My life in Los Angeles now consists of being a freelancer. I think for a lot of music students this is a bit of a mysterious thing. And honestly, it's even mysterious to me sometimes. My schedule is constantly changing as I work on different performance and teaching projects throughout the Southern California area.
I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about a weekend I recently finished in terms of working as a freelance drummer and percussionist in Southern California. I'm including maps to better emphasize the incredible amount of driving that can go into this particular branch of music making. Many thanks to google for their sweet map app that saves me regularly when navigating traffic.
Friday: I started work on Friday coaching a drum line at a local private high school in Studio City. There is no marching band at this school, so it's a stand alone drum line that plays at football and basketball games throughout the year. We have two coaches and I'm the assistant coach.
This Saturday was homecoming, which is the biggest performance of the drum line's year. This is the one time of the year this particular drum line gets on the football field, where they do a coordinated performance with the cheerleaders. I unfortunately would have to miss seeing this for another gig.
I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk about a weekend I recently finished in terms of working as a freelance drummer and percussionist in Southern California. I'm including maps to better emphasize the incredible amount of driving that can go into this particular branch of music making. Many thanks to google for their sweet map app that saves me regularly when navigating traffic.
Friday: I started work on Friday coaching a drum line at a local private high school in Studio City. There is no marching band at this school, so it's a stand alone drum line that plays at football and basketball games throughout the year. We have two coaches and I'm the assistant coach.
This Saturday was homecoming, which is the biggest performance of the drum line's year. This is the one time of the year this particular drum line gets on the football field, where they do a coordinated performance with the cheerleaders. I unfortunately would have to miss seeing this for another gig.
After coaching, I headed to Westwood to play the final performance of a musical I've been involved with since early August called "Oktoberfest: The Musical." This was the first production of a new musical, which is an interesting process because the music and book were evolving as the show got ready to open. From the name you'd think I'd mostly being playing oom-pah-pah numbers, but there are actually of number of styles in the show in addition to what you'd traditionally hear in an Oktoberfest setting including a burlesque, kickline style jazz number and a few 80's synth-rock influenced tunes. In addition to drum set, this book calls for a fair amount of glockenspiel, chimes, mark tree, and a number of sound effects.
Oktoberfest: the musical was scheduled to run until late November, but due to low ticket sales was forced to close early. The closure is unfortunate, because this was a union gig, with good pay, great fellow musicians and an excellent cast and show. The producers have plans to take it to Europe and perhaps stage it again somewhere else in Los Angeles, which I hope works out because it's a good show and the people involved are truly lovely.
Following the performance I had to break down and pack up my set up from Oktoberfest which had been in the theater for several months. Finally, everything packed away as the lighting and sets were being struck, I headed for home.
Oktoberfest: the musical was scheduled to run until late November, but due to low ticket sales was forced to close early. The closure is unfortunate, because this was a union gig, with good pay, great fellow musicians and an excellent cast and show. The producers have plans to take it to Europe and perhaps stage it again somewhere else in Los Angeles, which I hope works out because it's a good show and the people involved are truly lovely.
Following the performance I had to break down and pack up my set up from Oktoberfest which had been in the theater for several months. Finally, everything packed away as the lighting and sets were being struck, I headed for home.
Saturday: This day was centered around a gig with an Alt-Country band I play with called The Evangenitals at Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace out near Joshua Tree national Park. Playing with this band means a lot of train beats with sticks and brushes, as well as some good old fashioned rock, reggae influenced beats, and even a jazzy number or two. It's very hard to define the genre of this band, and that's something I like about it a great deal. I get to play a lot of different musical styles, not to show off, but because they fit the songs we're playing.
Amazingly, the act at this venue two days before our show was Paul McCartney doing a secret show between weekends of Desert Trip (AKA Oldchella). Other notable performers who have come through in years past include Robert Plant, Neko Case, and Arctic Monkeys. This venue is 138 driving miles away from my house, which translates to a roughly 3 hour drive during daylight hours, but the venue is clearly awesome and this band is great. I left my home shortly after 3 pm, and was on my way headed home at about 1am. Except I wasn't headed home.
Sunday: Sunday started with a now only two hour drive back from Pappy & Harriet's. Instead of heading straight home, I headed to the space I lease for practice purposes to go over some timpani repertoire for a rehearsal I would play Sunday afternoon. I spent 3am until about 4:15 here. Though I had listened to the music, this was my first chance to play along with it on a set of timpani and make mallet choices and other performance notes I might need.
This was my first rehearsal with this group (in fact, it was actually the group's first rehearsal ever) and I wanted to make sure to make my best impression, and if that meant losing some sleep, I was happy to do it.
