A Fallen Drummer

Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. While it is observed as a U.S Holiday, I am taking the opportunity to commemorate the life of the British soldier and drummer who was murdered in London last week by Islamic Extremists. Lee Rigby, a member of the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was victimized in a fanatical display of human brutality that will never be truly understood by most people. While CNN and The Huffington Post will explore the issue from a legal, moral, and ideological perspective, I want to memorialize Rigby by showcasing his musical gift.

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Military bands were historically the first marching bands. These days marching bands mainly perform at sporting events and parades as a form of entertainment. Marching drummers possess a proficiency that is frequently lost amidst the exploitation of celebrity musicians. However, anyone who appreciates music as an art form would view these players as top contenders on the musical hierarchy. They play with extraordinary precision and utmost articulation, while performing many of their parts on the move and in unison. The style encompasses rudimentary concepts that are applied to create complex rhythmic phrases usually consisting of strokes and rolls executed very quickly. Tricks and flare are also very common, especially in modern day marching bands to enhance entertainment value. Marching Band scholars develop technique and coordination over many years of  militant focus in order to master the stylistic attributes and demeanor associated with their role. The drummers use an underhand technique, referred to as “traditional grip” that allows for an easier reach while marching. These days, traditional grip is commonly used in jazz drumming, a style that incorporates many of the same rudimental applications.

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(Traditional grip used by marching drummer)

The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers is an infantry regiment of the British Army. While drumming is only a small part of their operation, it maintains an important role in the infantry’s legacy. The band will march on but a valued member sadly will not. Pictures, videos, and information about Lee Rigby as a drummer are difficult to find right now due to the high volume of internet content specifically related to the murder. I would love to hear Rigby play and hope at some point videos showcasing his talent will be available. Surely, we will hear a lot more about the fallen soldier in weeks to come. A Croatian Drum Camp has already announced they will dedicate this year’s program to Rigby, adding topics such as tolerance, harmony, and respect for human life to it’s curriculum.

 In the meantime, we will remember this event for its atrocity and celebrate the patriotic musician it took from the world.

I couldn’t find many videos on the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers but here’s one of a Swiss Drum Corp to exemplify the complexity, precision, and sheer brilliance that goes into this style of drumming.

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Do you look this cool playing the drums?

click here to PROVE IT!

Uncle Jesse…. a drummer?

I always thought John Stamos was capable of outdoing Kitty Krispies. Apparently the Black Keys would agree and have invited him to play drums on their next album. I haven’t kept up with Uncle Jesse’s post-Full House endeavors so this was certainly a surprise to me… Maybe not so much for the pop-culture enthusiasts out there. Perhaps it’s just another brilliant publicity move by the Black Keys who have been in recent tabloid feuds with Justin Beiber – media whores! The Keys certainly have a stranglehold on mainstream Rock these days, incase their triumph over the Grammy competition wasn’t enough evidence for those of you who missed it tweeting about J-Lo’s dress. So I guess this is a natural fit. Stamos has played with the Beach Boys over the years and claims drumming was his whole identity before he got on television. Cool. That scores points in my book. Now, it’s not worth a HAVE MERCY, but I gotta say… Uncle Jesse’s got some skills. Check it out.

 

And to get nostalgic about it…

Tips for the working drummer (part 2 – action)

So we worked on your attitude in Tips for the Working Drummer (part 1 – attitude) but now you have to do something about it.

Face it, you’re a salesman! You have a service. You want other people to use it. Don’t start thinking quotas and nagging bosses. However, the sooner you accept your mission, the more successful you will be. Learn about the business you are in and develop sales tactics to be successful. Make sure you do this in a way that is personable and genuine. Be considerate in your communication and make sure you point out the ways others will benefit from what you offer. You will have to spend time making phone calls, writing e-mails, and doing research. Find out who you need to know and get to know them. And keep your eyes open. You never know where a new opportunity is lurking. Sometimes when I see a poster advertising an event, I look up the company putting it on and contact them for future opportunities. My band was recently booked for a show this way. You could also find these companies through facebook. They are the ones flooding your inbox with invitations to their events. Maybe if you get on their good side they will be flooding other peoples inboxes with invitations to events you are playing at. However you decide to spread awareness, just keep in mind the more people you know in your field, the more opportunities you are opening up for yourself.  No single approach works best but anything you can do to be proactive is better than waiting for others to come to you.

