Adam Silverman : Nashville Session and Touring Drummer

Today I was working after practice at my computer, like I do every single day that I’m home. I got so overwhelmed with the amount of work that had to be done that I started stressing out, hurrying, and all the sudden life just wasn’t fun anymore. I went downstairs to take a break from the work load, and of course I reached out for a few BBQ chips to cool me down. When I reached in to try to grab the bag, it was trapped on something, so I did what any guy would do, I pulled as hard as I could on the bag. The whole thing exploded sending chips across the entire kitchen floor.

For a moment I wanted to cuss, many many words went running through my mind, but in the midst of this super frustrating moment, I did something that I hardly every do, I started laughing my head off. I mean let’s be honest, it was really kinda’ funny. Anyone else that would have seen it would have had a side stitch from laughing at me. I slowly picked up the chips, eating a few that didn’t look too dirty, and laughing the whole time. It was the first time I’ve felt free in months. Freedom from work, from life, from drums, just freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. It was amazing!

I picked up my stuff, went to the gym, and then drove up to Forks Drum Closet for a little cymbal comparison. I decided that I was going to have fun today. I can’t stress enough, being a musician is incredibly challenging. It has so many ups and downs it’s like reliving my teenage days, it’s all emotional all the time. But if you forget to have fun doing whatever you do, there is no point left in it. None of us know how many days, years, or hours we have left in our lives. Why do we insist on wasting them away stressing about things that don’t matter that much.

So do what you do, do it with excellence, work super super super hard, but HAVE FUN in the process, or find something else to do. And – if you’re really bad – grab a bag of chips and a soda, blow air into the chip bag and smash it, then shake up a coke, and let ‘er rip. I just hope you have a nanny to clean it all up LOL :)

Well it’s been a little while since I’ve written, but that’s a good thing because I’ve been too busy to sit down and write. In the last 2 months I’ve finished my first major tour with Lauren Alaina opening up for Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan, tracked one of my first master sessions for an upcoming artist, recorded several demo tracks at my home studio, and started another tour with Lauren opening up in the second slot on the Sugarland “In Your Hands” tour. Not too shabby.

I can’t believe that it’s June already. So much has happened and is happening every week that it’s hard to even remember that I just started with Lauren last September. The rest of this year we will be out with Sugarland, playing summer festivals all over the place, and I have some other really great sessions on the horizon. So it’s hustle, work, play, the typical life of a drummer.

I really wanted to take this chance to talk about one of the most important things that I’ve learned from being out with Jason Aldean. I’ve had the amazing opportunity to become friends with Rich Redmond (Jason’s drummer), and being on tour with Rich I learned a great deal not just about playing, but about owning your job, and how to make it more than just drumming if you want to build this into a full time career for life.

There is such a difference between the drummers that you’ve heard of and the ones that you never will hear of, and very little of that has anything to do with their talent level. I’m quickly learning that how I look, dress, act, play, setup my drums, everything I do is part of a marketing package that is being built very much like a product brand is built. A small part of Lauren’s branding and imaging is based around the band that’s on tour with her, and learning how to make the best use of that opportunity is something that I’m so grateful for learning at a young age.

I think this can be applied with any job that you do. If you work on computers, work at a bank, dance, play baseball, whatever you do, you can be “that guy” or “that girl” that does this or that better or different than everyone else. Building a brand is so much harder than just being good at a job, but I think it can be equally as important as the actual job.

Rich has learned that nobody is going to hand him a career, and so he’s been working and working to build something for himself, and now I total see the value of running on that same path. What path are you on? How are you taking steps to make something happen for yourself? Are you waiting for someone to hand you the career you’ve always wanted, or waiting for the person of your dreams to fall out of the sky, if you are I would argue that you’re maybe sitting on some gifts that you’ve been given, and burying your skills will get you nowhere fast.

So now I’m off to continue to become a better player, but also to really dive into what it looks like to be a full time drummer for the first time in my life. Let the journey continue, and begin.

