A modern musician searching for balance.
Welcome to my journey as a Musician. Particularly, a musician chasing a balance in life. 15+years of playing professionally has taught me so much about music, business and life. Why then, do I feel like I'm only scratching the surface? This is a platform of discovery, insights, stories and all the interesting nuggets in between. Through my experience, my only goal is for YOU to learn something that helps you in your journey in music and in life.
on all the socials!
Click here to listen to my latest track of 37 minutes of uninterrupted free streaming music.
I'm really enjoying putting out quick recordings and posting them up on my insta page for now. I'll be uploading to more platforms shortly, but for now; go check it out and see some new tracks recorded on a phone, I'm super stoked with them.
I'm really excited to be working on a live show. I'm finding lately, I'm getting better at recording and mixing to the point where I'm making backing tracks for all the songs I've learned.
I'm now putting songs together and all of a sudden, I'm re-thinking song choices. Weird how that happens! I'm now learning what it takes to group songs together that either work well, offering variety for the listener or juxtapose sounds to switch gears in the performance.
So far I'm about 20 songs in and am really enjoying the process. I can't wait to setup somewhere and try this out in front of people. Who knows, after all this effort... Maybe people won't care, won't notice, or simply not enjoy the backing track idea. But hey, I'm excited to find out, after all, it's always to good to mix it up and try new things.
If this is all working out like I hope, and people seem to enjoy it. I'm going to start booking some gigs on Wednesdays and Thursdays to get the ball rolling. I'll also have a little video to help show you what I'm working on via YouTube shortly.
That's all for now, I hope you are doing well and you're enjoying life.
I saw Scofield at the blue note. It was awesome!!
He is a bandleader, world-renown jazz musician, he has played with all the greats and continues to push boundaries into his 70's. He has discography spans over 40 something albums. When he plays, it sounds like Scofield. This is what we all want as a musician, an undeniable flavour that only we can express to the world through music. When other people are soloing in his band, you can see his love for the music comes out, you also know if someone played a 'clam' too. Needless to say, seeing John was a bucket-list experience I will never forget.
It's clear, sitting in the crowd, you are there to listen to music. There will be no stories told, of the beaten track behind him. "this tune is called.." and "here is another hit you may recognise", no-frills, bells or whistles.
I know that I'm not most people, but I would have loved a story or two. Stories of the old days and his perception of what he thinks we are heading in the world of jazz.
I guess this is something I see as success - The ability to explain where you are, what you have seen so far, what you've learned from your travels and what you can envisage for the future. Scofield has lived a very unique life and I would love to hear his point of view.
Maybe it's important to explore the idea, whether it is too much to ask musicians to express themselves in more than just musical notes at their concert. Is this place only reserved for interviews? Or is there a place for both?
Question:
Do I have to always practice with a metronome?
Answer:
Do you listen to anything other than yourself when you play? If you want to have good rhythm that gets people in the audience tapping their feet, practice with a metronome. If you perform with other musicians, you'll need the ability to actively listen - on the fly - while your playing, practice with a metronome. If you play gigs by yourself with a loose sense of time, in a flowing manner, and you never plan on playing with other people, sure! No need for a metronome then!
Question:
Should I get an ABN / setup to be a sole trader??
Answer:
Yes, if you want to earn money from music, you are a business and you need an ABN.
Question:
When should I get a website?
Answer:
Now!! If you don't have one, you will be perceived as unprofessional. A Facebook page and an Instagram account is not enough.
Question:
How do I get more gigs?
Answer:
You're going to need as many contacts as possible that have the capacity to book gigs at venues. Booking agents, business owners, event managers etc.
Your contacts need to:
1 Know you exist
2 Have proof that you are gig ready - posters for promo, website and showreel of your best work in a live setting.
3 Constantly update your availability so your contacts know when you are free before they have to call you and ask.
4 Be undeniably good at what you do. It helps if they like you as a person, not just as a performer.
Also
Bonus point**
How's your social media looking?? Do you know how to market yourself? I know you're a musician, but remember, you're a business too!!
Question:
I just have to be a good muso and the gigs will come right??
Answer:
Nope!! You are a business, you need to be working on ALL aspects of your business.
*Marketing - website and social media
*Accounting - know how your business is trending, crunch numbers and be aware of upcoming costs to shape what your next move is. E.g. do I need more gigs?? Do I need to record an album to work on my marketing brand to charge more for gigs later gigs ??
*Quality content - practice often
*Sales - get gigs
*Legal - am I protected if I use someone else's sample on my recording? Am I protected if someone trips over my amp and hurts themselves?
Question:
Should I teach or just do gigs??
Answer:
It's nice to do both. If teaching is getting in the way of doing gigs, drop teaching!! Get something that fits in to your life.
I'm a big advocate of having another job supplimenting your music career with actual $$. It creates a creative space without pressure.
Question:
Should I practice 30 mins a day or a big jam session for 4 hours on Sunday?
Answer:
Practice every day. Make sure is quality practice of working on something that actually challenges you. Do this by yourself!! A jam session with your mates is a collective practice which you need, but solitary practice is what you need more.
I wanted to wish you a merry Christmas and only the very best for you in the new year. I don't know about you, but I'm already thinking of all the cool things I want to do for the new year. A few things come to mind; more recordings, a website make over, more helpful content for musicians to create more music as well as more space to enjoy their live.
