Book Review: The Gigging Musician by Billy Mitchell

I just finished a book. That's not unusual for me. I read a lot of books, usually fantasy/sci-fi, business management and personal finance books. I'm a nerd. For a musician, I don't read a lot of music related books aside from the notes and staff variety, but this one reached out to me. Maybe it knew I needed it.

The book is Billy Mitchell's The Gigging Musician: How to Get, Play and Keep the Gig.* 

So, how did I come by it? Pretty simply. There's a decent thrift store in town, and I cruised through the book section and picked this one up. It had a one dollar price tag on it, so I thought, "Well, I'll just carry this around for a while and then bring it back."

I couldn't bring myself to leave it, so I paid the buck and took it home.

Not only did it have a title that hit close to my heart, but this book was a little ragged around the edges, seemed colloquial - I honestly felt like I was adopting a lost puppy. I brought it home, but didn't think I'd actually read it. But the first time I cracked the cover, I was hooked.

Billy Mitchell, Author

There was a reason for the ragged cover - the book shoots straight. It's full of plain advice and straight talk that the wise musician will take to heart. It is written in a conversational style that provides for easy and quick reading. It seemed to me that the author tried to create the feeling of having a personal conversation between colleagues.

In short, Billy Mitchell gets to the point, and gets there very clearly.


There's much more here than this, but a few of my favorite lines include these:

• "If you keep on doing the same stupid things, you can expect the same stupid results"
• "You are the only one who realizes the full potential of your work."
• "It's blood, sweat and tears - and then you still might not get the gig."
• "When you begin to look at gigs for their dollar value only, you begin to diminish the spiritual value of the craft."
• "The music business is a living thing, a beautiful yet vicious animal that sometimes eats its young."

There's no shortage of one-liners, and there are myriad concepts that you simply cannot miss if you're attempting to make a career in the music business. From figuring out who you are, to showing respect to those who work with you or for you, to arriving prepared to the gig - Mr. Mitchell covers critical aspects of the music business. I've been playing paying gigs for almost twenty years, and there was plenty that I needed to read.

It's a unique thing to read a book that makes you instantaneously feel that the author knows you, knows your situation, and cares. But you do get that sense. The writing style is personal, honest and very straightforward. More importantly, it's plain. I don't mean uneducated or simplistic, but written like you'd write something important to a good friend.

If you're a gigging musician - or aspiring to be one - you need to read this book. It'll take you an afternoon. Two, at most. And it'll be worth every minute, and every cent you spend to buy the book.

Happy reading. And happy gigging!

*Active on the pro LA scene since 1970, Billy Mitchell is as experienced and decorated as any musician in the game today. You can read his full bio here. 

Friday Feature: Diana Krall

Recently I was going through a box in my garage and ran across a pair of concert tickets from the summer of 2004. One of my close friends, also a serious music lover, took me to see Diana Krall for my birthday that year. Diana gave four (FOUR!!!) encores that night.* Just looking at the tickets put a smile on my face and sent me to my stereo to enjoy some tunes.

Diana Krall is at once a throwback to an earlier era and a pioneer into new places and dimensions. Her vocal quality and style of delivery are both timeless and innovative, and her piano stylings are the perfect compliment to her wide-ranging musical forays. As a bonus, she is a beautiful and photogenic person.

Personally, Diana has been my favorite jazz vocalist since the first time I listened to her. And given the musicians she generally plays with (some of whom I'll list below), listening to Diana Krall is both entertaining and educational. It's classic, timeless music.

Not only have I been in love with the voice and music of Diana Krall for years, I've enjoyed listening to the musicians she works with. A partial list includes:

• Peter Erskine
• Jeff Hamilton
• John Clayton
• Anthony Wilson
• Russell Malone
• Christian McBride
• More HERE

As with other Friday Features, I hope you'll do some exploring and get to know the music of Diana Krall for yourself. You will be very richly rewarded.

Happy listening!


*I've been to many, many live shows in my life, from major symphonies to rock, jazz, pop and country acts in the largest and smallest of venues. Even though I love the music and the atmosphere, I'm ready to go home at the end of the night. Not so with Diana Krall. Even after four encores, my hear broke when she said goodnight. I could have listened and enjoyed forever. 

It's a matter of (public) perspective

Disclaimer: Before I dive into the topic du jour, I have to say that I get it. I really do. It's just a little joking around, and there are jokes about every profession and every class of people. (Recently I played a gig for a bunch of sewage system engineers, and, let me tell you, those were some pretty crappy jokes.) But there is an underlying problem, and it's time that we, musicians and non, face it head-on.

