THE B

LACK

PAGE

JULY 2009

NASHVILLEDRUMMERS’ ROUNDTABLE PART II

Ben SesarDave McAfee

Dave NorthrupPat McDonaldRich Redmond

THE BLACK PAGEJULY 2009

THE BLACK PAGE is distributed via PDF to email inboxes worldwide.

To subscribe, visit: www.theblackpage.net

Send us your feedback at:theblackpagemagazine@gmail.com Sean Mitchell PublisherJill Schettler Editor in ChiefJayson Brinkworth WriterRyan Carver Writer

mEARTH FRIENDLY

No Paper, No Ink, No Waste

4

18

22

23

Nashville Round Table Part II:by Jayson Brinkworth

My Favorite Mistakes:by Sean Mitchell

Virg’n It Upby Ryan Carver

The Final Word

Solo drums, beautiful drums, warm drum tones and full-on exhilarating drums. In this double CD, master-mu-sician David Jones has allowed the drums to shine in all their acoustic glory. Not since Gene Krupa in the 1940s or Sandy Nelson in the 1960s have drums been this far out front.

David Jones has long been famous for his utilisation of every conceivable percussive instrument – yes, even the kitchen sink – to make interesting soundscapes and rhythmic flourishes that leave an indelible mark on the heart and soul of his listeners.

Click hERE to visit davidjonesdrums.com.au

For international sales outsideAustralia please click hERE.

May 22 - 23, 2010Savoy Theatre

Glace Bay, Nova ScotiaCanada

Click here to visit www.cbdrumfest.ca

Feature ArtistsScott AtkinsSkip hadden Pete Lockett

Danny SeraphineLiberty DeVittoBernard PurdieJerry Mercer

Asani, Ed Mann & Bruce AitkenPaul Wertico

Dylan Mombourquette Chris Sutherland

Billy WardRoxy Petrucci

Carmine Appice Denny SeiwellBill Cobham Virgil DonatiAlan White

John MorrisonSteve Wilton

Dom Famularo

Special Guest StarsSean Mitchell, Ben Ross, Moe hashie, Mark Marshall, Todd Mercer, and The Pete Lockett Cape Breton Percussion Ensemble.

Legends Award 2010Carmine Appice, Alan White, Jerry Mercer, Roxy Petrucci, Virgil Donati

Ticket SalesTickets available from July 1st 2009

Click HERE to purchase online

2010THE YEAR OF THE LEGENDS

With country music having such a wide scope these days, I still find people that dismiss this style as being too simple. What is it that appeals to you about the style of music you play?

Ben Sesar: Too simple? Wow, why? Be-cause there are less actual note attacks? I’m guessing these people don’t have enough musical experience to realize that the spac-es between the attacks are notes too and, thus, have to be “played” as such. What appeals to me is that it is such a challeng-ing genre to pull off with any authenticity. Playing country music requires so much pa-tience, sensitivity, and awareness of space that I challenge anyone who thinks it’s so simple to sit down in my chair for a day.

The people that play and have pioneered this music have very big ears and know the subtleties. These people are equally as complex (in a musical sense) as Miles Davis or Coltrane or any well-versed jazz, fusion, or rock player. No one holds the pat-ent on complexity, and no one gets to boast

that their music is more complex because of the amount of notes being played, or the manner in which the notes are phrased—not until you play a country ballad at 52 bpm with perfect discipline and phrasing, or a train beat at 400 bpm with solos. Or better yet, since it’s so simple, jump right into a re-cording session here in Nashville and play a song you’ve never heard before, perfectly in 15 minutes. There are so many subtleties in country music which can’t be perceived by the untrained ear, and I love the chal-lenge of mastering these subtleties, regard-less of the note count.

Dave McAfee: It is exactly that that I love! Every musician has heard the Nashville battle cry of “less is more”, but it is more of a challenge than people think to make “sim-ple” music like that. It is a daunting task to try to record a simple track but capture the intent of the song, the emotion, and even the sounds you need for that song to live. If you are playing and you only use one big tom note in a particular place…imagine if you put it in just the right place and the en-tire vocal works with that. You really have to know how to listen to the other players, how to leave space. I don’t think the common country listener reacts as much to blazing licks as they do to great feel. I get as ex-cited about what I don’t play as what I do. When it comes to the tour show, it is only simple if you have done all your homework and make it look like it is!

Dave Northrup: Much of country music is very story driven which can sometimes translate to well-crafted songs, not always, but some-times. The fact that there has been such a fusion of different influences that now make up what is considered country music makes it very appealing to the support that is ex-

NASHVILLEROUND TABLE PART II

by Jayson Brinkworth

This month we feature the second half of Jayson’s interview with some of Nashville’s drumming royalty. Ben, Dave, Dave, Pat and Rich tell it like it is in Music City USA.

If you have bought yourself a new piece of drumgear & gave it to your significant other

who doesN’T play drums,

you might be a drum geek

It’s the least i could do. You’re

worth every penny!

pected from drumming, I think. Travis Tritt’s music has always had a southern rock ele-ment to it. he also draws heavily from his influence of R&B music and of course his roots in traditional country. I’m fortunate to be able to perform several different styles of music each night with an artist who is the “real deal”.