I'm also rolling out some original music which I'm very excited about. It's been on my mind for the longest time. It's about time I created my own sound and since going down this round, the ideas have been endless. I'm excited to do my very best to reduce these thoughts in to the essence of what I want to hold up my name to and be proud of.
Talk soon my friends!!
What if we could keep more balls in the air than we think?
I was thinking about pushups and ways to do more push ups everyday. I thought about a scenario where I tried doing 100 push up a day, but could only do 60, leaving me with soreness and frustration at the little progress I made.
Then I thought, what if I could do 60 push ups, sit ups and squats in a day and slowly get better over time? - More balls in the air! - not only that, I'm using more muscles and getting a better overall workout. Even if I improve by a rep a week. I'm still getting a much better workout.
Then I thought, what if I look at this as a lesson for my career. Instead of focusing on one thing to work, and being frustrated that I'm not getting the progress I want. Why not try 5 things at once and see what sticks!? I might be able to handle it and get a much better workout!
It been too long!!
Ok so, Since April...
I've been working still in IT and managed to get a promotion in July which has been hectic, but good. I'm 20 days off my goal of learning Russian everyday for a year!
and last but by not least my girlfriend and I have decided that we want to move to New York!!!! It's all happening :)
Where does this leave my musical thoughts? The great thing about this is, it never goes away. I guess I'm fearful sometimes that I'll get to this point in my life where I say "I wish I just stuck with music...". Everytime I think about this long enough, I can't help but come back to the idea that; music gives us so much but it doesn't give you everything you need in life. I love, at any point in my life I can pick up, and put down this love, without the guilt of feeling like I'm letting something go forever.
So I haven't been posting here as much as I like. Lately I'm gravitating towards learning more coding projects to support my IT career and building a portfolio which you can see here if you're interested.
"So, if I'm doing that, what happens to this blog?" You may ask... It's a good question.
Maybe this is where this platform can evolve. So far this site has been a place where I can think out loud. I feel like it's given me a lot back that I've explained in previous posts. In a nutshell, this blog has given me a place to explore ideas of a musician that wants more out of life whilst being a musician. I'm still fascinated that after 10 years of looking at this problem, I can't seem to crack it. It could mean that I haven't cracked it because I just haven't tried hard enough. This is totally valid. It could also mean that I can't visualise the value of cracking it, or it could also mean, I'm still working on this problem because it's a hard nut to crack - It's my Allan Holdsworth of nuts. I don't get it, but I love it and I want to get it and crack it!
With this in mind. This blog is probably a good space to talk not only about the lifestyle of only music but a lifestyle where music can fit in and bring out passion in people's life, without forcing music into a life they may not have time for.
At the moment I'm a musician/toolmaker/IT guy with asperations to travel, who's learning to speak Russian, who loves to cook / eat delicious food and live a full and healthy life with family and friends. What do you want to do? How does music enhance your life?
It's crazy that we spend thousands of hours sucking at learning an instrument only for someone to like our post on Instagram. I know that is never why people learn an instrument but if this has ever crossed your mind, you're gonna need an attitude check!
I've spent years underestimating my skills and enough is enough. If you're a musician and you've been playing gigs and teaching a little, this is for you. I've been in a headspace for years where I wasn't earning the big dollars I deserved. I then slowly ended up in headspace where I thought that maybe you just can't earn money performing music, telling myself things like, "Maybe this job is just not needed, maybe it's a luxury thing...". Yep, so is a first class airfare, or a Bentley or Rolls Royce or even a $20 cup of coffee!... Do they still exist?! ... (surprisingly they do.)
So if music is a luxury lifestyle, why aren't we getting paid the big bucks like Rolls Royce or Bentley? Why is a stereotypical musician still someone who is asked, "Yeah, but what do you actually do for money??"
Let's take a look at some musos who get paid the big bucks as a musician... Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift. Are they good musicians? Yes! Are they living the good life? Well, according to Beyonce is estimated to be worth $400 million, Bruce - $500 million, Tay Tay - $365 million, FYI Paul McCartney from that little band the Beatles, who were only around for 9 years, is worth $1.2 billion... Now we're talking!!
Do they just practice and play gigs in their spare time?? No!! So why do you think that's all you need to do...
I know I've said this lots in this blog but muso's these days need to it all. Marketing, sales, performing, recording, publishing, copyright, IP, distribution, logistics.. the fun never stops. I'm sure that Beyonce doesn't, but any muso who doesn't have their entourage of teams behind them will at least need to be aware of and operate in all of these fields. I remember Steve Smith (drummer of Journey) saying in an interview that - even he - has to worry about all of these things when he's doing jazz gigs with Vital Information, and he's been in the game for a loooong time.
So let's imagine a young musician who's talented, plays a few gigs each month, teaches a little bit but earns just enough money to get by. I'm sure a lot of musicians get to this stage, maybe you can earn a little bit more or less some months but in the end, your earning money playing and teaching music. That's awesome!!
With that said, I'm looking at the next stage. I'm interested at 100k + wages playing music. How do we get there?? Yes, well, it's very possible. Let's do some math.
