip the mike there. Looks odd from “far away” likely, but it is terribly efficient.
So, I am way late to this party, but here is my new solution for the summer, when I don’t vest: http://www.target.com/p/merona-womens-plus-size-short-sleeve-ruffled-dress-blue-scuba/-/A-13962103 I got this dress in blue and also in a black / gray print. The pockets are deep enough for the mic, and you can clip it pretty easily to the front of the dress. It worked well on Sunday, although I felt a little lopsided with the mic in a pocket instead of clipped to my waistband. (I’m pretty sure it looked fine.) These dresses, with a brown faux wrap dress with a sturdy belt, will be my “Sunday dresses” for the summer. PB suggested such a thing last summer and I am going for it this year (well, times three).