Pat McDonald: I’m lucky with the Charlie Daniels Band that I get to really stretch out and bring a lot of my non-typical country influences to the table. I grew up on rock, jazz and funk and didn’t know much about country until I moved to Nashville. I had a bit of that elitist attitude about it at first, but through the years I’ve developed a true appreciation for what it takes to make real country drumming work. I had to learn a lot real fast when I got here. But when people ask me So how do you like playing coun-try music? I usually answer by saying, “You haven’t seen us play, have you?” There isn’t much country on my gig! I tell people we’re more like Lynyrd Skynyrd with a fiddle than George Jones. Charlie is much more of a southern rock icon than a country icon, in my honest opinion. We play a lot of differ-ent styles of music in one show, and I con-tinually hear from people, “Wow, I thought Charlie Daniels was a country guy! I had no idea you guys do all that stuff!”

I can do simple, sure. When the music demands it and it’s right, I have no problem at all playing the simplest thing in the world and really trying to make it cook. But in this band, I really get to explore and experiment and bring in a bunch of different influences to Charlie’s music, and he encourages it. he’s an old school guy. he grew up playing in bands and loves us to take his music in new directions and really explore what the band can sound like together as a unit. It’s

Saskatchewan’s hippest music school.

Click HERE to visitwww.musicinthehouse.ca

very non-typical for Nashville.

Rich Redmond: The art is in the details. There is thought that goes into what we do. In the studio, we have to do the right thing for the music, while injecting some personality, and do it all very quickly. In a live situation the parts need to be brought to life with pow-er, finesse, dynamics and showmanship. A simple, colorful, perfectly composed drum part for a three-and-a-half minute song gets me much more than playing every subdivi-sion known to man. Take a tune like Jason Aldean’s “hicktown”. I made a decision to use the rims of the high tom as a color, and I overdubbed a Rhythm Tech Metal Crash-er that became a rhythmic hook, almost a counter melody. The kick and snare drum relationship in most of the music is always basic, but you can change the attitude and feel by adding or subtracting ghost notes on the snare or accents in the hi hat pattern. Simplicity is where it’s at for me. The drum-mers who play the least notes always have the biggest bank accounts. Think about it!

This is kind of a tough one to keep short, but can you list 3 things that have helped you the most in your careers?

Ben Sesar: Letting go the need to have

something to prove. Letting go the need for correctness or incorrectness; it’s “right” because I played it. Accepting personal re-sponsibility for whatever happens, bad or good.

Dave McAfee: First, humility. In Nashville, especially, it would be hard to say who the best drummer is, anyway. There are so many great ones. You should really have some true humility when you call yourself a professional drummer among all that tal-ent. That being said, you have to bring what you bring to the table, and you have to be confident in what you do to be successful at a high level.

Second, dependability. It may sound old fashioned these days, but in the real trench-es of Nashville you won’t see top session players showing up late. You won’t see top tour musicians being late for bus call or re-hearsal, or not knowing their material. Most guys and girls are grateful for the opportuni-ties they have, and they are professionals. They tend to have lots of respect for their band mates or session mates.

And, lastly, knowledge. For drummers, especially, there is so much to know. If you are going to be playing arenas, you need to know how your job integrates with the au-dio and video crews. You need to know how

compressors and gates work and how they affect your sound. You need to be a good [drum] tuner. The more you learn about the whole picture, the better you will be. You have to have relationships with your sound-men, your tech, and your crew chiefs in order to do the all-around job well. I think I have learned at least one important thing in every job I have had. The first professional job I had in the business was as a truck loader and assistant tech for a small sound com-pany. I not only learned how to drive a truck during that time, but I learned how splitter snakes worked, how to tell if something is in phase or not, and the difference between the many types of microphones, among oth-er gems. For me, it has helped many times to have a good, all-around picture of how to integrate my drums and my playing into whatever situation I find myself in next.

Dave Northrup: Persevering and staying positive. I had a great teacher once tell me that the players that are successful in this business are the ones that stay focused, weather the crazy ups and downs of this crazy business and keep trudging forward. Again my wife, Sandy, has been a contin-ued source of support for me. She keeps me grounded and if it wasn’t for her I don’t think much of the successes I’ve experienced would have taken place. I’m a blessed man. I’m not as much of a religious person as I am a spiritual person. Music is a gift from

God and an amazing form of spiritual com-munication. I can say honestly that my rela-tionship with God has been the most impor-tant thing that has helped me in my life and career.

Pat McDonald: I’d say the first is having the opportunity to play piles of differing styles in my formative years. having a wide stylis-tic background has helped immensely. The second has come along while obtaining that background. Having a strong, confident mu-sical presence and knowing when to grab the wheel of the bus and direct the music is invaluable. I see many guys who are good players but who still play almost timidly, as if they’re more interested in being led than in leading. I’ve found that the ability to be con-fident and strong and take charge musically in the appropriate places is a big help. The other players notice immediately and get a sense of security and trust in your judgment that helps them do their jobs.

