alparrott
Diamond Member
Goes to show it's all about who you know! I have been off the gigging scene for most of a year as I work on finishing my Master's degree and deal with the pace of my day job. In the music business, disappearing for that long can be the death of you, so I've showed up at a blues jam here and there, sat in with a few people for one-off things on Saturday evenings... you know, just to keep my face and name out there. I also check in with my buddies at the music store and make it to other musicians' shows and events when I can.
One of these muso friends heard that a local theater producer was looking for a drummer for a local revival production of "The Rocky Horror Show". He called up the guy and recommended me, gave him a quick rundown of stuff I've done. The guy hired me over Facebook, in essence. I'll be doing the gig through August.
Odd that almost 25 years since I was going twice a weekend to yell at the screen at the Dream Theater in Monterey, I'm returning to this material, playing alongside session pros, in my new hometown. It's been a blast working through the score and dusting off my memories of this music.
Lessons that we can all take away from this:
1) Don't let your memory fade away if for some reason you are not able to play out. Stay minimally active in the scene, but make sure you are still doing the networking so that an opportunity doesn't slip by you.
2) Listen to just about every bit of music you can with an ear towards playing it someday. You never know.
3) I'm really glad I can read. Granted, there's no drum part in the score, but I'm grateful to be able to use the score to follow along and make my own notations. It's far easier than having to remember two hours of music on the fly!
Also, as far as I know, the musicians are not required to wear fishnets. Although if that changes, I'll be certain to put up pics.
One of these muso friends heard that a local theater producer was looking for a drummer for a local revival production of "The Rocky Horror Show". He called up the guy and recommended me, gave him a quick rundown of stuff I've done. The guy hired me over Facebook, in essence. I'll be doing the gig through August.
Odd that almost 25 years since I was going twice a weekend to yell at the screen at the Dream Theater in Monterey, I'm returning to this material, playing alongside session pros, in my new hometown. It's been a blast working through the score and dusting off my memories of this music.
Lessons that we can all take away from this:
1) Don't let your memory fade away if for some reason you are not able to play out. Stay minimally active in the scene, but make sure you are still doing the networking so that an opportunity doesn't slip by you.
2) Listen to just about every bit of music you can with an ear towards playing it someday. You never know.
3) I'm really glad I can read. Granted, there's no drum part in the score, but I'm grateful to be able to use the score to follow along and make my own notations. It's far easier than having to remember two hours of music on the fly!
Also, as far as I know, the musicians are not required to wear fishnets. Although if that changes, I'll be certain to put up pics.