At bare minimum:
With 1 gig a week ($500) = 26k a year = 5 hours per week.
20 students ($50/hour each) =
40k a year = 40 hours per week for 40 weeks (school holidays).
Gets you to $66k a year.
But we can do more than 1 gig a week right!?
Let's do two gigs a week!!
$92k a year is sounding pretty healthy now.
Ok so, if you're operating like this and you managed to organise yourself to do this consistently - which is not easy, yet possible. It's a big year!! It means that you'll working 50hr weeks for 40 weeks of the year! You'd be working your butt off for that 92k! Remember this pre tax so it would really be more like 80k.
So, 50hr weeks for 80k a year. Is roughly $30/hour of work - that's what you're worth!!
I'm not sure about you, but I think a specialist skill is worth north than this don't you?
Let's try another scenario:
With 1 gig a week ($500) = 26k a year = 5 hours per week.
An unskilled 9-5pm job = 60k a year = 37.5hours per week.
= 86k per year at 42 hours per week work.
But we can do more than 1 gig a week right!?
Let's do two gigs a week!!
$112k a year is sounding pretty healthy now.
We've broke the 100k!! Woohoo!
And!! We are working still less hours than the first scenario.
Remember this is pre tax so it's probably like 97k for 47 hours per week - so you're still working hard for it $39 per hour for working less... Not bad, but it's not enough is it!?
What does it look like to earn that Bentley money!?
What does Beyonce do?? I'm so glad you asked.
Beyonce is 39 years young and has 6 studio albums to her name. In 2016 Beyoncé saw her most successful tour to date, The Formation Tour grossing more than U$260.000.000 in just 49 shows. That's $5.3 million a show!!
With 1 gig a week ($5.3 million) = 260 million a year = countless hours per week.
How's that for a scenario!!
I'm not sure what her profit margin was but hey, I'm sure she doesn't need to work again. Haha!
I've made a little live recording at home and popped them up on youtube. I'll be posting them on all the major music platforms shortly but in the meantime. Click here to check out 3 separate performances.
Treating yourself to a beer or cake is a universal concept. We all get to a point where we want to treat ourselves to a beer, cake or fried food because we want to treat ourselves for achieving something, or just getting through the day.
What interests me is these things go against the goals that most of us have in our lives. We all want to be more in shape, feel better, lose a few kg's and everyone wants to look good naked... So why is a beer treating ourselves? The question seems dumb, doesn't it? but humour me, it also illuminates the human logic in us all. Doesn't it make more sense to treat ourselves with a run, a gym session, a salad or getting 10000 steps a day?
I guess this idea is spurred on by a podcast I listened to recently about paying attention to the way things taste. It painted the picture of people who pay real attention to the foods they eat and drink. Those people cut out cigarettes, soft drinks, lollies with almost no withdrawal.
This is helping me think more clearly about what I fill my day with. I think going to the gym helps me be OK with some discomfort - knowing full well that it's only for a specific time frame. When other things happen within my day outside of the gym. I'm tolerant of more discomfort. I guess this only gets easier with getting older too... Or do you? I guess you gain more perspective as you get older, but do you get used to being uncomfortable? I notice that most people get used to doing the same thing whether it's good for them or not.
I think a better way to think is to treat yourself with discomfort regularly because you surely don't want to do what most people do by doing what's comfortable.
I'm inspired to live with more healthy choices. I've been off work sick for a week and after watching an action film. I've realised that I've always been inspired by secret agents, special forces and guys of that nature. I get excited about being a man of mystery. I'm now understanding that I get one fucking life, it's up to me to crush the shit out of life!!
So I'm gonna treat myself with a salad everyday! 7mins of sweat everyday, hone some skills I want to acquire everyday, kiss my girlfriend everyday.
So you love playing music, hate the industry and try to channel your frustration to work for you to play more music.
This is a quick thought that I think is worth pondering. I think being specific enough about a problem is a good start to make a problem easier to solve.
I love being able to play music. I love to be in a position to entertain others while honing a craft. This is what I want to do for a living! There are so many people who never get the chance to be on a stage in front of hundreds; if not, thousands of people, cheering them on. Music is huuuge! It's what movies, award nights, TV shows and dreams are made of.
I hate that the industry makes it impossible for musicians to EARN a real living without being forced in to a corner of shit gigs for shit money or great money anywhere but home, particularly in Australia.
I believe that there is a solution to design a great life with music being a big part of it, without costing you years of frustration and not earning a real wage. I think this a problem I'll look at for a long time.
You may know that I found a great sense of relief by getting a full-time job aside from music and letting music be my outlet of creativity. I know that 21 year old me would be slapping my face silly - I was a purist back then. While this approach has worked out me, I want more music in my life! I'm going to take another bite at the apple and pursue music in my day-to-day.
Part of this blog is to make new approaches and discoveries. I want the stability and safety of a full time job with a good superannuation plan. With the opportunities that music can bring in to the mix.
For example:
*Recording music to be on ads and TV shows
*All expenses paid holiday to tour another country.
*Entertain friends at parties
*Earn some play money while others are pissing it up the wall in the same venue
*Blow up social media platforms for free gear, money and more opportunities for collaborations, chances to meet your favourite musicians.
*Build a following to one day perform my own solo show charging $100 a ticket and earning tens of thousands of dollars in one night!!
