Drumming Professionally

What type of music do you want to play? That will have a great bearing on the road you need to follow. Until you determine that answer, you might just be pissing up a rope.
 
Play as much as you can, anyplace you can. And charge for your services!! Don't do anything for free...

Nick - if you actually launched your career follow that last bit of advice - you will be the first I've ever heard of. :)

My take on this - The Three Rules

Three things can happen when you play out -

1. You make money

2. You play some music that's challenging, worthwhile to your growth as a player, or because it's truly important/enjoyable to you.

3. You'll be getting the opportunity to meet, and expose to your playing, people/players that can helpful to furthering your career.

Put simpler -

1. Money
2. Art
3. Networking

When starting out, try to make every time you venture out to play meet one of the rules.

As your schedule fills up (and this can awhile), start going for two at a time.

IMO it is impossible to do this long term without feeding all three of these.

And an important hint - starting out #1 is by far the least important.

David
 
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What type of music do you want to play? That will have a great bearing on the road you need to follow. Until you determine that answer, you might just be pissing up a rope.

Maybe, but too narrow a focus leaves out the possibility of all the opportunities that may arise outside that focus.


And desire and focus is far less a problem here than finding opportunities to pursue. More so than ever, professional drumming is not a landscape plentiful with low hanging fruit just ripe for the picking. It is one much more associated with the need to pursuing every lead and scraping together every last bit of work one can find in order to make ends meet. So it can make a lot of sense to be able and willing to cast a pretty wide net.

Plus - unless one plans on a career to only last a few years - focus too narrowly on that which is currently popular can find one even more likely unemployed 5-10 years later.

David
 
Nick - if you actually launched your career follow that last bit of advice - you will be the first I've ever heard of. :)

My take on this - The Three Rules

Three things can happen when you play out -

1. You make money

2. You play some music that's challenging, worthwhile to your growth as a player, or because it's truly important/enjoyable to you.

3. You'll be getting the opportunity to meet, and expose to your playing, people/players that can helpful to furthering your career.

Put simpler -

1. Money
2. Art
3. Networking

When starting out, try to make every time you venture out to play meet one of the rules.

As your schedule fills up (and this can awhile), start going for two at a time.

IMO it is impossible to do this long term without feeding all three of these.

And an important hint - starting out #1 is by far the least important.

David

Unless playing music is your source of income.

Mike

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I've never known a single player starting out whose primary source of income was from being a player. I think I was really clear that everything I wrote above was aimed at someone... starting out.

IMO nobody - starting out - has the contacts or experience necessary to build a sustainable career in playing without investing in a lot "playing networking". And as the new guy that nobody knows with zero track record this is going to entail lots (and I mean lots) of playing for no or low play.

Of course, I'm not talking about doing tons of real gigs for free here - that would be a moot point as starting out there will be no "real gigs", until other players know who you are, have experienced your playing and are willing to recommend you or vouch for you. So that means going to many rehearsals, jams, gigs that pay $50 with 15 free rehearsals attached to them, bands that rehearse and never do land a gig, auditions - just lots and lots of stuff that will hardly pay a dime, yet cost time, gas, wear and tear on gear, etc. Yet it is the cornerstone of musical career building. Without such exposure - what's left... cold call auditions? Where the guy nobody's ever heard, with no track, with nobody vouching for him hardly ever gets the gig?

When there's no work, no calls - which is the status quo for someone starting out - then you get out there and play with people, show people what you can do, make some musical friends, plant as many seeds with as many players as you can get to play with you. Do that enough. And do it well enough. And those seeds will grow into gigs. Plant no seeds... well you see where this analogy is going. :)

So it really doesn't matter how much one wants or needs music to be the source of their income or believes it should be, or thinks its just a matter of deciding or demanding that it be that way - without a large amount of investment in networking, getting exposure, and making contacts, it ain't gonna happen.

David
 
So it really doesn't matter how much one wants or needs music to be the source of their income or believes it should be, or thinks its just a matter of deciding or demanding that it be that way - without a large amount of investment in networking, getting exposure, and making contacts, it ain't gonna happen.

