How to Get Jazz Drum Gigs in 2019 - Subscribers Only

If last week's lesson was controversial when I thought it wouldn't be...

...this week's lesson is garnering widespread agreement when I assumed there'd be controversy.

So what's everybody agreeing with? What did I think would be so "controversial"?

As the subject of this email suggests, this week I delve autobiographically into the challenges of Getting Jazz Gigs.

My own story, when it comes to getting gigs, is one of failure with the conventional means breeding success with the unconventional one.

As such, I can look back on my early years with humor and fondness, when, at the time, they were a daily stressor.

Many folks who've followed the channel can probably infer a lot about that story arc...

I'm obviously a jazz drummer.

I'm obviously not as skilled as Eric, Marcus, or Ari...

...and here I am, playing on the internet. Not too many dots to connect 😛

But in the lesson, I try to use my journey as the anchor point to examine some larger phenomena that were happening to the scene as I came up.

I mean - we lived through the death of the music industry as-we-knew-it, and the birth of the internet.

Who's really surprised it was f$%#d up? 

Anyway, I give you This Week's Lesson.

"Avoid The Vibe" Lesson - Subscribers Only

Looks like today's lesson already touched a nerve, to judge by the YouTube comments...

This week, I wanted to reflect on one a few particularly painful experiences of my "youth", but with a drum spin, instead of a "what's wrong with society today" one.

Anybody who's been to "jazz school" knows what The Vibe is...

Unlike The Jazz Movie, in which reprimand was swift, explicit, and...over-the-top, negative feedback in real life jazz education is usually delivered on ice.

A subtle head-shake here...

...an obvious glance to the other musicians that's about you, rather including you, there.

And, the most obvious: adversarial playing.

Wrenching the steering wheel of the tune away, while you lock eyes with the recipient of the "vibe".

As I say in the lesson, however, today I'm not tilting at the attitudes behind "the vibe".

Just like the brigade system in French restaurants, you can have a conversation about whether it's the best way to teach chefs to work in a kitchen...

...but there's an easy way to alleviate it: have your shit together.

It's in that spirit that I tackle a Drum Conundrum: how to be creative in the specific setting of a jam session, without risking The Vibe.

Because we can avoid scorn by playing conservatively...

...but what if we want to be...slightly creative.

To see more, check out the lesson!

And grab your transcription here:

Jazz Jam Sesh

Time Exercises - Subscribers Only

First things first - grab your transcription here:

Time Exercises Transcription

How I Finally Made a Lesson about The Movie - Subscribers Only

If this week’s lesson is clickbait, it’s not very good clickbait.

Years ago, when a certain “jazz movie” came out, I vowed never to mention it by name, save in private conversation.

It’s not that I disliked The Movie, even though it’s hard to watch with suspended-disbelief as a “real” musician…

…but more that everybody was talking about it, and plenty of YouTubers were getting well-deserved view-count bumps by talking about it.

So I never wanted to make “just another W@#*&^$# lesson”.

I’d always secretly harbored a dream, however, of showing a new/casual jazz fan the gap between what The Movie depicts as “modern jazz”, and the music I’ve spent my life studying.

Because - c’mon.

Bright young 17-year-olds in 2001 would not decide to throw away money, status, and probably the opportunity for a big house with a 2-car garage just for rehashed Buddy Rich Band palaver.

It’s not like I was in a “jazz bubble” in high school, either. I also liked Led Zeppelin, and all the best music of the time, including (I was a grunge kid) Nirvana and Soundgarden. Not to mention some of the best hip hop of the era, from Tribe and Pharcyde to Illmatic and Jay.

Was I going to forgo playing that stuff to play a niche music with a much smaller audience to play…stuff like they play in The Movie?

Hell no.

This “jazz music” would have to be life-changingly awesome for so many of us to decide to study it.

So I wanted to make a video introducing a new fan to the jazz music I knew…

…but I also knew it had to work on two levels.

Because longtime followers of the channel weren’t going to sit through a dull video intended only for “outsiders”.

Soooo - hopefully I’ve split the atom.

See if you agree;)