Studio Drummer – Getting Experience, Rise To The Challenge!

*BUT YOU SHOULD RISE TO THE CHALLENGE AND TRY!*

If you’re unable to accomplish it then alter the part slightly so that it is comfortable.  They may or may not even notice that you’ve done this.

This has happened to me many times in the studio on pressure filled sessions.  I get asked to play something that I wouldn’t normally play and I have to play it!  I have to get comfortable with it.  One specific producer used to do that to me all the time!  As I also mention in the chapter on technique, you have to be very analytical as a session drummer.

If you’re uncomfortable with something very specifically analyze what it is that is making you feel that way.  This can often result in the correction of the issue.  This is what I do personally in all areas of my playing in the studio.  I try to be as analytical as I can in a positive sense.

For myself, if I find that I can’t play something exactly as it’s being asked I will modify it slightly and again often the artist or producer isn’t aware that I’ve done that.

The same issue can arise on the chart.  You might be making the same mistake repeatedly on the chart.  Stop and quickly analyze where you are making the error and why.  Fix it.  Refer to the chapter on reading where I go deeper into this issue.

*DON’T PANIC.  ANALYZE AND CORRECT THE PROBLEM.*

You will also notice the effect on your playing and your ability to groove and sit in a pocket when other players are rushing or dragging!  The effect is often drastic!  And again on the flip side of this it may be you who is rushing or dragging in this situation.  You’ll experience headphone-monitoring issues.  Some instruments will be too soft or too loud and you won’t have enough click level for example.

For all of these reasons it’s vital to get in a room with 2 other players or more and work through the myriad of issues that will ensue.

FINALLY…

In the area of experience you have to be creative.  You HAVE to create your own situations to garner experience.  No one is going to do that for you!

How can you convince an artist or producer to utilize your abilities?  Think of every possible creative scenario that you can!

*IF YOU’RE DEDICATED AND PATIENT, THE DAY WILL COME WHEN YOU’RE DISCUSSING YOUR PRICE POINT WITH CLIENTS!*

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Studio Drummer – Getting Experience

GETTING EXPERIENCE

For many, acquiring experience is their famous “catch 22”!  How does one get experience when you can’t get hired without having experience?

*YOU HAVE TO CREATE SITUATIONS FOR YOURSELF.*

Of course the most obvious situation you can create is to join a band and get experience that way.  Joining a band that is much more experienced than yourself may or may not be a good thing to do.  It may push you to develop faster or it may be that the other band members may be on a different plateau in their experience level.  You might perhaps be better joining a band where all the members have relatively the same experiential level.

 If you are just starting out and you’re ambitious offer to play in any studio situation for free.  Don’t ask for money at this level!  As I mention in the book I did several years of sessions for free to get experience.  It wasn’t until several years later that I actually started to get paid in a studio setting.

stay tuned for more on this topic…

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Studio Drummer – The Morphing Continues!

*YET WORK IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY KEEPS MORPHING AND INTEGRATING INTO DIFFERENT AREAS AND DIFFERENT STYLES.*

For example we’ve seen a fundamental change in the industry with the advent of the internet.  The digital download issue has drastically affected all the variants work in the music industry.  It’s killed some areas and yet opened up new avenues in others. 

Also the explosion of the home computer based studio more than any other single technological advance is responsible for the obliteration of an entire strata of traditional recording studios.  These days nothing but the large and extravagant recording studios survive in a general sense.  So what has that done?

*IT HAS MORPHED THE WORK AND PUSHED IT INTO DIFFERENT VICINITIES.*

The need and demand is still there for studio drumming or studio performances from all players in general.  This happening just changed the location and the method of where the work is and how the playing takes place.

With something as primal as music I believe that:

*THE ART FORM AND THE INDUSTRY WILL ALWAYS REINVENT ITSELF.*

Your job is to find your market, your unique angle and re-invention!

It’s a given that it will constantly morph so don’t be a follower.  Be a leader and a trendsetter!  Utilize existing technology to create work for yourself and even better think ahead!  Be willing to work for free when it comes to gaining valuable experience in regards to studio playing!

Experience is not only the best teacher regarding studio playing.  It is a prerequisite for getting hired to do sessions.  So you have to garner studio experience.  The best way to do this is to offer your services for free at the beginning.

*HOW CAN YOU CREATE NEW AVENUES FOR YOUR ABILITIES?*

I encourage you as you read on to explore your own avenues.  Simultaneously, think creatively as you read this book about how you can apply these skills and methods.

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Studio Drummer – Into the Present

*THAT BRINGS ME TO THE PRESENT*

My studio experience has been of great use even in live gigs that I do to this day. 

For example:

I do the Calgary Stampede Grandstand show otherwise known as ‘the greatest outdoor show on earth’ to 22,000 people a night.  It’s is a very intense show musically and features a live band of 30 or so hand picked musicians.  It is played totally live although the show also runs a pre-record of the same music simultaneously. 

We do the recording about 6 months prior to the show. The reason that there is a pre-record is that if the weather suddenly turns, which it can quickly do in Calgary, they have to stop the live aspect of the band in the show since someone can get electrocuted.  To the audience the band still appears to be playing though and the show suddenly goes to pre-recorded tracks seamlessly without the audience knowing it.

This is where my studio experience enters because for the entire show I am playing to a click track.  This is how the pre-record and the live show are synchronized together.  In fact aside from the conductor I am the only musician who is being fed the click track.  So in essence I am running the entire show of 30 musicians and literally hundreds of dancers and performers in front of 22,000 people a night! 

*SO DO YOU NEED TO BE CONFIDENT AND COMFORTABLE WITH A CLICK TRACK?  YES!*

And we will address this issue as well as many others in this book.

*REGARDING YOUR OWN MUSICAL JOURNEY.*

You should decide for yourself what your influences, loves and goals are surrounding your music.  I would say that if you don’t really have a spiritual connection to music, for example, if music doesn’t move you by exciting you, making you cry, making you remember nostalgically different events then perhaps you should rethink your ambition.  However if music does do all these things spiritually for you, which I assume it does, and you are deciding to pursue this further then it’s time to move on.

*YOU NEED TO LOOK AT WORK ISSUES.* 

In the area in which you live in you need to start evaluating where and what the work is and how best to pursue it.  How many live venues are there?  How many recording studios are there?  Where is there a perceived need?

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