David

Definitely agree with you on this point. However, the argument you martialed was aimed at putting art before income. Art versus income will always be inversely proportional and I can name several well-known drummers who did put income before art and are now able to pretty much take the projects that they want - Gregg Bissonette for one. He went for the DLR gig and it pretty much gave him the opportunity to showcase that he was for real! And even that album, as trite as some people think of it kicks butt musically.

Kenny Aronoff is another as well as Terry Bozzio (Missing Persons) and Vinnie Colauita (Sting). Steve Smith is yet another - did he have any success after Journey. Sure, but it was the playing in Journey which gave him the finances to go on after Journey and let the drumming world know that he didn't need Journey. What a great place to be!

So my point is, that by being the so-called sell-out, these guys did very well for themselves and did indeed, eventually get to create art down the road. So many musicians don't get this - when you are starting out, you generally do have to make compromises until you get a reputation established as being easy to work with and pliable enough to do it someone's else's way.

Case in point - the song "She's Too Good For Me" by Sting on the Ten Summoners' Tales disc. Vinnie said that the way the band initially played this song was far different than what was to become that song. The band played in a fusion style and the producer said no. The song was to be a rockabily style. Did Vinnie get pissed off and say "Well, I didn't get to throw in all of my Gospel/R&B chops and put my "I'm try to sound like Carter Beauford" stamp on it?

No.

He handled it like a professional and completed the project, went on tour with Sting and eventually had the finances to put out his very own material, one which Sting also played!


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
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Definitely agree with you on this point. However, the argument you martialed was aimed at putting art before income. Art versus income will always be inversely proportional and I can name several well-known drummers who did put income before art and are now able to pretty much take the projects that they want - Gregg Bissonette for one. He went for the DLR gig and it pretty much gave him the opportunity to showcase that he was for real! And even that album, as trite as some people think of it kicks butt musically.

Kenny Aronoff is another as well as Terry Bozzio (Missing Persons) and Vinnie Colauita (Sting). Steve Smith is yet another - did he have any success after Journey. Sure, but it was the playing in Journey which gave him the finances to go on after Journey and let the drumming world know that he didn't need Journey. What a great place to be!

So my point is, that by being the so-called sell-out, these guys did very well for themselves and did indeed, eventually get to create art down the road. So many musicians don't get this - when you are starting out, you generally do have to make compromises until you get a reputation established as being easy to work with and pliable enough to do it someone's else's way.

Case in point - the song "She's Too Good For Me" by Sting on the Ten Summoners' Tales disc. Vinnie said that the way the band initially played this song was far different than what was to become that song. The band played in a fusion style and the producer said no. The song was to be a rockabily style. Did Vinnie get pissed off and say "Well, I didn't get to throw in all of my Gospel/R&B chops and put my "I'm try to sound like Carter Beauford" stamp on it?

No.

He handled it like a professional and completed the project, went on tour with Sting and eventually had the finances to put out his very own material, one which Sting also played!


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com
http://www.patentcoachmike.com
http://www.youtube.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.myspace.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.facebook.com/mike.mccraw
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemccraw
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Mike -

But Mike, you took the short form version of #2 on my list of three things - "Art" - instead of the full version written above it, which was -

"#2 - You play some music that's challenging, worthwhile to your growth as a player, or because it's truly important/enjoyable to you."

Plus you seem to be saying that ART equals Fusion, jazz, busy-chops-type-music - and not pop, country, ballads, etc. which is not what I'm saying at all. When I wrote "music that's challenging and worthwhile to your playing" - I meant any and all music, styles and genres that fits that description, for each particular player.

My point was that going out to play purely for the sake of your musical growth and experience is an important and worthwhile endeavor regardless of whether it pays money or not. And I would say "particularly when you're starting out", but honestly I've found it to be pretty important throughout my career.

But starting out - it is essential - as I spoke to in my last post. If the best blues guys in town get together on Sunday nights to blow and they need a drummer, any drummer starting out that was free on that Sunday would be a fool to hesitate about showing up for that simply because it was a "freebie". That's what I mean by going out to work on the "Art". I'm talking about going out to work on, gain experience at and get better at the Art of Drumming... and I mean the Art of Drumming as a whole.

So no, my point wasn't that Money vs. Art is the equivalent of commercial vs. non-commercial. Not at all. And it certainly has nothing to do with what constitutes being a sell out. Which quite honestly is a concept I've never subscribed to in any way, shape or form.