Here is a shot of Rich Redmond and I for Sabian – you can also read the article about the tour.

Rich Redmond and Adam Silverman - For Sabian

Lately I’ve been learning more and more how destructive the word “can’t” can be in our vocabularies as musicians, or just as human beings with dreams and desires. The world tells us that we can’t constantly. We can’t look like this, we can’t be that talented, we can’t do what someone else has done, we can’t do something as well as someone else does… and so on. Those messages get pounded into our minds constantly especially when you’re a musician. You feel like your personality is tied up in your talents, and it’s easy to start focusing on all of things that you don’t do super well, and then you become down about yourself, and before you know it you’re in a destructive pattern that’s going to lead you into the “I can’t” hole. I’ve been there, and I’m here to tell you that you literally can do whatever you want.

Without sounding like Chris Farley doing a motivational speech about a van, you really CAN do whatever you choose to do, if you have a plan, the tools, and the desire to execute the plan that you have. Here’s my deal, I believe that the plans I come with in my life are from God, but even if you don’t believe that, say you think it’s just chance, well chance is just chance, unless you have a plan. Truthfully some of my best laid plans end up not working, and that is usually in God’s plan, but what I learn along the way of those “failures” are usually the things that land me the best things I’ve ever gotten in my life. My wife is a perfect example of that… I had to be a failure at many relationships before I got it right, and when I got it right, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. So now I’m thankful for those times when I wasn’t successful.

The same holds true in my music career. People have this funny perspective that I’ve come out of nowhere, that one day I was hanging out at home hoping that I’d get a big gig, and then magically it just happened. If you could hear me laughing right now. I practice 3-5 hours a day, I still do that, I even practice on tour, all the time.  I’ve worked, marketed, setup meetings, begged, and even groveled a little bit to get even to this level, but it is far from over for me, and it’s far from over for you too I’d bet.

So my point, it’s so easy to focus on the things you can’t do. For the last few weeks I’ve been focusing really hard on that fact that I “can’t” practice as much on tour… what does that do? That causes me to lose confidence, microscope my playing, get down on myself, and feel fearful. In my mind that’s God losing the battle for our confidence in Him, and in ourselves. We are listening to lies, and we’re buying into them. We give over to the can’t voices, and then we’re not accomplishing anything.

So – a few days ago something shifted. I started thinking about what I could do on the road. Well I have a practice pad, so I focus my time on honing in my abilities with really advanced hand techniques, focus on timing, and focus on showmanship things like stick twirls and flips, etc. Is that as good as 4 hours on my kit, no it’s not, but when I’m on my kit 4 hours a day, I’m not doing those other smaller things, and they all add up. I also have been spending time working on ear training, charting, things that contribute to making myself a better musician overall, and a better person, and my attitude is much better towards myself because I’m focusing on the things that I “can” do right now!

So – what do you take away from all this craziness – well first of all – you don’t want to end up living in a van down by the river :) And you need to get rid of the “can’t” in your life. Start focusing on what you can do to improve your musicianship, your talents, your job, your family, your body, whatever you need work on. Forget the things that you can’t really change that want to smash your desires, and spend your time working on the things that are going to boost you and build you up. Avoid other negative people that are going to bring you down, find people who will build you up no matter what. Those are some building blocks to success as a drummer, musician, person, carpenter, doesn’t matter, you can apply this anywhere.

Be positive, find joy in your circumstances, and drop the word “can’t” from you vocabulary.

James 1:2 – “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.”

This past week on the road with Lauren Alaina has been a whirlwind of radio promotion events, rehearsals, TV performances, airplanes, hotels, and new experiences for me. It started out heading out to Kansas to do an event with a radio station for 1,000 screaming high school kids. It was an acoustic show with a small band, but it was super tight, and a great performance.