These are a few things that come to mind that if you're in to your music; you would be crazy to not try and make some of these ideas to become a reality.
I used to think that playing live was the best avenue for a long and stable career in music. But I think differently now. My idea of a good life is to have these experiences sprinkled throughout my music career whilst developing my full-time career as well.
I'd love to hear your ideas of what opportunities you want to experience in your career.
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I'm super proud of myself. I feel like I've learned so much over this past year. In the past I used to think that if I just practice my instrument, everything else will fall in to place and I'll have a great career. Oh man! How wrong was I!
This year I tried to equip myself with as many tools as I could that I think a musician needs to run their business effectively. Specifically building and maintaining a website, memorising over 15 of my favourite songs, recording, mixing, mastering, copyright and publishing and the most important part of the whole process was believe it or not.. Blogging. Yep, the act writing down some of my experiences and looking at what I've achieved over the years has been invaluable. I believe that it has changed my outlook in my time as a full-time muso from jaded to empowered.
My first step was marketing. I needed a website. I decided to learn HTML and css: some basic steps towards creating a functional website, deploying it to a server, updating blog posts and checking my SEO statistics. It's nice to have full control of how my website looks and the best part, it costs me peanuts!
Then came writing - I'm terrible at it but hey, practice makes perfect right!? I figured if I made sure there was something new up every month, I've done my job. More often than not, I over delivered for the sheer thrill of seeing something published on the Web for the world to see.
After writing came an emence feeling of excitement in uploading my music and showing my friends my recordings. I 'bit the bullet' and spent a few hundred bucks on some recording gear and learned simple principles to record, mix, master and distribute my music. I still have no idea how to make a radio ready song yet. But I do know how to record, mix and master a song in 8 hours and have it up on all the listening platforms like Spotify, iTunes, Google play, soundcloud within a few days. That's super exciting to me!
It feels great to learn new skills and I'm really looking forward to honing them in the coming year. I think that for any musician it's seemingly necessary to learn all of these skills. The problem being, if you don't have the time - or make the time - it will cost you a tonne of money everytime you want to be creative or take control in some way.
We all know time is precious. You'll still need hours in the practice room and time and effort running the business effectively. So my thoughts are with you muso's who are trying to do it all. Unfortunately, it seems like these days, we have to do it all.
Here’s to another awesome year of learning lots and putting more music out in to the world.
Much love.
I remember when I decided to do music full time. I went to uni, I joined all the bands I could. At one stage I was playing with 7 different bands at one time and playing live around 3 times per week. What a time right!? It was fun, that's for sure. Being 24 and earning $300 per week is not so fun.
The problem is, as a muso you can play gigs and enjoy the lifestyle of being a freelancer, but if you want to earn the kind of money that I would like to earn and play music full time, you have to run your own business.
I remember trying to find a Cafe/waiter job that was a little more regular so I could earn enough money to get out of the house... Just for clarification, I was a full-time muso, and I was looking for a waiter gig and couldn't get one... Oh, dear.
I had this niche skill of performing in live acts both in cover bands and original bands. At this stage, I was teaching kids how to play guitar and drums and even still I was lucky to clear $300 a week. No wonder I was still living at mums' place.
Anyway, I found it really difficult. I didn't have experience and all the Cafe gigs I could get paid $10 per hour.
I remember feeling that no matter what I did, I felt trapped. I spent all my free time playing drums or guitar or hanging with mates to get a fresh perspective. I just seemed to run into the same brick walls.
So how did I change? How did I get untrapped? How did I free myself? .... I got a "real job".
If it was perspective I needed... For better or worse... It was the perspective I got!
I met all these different people that I wouldn't usually come in to contact with. My world was muso types or real job types. When I started my trade, I met people who were grateful just to have a job.. Me being one of them. I also met people who wanted to learn as much as they could. I think this was the first time I saw all walks of lives in one place. Perspective. I found it!
All these years I've spent thinking about how to make more money as a muso. I was really looking for a way to have gigs flowing in 3 times a week whilst tutoring. But here's thing! I didn't call one venue, I didn't call other working bands or network in any way. I wasn't prepared to advertise my efforts at all. Nope, no business card. Not even a fucking free Facebook page!!...
I only had huge expectations without any execution or plan for that matter. What can I say? I had no idea how to run a business. I was a muso that thought he knew what he was doing... How wrong I was.
Ok, I'll say it. I love podcasts!!
I feel like I'm an old fuddy-duddy by saying this. It's like I just said, "I love AM radio!!".
So lately I've tried to listen to some awesome drummers that I look up to; Thomas Lang, Marco Minemann, Vinnie Colaiuta, Chris Coleman, Anika Nilles etc. I notice there are certain questions that aren't being asked - no disrespect to our beloved podcast hosts, I understand that they don't want to spend time dragging their heroes/guests through all the hardest things they had to deal with in life - But for some sick and twisted reason, I wanna know!
I would love to know more about the struggles of my drumming heroes, the time they decided to be a drummer to the time they were earning good money to validate their initial decision. Or the time they played gigs and didn't get paid when they really needed a dollar. I want to hear their low points that tested their nerve and the self-talk that got them out of it.
