Gibraltar Hardware’s hardest working man in show business, Gibralto-man, tours the Ontario CA warehouse checking things out for Gibraltar. If you’ve seen the NAMM 2011 photo’s of him on our Facebook page you know Gibralto-man likes to party… and perhaps he’s a bit of the ladies man as well. He’s also a tough, but fair, supervisor and just likes to keep the beat going!
Monthly Archive for August, 2011
This is part 2 demonstrating Gibraltar’s new rolling frame for Drum Corps. In this video we show how to set up a 1st tier and 2nd tier rack and how you can customize the design to fit your needs.
Gibraltar’s modular rack design works perfectly for Drum Corps multi-instrument stations giving unlimited mounting options.
A nine-inch regulation locking caster is mounted directly to the rack, making the entire station mobile. Rack stations break down small for storage, and with all Gibraltar mounting accessory options, your set-up can change as needed.
In this economy, landing a steady paying gig in a club can be akin to outperforming Buddy Rich in a drum battle, unless you have some solid negotiating skills under your belt.
Drummers “paying to play” has unfortunately become the norm the farther away from music-centric cities you drive, leaving many career-oriented musicians unemployed or performing for free. And that downward trend takes even more potential work away from the majority of drummers who work part-time or as weekend warriors.
Playing music is certainly not about the money for most of us, but gig pay does help pay for gas, food and replacing broken drum gear. At Gibraltar Hardware, we thought it might make sense this week to offer our advice, garnered from musicians we know and from our own experiences, to give you more of a fighting chance out there in Gigville. And we hope you too will share your insider tips with us as well.
DON’T SELL YOURSELF SHORT
Golden rule: It is difficult (seldom a reality) to get an increase in pay once a band has admitted how low they will stoop to get a gig. The opening offer is often the best opportunity to negotiate; regardless of what the “optimistic discussion” is while the club is getting a bargain. Bargaining points like “if we draw a crowd” might sound good, but are so nebulous that it’s hard to actually ever hold a club to the specifics of it. The club will typically keep the band for as long as they can at the lowest price and if push comes to shove will play the “business is slow” card followed by the “we’ve decided it isn’t working out” and let the band go “for now”. We can thank the rise of DJs for that disaster in American music club management protocol.
If club management doesn’t make a reasonable financial commitment up front, they tend not to feel any need to properly promote it because they don’t have much to lose by not promoting it. So our advice is to “get it while you can, as soon as you can”, because there is no guarantee that it will ever increase to what you’ve allowed yourself to hope it might become. When the thrill of playing for (almost free) wears off, it also slowly wears down morale, one player at a time. That packed club with rosewood bartop and large stage that actually had a powered monitor for the drummer may have seemed glamorous at the time of negotiation, but not if morale destroys your band in the process.
WHAT SHOULD YOU EXPECT TO BE PAID?
A minimum of $75 per player and, yes, free unlimited drinks is a reasonable place to start for 2-3 sets of music. It would also help to renegotiate later if you set a timetable for renegotiating in advance, say one month or six weeks and revisit it, rather than wondering when and if it’ll ever change in your band’s favor.
The point is, it’s just like any other job, sort of (except many out of work musicians are willing to play for free – it’s hard to compete with that), and if you consider your own employment situation you’ll notice that raises are harder to come by than we all hoped they’d be.
HOW TO REASON WITH CLUB MANAGEMENT
To a bar, we are like beverage sales – a means to make a profit. If Brand X (no, not Phil Collins’ former fusion band) is offered at $5 dollars a case today, it is perceived as a cheap beverage and a good deal. If the price goes up, the owners will look for another cheaper beverage to fit the same niche. If brand Z is promoted as a “better beer”, it is considered to be a good value even at twice the price and the club “buys into it” and offers to put up flyers and banners and promote it heavily by word of mouth to “help themselves” recoup their added expenses. Both brands probably cost about the same to manufacture. The main difference is mainly the “perception of higher quality” and a commitment to significant promotion by the manufacturer and the retailer. Keep in mind, those two items are actually not the main ingredients in the beverage at all, and there will always be a cheaper brand waiting to “sell for less” and hope to make up for losses “in volume”, someday.