Then we fly up to Baltimore with WPOC to help promote a Breast Cancer fundraiser day at Turf Valley. I laughed the whole time I was staying there because I actually went to my senior prom in the hotel. I could remember my date, dancing, the fear about life, what was I going to do, would I make it as a musician someday? We were literally down the hall from all those memories, except this time, I was living out the dream I’ve had for so many years now. The show was great. They raised about $7,000 for cancer research, I got to see some of my aunts and uncles, and my mom and dad. It was a blessed day for me.

From there, we flew up to NYC for several days. I had a day off and wandered the city with my new friends. The city has always been overwhelming to me, but I could remember being on Broadway and seeing shows with old friends back in high school. I remembered ice skating near central park one Christmas; and again, I found myself living out my dream that I had when I was there as a kid.

The next day we arrived on the set of Good Morning America; the sun was far from being up. My stomach was in knots, I was sweating and nervous. As soon as I got inside, it was an amazing feeling of excitement and nervousness. I got my drums ready to go – sitting behind my Risen Drums, with my Paiste Cymbals, Evans Heads, Vater sticks in my hands, I had immediate peace about the performance. We had a chance to sound check everything, ran through the song a few times, then we headed off to get make-up done. After make-up, I got dressed, put my in-ears on, and started to nervously warm up on my practice pad in the hallway. About 20 minutes passed and we got the call to head down to the set.

As I was watching them interview Lauren, I was overwhelmed with happiness, feeling like all the work, blood, sweat, tears, practice hours, charting, networking… it was finally starting to pay off in a huge way. When they signaled me to start the song, I stopped thinking, I just fell into my drumset, and let my body do the work instead of thinking about it. Zach (The Band Leader) smiled at me about halfway through the song, it was going so well, it was like a dream come true.

When we hit the final beat of the song, I was like, oh my gosh, I did it, I made it through my first real live TV performance, and it was actually pretty awesome. All I could think about was the call from my wife afterwards, how much she supports me, how much my family, friends, and teachers had all played such a huge part in this. Afterwards, I took a million pictures, waved to the crowd outside, talked to fans in the studio there, and then went out for a celebratory turkey club with french fries :) haha. It was the best sandwich ever…

So that was my first real run with Lauren. Pretty awesome stuff going on. Don’t forget to catch us on The Ellen Show this coming Friday Oct. 21st!!

Last weekend I had the great opportunity to work with CCM Artist Big Daddy Weave on a tour date out in Missouri as a fill in for their drummer Jeff Jones. It was an incredible experience for me, and one where I was able to really hone in my skills doing sub-work. I decided after the experience to write a little map about how to fill in for other drummers and how to really nail it.

1) Preparation.

This is really the most important part of the process. You can never be too prepared for a gig. In this case their drummer sent me side view videos of him playing the tunes, and I also got a copy of the audio from the live show from top to bottom. I spent a good bit of time going through each song. I cannot over emphasize the need to listen to the tunes by themselves without charting first. This helps give me an idea of the feel that they are going for, and gives me a great idea about what kind of chops I’ll need to accomplish it. It also puts me in the right mindset style-wise so that I’m doing my best to duplicate the feel of the person that I’m subbing for. Remember, the goal here is not really to just play like crazy, the goal is to make it seem like you’ve played the songs 100 times and like their drummer isn’t away. You can’t do that without listening to the tunes intently.

2) Charting.

Once I’ve listened to the songs, it’s time to start making charts. I always start by finding the general tempo of the tune and writing that on the top of the chart. I also typically will write a style or song association. If it’s very Dave Matthews sounding, I’ll write DMB, or John Mayer or whatever so when I look at the chart I know how fast it is and what tune it reminded me of. That way I can associate quickly on stage if I forget what a song sounds like.

From there I’ll go ahead and listen 1 time through just getting the proper bars and the song form. I write everything in the Nashville number system, but I use all 1′s since I don’t need the changes. So a verse for me that’s 8 bars looks like this ( 1 1 1 1 : 1 1 1 1 :) I use the numbers to show a measure and the “:” is used to tell me a phrase has ended. So that would be an 8 bar verse with two phrases. It can get really complicated when you have odd meters and such, but I have a system for everything these days. Once I have the tune mapped out I’ll take another listen all the way through and I’ll write in the necessary grooves, variations, stops, band hits, etc. Anything that will help remind me of what the song is supposed to sound like. I’ll also write snare drum choices if I’m going to be changing them out in the show.