It's helpful to hear someone you look up to find stages in their life difficult, even if we already know that no one goes through life without struggle. The problem is it's so easy to see our heroes success and accomplishments. Most of the time you have to go looking for the dirt in their life story. What can I say, I'm attracted to the dirt. Who knew!?
I'm curious why we need to look so hard to find personal struggles. I think these are the stories that can really help others. I can understand if these heroes of ours have a problem sharing intimate details to the world. After all, drummers are used to supporting others rather than the spotlight.
I don't know..
I still want to hear the dirt in their life stories though. Am I dark and twisted? Am I alone in thinking this? Or am I on to something here?
Inspired by Seth Godin:
The advice I would like to give young artists is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and the bolt of lightning to strike your brain, you are not going to create any work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great artistic idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction.
Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case.
Try and imagine you pouring all the paint from a paint tin out on to the floor. If you then get your brush and get to work by spreading the paint as much as can, you will cover a lot of ground! Forget about making a mess. You may not paint the whole surface that you intend to, but you'll cover a huge portion of it very quickly.
The problem we all have is being so worried about making the mess, so we keep dipping our brush in the paint tin for more paint every time we are 'inspired' to get to work...
Screw it! I say, let's get messy, let's empty our paint tins and get to work!!
I know how good it feels when you can learn something new and have something to show for it - I feel the latter part of that sentence is the deceptively hard part. Learning something new is as easy as typing something into Google, but having something to show for it is entirely different. I want to ask you the question every muso asks themselves when they learn something new. When are you ready to perform what they've been practising for weeks? Sometimes months! It's the time where you can have something to show for all your hard work but you don't want to stuff it up right? This is super tricky, but I'm happy to share some wisdom I've collected over almost two decades on this subject to help my fellow muso.
In my mind, there are three main concepts that you'll need to get comfy with to have something down and performance-ready. This will help anyone who plays an acoustic instrument but understand I'm a drummer so it will make the most sense to us drummers.
#1 dynamics
It's simple if you're playing an acoustic instrument, I don't even have to explain this, But I will. Dynamics is so important! It's the difference between being a metal groove, rock groove, funk groove, soul groove or jazz groove. Dynamics is everything!!
When I talk about dynamics - particularly for drummers - your overall volume is not the whole picture. It's between each limb and note. It does matter if your snare is too loud in comparison to your kick drum.
I know for drummers if you're locked in and grooving hard with your band and you get this great idea to try the new fill you've been practising... So you try it, it fails, the band has stopped grooving and you feel kinda dumb... Been there. It's a common mistake!
Let me share a few ideas on why this happens. If you grip your sticks just that little bit tighter than usual because you want to play with a bit more intensity, you won't have the same feel to access finger techniques or the natural bounce the same way. You maybe be short in drum mics for the night, the Guitarist may have turned up louder than usual and you have to match his volume.
If you haven't practised the same lick with different dynamics you will be screwed with any of the above scenarios.
I've heard it explained by my teachers from uni that I think is so true. If you're playing something that you know you can play in the practice room, great!
But if you're low on sleep, you're 10% less likely to play it correctly.
If you're a little nervous because your mums in the crowd, you're another 10% less likely to play it correctly.
If you have crappy sticks and your drum heads aren't tuned up, you're another 10% less likely to play it correctly.
If you're low on sound equipment and you can't hear your band properly, you're another 10% less likely to play it correctly.
I find this idea a huge help to gain perspective to know how you are feeling before you play. If I'm tired, I'll know that I shouldn't be overly ambitious with my playing that day.
#2 tempo
Tempo is critical. It goes hand in hand with dynamics I think. Testing yourself with how consistent you are next to your metronome is an endless pursuit. Anyone with "good time" or consistent time can fluctuate between 2 - 10bpm quite easily... Yep, that much! So it stands to reason that you wouldn't play a drum fill at one tempo and one dynamic. Remember this!! because I know it's easy to forget and then you'll get frustrated when you can't play your favourite fills in a live setting. I know this all too well.
#3 ears
This is the most important point I could make in this whole post. Practice how accurate you can hear your rhythms...
What does that mean??
Jojo Mayer explains it best in his instructional video. To put it simply, before we can play anything, it helps to hear it. Am I right??
Try these tips, they'll highlight how well you are listening when your playing.
Tip #1: play 16th notes with the metronome on crotchets with your right hand leading. After playing this for two bars, take your right hand away and only play the weaker notes - the 'e' and 'a'. The challenge will be playing the weaker notes with your left hand as long as you can evenly. If it sounds uneven. Don't stop, try and correct it as best you can.
Tip #2: When you're playing anything on the kit with a metronome - a back-beat, finger exercise, double kick exercise - whatever it is. Move that metronome to the off beats, or move to just the beat of 2. The idea is to move the metronome around and see if you can still practice along with consistency.
If you want to practise these tips effectively and to a higher level. Try it at different tempos and dynamics ;)
The feelings of nailing something new in front of a crowd is electric! Any muso will tell you how good this feels but as you play for a longer time, those feelings occur less and less. I have a theory about this that may help. Two things: The longer you play, the bigger your goal, the longer it takes to achieve said goal. Two: if we zoom out and look at our lifestyle as a whole. Try splitting up your time. If you have a shit time performing music, you may have a good time recording and learning something new or if designing your website isn't turning how you'd planned you may come across a great soloing idea when you're teaching a student a new concept. Gone of the days where musos can be so single functioning (only a studio muso, only a session guy). We have to do it all now. But that's a subject for another time.