So it comes down to negotiation skills, marketing, and, oh yeah, the product can’t suck – at least not for very long. Having a nice demo CD, band picture, and online social page helps get you into a meeting – a lot. But not if you can’t stand your ground on gig pay and know how to say thanks but no thanks.
The fact is most live music clubs outside of major US cities – and plenty of ones inside of them, too – don’t have the long range vision to commit to building a good paying band scene and weathering the ups and downs of the bar/band business – even if you drew 50 of your own beverage drinking fans on opening night. There are so many reasons that people don’t show up in subsequent weeks – sporting events, the weather, the holidays, schools in, schools out – which have nothing to do with the band, but the band gets blamed, because at that moment in time they are perceived as a bad investment.
CHOOSE YOUR POTENTIAL VENUE WISELY
Clubs who haven’t done lots of bands before tend to bail out after a month or so when the anticipated instant cash cow doesn’t meet their immediate expectations, so the short-term deal is all you’d get. So start first by targeting the clubs that have been in the live music business for a long time. And when that avenue dries up, there are ways to entice local civic clubs and smaller acoustic act venues to host once a week or twice monthly rock and blues jam nights with your house band holding down the first and final sets, and inviting guest musicians up to play in between. More often than not, those same guests will keep coming back to play a few tunes with you for free and drink bar beverages. And you create a “scene” out of virtually nowhere.
Formulate a negotiating strategy with your bandmates first, ask other bands what they are earning, and perhaps consult with a promotions agent in your area.
** Professional blues musician and music store owner Paul Provost of Massachusetts contributed to this blog report.
- Tim Kane is an independent drummer, instructor and writer living in Massachusetts. He writes a weekly blog for Gibraltar Hardware.
Jazz legend Joe Morello once said it best by defining the humble role of a group-based drummer: You never should deliberately outshine the band leader or you will quickly find yourself out of a job. The same adage applies in a different way to your partner, for the time being, in life.
Dealing with bandmate personas on top of managing the often complex feelings of romantic friends and spouses can be the equivalent of playing a 9/8 time signature inside of a ¾ feel.
Beyond the pathetic drummer discrimination rants from arrogant musicians who are so caught up in themselves and their own insecurities that they throw you under the bus, there exists a way to manage personalities and find common ground. Then again, some of the tension that builds among bandmates and partners is also a contributor to making good music and relationships last, so it is a delicate tight rope we walk.
After playing in bands for more than 30 years, for me it really all comes down to communication, or lack thereof. And email, texting and Facebook have not helped band and partner relations at all. Bands are an extended family, or at least should act like one once they develop the footprint of cohesion and initial maturity. Bandmates need to nurture their relations by not holding opinions back about anything, and that unselfish process should start well before you ever play your first note together. When bands routinely set aside “talk time” without instruments in hand, or regularly hold band outings, intrapersonal success and better music typically follows. The trick is not to use email or PDAs – ever – as a mechanism for conveying critique or discipline.
Make it a band rule that online technology should only be used to convey successes, gig and practice details, and exchange fan and music data. If you follow this simple rule, a ton of misconstrued emails – and in many cases lost bands – will be avoided. One of my bands uses a whiteboard at our rehearsal space to not only jot down song idea reminders, but also note our goals both in progress and achieved. Hang out regularly without instruments as that is a great friend-building experience, such as attending live shows together.
As for actual playing time discrepancies and differences that do arise, the best medicine at practice is to immediately stop and analyze the problem whether personality or musically based. Enter rehearsal in a positive frame of mind free of substance abuse. Whether it is a bandmate’s continuously arrogant mannerism or drums filling when they shouldn’t be, true musicians stop during songs and find a solution. Don’t wait until the end of a tune, or much worse, the end of practice to let your feelings be known. And when the band leader stops a particular composition, that means you stop playing as well. Playing your instrument during a band timeout is rude and inconsiderate. Pros don’t do it.