Charting is the most important part for me. I just played a 14 song show by reading through charts, there was no possible way for me to memorize 14 songs in one week, especially in the middle of doing studio work, so you live, eat, and breathe by the charts you write. So this process is very tedious, but necessary and eventually it even becomes fun. You can create your own language basically.

3) Gig Day.

Finally, you’ve listened, charted, prepared as much as possible. Now it’s time to do the show. The biggest thing for me, especially when we don’t have any rehearsals, is making sure that the tempo is at least close and the feel is right-on. This is much easier if you’re using a click track, but if you aren’t, the best thing is to try to get your own click into your mix so that you can at least start close to the correct tempo. All songs tend to move when you aren’t on the click which is why I am a huge advocate for the click track, but in many cases artists don’t use them, so you have to be prepared for that and be ready for whatever comes your way.

Once you’re on stage reading down your charts, it’s important to stay focused on the form of the songs. Keep your ears open, if you are hearing something different from your charts feel-wise, make adjustments. Your charts are there to guide you but sometimes artists make changes on the fly, you have to be listening as much as reading. If you know what the verse sounds like, and they want to repeat it, just be prepared mentally to keep following along. If you get lost in the chart keep your eyes and ears on the band leader, they will surely give you cues as to what’s coming next. I always try to make sure to make a point of looking out of the charts in the middle of the tune. If the second verse, pre-chorus and chorus are mirrors of the first, I’ll make a mental note, and use that time to interact with the other players. Then I get back into the chart before the bridge so I know what I’m doing. Don’t be so into the chart that you’re not with the artist on stage, but don’t allow yourself to get lost in the moment and forget about the huge stop on the first beat of the bridge :).

Hope this helps some of you guys. I’ve filled in and read charts on the stage for at least 15 different artists in the last few years, this has always worked for me as a survival guide. Peace!

The past couple months have really transformed from a time of fear to a time of great excitement. As I’ve made the transition from being out on the road full time, to trying my best to start making music as a session drummer, it’s been challenging but also so exciting for me. I’ve had the opportunity to do almost as many sessions as I did the entire last year in the last 2 months. Scary isn’t it… well for me it’s super exciting. I’ve been able to work with a few new folks out in L.A recording at “The Vault” here in Antioch. I’ve also done some new songwriter demos and plan to add some new pre-amps into the studio really soon. I’ve also been working in other studios in Nashville, Joelton, Franklin, and Brentwood as well.

It all started by just beginning to put the word out to my friends that I was actually in town for the first time in 3 years. I was thrilled to work on Chad Jarnagin’s new EP at Beech Creek studios. The final mixes are being done for that right now. I’ve  also had the chance to work with Anthony Mazza for more tracks, and I got to make some new friends cutting some country tunes. Last week I got to work with Paul Buono and Steve Bisher on some tunes for Paul Reter, Karen England, and Julliana Cole. That was a pretty sweet 9 hour day and I loved every second of that.

It’s really tough to be a session player in this town, the playing demands are extremely rigid, the songs come at you really fast, and you just have to do what you do best and make it fit the song… quickly, but it’s my passion and it really makes me thrilled to know I have a real shot at doing this. It’s been my dream forever to just be a drummer, and any opportunity to cut drums, play live, or practice is a blessing. Like Steve Bisher said to me last week… “it’s awesome to make great music, even better when we’re getting paid to do it…”. That outlook could do many of us a lot of good!

Anyway, that’s the update for my drumming world as it stands right now. This file just came in from a producer I’m working with out in L.A. It’s a really cool 6/8 tune where I got to be a little bit busier than my usual session work allows for. Check it out!

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