And lastly, I think being level headed, musically aware and professional without taking things too seriously is paramount. There’s always room for a laugh to lighten the mood and make everyone loosen up and have fun, and I’m constantly looking for an opportunity to be that guy. When you’re a pleasant person to be around, people want to use you. Playing music is fun. That’s why we all do it to begin with. I try to keep it that way as much as I can.

Dave Northrup

Rich Redmond: Playing, Personality and People Skills. Those are the “3 P’s” I talk about with students and in my drum clin-ics. My friend Mark Sackett, who is a very successful businessman, encouraged me to add “Presence” to the list recently. Your playing skills have to be there. You have to be able to play a great groove in time with a great feel. You have to be able to play a million styles with authority, conviction, and dynamics. It’s smart to be able to alter the attitude of any groove. That has been a sell-ing point for my drumming. I try to be the ver-satile, emotional drummer that bleeds pas-sion. That’s what artists and bands want.

Personality is very important. I am happy 99% of the time, and I bring that outgoing joy for life to the bandstand. An easygoing personality is a selling point to any organi-zation. You have to be able to play well with others on the bandstand and off. The con-cept of presence is important. It’s the idea of being in the moment and giving 150%

to the task at hand. Too many players get distracted and don’t dedicate themselves to their job, whether it be a rehearsal sound check, show or recording session. Be in the moment and give everything you’ve got, even at a sound check! I also have invested greatly in people. I champion many artists in their musical journey and they support mine. Real relationships that have been nurtured over time have been my investment. I have planted many seeds and they continue to grow. Invest in people.

I know that time on the road and busy schedules don’t allow for a lot of prac-tice time. If you get a chance to practice, what things do you still work on? Do you have a pre-show warm up routine, or is it the Buddy Rich concept: “I take my hands out of my pockets”?

Ben Sesar: My pre-show warm up is just that: getting my hands and sticks warm. I find without doing so, the sticks are more prone to slip, and I’m tentative about my grip. There is something to be said about developing a certain amount of friction and heat between the skin of the hands and the sticks themselves. Once a certain amount of warmth is achieved, my grip becomes more naturally stable, and the muscles loosen up accordingly. As far as practice, I work on ideas—phrasing, soloing, anything creative.

The only rule: it has to come from me, from within. Now, that is a Buddy Rich con-cept which I have always admired. I know, he thought of practicing as a bore, but the concept applies whether performing or practicing. he didn’t like to borrow too much from others and felt he had everything he needed within. I love that.

Rich Redmond

Dave McAfee: I definitely have a pre-show one-hour warm up routine. I play rudiments on a practice pad, I drink water, and I think about the show. I think about the transition points, the syncs, and the blackout points that will happen during the night. That way, when all the pyro, the million watts, and the screaming is going on, I am calm and re-laxed and I know what’s coming. A surprised drummer or one counting off the wrong song or to the wrong click is not a good thing in a sold out arena. I wouldn’t want to try to play the Toby show without being warmed up. It is basically balls to the wall for the first 90 minutes. It would be way too hard to do that and have any real fun.

My home practice routine is almost en-tirely about working on my meter and feel. I am lucky enough right now to be playing usually at least four to five days a week, ei-ther live or in the studio. I still want my feel and time to be better. The magic moments in the Nashville studios are almost always when the section really locks into a great groove. I think I was recording a jingle the last time somebody got excited about one of my licks.

Dave Northrup: Not nearly as much as I’d like to. Being a husband and father, and re-sponsibilities that that brings, takes a huge priority in my life-- which is a good thing. I think balance is so important. I try to sneak in a few hours here and there when I can,

especially before having to go out and do clinics, so I can be somewhat on top of my game. Before show I do stretches, singles, doubles, parradiddles, finger exercises for about 45 minutes. Time alone doing that helps me get my game face on.

Pat McDonald: I really don’t do much drum-set practicing anymore. When I was young, I had an unstoppable fire to improve and learn new things and get better on the instru-ment. But I’ve found that learning to play the instrument well is just the first step in the de-velopmental process. It takes several years to learn to just make a nice sound come out of a drumset. I’ve spent many years doing that. But I’ve also learned that it takes even more time to learn how to play music on a drumset. It takes a lifetime to learn how to play in a band situation with other musicians. That is where I get my practicing done these days.

I look at each gig as another chance to hone my ability to find a space in the mu-sic that I’m playing at that moment and to let my creative mind get exercised. I rarely sit down at a drumset alone and work on exercises and licks and the like anymore. I still get the itch now and then when I’ve been off for awhile, and I go downstairs and noodle a bit, but usually after a few minutes I’ve gotten it out of my system. It’s interest-ing how your perspective changes as you get older. But now that drumming is my job,

Click on the names below to visit the guys online

Ben Sesar Dave McAfee Dave Northrup Pat McDonald Rich Redmond

my livelihood, I like to do other things with my time when I’m not on a gig. I play rac-quetball, hunt, fish, scuba dive, ride my mo-torcycle, play golf, work on my house, tinker with my cars... anything but practice! When I’m on the road, I’ve found that I do have to take a half hour or so before each show and just get my hands loosened up and warm though. I have a little practice pad on the road, and I find a road case backstage or in the dressing room and just run through a bunch of finger exercises and rudimental things to get ready to play. Our show is pret-ty high energy and we’re on full tilt right out of the starting gate, so I have to take time to get the blood pumping in my hands and feet before the show or I cramp up and run out of gas really fast!