Network your ass off. There are plenty of trade groups, clubs, affiliations, internet resources, and local events that could help build your contact list. Everyone with something to sell has to get out and meet people. This should be done on and offline. Musicians and industry professionals have taken the internet by storm. If you haven’t yet, you are missing opportunities to connect with people you should know. While social networking sites are valuable tools, there is nothing like face time. When people see you, they know you are proactive. When they can talk to you, you can prove how awesome you are. This business is all about relationships. When someone knows you are awesome, they will be more inclined to work with you. Keep an eye out for networking events. I’ve landed many gigs just by being at the right place at the right time. Once you have a list of contacts, don’t let the connection die. What good will it do if they just forget about you a year down the road? Send e-mails, meet for lunch, get on the phone. A few weeks ago I posted a funny youtube video on a friend’s facebook wall (local philly guitarist… never played music with him in my life). He gave me a “lol” and asked me to sub on a gig with him…. Cha ching!

Practice, practice, practice, practice and, uh…. practice. You don’t get better unless you commit some time actually sitting behind a kit. People always ask me how long they should practice for and I have yet to find an easy answer. When I was a University of the Arts student, I took a lesson with Carl Allen… I told him I practiced 2 hours a day (confidently and actually stretching the truth a bit)…. He laughed and congratulated me on a good warm up. Carl is a pro and felt 5+ was more suitable if I wanted to hang with the big boys. So I think it depends on your goals. If drumming is a hobby or something your parents are making you do, 30 minutes a day might be sufficient… maybe even painfully time consuming. If it’s a part time job, 1-2 hours a day should be sufficient. If it is a full time job, you have more time to commit and more to lose if you don’t practice.

But what do you practice? This is where a teacher may come in handy – Take drum lessons from someone who has formal training and years of experience. Learn from someone who can turn your weaknesses into strengths. If you are strapped on cash, there are plenty of drum lessons available online, either for free or very cheap. Again, let your goals drive your practice regimen. If you are solely interested in being a rock drummer, your time should not be spent learning bossa novas. However, if you want to be versatile, you better know how to play bossa novas, sambas, songos, and a lot more. Technique, coordination, and tempo are 3 areas I devote significant practice time towards. No matter what the other focal points are, I make sure to not only keep up with the basics but also test their limits and utilities.

Go to jam sessions. How obvious is this? You want to be heard, right? Play at places where people will hear you!!! Jam sessions are a great place to network AND walk the talk you’re talkin. It’s one thing to hand someone a business card but it’s another to hand them your business card and then melt their mind with your chops. Some jam sessions are poorly run. Some tend to favor the “in crowd” over the players just dropping by. Those might not be your best bet. If its THE BEST JAM SESSION IN TOWN, then keep showing up. Converse. Meet people. Eventually they will let you get up there. Just make sure when you do get up there that you have something to contribute. You wouldn’t approach the pretty girl at the bar without something to say. Don’t approach a drumset in a room full of musicians without something to say either. If you are a newbie, know your limitations… You may want to test them by sitting in with the heavy hitters but just understand a lot of jam sessions have an etiquette and expect a certain skill level from participants. I admire a beginner for having the guts to play with strangers in a free-form setting but if you aren’t on the same playing field as the rest of them, sit back a minute and try to learn from them. If the best thing you get from hanging at jam sessions is envy, you are making progress. Don’t hate the house drummer for being amazing. Take lessons from him, talk to him, and learn how he got to be that good. Whatever he did, you can do too.