A friend of mine, an insanely successful and renowned guitarist and music educator, tells one of my favorite stories. Shortly after he and his family moved into their brand new, beautiful home in a somewhat exclusive part of their city, he was chatting with a neighbor at church when the guy asked him, "So what do you do?"

"Oh, I'm a musician," he replied.

"No, no. I mean, what do you do for a living?"

I love this story, because it exemplifies the standard attitude toward musicians from many people who aren't. Music is fine as a hobby, I guess, but you can't seriously call it a career, right? It's just not important enough. 

Alright, so that characterization might be a touch incendiary. In a nutshell, here's my problem: musicians, and music education, have always been marginalized by mainstream society. Whether it be in the professional world, in education or at the gym, music is often viewed as a sidebar.

Too often, musicians and music are turned into a punchline.

Example number one. Here's the commercial that just about made me fall off my treadmill.

I get that it can be tough to support a young personn through the cumulative hours it takes to develop a musical skill, but the mom is essentially saying, "I deserve a reward just for being in the same space with a kid practicing her instrument - that's how bad it is to have a musician in the house!" (It's also a subtle dig at bassoonists, and I get that, but...)

Example number two. Although KFC has taken their ad down (you can't even find it on YouTube), you can get a sense for it and read their response to criticism here. The commercial contrasts the "good idea" of buying fried chicken for dinner, to a bunch of "bad ideas." The one that caught my ire? "Bad idea: buying your own kid a drum set."

Again, I get that marketers are just trying to get viewers to laugh and remember their product. But as I wrote above, it betrays an underlying attitude that musicians, like lawyers, proctologists and used car salesmen, are somehow not people, and that their contribution to society is a necessary evil.

It's a topic for another blog post, but music is possibly the most reliable catalyst for positive change for students and society, and to marginalize it simply reinforces many of the things that are wrong in the world.

What do you think? Just laugh and let it roll? Or is it a more serious problem? I'd love to hear your perspective in the comments below.

Happy drumming, even if it is a, "bad idea."

Special Feature: Play Drums Like A Girl

I've been hesitant to address this topic, but there's just too much good stuff going on right now on this topic to ignore.

Before I dive into it, I do want to make one thing crystal clear: in my mind there are no limiting factors to being a great drummer in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, orientation, political leanings or soda preference.

The biggest indicator? How hard, long and smart you work.


Okay, now that we've got that handled, on to the good stuff.

There's been a huge push in the music industry over the last decade or so to try to convince girls/women that playing music is for them, too. While it's true that the vast majority of high-profile drummers are male, there are some amazing female players out there, and it seems like there are more all the time.

As a starting point, check out Drummerworld's list dedicated to "The Ladies." Earlier this year on the blog, I featured one of my favorite women of groove, Emmanuelle Caplette. And today, I ran across this website, the "Hit Like A Girl" contest.

From my personal experience, I've played with and taught many a girl drummer who could outplay any boy in the neighborhood with ease.

One quick story about a former student of mine. As a Sophomore in high school (15 years old), she was playing the timpani part on Jager's "Espirit de Corps." If you've ever played that piece, you know how important that part is. The day before our district band festival, she got her wisdom teeth pulled out. On the day of the performance, she told her mom not to give her any pain medication because she wanted her head to be clear so that she could play her best.

Be honest. Would you have even showed up after you had your wisdom teeth out? I probably wouldn't have. And don't even think about going without paid pain meds.

That night her example put a new sense of toughness and self-respect into our band, and we qualified for the state-level festival for the first time in school history. This girl set a new standard for toughness and dedication to her craft. Percussion - and her self respect - were of critical import to her. Awesome!

Anyway, girls rock. Go play the drums, or anything else you want to. Just let us boys play along, too!

Happy drumming!

Friday Feature: Steve Jordan

Another favorite drummer who is much, much more than that. Steve Jordan is an artist. He is a producer, musical director, composer, drummer....you get the picture. For a fairly complete look at his career and musical works, visit the Drummerworld site.

One of the things I admire most about Steve is that he's multi-faceted, and approaches music from a variety of angles. He never thinks about music - or performs, writes, etc. - from only one aspect. He seems to always consider what his contribution will do in terms of affecting the whole. He's thoughtful about his choice of sounds, grooves, fills and overall style to make sure that the music achieves the desired affect.

In short, he's a musician. He listens. Communicates with his band mates. Plays well with others. Again, you get the idea.

Two of my favorite Steve Jordan moments are his appearance in the documentary film, "Standing in the Shadows of Motown," and his work with John Mayer and Pino Palladino. I just can't get over the "Try" album. It's one that I can listen to for many reasons and for many hours.