Rich Redmond: I did so much practicing as a young man that I would prefer to do a gig with an average band than sit alone and work on paradiddles. I like playing with peo-ple! (laughs) When I do practice, it’s to work on material for something that I have com-ing up, whether it be a show, guest artist ap-pearance, session or clinic. I still enjoy play-

ing with clicks and records when I have the chance to sneak away to my practice space. Most of my time is spent mentally practic-ing while I am traveling. I dissect tracks as I listen to them and transcribe them in my mind’s eye. “Good composers borrow, but great composers steal.” I steal from records and even from the other drummers on the bills at shows and festivals. Get stealing!

One hour before the show, I break out the sticks and my Real Feel Pad and get busy. I do some light stretches and play singles, doubles, diddle combos, flams, ruffs, drags, etc. The band is usually in our dressing room or bus 90 minutes before show time with the ipod rockin’, so I just crank out ad lib rudi-mental ideas to the tempo of the tunes-- 30 to 60 minutes is all I need, and I am ready to bring the thunder!

Do you do any private teaching or drum clinics in your downtime?

Ben Sesar: I have done some teaching, and I enjoy it very much. It seems hard to build a private practice, but it’s something I’m sure I would love. I am currently working on a clinic format, as the opportunities are out there at the moment. It’s really up to me at this point, but I want to come up with something help-ful to the everyday player. I’m not interested in being yet another guy who goes out and does the drumset acrobatics thing. Not that I’m down on that, but I feel that market is so saturated, and most players are out there everyday and just need a bit of practical ad-vice.

Dave McAfee: I do teach privately in my home during my downtime. I have a few regular students who fly in and try to catch lessons with as many “name” guys as they can. I know Jim Riley (Rascal Flatts) and I

Click here to visit www.drummerconnection.com

The most complete online drum community.

share one or two students, and I have sever-al adult students from the surrounding area. I am planning to start doing some clinics this year. I was never a big fan of the shred clin-ics. It is always fun to see someone play a kit in a way that you can’t even believe, but I prefer motivational speaking to a lickfest. I remember every person who ever told me I was on the right track, and everyone who told me I could do it when I was growing up. I want to be that kind of inspirational person to the drummers who might come to one of my clinics.

Dave Northrup: I have a handful of students I teach here in Nashville, not so much on a regular basis but every few weeks when our schedules permit. Mostly younger playing professionals. I also do clinics and master classes, which I really enjoy and sometimes stay over an extra day where I might be do-ing a clinic and teach for a day at the store.

Pat McDonald: I do a little teaching in town when I’m home and available and schedule permits, but it’s really sporadic. Guys will call now and then and want to get some tips and pointers, etc., and if I’m loose and not work-ing, I still enjoy sharing the information that I’ve found works for me. As far as clinics, I’ve done a few and really enjoyed it, but you really have to hustle that thing if you want to make it work. I’ve never been really com-fortable at self-promotion, so I don’t work it too hard. If someone calls me and wants me to do a clinic based on what they’ve heard me do then I’m always up for it. It takes a lot of preparation and scheduling to work it all out, and I’m kind of lazy about that kind of thing. I don’t want to be just another one of those guys who plays a half-hour solo and then says, “Any questions?” I prefer a clin-ic that is informative and inspirational and

leaves players saying to themselves, “hey! With some hard work and a little luck, I can do that too!”

There are so many amazing drummers out there who do incredible things on the instrument these days. I’m just not one of them. I don’t have the desire to practice a bunch of insane, complex drumming licks and things to try to compete with them. But I do have a lot of experience in the real world, the making-a-living side of drumming, and it’s always nice to be able to share some insight with guys who are looking to do the same thing. I’ve found that I’m pretty com-fortable talking about things that I know a little about, and I enjoy it when I get to do it. hopefully I’ll be able to do more in the future, if people want to hear me blab on incessantly about hitting things with sticks!

Rich Redmond: I have a teaching/practice facility located in the Metro Center area of

Dave McAfee

Nashville with 24 hour access. I have a core of semi-pro and pro players who seek me out through my website or Myspace/Face-book. We cover the specific concepts they want to improve upon. I started booking my own clinics last year, and it has been an amazing experience. There has been some great feedback, and it has opened up a whole new side career for me. The idea of having something to give back in the way of knowledge, wisdom and hard-earned expe-rience is very satisfying!

My clinics are called ‘The Drummer’s CRASh Course for Success” with CRASh being an acronym for Commitment, Relation-ships, Attitude, Skill, and hunger. I’m visit-ing music stores, colleges and high schools. Sonor, Sabian, Remo, Promark, Rhythm Tech and Audio Technica have been mas-sively supportive and encouraging. I also have been doing some guest artist appear-ances with high school percussion ensem-bles. That has been a great way to keep a set of chops together that I don’t use every night with Jason. I also plan on working with an organization called Little Kids Rock this year. Very exciting stuff!

