A really cool drummer on Facebook asked me the question “so how do you become a session musician?” It really took me a little while to figure out what to write back. This is an extended version of my response to that question.
Thanks bro. Music is definitely always awesome. On your question about becoming a session player… I’ll have to let you know once I figure it haha. Honestly, becoming a studio player in the drumming world really has 3 facets. Talent, Experience, and the ever important “who do you know”.
In my 20 years of playing drums, I have found that you can really only control how hard you work with the talent that you have been given. I believe that God gives us all talents to do different things, some of us drum, and that’s awesome. Then it’s what you put into that talent that comes back out. So if you practice hard, your talents will increase. Nobody should ever bury their talents, it’s a waste of what you have been given. If I look at myself honestly, I do believe that God gave me a gift. Not necessarily a completely musical gift, but He gave me the ability to coordinate my limbs. I’ve always been good at hand-eye coordination, sports, etc. Drumming just also happens to fit into that world.
I also was given a brain that is able to remember sounds and things that most people would not remember. But, I wasn’t given the gift of hearing pitches, melodies, harmonies, and I wasn’t born with sticks in my hands blazing about a drumset. I loved to play because my uncle played and I loved and respected him. So, I started playing when I was about 5-7 years old. I started off always ahead in my class on snare drum, but for the life of me couldn’t get the drumset worth anything. I struggled to play simple beats. But I practiced for hours and hours until I got my first beat. From there it was like a rocket ship taking off. It clicked and in a few years I was playing whatever I could think of behind the kit. Drum lessons really helped this process happen faster, but I really had to actually practice the things I was being taught
When I got to college the same talents vs work came into question. I didn’t have the knack for hearing harmonies, so my teachers beat me over the head with them over and over and over again. I eventually figured out that I could memorize harmonic structures, patterns, and I could even hear and sing melodies in my head while I was playing the drums. Again, the base talents were there, but I had to tap into my brain really really hard to get them to come out.
From the talent breeds the experience. The more talented you become, the more likely that you’ll gain the experience that you need to be successful. Talent = hours. Experience = hours. As you gain experience you’ll start playing publicly. First at school, then a garage, then a college, then in churches, clubs, weddings, whatever doors open up. If you are good at what you do you’ll get noticed, and getting noticed is what puts you in the eyes and minds of those who make decisions about who is playing on what records. Now, there are always a few political decisions as well, but in my example there aren’t any :).
To summarize… there are so many factors that play into music and being a drummer. I’ve been fortunate on the touring side, and with the experience I have had in the past, and currently with 33Miles. I’ve had several amazing drumset teachers over the years, and owe a great deal of my career to those people who put themselves out for me. Jon Seligman spent countless hours with me, same with Bo Eckard, and now Jim Riley and many others.
God is still teaching me to wait on His timing to get to know the people I need to know to really start recording frequently. It’s a game of hurry up and wait. In the end I think we all become what we were made to be, it’s just how long, and how hard the road is that changes in the process.
If you are given a desire, gift, or aspiration, don’t sit on it and hope something will happen. Get the tools you need and create a work ethic that says… I will not quit no matter how many people tell me I can’t make it, no matter how this world cuts you down, no matter what the $$ signs in your head are shouting at you, all of those things are a diversion to the truth. I am living proof that you can do what you set your mind to do as long as God has the will for you to do that with your life.
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.” Benjamin Disraeli