This was my first rehearsal with this group (in fact, it was actually the group's first rehearsal ever) and I wanted to make sure to make my best impression, and if that meant losing some sleep, I was happy to do it.
At 9am, after a couple hours of sleep, rehearsal began for my weekly Sunday church gig on the campus of USC. This gig reminds me of some great advice I've heard throughout my musical life about building a career, all of which I'll cover in a separate post.
On this gig I mostly play cajon and shaker. I improvise an accompaniment to go along with the various hymns that are selected for that week. Having done this gig for several years, I now have a musical shorthand with the Music Director, and we quickly lock in to new pieces, making it a very comfortable and rewarding experience.
The service started at 10:30 and at 11:30 I had to excuse myself slightly earlier than the usual 12pm close to drive up to Northridge to play a rehearsal with a symphony.
On this gig I mostly play cajon and shaker. I improvise an accompaniment to go along with the various hymns that are selected for that week. Having done this gig for several years, I now have a musical shorthand with the Music Director, and we quickly lock in to new pieces, making it a very comfortable and rewarding experience.
The service started at 10:30 and at 11:30 I had to excuse myself slightly earlier than the usual 12pm close to drive up to Northridge to play a rehearsal with a symphony.
The symphony rehearsal ran from 1 to 4 pm, and the rep included Dvorak's Symphony for the New World and Slavonic Dances 2 and 8 as well as Les Toreadors from Bizet's Carmen.
I arrived at about 12:15, and, unusually for most orchestra rehearsals I've participated in, nobody was there. Hmm.
Rehearsal wrapped up at four and I was finally able to go get something to eat! One major challenge I experience is finding even remotely healthy food options when I'm out juggling various gigs. I've become a big fan of several chain Teriyaki places that make relatively nutritious food quickly and tastily. Then I headed home a bit of a rest before another day filled with playing.
I arrived at about 12:15, and, unusually for most orchestra rehearsals I've participated in, nobody was there. Hmm.
Rehearsal wrapped up at four and I was finally able to go get something to eat! One major challenge I experience is finding even remotely healthy food options when I'm out juggling various gigs. I've become a big fan of several chain Teriyaki places that make relatively nutritious food quickly and tastily. Then I headed home a bit of a rest before another day filled with playing.
Monday: This day was consumed with playing several Broadway sets with the JB and the Showmance Band, a jazzy event group I play casuals with regularly. American Federation of Musicians Local 47 had its Broadway-themed charity golf tournament in Pasadena and we played two sets of Broadway show tunes in the original arrangements as well as jazz standards that originated in Broadway shows.
This was a lot of fun. Drum set was my first instrument in the percussion world and I love to play jazz whenever I can. It was also an honor to get to perform, even as background music, for some of the most prolific recording musicians in the world including my mentor and teacher from high school, Don Williams.
Being a union gig performing for other union musicians, we were treated very well, with ample breaks, access to lots of food, and general good cheer. During a presentation of an award at dinner, Vice President of Local 47 Rick Baptist said "Drum Roll, Please!" right as I had decided to apply some chapstick. The other members of the band said they've never seen someone lunge for a pair of drum sticks so fast as I jumped to oblige him.
And so concluded one of the busiest weekends of my year. The nature of this and many other freelance careers is that it's feast or famine. I never know if I'll have a slow period ahead of me, so I have to be willing to really lay into the work when it's offered. And really, the challenge of that is one of the appeals of being a freelancer. It's exciting to have to adapt to so many different scenarios in such a short period of time and get to stretch musically. I don't know if I could handle every weekend being like this, but I'm not sure I could be happy if I didn't have any weekends that went this way either.
This was a lot of fun. Drum set was my first instrument in the percussion world and I love to play jazz whenever I can. It was also an honor to get to perform, even as background music, for some of the most prolific recording musicians in the world including my mentor and teacher from high school, Don Williams.
Being a union gig performing for other union musicians, we were treated very well, with ample breaks, access to lots of food, and general good cheer. During a presentation of an award at dinner, Vice President of Local 47 Rick Baptist said "Drum Roll, Please!" right as I had decided to apply some chapstick. The other members of the band said they've never seen someone lunge for a pair of drum sticks so fast as I jumped to oblige him.
And so concluded one of the busiest weekends of my year. The nature of this and many other freelance careers is that it's feast or famine. I never know if I'll have a slow period ahead of me, so I have to be willing to really lay into the work when it's offered. And really, the challenge of that is one of the appeals of being a freelancer. It's exciting to have to adapt to so many different scenarios in such a short period of time and get to stretch musically. I don't know if I could handle every weekend being like this, but I'm not sure I could be happy if I didn't have any weekends that went this way either.
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