These days, with technology the way it is, more and more bands of all styles are

using it in their shows. First off, do you use a click on your live shows? Second-ly, are you running any tracks? And, if so, quickly run us through the process.

Ben Sesar: We are definitely using clicks for just about every song in our show. We have a lot of video content, which syncs directly to the lyrics of a given song, so it must be precise. We run it in two ways: one, the click (and a count off) is fed directly from the vid-eo command center; and, two, I start a song with my own click track using a foot switch. This is for the songs which don’t sync direct-ly to the video, but we use it for reference. There is actually a third version, which is a mixture of the two. The video gives us the count off, and from the next downbeat I start the click with my foot. I like this method be-cause I feel more in control and less at the mercy of others.

I also would add that the click is very ben-eficial for consistency. Sometimes it’s hard to hear each other on a big stage, (even with the best of monitor technology). The click acts like glue in those situations, it really keeps us all on the same page when things get fuzzy, and we are struggling to hear.

Dave McAfee: When I got the Toby gig,

Pat McDonald

they didn’t even use a setlist. There were no clicks allowed. You got a baseball type hand signal during the ending of the previ-ous song, and you worked pretty much from any album he had recorded. I worked at ref-erence timing, but it was hard. That band was already eight years famous, and trying to change the way they did anything would have been tough, if not impossible. Eventu-ally, Toby got his own tour and added mas-sive lighting, pyro, and video. There really isn’t a responsible way to do a huge show like that without a setlist. There can be varia-tions, of course, but some things have to be a little planned out. Everything from video-syncs to guitar changes and lighting black-outs to pyro blasts work better if you know they are coming.

Nowadays, I use a Yamaha Clickstation for my own reference. I flash time (run the click before the song starts) to the guitarist and the keyboardist on songs that they start. The

band generally doesn’t have click; they just play to me. On video syncs the click comes from the video hard drive, and it has a com-puter count. We all get the count, and I just play it with the click and everything works out fine. We use one track nightly, when we do the song “Beer for my horses”, which was a duet with Willie Nelson. We again get click from the video drive, and Willie comes in and sings the second verse and the first chorus with us, audio and video-wise. Toby doesn’t use any recorded tracks other than the Willie vocal all night. he doesn’t believe in it much. We have a large band, and we definitely have a “live” show.

Dave Northrup: Yes, I use a click for tempo consistency. I’d say about 65% of Travis’s show I’ll use it throughout the song, the rest of the time the click is just used to get the tempo initial then I’ll turn it off. One of the liberating things about working with Travis is that it is completely live. There are mo-ments of ebb and flow emotion, and those times when we build a little during a bridge or a solo, I embrace that. That’s a part of the human element of music, and as long as it’s musical there’s nothing wrong with that in my opinion. No there are some songs that need to stay honest, and I’ll use the clinic through the entire song. We also have one tune where we use a loop, but as far as any backing tracks with additional instrumenta-tion or vocals, none with Travis. I have how-ever been required to do this with other acts, or showcases and what not.

Pat McDonald: The Charlie Daniels Band is an old-school, real band in the truest sense, and what you hear us do is us and nothing else. We don’t use a click live at all. We do use one in the studio most of the time for ease of overdubbing, etc. but not onstage.

Ben Sesar

The bands music just isn’t that kind of mu-sic. Things drift and float here and there based on the vibe and mood, and that’s what makes us “us”. Our show is about hearing the band play songs. There isn’t a bunch of MIDI-syncing with lighting and tracks and video and big production. It’s just a really simple, live band thing.

Charlie has always been big on featuring all of the individual players during the show, and he has gradually extended my feature spot to a full-out drum solo where everyone leaves the stage, and I get four to five min-utes by myself to solo. I’ve added a Roland SPD-S pad this year to my rig, but I only use it during my solo. I had a good friend in town who is a tremendous keyboardist help me write some little looping riffs and musical interlude things with horn hits and rhythm ideas. We dumped them into the SPD-S and configured it so that I can hit them during the solo and have some little musical things to blow over.

I’ve only done two shows with it so far, but it’s working out pretty well, and I’m getting a handle on using it live. I’ll get more com-fortable with it when I’ve gotten a few more shows under my belt. It’s really nice to have something to play along with and not just be stuck up there banging away like an ape while people go to the restroom or get more

beer! hopefully it’ll be something entertain-ing for the audience to see and hear and add a new dimension to the show.

Rich Redmond: I think click tracks are a wonderful tool to have live because most records are cut with clicks, and it’s a super easy way to replicate that exact time feel of a record night after night. Why not use the technology? I keep it really simple and use a Tama Rhythm Watch. A hundred dollars and you’re in the game! It’s very user friend-ly, and it’s easy to program setlists that are always changing. You can program 30 tem-pos back to back. On a drum machine, you may have to skip from pattern to pattern or patch to patch, which can be a time waster. Computers also have the tendency to crash, so when I do use computers I always have two.

Jason’s music is very straight ahead and visceral, so we don’t run tracks. That would change the onstage vibe and aesthetic greatly. Programs like Pro Tools and Abble-ton Live are now accessible and affordable. I know many bands just firing tracks from iPods! It’s a brave new world. The moral of the story is to be able to get a consistent and solid time feel with or without a click, but I prefer using one for consistency in the music and the overall flow of the show.