Be the worst in the band. Contrary to some points I made in the paragraph above, there is something very valuable about being the worst one in the group. Obviously, there needs to be a mutual tolerance for every member’s skill level but don’t get intimidated if yours are not quite as awesome as theirs. If they want to play with you, they see potential and already like what you’re doing. This is the fuel the fire needs to burn. I am tested every time I rehearse with Ju-Taun. These guys hear EVERYTHING. I could be sure I nailed it and then I get: “That fill in the 4th measure of the 2nd verse; you played a triplet that should be snare, tom, bass… not tom, snare, bass. Also the pattern your playing on the ride cymbal is changes in the 3rd measure of the choruse. Maybe add some bell to it too. And watch that tempo in between verses”…. Wha??? Was I the only one who heard how awesome I just sounded? Hearing these critiques are constructive. They will inspire you to practice, work on the weak spots, and ultimately make you a better player. Just make sure you are taking them from someone you admire. There is NOTHING worse than getting “feedback” from a talentless amateur with an ego.

Only play “worthwhile” gigs. There are shades of grey here. I’ve heard my whole life that I’m never supposed to turn down a gig. After all, any opportunity to play is an opportunity to advance your career. If you play a gig in front of 10 people, but Quincy Jones is one of them, it just might be the most important gig you’ve played to date. I understand the value in this approach but I have played my fair share of freebies that really didn’t seem worthwhile. How many charity shows can you actually play? You have to make money too. Despite the optimistic persuasion to never turn down an opportunity, I think there is such thing as a bad opportunity or the absence of an opportunity, so I do not hesitate to turn down gigs that don’t seem like they will add value to my career. It’s not a bad thing to be strategic in selecting the gigs you play. Youre not just a musician. To a certain extent, you’re a business man too and business men need a return on their investment. The best thing you can do is get every possible detail about a gig before you accept it. Maybe the money isn’t great but it’s at an event that offers an opportunity for exposure. In the long run, that could pay off much better. Musicians face a public perception that music is “fun” and not always worthy of a paycheck. HAHAHAHA. I got frustrated just writing that. It is a job just like accounting is a job. DO NOT devalue yourself. If you just want to play, then play everywhere, all the time. If you want to be respected as the guy to hire, don’t let people see you as the guy who will play free gigs. Trust me, it will stay that way. Put your foot down. Walk away if you have to. And be patient. The good ones come out of nowhere. When they do, make sure you aren’t booked at your friend’s little sister’s birthday party you agreed to do for $30.

Know what to bring to your gig. I’m amazed how many times I get to a gig and one of the other drummers on the bill asks if he can use my snare. First of all, NO. My snare may be more valuable than your life. Second of all, why would you show up to a gig assuming you can use someone else’s stuff? Now sometimes, unforeseen accidents occur (a snare drum falls out of the van and cracks). I’ll have some sympathy here, but it should go without saying that it is your responsibility to know what you need. Plenty of clubs have house kits and require that you only bring your cymbals and snare. Don’t rely on that though. What if you get there and the bass pedal sucks or the cymbal stands are missing gauze. If I know the venue has a house kit, I will bring my snare, cymbals, cymbal stands, snare stand, pedal, and throne. It doesn’t hurt to be a little prepared here. You also might want to consider contacting one of the other bands on the bill in advance to share gear. Maybe someone can provide the drums if your band provides the bass cab. I will always check with bands when Im playing in a place like New York City. This could be the difference in me driving (paying for gas, tolls, parking, and frequently tickets) or taking a cheap bus for $20 round trip.

Hopefully I was able to provide some helpful insight. Ray Charles once said, “I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.” This is true for many of us. We didn’t choose music. It chose us. Whether that’s a blessing or a curse is for you to decide, but if you take your act on the road, treat it like a job. Have a great attitude, be the guy everyone wants to hire, take action, and never stop learning.

I would love to hear your comments. Feel free to e-mail me.

