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Had a long rehearsal with Jesse Langseth last night. Long, as in, 5 hours. Whew. It was cool, though.
Jesse made it a good way into this season of American Idol, and is having her official Twin Cities homecoming next Wednesday at the Fineline. The stuff she’s doing now is different than what we used to play in her band, although some of the songs are the same. Our set for the gig will include re-worked versions of her originals and some cool covers – think Al Green meets Missy Higgins.
The show, like I said, is next Wednesday. We play at 9pm or something. Everybody should come down… I think it will be very cool.
PS. Jesse’s had a little bad press lately, which is funny because I think that means the show will probably be packed, although it’s a bummer for her to be in the tabloids. She posted a blog about it at her myspace if you want to check that out.
I’m playing a couple cool gigs next week that I want to make sure everybody knows about…
1) 18+ Bill Mike Band show on Thursday (3/26) at The Whole in Coffman Student Union. This is the first local BMB show since the Truce release last November, and this show is FREE.
2) Friday (3/27) is the release show for Elizabeth Hunnicutt’s new record, On The Way. The show will be at Church Of The Open Door in Maple Grove. Tickets are $8 in advance, and $10 the night of. You can hear some of the tracks from this record on Liz’s myspace page and on her new website.
I often have students ask me how to get gigs. My answer is usually not what they want to hear… because there really is no answer. There’s no online database that musicians go to when they want to hire a drummer. There’s no secret phone list that you can subscribe to.
As far as my experience has been, the only way to get gigs is to practice hard and then play whenever you can. Do some of your friends have a band? Ask if you can sit in with them. Does your church need volunteers for Sunday morning worship team? Be apart of that. Is your school putting on a musical? Get in on it. The more you play, the more people hear you and the better chance you have of getting hired for a “real gig.” Here’s some things to remember…
1) Always bring your A-game. Play as well as you can all the time. You never know who is listening and what kind of opportunities may come from that down the road. There is no such thing as a throw-away gig where you don’t need to try.
2) Always be on time. Everybody gets annoyed with someone who’s late for a rehearsal or gig, and if your reputation as such is going to make everyone nervous, then you will probably not get the call – even if you’re a good player.
3) Try to be nice and easy to work with. For most gigs, 10% of the time is spent playing music, and the other 90% is spent hanging out with everyone else on the gig. If nobody likes hanging with you, or if you always whine about the conditions of the gig, then you’ll eventually be replaced.
4) Try to have good gear. Most of the time people will notice your kit before they notice you, and your set-up will say a lot about what kind of person/player you are.
5) Be versatile. Learn the vocabulary of as many different musical styles as you can, and you’ll not only improve your skill, you’ll also broaden your chances of getting hired.
If you’ve read my past posts about snare tone, then you’ll like my latest discovery. In an effort to make using the sheets-of-paper-on-the-snare trick a little easier for live playing, I’ve been experimenting with using an old drumhead as my “paper.” It works great.
I cut the collar off a 14″ batter head right on the bearing edge crease, and I just set the floppy head on the snare drum. It fits perfectly within the hoop and sits comfortably on top of the snare… and stays put while you hit it. It also looks great… and by that I mean there doesn’t appear to be any muffling on the drum at all. The collar-less head just blends in with your snare’s real batter head. The tone is the same… nice and deep with no ring… but now there’s no little pieces of paper ripping off while you’re playing.
Duct tape comes in handy when you’re trying to dampen some snare ring or cut the high end sustain out of your cymbals. BUT… hockey tape is way better. It’s lighter weight, it doesn’t leave any resin, it even comes in American flag or flame designs. Seriously.
Another local Minneapolis drummer named JT Bates clued me in to hockey tape, and now I never play a gig without it. Go get some immediately – you will thank me later.
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