I started my twenties at Music Tech in Minneapolis. Like I said in “Musical Headspace Pt. 1” this was one of the best decisions in my life. I was only at the school for a year (that’s how long the program was) but it was one eye opening year. In hindsight it is all a bit of a blur since there were so many new and exciting opportunities for me to learn. I think the biggest lesson I learned was “work ethic”. I wasn’t going to get better as a drummer simply by walking around the hallways, oh no, I was only going to get out of the school what I put into it. So over my year tenure at Music Tech I spent every waking hour at the school practicing and playing. Saturdays and Sundays were no exception. In fact I liked the weekends better since I could get more practice time in.  And if I wasn’t at school I had a practice pad kit set up in my apartment so I could make sure I got everything done. Though my neighbors didn’t really like it!

Learning to be proficient on any instrument requires an immense amount of time, dedication and repetition. Having a good “work ethic” is imperative to becoming not only a better drummer but a better musician. I firmly believe that we are creatures of habit and breaking bad habits is much harder than learning new ones. I didn’t know at the time that I was actually learning a lesson that would be with me for the rest of my life. Good Work Ethic. That year alone helped to define who I would be as a person for the rest of my life.

Now even though I worked my but off at Music Tech and learned these valuable lessons I wasn’t prepared everything. But I was prepared on how to not let it happen again…

Story 1: My first hard lesson was learned not too long after graduating. I was working at a studio just outside of Minneapolis not really as a drummer but I helped to take care of the facility and got to jam with some great musicians. One night there was a producer working on a “Rock Re-mix” of an R ‘n B tune and they needed a rock drummer for the session. I just happened to be working that night and a friend of mine put my name out there. They were trying to get the track done that night so I was the guy. Sounds good right? Well, this was a soon to become a nightmare.

The producer and players on this session were some of the heavy weights in Minneapolis. They had worked for the likes of Prince, Janet Jackson and some others that I don’t recall. Point is they were GOOD! Then there was me. Young and fresh out of music school. I was on top of the world but that wouldn’t last long. Up until this point most of my practice had been on how to be better on my instrument but not necessarily how to be a good musician and on top of that I didn’t have much studio experience. What should have been an hour long session turned into 4 hours. I was so nervous (hands shaking) that I couldn’t even play to the click track. My time was all over the place and I had never had a producer tell me what to play and that just compounded the problems. This stands as one of the most embarrassing experiences in my career. But it was also one of the most valuable experiences of my career.

Once that nightmarish of a day was over I was determined to never let it happen again. I started to go after any gig, live and recording, that I could find. I practiced playing music instead of playing drums. Plus, the bass player on the gig was so cool that every time he came back to the studio he would grab me for 20 or 30 minutes and make me play a groove with him. I really wish I could remember his name because I would love to write to him and say thank you.

I never thought I would work with any of them again. But a year later I got a call for another session with the producer. This time I was prepared and it went great. Why? I was confident in myself. I knew that I had spent that previous year making sure I would never let that happen again. I’ve had bad sessions since then but never because I wasn’t prepared or able to do the gig.

Point of the story: Work Ethic. Put 100% into whatever you do. Not only will you do the job better but you will also be able to overcome any adversity.

I have a few more stories from my 2o’s that I want to share but this blog entry is long enough already. I’ll write some more later.

Until then keep on making noize!

The Basher