(light rhythmic music)
- I'm Stephen Taylor and I want to talk about
getting work as a musician.
I want to talk about getting paid to play the drums,
if that's your goal.
For some of you, it's not your goal,
but for some of you, it is.
Now me, myself, I come from a background
of beginning to gig and get paid
almost from the very beginning.
The weekend I got my drum set, I started playing out.
I was playing out at my church.
I had a couple of other gigs.
Like I was immediately out gigging.
I got my first full-time gig when I was 19
on Bourbon Street in Louisiana.
I did that for three years full-time as a house drummer
for several different clubs.
And from there I got signed to Universal Records.
I toured with some major label artists in Nashville.
I've done this thing.
I've been in small clubs, I've been on big stages.
I've been the artist, and I've been with the artist.
And so these aren't just tips that I think maybe would work.
They work because I've had to feed myself
and feed my family off of these things.
Now the first most important thing is
you have to have your playing together.
The essentials have to be there.
If you don't have good time,
if when you play the music doesn't feel good,
if you do a drum-fill and it falls out of time
or you drop a beat, you're probably not to that point
where we start going out and trying to get gigs.
But if you've put that work in,
if you feel like you're ready to take that next step,
then a couple of these tips are gonna help you.
The first tip, and the biggest tip I can give you
is be a good hang.
These others don't matter if you have a crummy personality.
Like if you are horrible to be around,
no one's gonna want to hire you for a gig.
No one's gonna take you out in a van or a bus
to go on the road.
They just don't want to be around you.
It's really hard, especially when you're on the road,
to have somebody with a negative outlook.
And I can't tell you how many musicians I know
that are super talented, like they're more talented
than me, and they wind up losing consecutive gigs
because their attitude is all wrong.
So you have to always check yourself and go
"Man am I being a good hang?"
That doesn't mean you have to put up with everything,
but that does me you have to have patience.
That does mean that you have to show up
and do your job well, and smile while you're doing it.
You have to be friendly.
You can't be this weird guy over in the corner.
You do have to talk to people.
So that's my first tip for anybody that's coming in,
that you have to be a good hang.
The second tip is network, network, network.
You can never network too much.
Now me, as soon as I moved to Nashville,
I got some cards printed up.
You can get that printed up online for super cheap now.
And they call it the Nashville Handshake.
So every musician you meet should leave with your number.
Don't push yourself, just say
"hey, I play, here's my card if ever want my information."
And so I've found myself going out quite a bit
and I would go to the places where music happened regularly.
And I would begin to watch them.
And I would introduce myself to the band on breaks.
"Hey I come out and hear you guys really
"love what you're doing.
"I'm a drummer myself, I'm new to town.
"I'd love to get to know you.
"I'm gonna come out and watch you some more."
After they see you enough, at some point,
you're gonna want to take that to the next level.
So what do you do?
Well, I actually would offer to take people out to lunch.
I'm like "Hey man, I love your playin'.
"I love your group.
"You mind if we go grab some coffee or lunch sometime."
Put your money where your mouth is.
If you wanna get paid to do this,
then you need to step up
and start really letting people know.
"Hey I'm serious about this."
Pick their brain.
Get to know them.
And once they get to know you,
maybe you have a couple playing examples you can give them.
Once they do that they're like "Okay, cool."
Then you get put on the sub list.
And once you get put on the sub list,
that's when things really start to roll.
So I can't say enough about networking.
The thing you can do right now to start networking
is go out, go out and find the places
where music is happening and introduce yourself.
It's not enough that you go sit in the background.
You actually have to meet these people
and you have to let them know that you're looking for work.
Another thing is carve out your niche.
So in other words, don't try to be all things
to all people all the time.
You need to carve out your niche.
For some people, you're the guy
that is a solid groove player.
For some people, maybe you're the pop-country guy.
For some people, maybe you're the drummer
that can also BGV's, that's background vocals.
Carve out that niche for yourself.
Maybe you get with another bass player
and you guys become a rhythm section.
I know people in Nashville, they've actually gotten work
as a rhythm section.
They get hired by very large artists to play
because of the magic that they bring to the gig.
Another thing that I have to find myself reminding
a lot of my students is - if you're on-time, you're late.
Early is on-time in the gig world.
So you need to get there and make sure
that they know you're serious.
You need to be setup and you need to be ready to go
before anything happens, okay?
That's gonna be a huge thing.
For me, as a band leader, if I'm hiring a band
and they show up right before gig time
and they get ready just before the down-beat,
I'm like "Man what happened?"
What if something happens, what if something comes up.
What if something breaks?
You have zero time to fix that.
So I make sure to get to a gig
a good 30 to 45 minutes beforehand.
I'm setup a good 10 minutes before we even start,
maybe even sooner.
That way I have time to settle in, talk to people.
Be a good hang, network, and then you play the gig.
The last thing that I would say is,
I would say follow up.
So after you play the gig, it's not over.
A - follow up with yourself.
What did I do well, what didn't I do well?
B - you need to follow up with the people that you played.
So I can't tell you the number of band leaders
that I've actually called or texted or emailed
and said "Hey I really enjoyed playing
"with you the other night.
"I just wanted to make sure
"you were comfortable with everything.
"If there's nothing, if there's something
"that you weren't comfortable with,
"please let me know.
"Next time I'll try to make that accommodation."
And sometimes they'll honest say
"You know I love your playing, but when you played
"this one song, you didn't quite have that part.
"Is there any way you can get that together?"
Letting them know you're open for feedback
is part of that being a good hang and networking thing.
The know "Oh wow, that's a good person to work with."
Like they're not gonna impose themselves on my music.
They're actually gonna take advice, take feedback,
and be okay with it.
Constructive criticism, we have to learn how to take that.
So the thing I want you to do right now.
The thing I want you to do after you get done with this
is go begin networking.
It can be as small as going to somewhere
you know music's gonna happen
and just taking that first step
and introducing yourself to that person.
That's a big step for me because, I'd, trust me,
I'm no stranger, I am an introvert.
It's not comfortable for me to do that.
So that's the first thing I want you to do.
And begin getting the ball rolling
by letting people know that you're actually in town.
Alright, again, I'm Stephen Taylor.
I'm a teacher here, I'm a satellite teacher here at Drumeo.
I run my own website as well with lessons
as well as a YouTube channel.
But you can find all those links below.
Be a good hang, network, make sure that you're following up.
All of these things are going to lead to
you being able to make money doing what you love.