And as I've said about some other players, you won't do any harm to yourself by learning some of his techniques and tricks.

Happy drumming!

The Weight Room: Transcription

One of my favorite expressions about musicians is this, "The good ones borrow, but the great ones steal."

Are you stealing? You should be! Now, I'm not talking about actually physically taking things that aren't yours. I'm talking about learning to play like your favorite artists - to use their licks, fills and grooves.

Why would you want to do this? Don't you want to be an individual, to be unique? Absolutely! But just like babies learn to speak by imitating, so we learn to "speak" music in part by imitating the best "speakers" in the business. You'll never be an exact copy of anybody, but as you learn how others play and think, so to speak, you will diversify and expand your ability to express yourself on the instrument.

In short, theft pays. Uh....you know what I mean.

The word is transcription. To transcribe something, in this case, means to write it down, exactly as it was played. For example, if you listen to a song that you like and write down the words as you hear them, you have transcribed the lyrics.

In fact, all of my Thursday posts of late, called, "Bag of Tricks," are short transcriptions of a section of the drum part of the selected song.

So, how do you get started? I suggest following this process.

• Choose the section you want to transcribe. Keep it short at first, no more than a couple of measures.
• Mark where the section starts and stops. For example, it you're using a media player like iTunes, you can easily see what time you are looking at so you can go back to the exact spot each time.
• Listen to it enough times that you can sing it pretty accurately (okay, at least give it the bah-da-be-dah run through).
• As you start writing it down, focus on one "voice" at a time. What's the kick drum doing? Got it? Move on to the snare drum, or hi-hat, etc. writing down each part as you go. 
• Once you think you've got the whole down, try playing along with it in the air or on your legs. You'll quickly get a feel for whether you're on or not.
• Use pencil (so you can erase your mistakes), and use standard notation.
• Once you know you've got it dialed, get it down permanently. I suggest using a notation software like Noteflight where you can store your work and share it. 

You may find that after you've gotten into the transcription habit, you'll actually start seeing drum parts in your head as you hear them. It's a little weird to think about, but it will move your learning and playing forward in a big way. 

Start with something easy, and keep working at it. It will get easier and more rewarding the more you do it. 

Happy 'scribing!

The Weight Room: Playing with the click

As a young man I had the opportunity to play percussion (xylo, BD and the like) in an orchestra with a top studio drum set artist in the SLC metro area. He's a guy I've seen on liner notes my whole life, and he's very well known for being the studio drummer you want on your project.

During the course of rehearsals, studio sessions and performances, I asked him if it was hard to always be creative in the studio. I'm paraphrasing, but the answer was something like this, "You don't have to be creative. You have to play with the click, and sound like a drummer."

It seemed like a strange answer. You don't have to be creative? Just play with a click? Obviously there's more to being successful than just keeping good time, but it's an absolutely critical skill - besides, I think he was just being modest.

Seriously, though - nobody cares about your "chops" if you can't play in time. Call it what you will - the pocket, groove, solid - whatever. If you can't do it, you won't find a place as a drummer.

So, how do you start? Let me suggest three steps to get you started.

1. This seems obvious, but get a metronome. A good one. I recommend one with a tap function, and a wide range of tempos (tempi?). A set of isolation headphones is a good idea, too. Then use it enough to get to know what it can and can't do. Read the instruction manual (seriously, do it!).

2. Play very easy stuff while getting used to playing with the click. Start with an exercise that you can play in your sleep without thinking about it - so you can think about playing with the click! Focus on "landing" with the click on each beat and making your subdivisions very even. It shouldn't take long for you to get comfortable and progress to more complex exercises, grooves, etc. But be aware of the click always. Treat it like another musician, and focus on staying together.

3. Test yourself without the click. I have a metronome with a "mute" button. It doesn't stop keeping time, it just stops making noise. Try playing a measure with the click, then one without (Benny Greb has a fantastic example of this on his "Language of Drumming" DVD - check it out!) to make sure you're keeping good time. Another way to do this is to reduce the number of beats you're hearing per measure. For example, if you're playing in 4/4 at 100 beats per minute (BPM), turn the click down to 50, and play the same exercise at the same tempo. Instead of getting all four beats, you'll just get 1 and 3 (or 2 and 4).

Many of my students hate playing with the metronome. But I view it as one of my "real" friends. You know, the kind that can look you in the eye and tell you that you're fat - and you're still friends.

If you learn to be comfortable keeping great time (and feel) along with the metronome, you're well on your way to being a great drummer - one that other musicians will love playing with.

Happy grooving!