Lastly I want to get your insight into hav-ing a successful career as a musician and the maintenance that goes into its longevity? This is more than playing. There are definite business skills we all need as well, correct?

Ben Sesar: Yes, there are countless other skills needed in achieving and maintaining success. People have been trying to come up with a success formula for ages—which

Humility, it’s the number one personality trait people lack when it comes to trying to achieve anything with success or maintain success

over a long period of time.

Ben Sesar

suggests that by reverse engineering the paths of other “successful peo-ple”, one could bring about success in a similar manner—but I don’t think it works that way. No two people doing the exact same thing, the exact same way, are going to have the same out-come. It’s a very narrow-minded ap-proach.

As far as longevity, it goes way be-yond business skills. I think you have to have a little humility. You have to be willing to adapt and change, but the first step towards that is realizing you don’t know it all. The ego must be put aside, so you can do whatever it takes to get the job done, even if it means re-learning how to play, or getting along with people, or what-ever it may be. I say all this, and it looks easy on paper, but humility is a very hard quality to find in folks these days. Very few people are willing to admit they don’t have it together in one area or another.

We live in an “everyone’s a winner” society now, and people feel entitled to success because their mom or their best friend said they had talent. Don’t believe me? Watch one episode of American Idol. That’s extreme, but there are varying degrees, and I see it everyday when kids ask me the same exact question. humility, it’s the num-ber one personality trait people lack when it comes to trying to achieve anything with success or maintain success over a long period of time.

Dave McAfee: The music business is a people business. I used to be shy, and I had to work on my people skills when I decided other people were get-

ting where I wanted to be a little faster than I was. When it comes to longevity, sure you have to be a good or great player to keep working for years, but people who en-joy working with you will keep working with you.

On a tour bus, most older pros will take a very good player who is easy to live with on a bus over a great player who is a pain in the ass. I have learned over the years that musicians can become better play-ers with time and work. I have seen many of them do that. how-ever, I haven’t seen that many people become easier to live with, or less of a jerk over time—if that is how they were when they got there.

As far as staying in the business and being successful for the long haul, you just have to keep learning the other parts of the business. I have had my own production company for a few years now. The first time you refer to yourself as a producer, you get silly chills and feel like a goof, but, ac-tually, producing in-volves everything from scheduling sessions to time and people manage-ment during the session. You have to

be involved in everything from man-aging the budget to arranging the charts and picking the players. The first time you bring in a good project

at or under budget, it is a rush!

With the Jamey Johnson project,

we were all co-producers be-cause we all contributed to the arrange-ments and the

style of that re-cord. To Jamey’s

credit, he wanted us to have credit for

the music we created with him and also for creating the whole experience. Now after a little success

and some good reviews, a few Grammy and

ACM nominations, it isn’t so silly to be called a producer. The challenge is to keep building on that.

You always bring your ears

and your expe-rience with you to

any new project. Being a producer is a natural step for ex-perienced drummers, given the re-sponsibilities you will have had after many years in the business. James Stroud and Lonnie Wilson are great examples. Again, it would be great to just be one of those guys in the mix in Nashville at the end of the day!

Dave Northrup: Absolutely, you have to be a people person with good com-munication skills. More and more home recording is the norm these days. File transfers and recording drum tracks and sending them back. having the ability and knowledge to do that has become significant to stay in the recording game. You just have to be able to do it. And being di-verse and finding your niche to stay in the game. That might mean along with performing you’re doing clinics, master classes, seminars, speak-ing at universities and teaching pri-vately. I think sometimes those other things help keep it interesting and lend themselves nicely to continued growth on the instrument. Capitalize on your strengths and experiences and be able to share those with oth-ers.

Pat McDonald: Absolutely. I’m not a business minded person in general, but I’ve had to learn to be more of one as I’ve gotten into making a liv-ing doing this. It is a business and you must be wary and cognizant of how things operate. There are a lot of sharks out there, so you have to learn to see the fins circling and learn when to get out of the water! You have to learn to organize the business side of your career be-cause there aren’t managers and agents who handle things for you as a sideman in this business. You are responsible for booking yourself, keeping your calendar organized, handling your finances and tax is-sues, maintaining your contacts and keeping them abreast of your avail-

ability. You book yourself. No one does it for you. You have to have a reasonably orga-nized system in place and keep it operating, so that you can take the work when it comes and not double book yourself and have to cover your goofs. A lot of guys book things and then bail if a better paying thing comes along. I won’t do that. If I book a club gig that pays $50 and then get a call later for a showcase the same night that pays $300, I won’t cancel the $50 gig and leave some-one hanging. I don’t think it’s right nor is it good business. I told the guy I’d be there on his club gig and I will be ---on time and ready to go. The money will always come if you’re a pro, and I figure it all evens out in the wash. Someday down the road I’ll get another $300 showcase call and I’ll take it then. And if I don’t back out on the guy who booked me for the $50 gig and do a good job, he’ll probably call me again and again and I’ll end up making more than that $300 by working with him anyway! I’m so fortunate to be able to play drums and get paid actual money to do it. I pay my bills by playing. I’m not getting rich, but I’m happy and I’m not starving. That’s more than a lot of people can say these days. I’ve made a living doing it for a lot of years now and things have always seemed to work out one way or another. I don’t see why they’ll ever stop as long as I play well. I’m orga-nized, professional, courteous, grateful, humble and above all prepared to go with the flow and take the bumps along with the

smooth road. If you do all of those things, you can’t go wrong.