Let me know how these tips and concept help you.
I love watching something I don't understand. Alan Holdsworth, Virgil Donati, Dillinger Escape Plan, Meshuggah, Thomas Lang, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea. I love these musos and bands. Even being a professional musician, I would have no idea where to start to learn the songs that these muso's create. It's as if they were transcending some alien-like telepathy when they were in the practice room and everyone in those bands somehow could intercept the signal.
I also think these types of bands are a great source of inspiration for the muso community who have been in the game for a while.
Do me a favour and try to imagine Alan Holdsworth playing "Sweet Child Of Mine" at a covers gig down the road at your local pub. I don't know about you, but I can't see it. Frankly, I don't think he could get paid enough for that kind of gig.
Conversely, Slash, (who wrote that riff) an absolute beast of a guitarist as everyone knows - would be happy to play it again for a small fortune I'm sure. He among many others has been paid handsomely for playing that riff.
It's crazy to think that in 2020 young students pay people just to learn how to play "Sweet Child Of Mine." A riff that was written as a joke string skipping exercise by Slash in the late 80's. Yep, that's over 30 years ago! I agree, it's a strange world that we live in.
So where does this leave us?? Well, the last thing I want to do is learn how to play a song that adds to the problem so many of us get caught up in. Us muso's learn 40 iconic songs and we play the same songs every weekend for the rest of our lives and then we get bored of playing music for $$ so we stop playing music all together... Noooooo!!
I'm trying my best to not make that mistake again. More importantly, I don't want you to make this mistake at all.
Let me tell you something you already know, but still may be helpful.
As musicians, we need to be constantly learning. Please don't ever forget this!! this is key to growing as a musician and as a human being. But I hear you saying, "Seriously! why else do we need to do this?? I don't have time!"
Because we love it remember!? New songs, new styles, new techniques, new instruments, new bands. This one aspect is our saving grace from becoming what we all don't need in our lives.. Feeling jaded or resentment. It's a useless and disabling feeling that gets you nowhere.
Learning new skills is such an empowering thing to do for yourself. I'd imagine that all the artists like Alan Holdsworth or Thomas Lang don't get to that jaded state because they are the types of people that push themselves to the next level and the next level after that!... For instance, did you know Thomas Lang has produced over 600 Albums??.. I just found this out the other day! I knew him as the insanely talented drummer that looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's another example of someone who is always learning. A new song, technique, genre, instrument or a new facet of the musical world; music business, audio engineering, copyright law, sound design, sales and marketing. Don't make the same mistakes I did. Say it with me "Always learn something new."
If you had a teacher come to you and say, "You need to work on your performance," what comes to mind? My first thought is: theatrics, movement and acting but I know this is far from what we want to do as musicians. If we wanted to act, we'd be actors... Right?!
I believe at the core of "performance" is the intent to connect with what you are playing, it's how you want to present your music. Knowing what to do specifically however is the tricky part. If I try to imagine myself pouring my heart and soul in to what I'm playing I get a good picture of what it looks like. But the intriguing question that keeps pulling me back in is; where do you draw the line between performing and acting?
I think Intent is a good word because even if you don't get to where you're going, you were pedalling in the right direction. So if we're not intending to connect with what we're playing as muso's, we are not performing, at best, we're acting, and at worst, we're uninterested and therefore, uninteresting.
The word 'acting' brings up all kinds of gross images to me. Images of phony musos sounding shit on stage, playing shit music and forcing themselves to look like a rock star - I don't know about you but cover bands come to mind (not all cover bands, but unfortunately there are some doozeys out there). The truly great performances you've encountered had one thing in common, and they all have this power over us. They have this ability to get under our skin where you aren't thinking and only experiencing. It hits that part of us, forcing us to be inspired or cry or get goosebumps. Isn't that one of the beautiful things about music?
This brings me to another point. Performance isn't just about music that you see in the flesh. It's not only about flailing guitars, hair flicks and dance moves. It's about the recording space too. If you work with a recording engineer you'll hear them talk about the importance of a musical performance all the time. So why is this so important? No one can see you anyway.
Well, I'm not a recording engineer but I know that the last thing they want to do is spend days cutting up tracks in editing. They'll also tell you they can hear a good performance next to an edited track.
This is why I think it comes back to 'the intent to connect.' - if we try our best to connect and mean to play as good as we possibly can, expressing our selves through our instrument. Hopefully we are pouring out more than just musical notes. The ideal for me would be to pour out more feelings and experiences for the people I may play in front of. To give them space to be both in front of me and somewhere else. That's performing!
This song is one of my favourites and it seems to keep following me wherever I go. I've been learning more and more about audio engineering to record this song myself and to my surprise, I'm actually happy with this one. I hope you enjoy my version of John Mayers 2006 released song - "I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving you)."
I know for myself, I feel the need to design a system to follow, I know I work best in a structure that takes thinking out of it. This was a problem I had 10 years ago and sadly, I still have it. Wouldn't it be nice to pay muso's what they are worth and forever have opportunity. I would love to say "if you follow this formular, you will be a working musician and earn great $$ doing it." So far, I don't have this system/road map.