See Part 1 – attitude HERE

Tips for the working drummer (part 1 – attitude)

I played my first gig in 2003 at a crummy bar outside of Philadelphia. About 20 people were in the room, maybe 3 of them danced, many weren’t listening, and the bar made us pay for our drinks. We played classic rock and didn’t care about the crappy paycheck. We yelled at each other about our mistakes and smiled ear to ear in those glorious moments that brought us together as a band. It was an amazing gig.

Now I’m 28 years old with some extra grey’s, a little bit of wisdom, and very few regrets. I’ve played with grammy winners, on television, on the radio, at world renown venues, and it’s been an awesome run so far. I love music. I absolutely love it. That attitude kept me behind a drum set all these years. Once I learned I could get paid to do it, there was no other career I was willing to accept. And now I’m rich, famous, and married to a model…. OK, I’m not but I have signed 2 autographs.

Playing drums is one thing. Getting paid to do it could be an enormous game changer. I remember the moment I realized I was “working”. I was on a bus back to Philly from New York at 2:00 in the morning following a day of unsuccessfully soliciting booking agents and a rehearsal that went terribly. The next day, I would have to wake up early for other work obligations, teach a bunch of students in the afternoon, follow up with industry people that had been ignoring me, argue with one of my bands about petty nonsense, pay a sound engineer for studio time, accept a gig I didn’t want to do, hit up another rehearsal, get home at midnight, and pretty much plan on that being my life… Since then, I’ve seen highs and lows. Some paychecks are crap, some gigs are embarrassing, some circumstances are almost torture. But it’s work… and all things considered, it could be a lot worse. The most important advice I can give to any career-embarking drummer is to LOVE MUSIC. Nothing else matters if that basic piece is missing. Once that’s in place, consider the importance of your attitude as you move forward:

Form goals not expectations. This business has a lot of talking heads… “My friend knows this guy who knows John Bon Jovi and he says he can get us a record deal” kind of nonsense. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been let down by this type of stuff. The last time I let it happen, my band was supposed to play a big 4th of July show with The Roots, Earth Wind and Fire, Michael McDonald, and a few smaller acts on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia… Well guess what happened? I threw a party on my roof deck because I didn’t have a gig that night. I swore I would expect nothing from the music business ever again. Aside from all the talk, it’s highly competitive. With thousands of people competing for the same gigs, you’re going to be let down if your expectations are shattered. At that point I went back to the drawing board and wrote out a list of goals. In moments when I’m evaluating myself, I refer to those goals, not the expectations I have for them or of other people. This has helped my mental outlook significantly. I’m getting gigs, having more fun than ever playing music, and have rediscovered the satisfaction of being a musician. I don’t discredit the times I’m told big things are supposed to happen, but I also don’t expect them to actually go through. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. When they don’t, I still have goals to shoot for.

Your goals don’t have to be realistic. Shoot for the stars and you might land on the moon… Nobody ever accomplished big things by thinking small. So you want make the leap from working drummer to Jay Z’s drummer??? Super tough but not impossible. His current drummer  landed the job somehow. Why can’t you? It can be difficult to think past your limitations but that’s what goals are for. Consider where you are and where you want to be. Just because you won’t be there in a week, a month, or maybe even a year, doesn’t mean you won’t be their eventually. As for the talking heads I mentioned in my first point, I guess I can’t be resentful. While some people are full of it, others are just eager to break the confines of reality. When its realistic, its normal. When its normal, its not exciting. As a professional drummer, I want to be exciting. I want exciting opportunities and exciting rewards. So as far as goals are concerned, I have found value in making them extreme. If I aim to be the best fusion drummer ever, I will practice hard to get there. I may not ever reach that status but I’m not “expecting” to so it won’t let me down.