I simply don't subscribe to the notion that Art = Non-commercial. Or vice versa.

Anyway, I hope that explains things better. Sorry for the confusion.

David
 
Mike -

But Mike, you took the short form version of #2 on my list of three things - "Art" - instead of the full version written above it, which was -

"#2 - You play some music that's challenging, worthwhile to your growth as a player, or because it's truly important/enjoyable to you."

Plus you seem to be saying that ART equals Fusion, jazz, busy-chops-type-music - and not pop, country, ballads, etc. which is not what I'm saying at all. When I wrote "music that's challenging and worthwhile to your playing" - I meant any and all music, styles and genres that fits that description, for each particular player.

My point was that going out to play purely for the sake of your musical growth and experience is an important and worthwhile endeavor regardless of whether it pays money or not. And I would say "particularly when you're starting out", but honestly I've found it to be pretty important throughout my career.

But starting out - it is essential - as I spoke to in my last post. If the best blues guys in town get together on Sunday nights to blow and they need a drummer, any drummer starting out that was free on that Sunday would be a fool to hesitate about showing up for that simply because it was a "freebie". That's what I mean by going out to work on the "Art". I'm talking about going out to work on, gain experience at and get better at the Art of Drumming... and I mean the Art of Drumming as a whole.

So no, my point wasn't that Money vs. Art is the equivalent of commercial vs. non-commercial. Not at all. And it certainly has nothing to do with what constitutes being a sell out. Which quite honestly is a concept I've never subscribed to in any way, shape or form.

I simply don't subscribe to the notion that Art = Non-commercial. Or vice versa.

Anyway, I hope that explains things better. Sorry for the confusion.

David

Points well made, David. Many musicians term "ART" as being jazz, fusion and look down their noses at the meat and potatoes mainstream areas. And you quite correctly stated that a young, inexperienced drummer should go out and play - he can study books all he wants and practice by himself but that drummer needs to go out and get the dirt on his playing. Jam nights tend to be a good area do just that but are poorly frequented by young players.

No problem - I see where you are coming from!


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com
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Points well made, David. Many musicians term "ART" as being jazz, fusion and look down their noses at the meat and potatoes mainstream areas. And you quite correctly stated that a young, inexperienced drummer should go out and play - he can study books all he wants and practice by himself but that drummer needs to go out and get the dirt on his playing. Jam nights tend to be a good area do just that but are poorly frequented by young players.

No problem - I see where you are coming from!


Mike

http://www.mikemccraw.com
http://www.dominoretroplate.com
http://www.patentcoachmike.com
http://www.youtube.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.myspace.com/drummermikemccraw
http://www.facebook.com/mike.mccraw
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikemccraw
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No problem, Mike. I figured you would... I just didn't lay it out that clearly to begin with.

And I agree, real playing experience is an essential part of just learning the instrument - but the main point I was making - for our young original poster pondering a playing career - is that a lot of that kind of playing will be necessary (without little to no pay) in order to launch a career.

David
 
To be fair, DED, it seems like he's a bit burnt out by formal education. I've not been to music school but formal education does has a knack for turning the most fascinating things into a chore. The approach they take is logical - give people the technical stuff they need and not impose on the subjective side (ie. the fun stuff) - but it's a real drag for kinaesthetic learners.


Hit the nail right on the head there with this, thank you for clearing that up. I'm glad someone could say it for me. I have graduated now and am re-reading this forum, and it is gold; aside from the shots I took about a thread I posted about how I felt bored with drumming. I really appreciate everyone helping a fellow drummer out. I am thinking of gettin out to Austin. Is anyone on this thread from Austin, or know of the amount of work available for drummers and other musicians? (I hear finding a part time job aside from music is not difficult in Austin)
 
People tend to limit themselves in the music world. You can become a professional drummer/percussionist, but have to be open minded. People say I will never make it in a band, well so entertainment bands like on cruise lines aren't bands, or classical bands that tour around the world. Jazz bands at bars and such, independent labels in your state, thousands of things you can do. If you want to be known like Neil Peart, Mike Portnoy, you know big names. Then don't limit yourself, use the education to your advantage if it's a music school, record demos with people, send them to different labels. Also do different genres as well, so if a company likes that genre, stick with it, and go for it.
 
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