I like hearing questions asked to the drumming greats like:
When you can't get employed, how do you employ yourself?
Vinnie Colaiuta explains there was a time where he was living in his car, he went to jam nights, audtioned for Frank Zappa and - spoiler alert - he got the part! That was it for him... Incredible right?! It sounds almost unbelievable.
Thomas Lang talks about the sacrifices he makes to have a family. I love hearing Thomas talk about telling young muso's to build websites, learn about marketing, learn about reading music, learn about rudiments, practice 8 hours a day. It's all good!
I'm facinated reading and listening to what drummers did to facilitate being a drummer and a fulltime muso. Did they work as a security guard, did they work as a chef, what did they do for $$ or was it 100% playing live?
The smartest plan of attack I'm hearing so far is that If you want to just play your instrument, call it a hobby and get a "real job." If you want to be a professinal musician you have to wear all the hats you can to keep yourself afloat. This may be brutal, but it also sounds pretty real to me.
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Thomas Lang, Tim Ferriss and John Mayer. I want to have lunch with these dudes. This would be my dream :)
I love Thomas Lang. He is so intouch with where he is and what he's doing... AND HE'S A MUSO! this means so much to me. His technique, musicality and facility is almost something that is alien-like. But more than that, it's his work ethic and creative energy - constantly adapting and learning - taking him to new heights, pushing boundaries of what is possible as a musician. What a guy!
Tim Ferriss is someone who is also super impressive to me. His intension and his output to the world seem to meet together to be such an integral, thoughtful and genuine person. He is in a position in life to do whatever he wants, he's designed his life that is entirely of his own doing and it's something that helps others, whilst boosting him up simultaneously. What a guy!!
John Mayer seems to validate and solidify his own artistry by his work ethic and creativity. Coupling with his excellent communication skills and comes across as more than a successful pop artist, and well respected and muso. I get the feeling he has been the spokesperson for a generation of bedroom singer songwriters that has 'made it' but more importantly, there is nothing about him, or his career that smells of the phrase 'sell out.' I respect this so much.
These are the shoulders of giants I would want to stand on.
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My intention is to put honest work into my blog, to share with my fellow muso's and to come along side them and say "you are not alone." The creative process is tricky and I want whoever reads this to find comfort being in it together. It's a beautiful thing to learn an instrument and it's even better if you want to share it with others as much as you can.
Anything to get us 'unstuck' as a muso is a fight worth fighting for.
For now, this is a platform about me, my playing, my achievements, my ideas and thoughts and the never ending pursuit of balance between a musical career and life. I already feel like I have achieved something by putting my blog up and adding to it regularly. I'm lucky to have reached this far and feeling comfortable sharing and doing my best to express it. I wasn't always the person willing to share much at all.
If you're reading this. Thanks for your support.
I'm really excited to continue learning how to code my blog too. I was never the techy kid growing up and don't consider myself being one even now. I know a professional website would probably look 5 times better and represent me in a more professional manner, but for some reason, I couldn't care less. You'll find that some things aren't perfect and don't look quite polished yet. But honestly, I value learning this skill more than how I'm being perceived right now.
I'm really enjoying the idea of learning about my process, learning about what makes me productive, what I run away from and what I can do to get back to what I love doing - no one can teach this better than me.
My main source of motivation is running away from the feeling of being stuck - I know how this feels all too well. The creative process can be a tedious and frustrating road. That feeling of being useless, unable to help oneself, feeling stuck... If you think about it, it can be pretty depressing.
When I think this way, it's not hard to imagine a world where I think the universe is telling me, I can't do what I love. I find it's even easier to think this way when I say to myself, I want to earn a six-figure income, buy a house, have superannuation or have kids or whatever...
I think these are all luxuries that we deserve. I know it's not impossible to earn good money whilst pursuing your passion, but I think it's extremely hard to get everything you want out of life by playing music. This may be obvious, but I find it an important distinction to make. It's hard enough to find your passion, let alone to pursue it and fulfill all your dreams.
Ok I'll say it... We should count ourselves lucky we get to play music in the first place.
I'm learning to use noise reduction in my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) coupled with some EQ, Gate plug-ins and compression. I also just used a (randomly placed) SURE SM58 in the room instead of the mic on my camera. It's chalk and cheese really. So soooo much better.
As you can probably tell, I know nothing about audio engineering but I'm super happy with the distinction between these two clips on my channel. Super keen to learn more and see where this takes me :)
(reflection)
The signal is a lot clearer but also highlights some timing issues on my part. This leads me to a very important point. THIS is why - as a musician - you need to always be learning new skills, you never know what holes are in your playing if you never learn to listen out for them.
Take a listen and let me know what you think.
I saw some jazz that was.. Well.. Interesting.
In the same way you buy an expensive coffee from a very fancy Cafe and you end up stunned with how bad it tastes.
Friends and I checked out this jazz night and similarly, we experienced this same 'stunned' feeling. There were a lot of musos in the crowd, and we quickly found out that it was like an open mic night for jazz musos. Unfortunately for us, there was no vetting process, It felt like anyone was getting up on stage. To make matters worse, "performers" would take the stage and figuratively shit on our ears for 5 minutes would then, at the end of the song - if you could call it that - ask the band if they could play another. The audacity!!