New (and perhaps older) bands should also agree on a few common goals, including:
- How do you choose the songs the band plays?
- What is your practice schedule?
- Who will organize and pay for rehearsal rooms?
- How will you organize concerts and pay for band equipment?
- What is the general decision making process?
- Where does the band want to go?
- Will you copyright everything that is an original composition and how?
In a live show situation, every member of the band must remember that you have customers – your fans and potential new ones – to please. You are as much a showman as you are a musician on stage. Act like it. Savvy audiences pick up fairly easily on body language and facial negativity, let alone screaming voices.
I once remember seeing one of my all-time favorite bands, RUSH, in concert in Boston. Guitarist Alex Lifeson had wireless difficulties toward the end of the show that could not be easily fixed. Almost half a song was played with just drum, bass and synth, though no one could miss how visibly upset Alex was with his techies, even shouting at times. Alex’s overreaction left an indelible mark on the concert’s conclusion and in my own mind.
If one of your bandmates just isn’t playing well, go over and whisper something reassuring in his or her ears between songs. Just don’t stare them down or lip synch a wise crack. If a bandmate is overreacting to a negative fan’s remarks or discerning club employee, calm him or her down by accepting responsibility for handling that situation instead. Be the bigger person at gigs. The worst possible thing you can do is to draw your fans into a quagmire. Keep personal and musical differences private and off stage. That’s what good families do outside of the public’s eye.
As for romantic friends, life partners and spouses, I can’t tell folks how they should conduct their personal relationships. What I can advise is to be truthful and open at all times. If your significant other respects your musicianship and understands the time and commitment aspects involved in being in a band, it should pave the way for many years of playing enjoyment. If you don’t have a friend or spouse that understands you as a musician or you didn’t explain the industry properly to begin with, then you are probably not going to have much fun doing that because you will always have that personal angst and anxiety present. It may be time to put the drums up in the attic for awhile, if that’s the case.
If you are in a newer relationship, be very clear with your significant other about what is required of active bands so you both can set time investment parameters together. Though I am far from perfect, I routinely send my wife a personal calendar of upcoming gigs and practices so we’re on the same page, and that is not easy given I play in three different bands. But we make it work. It’s give and take and he or she should always win. Your partner needs his or her own down time and hobbies as well, so when you are not playing or practicing, make sure you are contributing on the home front in a consistent and fair way.
When your friend or spouse attends a gig, though I highly advise against inviting them to band practices, treat them like royalty. They are your special guests so don’t avoid them between sets or when done; be with and love them. That sincere show of affection will most certainly carry-over to how your admiring fans, other friends, and bandmates perceive you. And perception is reality.
It really all comes down to compassion. Treat your bandmates and significant others better than you would treat yourself. Folks in general tend to forget how far their relationships have grown. It’s always good to look back in time at the positive developments every full moon or so. Have fun.
- Tim Kane is an independent drummer, instructor and writer living in Massachusetts. He writes a weekly blog for Gibraltar Hardware.
Gibraltar’s modular rack design works perfectly for Drum Corps multi-instrument stations giving unlimited mounting options.
In part one of a two part series we show how to assemble the rolling frame. Part two demonstrates how to set up a 1st tier and 2nd tier rack and how you can customize the design to fit your needs.
A nine-inch regulation locking caster is mounted directly to the rack, making the entire station mobile. Rack stations break down small for storage, and with all Gibraltar mounting accessory options, your set-up can change as needed.
Build custom set-ups from Gibraltar’s vast selection of rack parts and mounts or use the Gibraltar Rolling Frame (GRF), GRF1T 1st tier and GRF2T 2nd tier pre-packaged racks.
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