Face the challenges in the music industry. IT IS NOT 1975!!!! ITS NOT 1995 EITHER!!!! ITS 2012 AND VERY FEW PEOPLE BUY RECORDED MUSIC!!!! It is a very different time for this business. Many would argue that it is unclear how to make good money but the optimists would say there are just different avenues that should be considered. Record sales have tanked, everyone steals music,  home production studios have allowed EVERYONE to produce music, and social media allows all those people to thicken the competition on public forums. It’s not all bad though. There is a lot of creativity out there and a ton of technology advancements that could bring new life to your playing. Performing is emphasized as a better money maker than recording these days and there are a ton of music venues, festivals, and parties to play at. Yes, there are still opportunities to make money selling recordings and licensing music, but the days of people spending $17.99 on an album at Sam Goody are gone. This means record deals aren’t what they once were. They don’t necessarily benefit you and to be honest, they are leaving a lot of artists penniless and watching their earnings go to managers, lables, promoters, and publishers first. None of this is meant to be discouraging, but it is meant to be a wake up call. Face the realities and don’t compare your band’s opportunities to Led Zeppelin’s opportunities. As awesome as your band may be, you live in a very different time.

Don’t stop searching for inspiration. I go through music droughts. During these times, I’m likely to practice less, listen to sports radio instead of music, and develop doubts about myself. Surely when that continues long enough, my chops are a bit rusty. Then I’m in a position to start losing gigs and students… No no no. As a working drummer, I can’t let that happen. I overcome these lulls by getting inspired. Easier said than done, but just look around you. Open your senses and absorb the inspiration the world has to offer. This might be listening to music but it might be cooking… It might be watching a movie… It might be hiking… It’s amazing where inspiration comes from and when it hits. Inspiration has also guided my musical direction. I’m not in love with the Dave Matthews Band but I am obsessed with Carter Beauford. That dude is one of the greatest influences I’ve come across in my life and his playing has been a HUGE inspiration for me. By listening and watching, I began wanting. By wanting, I started learning. By learning, I began improving. Now I’m SHREDDING! Find those things in your own life. They are all around you. Take a second to notice what happened at a moment you suddenly wanted to play your drums or what was going on around you when you started tapping a rhythm on your desk. Again, its not just music but if your body responds musically, inspiration from other sources will bring it out of you…

Your opinion matters most. Your friends who work in finance probably make a lot of money. Maybe your mom thinks you will have a better life if you follow their footsteps. That’s her opinion. You love her and you want to make her happy but she doesn’t fully understand your direction. You will encounter the nay-sayers. I’ve gotten the “oh how cute” reaction after telling people I play in bands… It can be very irritating but we live in an opinionated world and you will encounter those who feel music provides an unreliable and unrealistic income. Then there is social media, a modern day necessity that has allowed everyone to publicize their thoughts, which at times can be demotivating for those of us dreaming a little outside the box. The arguments in this article are biased opinions that are probably pissing off someone. But they are my opinions and I feel they will help you. If I’m wrong, that is your opinion. Whatever the case may be, I encourage you to form your own opinions – about your playing, your career, your strengths, your weaknesses, and music in general – stick to them if they makes you better. Don’t let this make you a know-it-all. Stay open to criticism but believe in yourself… So what is your opinion about yourself as a drummer? Whatever you just answered, go with that. If its not the answer you wanted, do something to make it the answer you wanted.

Money is of different value to everyone. Some people need to make $80K a year to live the lives they want. Others are fine with much less. I hate hearing “don’t quit your day job” because it is a relative statement. That might work for guy A but guy B has different plans. More importantly, assess what is really important to you and understand that very few musicians sip champagne by the pool outside their Malibu mansion. The concept of “sacrifice” is something every professional drummer must face. If you can do without a nice home, a nice car, and expensive meals every night, you will have more money to put towards touring, buying gear, and living a less lavish lifestyle. If you need those things in your life, that’s not a problem for your music career. You just might have to balance it with a day job. This is how most musicians live and plenty of them have very fulfilling careers. The tricky part is finding a job that is flexible with your musical commitments. None the less, it is very possible and probably the reality for most musicians. So quit your day job if you want to but understand the sacrifice involved before you do.

Also read Tips for the Working Drummer (part 2 – action)