Sounds like you are off to a good start. You've got over a dozen years of work/experience, and you're still young, young enough to become some sort of proficient professional.

That's all good.

This has likely been discussed mucho before. Try a search. That said...

Here's my 2 cents: All music work comes from word of mouth and the esteem that other musicians hold you in. So, simply put, go play with other musicians, and the offers will match your skills, based on your exposure. No, really! The Union is good but DOES NOT generate work. They generate political power to make the best of 'work for all.' They don't find 'work for you.' You can join when you are invited to do some Union jobs. Don't worry about it.

If you've done zero recording, then find/join/make a band or a jam or a whatever and go into a studio or do it at home or whatever. The people who hear your work will remember you--or not--and will call you someday when they need what you've got.

It's that simple and that brutal.

Based on this theory, your job is to play/improve/be as musical as possible, and to meet/play with as many different people as you can... and then wait (while continuing to do parts A and B).

Practice really fast single-strokes, double-bass chops and 7-over-5 polyrhythms. Producers love that stuff. 

Seriously, though - the advice above is about as good as it gets. The source is, as they say, "in the know."

Just a couple of things to add. First, make sure you are comfortable playing with a click. It seems obvious, but many younger players aren't and these days very few recording projects are done without a click.

Second, you say,


In a studio you may have just one chance to impress and producers/engineers/acts want things done as quickly as possible as time = money. "Nothing professional" is the antithesis of what they are looking for. Polish what you know up so you can play it "professionally". While there is room for error in the studio - especially with digital editing software - the better the live takes are, the less editing will be  needed. So even if you only have one style that you know, know it really well. There is enough to worry about when the tape is rolling (okay, when the hard drive is turning...) to have to be worrying about the technical side of what you're playing and have it feel tentative or loosey-goosey.

It also can't hurt to have a little bit of knowledge of recording and engineering techniques/technology. While you probably won't be asked for your opinion on the microphones to be used in the early going, it's good to have a general idea of how drum sounds are captured so that you can adjust your technique, tuning or approach to the situation without having to be prompted.

Ditto to the last two, AND... (while we're on the subject)...

maybe Drumwiz has not recorded much yet, and is in for the SHOCKING revelation that recording is a microscope and even the easy stuff can be HARD. I hate to paint the doom and gloom, so let me re-phrase that.

"The joy of your music making is much easier to hear and analyze and measure during playback. Therefore, teenie-weenie discrepancies in feel, time, musical concept, dynamics, accuracy to form, etc, etc will show up as painfully large pimples on the face of the music you just spent five minutes lovin'."

So I vote for getting ANY recorder and start in on the relationship with the 'playback' button.

All really good replies here - just to clarify _no one_ starts out doing paid sessions - these days it is hard to land "free" sessions. There is no place that you go to "apply" for session work. Or anything like that.

For sessions, people hire the working drummer they can find and afford. The best one they can get musically. One they know is dependable. Musically solid. Experienced. Again the best player they can find and afford.

How do they know these things about a player - from his/her professional reputation. The number one source of work is from referrals - "Who do know that would be good for this on drums" "Oh, I know this new guy. Worked with him last week. Really smoked that gig and I think he'd do it for a price that fits our budget" " Cool, what's his number"

That's is the way 99% of every working player's gigs are gotten.

So how do build a reputation, so you can get gigs? By working gigs. Which, of course, is a bit of a catch-22.

Which is why so many of us started out playing so much for free.

Meet players, play with players, get recommended to play with more players, play with more players, get an actual paying gig call, do the paying gig, continue to meet and play with more and more players, hopefully getting more paying gig calls, hopefully getting to play with better and better players.  Because the player that better players like to play with get better gigs.

And on and on - eventually, you'll a have a reputation.

Somewhere along in here - your reputation might line up with that session criteria of "getting the best player they can find and afford" and there you go... that's how "break" into session work.

If you're 20 years old and incredibly on your game, it might be possible to build up a fair amount of that in five or so years. But I'm talking really incredibly on your game. And then, it might take twice that long...or four times... or never really happen. It's not crapshoot - it really does depend on what you bring to the table and how many opportunities you can position yourself to take advantage of... and then throughly take advantage of each them.

One missed opportunity can cost dearly, one bad night the same - thus being on your game, always playing at 110%, always getting better, keeping ahead of the next guy - skill-wise, musically, experience-wise is just the norm. Anybody not doing all of that, and not willing to do all of that for as long as it takes - really doesn't have a chance, and usually eventually quits.

So I'm not wanting to be a downer - it can be done. Young guys continue to make it work. I would re-read this entire thread - and don't skip over anything that's hard to face. Rather stare those aspects in the face, and figure out what you're to do with them. I don't know everyone that's posted thus far - but Chris' depth of experience is well documented. And John I've know since he was a teenager - and am well aware of his journey and the many truths he's discovered while taking it.

One more thing - Chris is right, in that eventually to do serious amounts of recording you're likely to have to move to LA, Nashville, etc. (unless things really change, but right now that's the way it is) but... I wouldn't even think of recommending that until you've pretty much conquered both gigging and some of the recording there is to do in the Bay area. It's not you're stuck on some ranch in Montana.

I say this because those big recording meccas have drummers lined up for miles trying to get anything happening - totally over populated for the amount of work available and thus no place for anyone trying to get something started. I mean even on a typical wedding gig in LA, it's not unusual to have two or three guys playing that have gold records on their walls. On wedding gigs!!??!

Anyway good luck and keep asking questions.... if you can get a word in edge-wise. :-)

David

This is a pretty scary quote…

As others have mentioned, recording puts you under a microscope, and as a hired gun you are going to have to be perfect, neither the studio or the band will put up with the kind of (usually dodgy) playing that comes from a member of the band. You will have to be on the money, all the time.. Because of the large amounts of money involved .

I record a hell of a lot of drummers, maybe 30% are adequate, 2% are good and the other 68% are costing the label/band serous money that needn’t be spent… If they were hired guns 98% of them would be kicked out within an hour, if that..

The last ‘real’ session drummer I recorded was a Berkley grad (as are a few of the members here) and this guy was amazing, he listened to the tracks once (never heard any of them before) & wrote out his parts while listening, the second time he played through each track was the one that went on the album, every time... (unless someone else screwed up) and it was beyond perfect, over the entire session (a couple of weeks) he didn’t make one single mistake, not one, of any kind and every single track made the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.. All the musicians bar one (the songwriter) were pro session guys and they were recording all the tracks ‘live’ as we say, in the studio. i.e. they all played at the same time without a click & that’s what went on the record (a little bizarre [and utterly wonderful]for a metalhead, clicked, ultra clinical & separated Pro Tools abuser like myself..) And the freeform jazz they were playing in-between takes was simply staggering, talk about groove..

I was running a gnome in my cans at one point just out of curiosity, and as far as I could tell, this guy maintained tempo within 1bpm for the entire track..

And as good as this guy was, there wasn’t a Merc or Lexus in this guys parking space outside, it was a old and tired family car..

I used to wonder if I could handle some session work, I can play a bit & have often felt I could lay down some sessions a bit quicker & more accurately than more than a few of the drummers I have worked with... But after working with the real deal, I realised how wrong I was... Those guys are staggeringly good in ways I haven’t ever realised were important until I saw them in action & have a completely different skill set to the rest of us mere mortal drummers...


I am not trying to put you off or be harsh but, saying Is a little like saying “I can use an electric carving knife, nothing professional but good enough for brain surgery”

 

N