Rich Redmond: Yes sir! That’s important stuff! The world’s greatest drummer could be playing in a basement somewhere, but we’ll never know because he never gets out to play with other musicians. You can’t be afraid to let the world know you exist. This is a business where people will easily for-get about you. I have branded myself by us-ing a website, newsletters, bulletins, blogs and all forms of social media. By embracing the internet, you can create a global perso-na for yourself for free! It just takes some effort and self confidence. I’m amazed by the number of musicians who are just too lazy to get busy with this stuff! Creating a network of people that champion what you do is the first order of business. That’s your bread and butter. If you have people willing to move their entire schedule around to get you on a gig or session, you know you are doing something right.

here’s some quickies: Be a great player, be over prepared for every gig, be confident, be happy, be well dressed, be on time (be early), have great gear, have a firm hand shake, look people in the eye, remember names, do what you say you are going to do, have a business card, have a website, have a demo reel, have promotional materi-als, go beyond expectations always, deliver, and have fun!

Jayson Brinkworth is an accomplished drummer, percussionist, vocalist, educator and writer.

Click HERE to visit him at www.jaysonbrinkworth.com

by Sean Mitchell

What do George Washington, Florence Nightingale, Abraham Lincoln, and Joan of Arc have in common? None

of them ever had the luxury of eating a chocolate chip cookie. The incredible gooey goodness of the chocolate chip cookie did not see the light of day (nor the inside of the oven for that matter) until 1930. Ruth Wakefield did not plan to invent a cookie. She was busy with the chores of running the Toll house Inn in Massachusetts. While mixing a batch of chocolate cookies, she found that she was out of baker’s chocolate. Ruth substituted some sweetened chocolate broken into small pieces and added them to the cookie dough. She expected that the dough would absorb the melted chocolate, thus making chocolate cookies. Of course when Ruth scurried across the room to retrieve her pan of cookies (lest she burn them) she found that the chocolate chunks in fact did not melt

completely. Ruth unknowingly made history that very night. And this little mistake led to a financial empire for the Nestle family.

By now I am sure you are thinking, Mitchell, of all your crazy metaphors and ramblings this time you are way off your rocker. Cookies? Really? Be that as it may, there is always method to my madness… bear with me.

A recent conversation with my brother Brett left me with some great insight into life and drumming. As my younger sibling and his wife traverse the landscape of parenthood with three young children all at challenging ages (three-year-old twins and a five year old going on ten) he expressed his respect and admiration for any parent at wit’s end. Regardless of your skill set or experience, it seems sometimes your best intent and effort shows very little result and in fact has little to no effect on a three year old who thinks running around the house at 12:30 am

giggling and squealing is hilarious. It would appear that Brett—once a hyperactive child himself—has been given the gift of a child with the energy level and social graces of the Tasmanian Devil.

What struck me was Brett’s ability to deal with my little niece in a manner that is completely beyond any patience I could hope to have. What gives my little brother this endless stream of understanding is an unteachable skill? The ability to make mistakes. Not only make them but recognize them, adjust and then move past them, quickly. Brett accepts that he will no doubt get it wrong as much as he gets it right, but he will move forward all the same, and take what he can at the pace his kids will allow him to learn, until he moves on to the next set of life’s lessons. That it is all part of the process. In all reality, a mistake is your best lesson; the damage is in practicing them. It is then that they become your consciousness.

I sit here writing this article in the dim light of my flat as a small (but rather convincing) tropical storm pounds relentlessly at my door. having moved from the sanctity of the Canadian prairies to the country’s Atlantic coast, I find myself at a stalemate. It would seem that my life skills have been put to the test, and this article finds you reading my process as it happens.

This past June marked my one-year anniversary in my newfound home province of Nova Scotia; however, all is far from well. I feel that I’m taking on the role of a hypocrite as I write out yet another piece that is suppose to inspire you, but the truth is that after a year of solid dedication to hours of practice, emailing and phoning over 1000 possible contacts, agents, friends of friends, and anyone who could possibly want to book my band (or me for that matter) I have played exactly four gigs. For every 50 emails

or phone calls I make, only one garners a productive response. In this day and age that response is generally, “We will get a hold of you if something comes up.” For the most part I get: “We have no opportunity for you at this time,” or “This is the fifth time you have contacted me. Please take me off your list.”

Recently I received an email from a fellow musician named Jack who seems to be experiencing the similar results over a much shorter time period. As in any big city the music scene can be cliquey, to say the least. While my new hosts are not completely unfriendly to outsiders, we who are from other parts of the country are referred to as “those who are from away.” I will let you be the judge.

