Ken Brown commented on my previous post saying "Have you thought of putting out more thoughts of 'music as a business'. Too many younger hopefuls believe it's all after show parties, loose women and sleeping in to 3pm." So, Ken, I'll let my fingers do the typing and see what my thoughts on "music as a business" turn out to be. Here we go…My early years as a drummer were highly influenced by a few DCI music videos that I owned. The three most influential of these were "Back to Basics" and "The Next Step" by Dave Weckl, and "Private Lesson" by Greg Bissonette. I learned a huge amount from these two drummers which has shaped my playing and attitude towards the drums and what it means to be a professional drummer. Perhaps that's why I'm sitting at my hotel room desk at 9am, writing 750 words on the music business, and not lying between the legs of a 21 year old groupie. I have to admit that being the drummer in a band that was formed 10 years before I was born has not turned out to be great for groupies. So, my first business advice to the younger hopefuls is "If you want groupies, go and audition for Justin Bieber" - or something. Personally I'm not a fan of loose women and I'm not really one for after show parties. Once I've done a gig I like to get a decent night's sleep. I've done my fair share of sleeping in till 3pm, but these days I prefer to get up earlier and be productive. When I was 11 years old I wanted to learn the drums. The reason I took up the instrument, persisted with the instrument, and continue to play the instrument is because I enjoyed it. I didn't take up the drums in order to attend after show parties. I think it's definitely true to say that part of the reason for forming bands was to get girls but, to be honest, I never used that to its full potential. I found that I enjoyed putting bands together for school concerts, coming up with band names, printing posters, borrowing cameras to video the gig, etc. These little projects were fun. It wasn't work then, and it isn't now. Ok, these 750 words aren't flowing out of me so I'm going to talk about the things I've done that I think played the biggest part in moving my career along.1. Practice.
I'm not the best drummer in the world. I'm not the best drummer I know (I have many friends who are incredible drummers) however I'm good enough to do the gig that I do and that's a result of lots of practice. 2. Being "business like."
There's a section at the end of Greg Bissonette's video where he says 50% of being a professional drummer is the playing and 50% is all the other stuff. He suggests putting together a demo reel, printing up business cards and going out to meet other musicians.
I've long been a fan of business cards. I printed up 250 of my first design when I was 15. I think 240 of them are still in a drawer somewhere. They make you feel professional, but unless you meet people to give them to they're next to useless.
Now I think of being "business like" more in terms of treating what I do as a job: If you're hired to turn up to a gig at 7pm, make sure you're there a little early; If it's a function gig, make sure you know the material.
Remember that somebody is paying you to do a job. Do it to the best of your ability.
Oh, and don't be an arsehole. Read Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people". It's old, and seems a little dated in places, but if you have any arsehole qualities that you're unaware of it'll help you to become aware of them. A close friend of mine had a complete personality change (for the better) after reading it. 3. Branding myself
When I was at Uni I bought the domain www.drumsolo.co.uk and created a website. I was quite attached to the URL but when I moved to London and met a web designer, who subsequently became a good friend, he convinced me to change my website to www.joecrabtree.com. It seemed weird at the time, but now I feel quite comfortable having that personal presence on the internet. It's strange to think of myself as a product or service but essentially, I suppose, that's what I am. If I want gigs I need potential employers to have confidence in me, and having that online statement certainly helps. I think my 750 words is nearly up. To revisit Ken's comment for a moment he says "Too many younger hopefuls believe it's all after show parties, loose women and sleeping in to 3pm." I suppose if you make it to the top then there can be a lot of those things, though probably not so much of the sleeping in bit. My advice to anyone who wants to play the drums for a living is to do it because you love playing the drums - NOT because of what you think playing the drums will bring you. What you think playing the drums will bring you will probably turn out to be wrong.
I'm not the best drummer in the world. I'm not the best drummer I know (I have many friends who are incredible drummers) however I'm good enough to do the gig that I do and that's a result of lots of practice. 2. Being "business like."
There's a section at the end of Greg Bissonette's video where he says 50% of being a professional drummer is the playing and 50% is all the other stuff. He suggests putting together a demo reel, printing up business cards and going out to meet other musicians.
I've long been a fan of business cards. I printed up 250 of my first design when I was 15. I think 240 of them are still in a drawer somewhere. They make you feel professional, but unless you meet people to give them to they're next to useless.
Now I think of being "business like" more in terms of treating what I do as a job: If you're hired to turn up to a gig at 7pm, make sure you're there a little early; If it's a function gig, make sure you know the material.
Remember that somebody is paying you to do a job. Do it to the best of your ability.
Oh, and don't be an arsehole. Read Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people". It's old, and seems a little dated in places, but if you have any arsehole qualities that you're unaware of it'll help you to become aware of them. A close friend of mine had a complete personality change (for the better) after reading it. 3. Branding myself
When I was at Uni I bought the domain www.drumsolo.co.uk and created a website. I was quite attached to the URL but when I moved to London and met a web designer, who subsequently became a good friend, he convinced me to change my website to www.joecrabtree.com. It seemed weird at the time, but now I feel quite comfortable having that personal presence on the internet. It's strange to think of myself as a product or service but essentially, I suppose, that's what I am. If I want gigs I need potential employers to have confidence in me, and having that online statement certainly helps. I think my 750 words is nearly up. To revisit Ken's comment for a moment he says "Too many younger hopefuls believe it's all after show parties, loose women and sleeping in to 3pm." I suppose if you make it to the top then there can be a lot of those things, though probably not so much of the sleeping in bit. My advice to anyone who wants to play the drums for a living is to do it because you love playing the drums - NOT because of what you think playing the drums will bring you. What you think playing the drums will bring you will probably turn out to be wrong.
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