So I was in this jazz bar with my mate, the girl I was dating at the time, and her friend. After about 30 minutes of this musical ambush, the girl I was dating and her friend got up and left. Their parting words were, "life's too short". We laughed, they left and my mate and I stayed till the end. We hated it.
I look back this now and wonder why the hell did we stay till the end? Were we a gluten for punishment? We didn't even consider leaving early. The only conclusion that makes sense to me now is my mate and I are both muso types, and I think it could have been an artistic type observation that we enjoyed. Maybe it's the same concept as watching a car crash. It's so horrible but you can't look away. Haha.
Maybe it's an artistic observation. That we were able to see the beauty in the process...
I've had amazing drum tutors over the years. They've taught me so much about practising, performing, listening, technique, awareness, choices, vocabulary, styles, so much stuffs. Every tutor has had these golden nuggets of wisdom that they've given me and I wanted to take a moment to share them with you.
They've really changed the way I see performing and practising, and I consider the understanding of these concepts the difference between hobby and art. It has created perspective, clarity and maturity to my playing. I would be a completely different drummer if I wasn't willing to learn from these great teachers so I hope you can benefit from my experience.
Lloyd Gyi was my first drum tutor in high school. I attended group lessons with some of my mates once a week to see if I liked it. It turns out I ended attending these group lessons for three years - I guess I liked it.
Lloyd's main focus with all of us was the importance of time. He used to say "As drummers, we need to be a slave to the metronome."
He tirelessly taught us the basics, 8th notes, triplets and 16ths. He went on to teach us about reading music, coordination, dynamics, four-way coordination. He showed us the subtle differences that make a good drummer, a great drummer.
As I look back on our lessons and what we covered, Lloyd's approach was simple. It was really only about two things. Accuracy and control. Two things a teenager doesn't know anything about. It was as if he put a plate of musical vegetables in front of us each week. This approach didn't make him popular but I think it did great things for some of us. As for me, I'm so grateful that my first drumming experience was with Lloyd. His approach cultivated such a solid foundation and helped me learn the basics on how to crawl, so I could teach myself to run. Thank you Lloyd.
Fast forward to the Uni days, where it was part of the curriculum to have an hour drum lesson every week. They called it an instrumental major, I called it bliss.
Dave Plenty was my first drum tutor at Uni. One word comes to mind: inspiring. In my first lesson, he was showing me one concept on sight-reading and before you know it, he was playing for 20 minutes going through all these ideas that turned into more ideas. He expanded my mind to all these options I'd never even thought about working on. I found his playing and his facility on the kit to be endless. His ability, finesse, four-way independence was all at a soring level. It was nothing I'd ever seen or heard before. His approach was all about what to practice and what is "actual practice". He used to say - and I'm sure he still does - "if you practice 2 hours per day, you are only maintaining your ability." This was his watermark.
Another concept that I still adopt today is maximising your practice time. The question he always challenged himself and his students with was, "how many things can I practice at once?" If we were working on-site reading, he wouldn't open up a book, point to a page and just work on reading. He would also put the metronome on, but maybe, just on beat two. He did this to test your internal metronome and accuracy. Then, he would ask "what about your feet?!" He would then talk about what kind of ostinatos would be practical in the style of music I wanted to improve on, we'd decide on a few and then, we were ready to practice. We would end up with ear training, sight-reading, 4-way coordination, kit dynamics, technique, composure and all along the way, he would ask you questions that you had, to be honest about. "How does it feel? Does it sound good? If not, why?" That's the Dave Plenty way. I love this approach. It was about working smarter not harder, about creativity, stretching yourself and practising properly. Thank you Dave.
Andy was my tutor for my second year of uni. He is another great influence for my playing and someone that added to my skill set for sure. Andy always looked so effortless on the kit. He was someone who really looked at what he was teaching his body and focused on getting rid of bad habits. He would go as far as getting mirrors out to really look at my hands from all angles to fix little nuances that can make all the difference. He also taught me about letting microphones do the work. This approach allowed me to work with sound engineers to achieve a better tone on the kit (if it was mic'd up). He used to say "you only ever want to play 80% of how loud you can play, let the mic do the rest of the work." He taught me that the goal is to play with intensity, not to play loud. These approaches taught me that stifling your technique for loudness is a dead end. Thank you Andy.
Toby hall was my final year tutor. I found Toby had a totally different approach to Dave and Andy. Toby was fairly intellectual in his teaching method. I actually don't remember him ever sitting behind the kit. I remember spending our 1-hour lesson talking about song choice for my final work recital. We'd talk about brushwork, come to think of it, we did very little playing. I was at a stage where I was getting overwhelmed with the number of things I wanted to learn in a short amount of time. Toby would mostly talk about organising time rather than paradiddles. This was very helpful for me. He showed me that if you're highly skilled but underprepared, you aren't doing yourself any favours. Thank you Toby.
Anyway, I've had some great influences in my years of playing so far. I know I could ask them questions until their ears fall off but I know that all of my tutors would say.. Practice more, play live more, see more live music, be versatile, look for inspiration wherever you can, don't