In my response to my fellow newcomer, I detailed some advice and tips on how to go

Advertise with The Black Page

Incredible rates

Interactive weblinks at no extra cost

Reach a global audience

Contact Sean at theblackpagemagazine@gmail.com

for ad rates

•

•

•

THE BLACK PAGE WANTS YOUThe Black Page is looking for a few good teachers. We are starting a global database of educators to publish every month in The Black Page. Education is the future of drumming, and the more access we have to great teach-ers, the better off our industry will be.

To submit your name, email address/website to our database, email Sean at:

theblackpagemagazine@gmail.com

The listng is free for full & part-time drum educators. Please provide some reference material for us to look at.

about getting a bit of a head start in this town. That is when I had my small epiphany. First I detailed for Jack a list of who to contact. Not those that paid lip service—We should get together… I’ll call you—but those who actually called me back. Second I gave him a number of names in the music association here that could help him get gigs, rather than the name of a bar or pub manager. Of course this list wasn’t based on my past successes, but rather it was based on the mistakes I have acquired over the past year. The bar owners I annoyed, the venues that ignored me, and the agents and players who wouldn’t take my calls, these were valuable lessons in persistence, patience and above all staying true to my path. I was never close-minded or short-sighted in

my dealings with anyone. I was always courteous and professional. I wish I could say the same for a lot of my counterparts, but such is life. Blame is a useless game.

In creating my mistakes I also took comfort in the knowledge that for every failure I had accomplished (I use the word “accomplished” here because I don’t see my failures as a setback), a new seed of opportunity would always present itself.

During every single step along the way, even though I bitched and complained about the lack of work, the lack of interest in my project and often the lack of help from local agents/players, I managed to turn every situation into a “what not to do” list that was now ironically going to benefit Jack. If I have learned anything in life, it is easier to start with

a list of things not to do. Sometimes even with your best intent and knowledge, things never go as planned. In other words, shit happens. It’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility.

The thing is, in order to fully master anything you have to know all sides of the monster. You have to know why your meter has to be solid, why your timing has to be precise, why you can’t anchor your body weight on your feet when playing. Brothers and sisters, the only way you can ever know what you are not supposed to do is to do exactly that: what you are not supposed to do. The proof of your success will always lie in your ability to make mistakes. If you aren’t busy making mistakes, you aren’t getting anything done.

In the boxing world there

is a saying; “Everyone has a plan until they get hit.” It’s what you do when life lands a left hook (and your game plan ends up in the toilet) that counts. You will no doubt set out on many journeys, whether gigging, touring, or becoming the next Nashville cat, and you will inevitably have the wind knocked from your sails a time or two. Your rites of passage are going to be those lessons that sometimes sting the most. But in these lessons you will find out not how little you know, but rather how much you know.

I won’t tie this article up with a neat little bow and tell you I am doing well and that all these lessons have enriched my life thus far. Plain and simple, they are hard, and it can be real ugly sometimes. I can’t tell you that I have succeeded in this journey… yet. To those looking outside in, I am still really struggling. I have made some heavy sacrifices and mistakes, have had to live off very little money, have often looked for employment in some very humbling (might I add, non-musical) jobs here, and still witness few results despite many months of hard diligent work. Yet I am not a victim of my circumstance, nor am I seeking to bond

with anyone over self pity. This is what I signed up for when I chose to pick up a set of sticks to earn a living, and I won’t stop until all my goals are realized. I can only tread the path on which I know I can authentically be myself. In fact, things could be worse. I recently read that it takes six years for bamboo to sprout above ground. Six years! Better a drummer than a bamboo farmer!

I will however leave you with some of my knowledge as of late. There is no honor in struggling unless you struggle to achieve the goals that help you grow. There is no glory in sacrifice unless you do so with foresight that the person in the mirror will have more to give because of it. Never look upon rejection as a sign that you’re not headed in the right direction; you will hear “no” more often than not. Mistakes are proof that you are not only pointed in the right direction, but that you are ultimately sowing the seeds of tomorrow’s success. No one but you will ever believe enough in your vision to make it happen. Listen to what your heart/gut/instinct has to say and always find the courage to follow it, especially when all the evidence is to the contrary.

Ryan Carver is a member of the Academy of Drums faculty, the Vic Firth education team and PASIC. Click either link below to visit him on the web or to email Ryan your questions and groove requests.

www.carverdrums.com www.myspace.com/ryancarver

Virg’n It Up Part 1This lesson is inspired by Virgil Donati. After seeing him in clinic and hearing him discuss some double bass ideas, he mentioned how he always likes to alternate the feet no matter where in the beat. This was interesting to me because growing up all the books had the right foot on the downbeats, and the left on the e’s and a’s. Since seeing Virgil live I have been shedding this, and I have noticed some great improvements in my foot speed and control (he has the ability to make you want to practice a lot). In this first part we will go through basic combinations of 3 and 5 single strokes in an alternating pattern. Remember to start slow, stay balanced, and have fun.

“There’s no sense in becoming a technical giant if you’re not also a musical giant. Some of the best players that I know really can’t play the drums well, but they play mu-sic superlatively well.”

Jim Chapin