June...career milestone!!

[Dave Ferris]

Usually every June I'm somewhat reflective/nostalgic over two occasions, my birthday (54) on 6/17 and my wedding anniversary on 6/20 (26 yrs.)

June this year, I just realized the other day , brings a new anniversary....40 yrs. since my first gig, and I became a pro musician!

Yes, June of '67 with "The Noblemen" at the Florissant Valley Country Club ,near St. Louis, Mo. The event was our (everyone in the band) 8th grade graduation.

I was kind of in the band by default....my Mom was the organizer at the country club and we had always held "band practice " at our house.

The lead male singer was much better on keyboards than I was.....he actually had to show me the organ lick from the Monkees..."I'm a believer"...that G dominant 7th to C 2nd innversion to G triad was quite a revelation for this 14 yr. old kid. That actually laid the foundation for more advanced harmonic concepts. More on that much later.

 

Our repertoire consisted of the aforementioned Monkees, Paul Revere and the Raiders, some easier Beatles, some soul music (as good as some white kids from the 'burbs' could muster), and misc. other popular ditties of the day .

 

Well, we were hot sh..t. The cool guys at school! My first keyboard was a beat up Wurlitzer EP...actually too beat up! The general consensus was that I needed an organ to best capture the sounds of the day. All my mom could afford was the poor relative to the Vox Continental...the Vox Jaguar....presets, no drawbars!

Still, I was styling.

 

I think in 40 yrs. , I've owned every popular keyboard, or its' competitor, of the day. I was very fortunate to culminate the ultimate GAS last year w/ the acquisition of my Steinway D !

I'm blessed in several areas, in that I've always made a living (you call this a living???) from gigging or a little teaching on the side....I've NEVER had to work a straight job!! I think a lot of that comes from being a musical chameleon as well as being married to the most supportive woman on earth.

 

Let's hear from some more road hardened,grizzled veterans or anyone that feels like chiming in.

What's your story ? How did you all get started ? How long ago?....doesn't matter if it was a couple yrs. back or whatever. Are you in it for the long haul?....times are much different for young people coming up today...jobs are in short supply, actually paying less in some circumstances than 15-20 yrs. ago.....I wouldn't want to be coming up today....my hat's off to to you kids....your're very brave!! If you're serious ....stay with it, keep practicing and don't give up....the rewards are immeasurable !

 

My wife asked me at dinner tonight, knowing what I know about the Biz, would I still follow the same path?

I didn't hesitate in the least...."of course" I said. It's been a long journey ,with many DARK times. Hopefully there are still better times ahead for us good guys.

 

Bottom line.....I'm very proud to call myself a Professional Musician!

 

 

 

 

[kanker.]

Lets hear from some more road hardened grizzled veterans or kids .(anyone under 35)

How did you all get started ? How long ago ?....dosn't matter if it was a couple yrs. back or whatever.

Can you be a hardened grizzled veteran and be under 35?

 

34 years old here, my first gig was 20 years ago this summer with my older brother's rock band - DX21 into a Peavey XR600B into a Peavey SP2. I had been playing piano for 10 years at that point and had been hoping that they'd ask me to join their band for a while. This was the summer after his senior year, so he went off to college for a few weeks, and that left me bandless entering my sophomore year in high school, but that was remedied quickly when a friends older brother heard me playing some blues on a piano in the music dept. He was an amazing blues guitarist, and his brother (my buddy) was a great blues drummer. We did a few gigs through high school including the homecoming dance one year (yeah, a blues band at homecoming). I used Yamaha CP70b, my Hammond M3 and my 122 on that gig in addition to the DX21. When I graduated the guitar player, Jeff, had been working with a local blues band, mostly guys over 50, and they needed a keyboard player, so at 17 I started into the bar scene here in town, mostly in the 'hood. I also managed to con my family into pitching in on an A101 for my graduation present. Later that summer, after trying to haul that CP70b to one too many gigs, I bought my D-50, which I still have, that started a 10+ year love affair with Roland synths - MKB-200, JV-1000, XP-80, JP-8080, A-90, XV-88. I complimented a couple of those with Yamaha modules, a TG33 and a TG500. Traded the DX21 for a D6 clav, the first of a couple of ridiculous deals I swung for vintage boards in the era where no one wanted them, like the $300 MiniMoog, the $40 Mono/Poly, the list goes on. The Mini wasn't the best though, traded it nearly straight up for my Electro Rack, so I got a great return on it. Anyway, This summer marks 20 years since my first gig and 17 years as a full time professional. I've played blues, rock, funk, reggae, RnB, jazz, country, salsa, among other types of gigs, even took up gigging on bass for a few years. It's been one heck of a wild existence, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

[Dave Ferris]

cool brother !

[wmp]

Kevin, you're certainly one hardened grizzled unit. Enough to warm my crusty heart.

 

Dave, I think we fought the same war in different cities. Your KC days sound too familiar.

 

I started playing piano with palms and fists as soon as I could reach the thing. My grandfather suggested that I try using fingers and taught me my first song at age three or so. It was a I V7 I thing in F# he called Bake That Chicken Pie. I'm sure this was to get even with my dad for something. For as long as I can remember, I've been driven to play stuff I like. I had a pretty good handle on Jerry Lee, Little Richard, and Fats Domino by the time I was 10. I was inspired by all the encouragement and support I recieved from my family. (SHUT UP!!)

 

Then I heard Green Onions and realized I needed a Hammond too. That GAS attack lasted about five years and got me thrown out of every piano and organ store in town many times.

 

I'm pretty sure my first gig was May of 1968. I was the roadie for one of the top bands in the area. The B3 player drank a lot, and one night he drank way too much. The first time I got to play a Hammond in an ensemble was a last minute sub gig for about 1200 at a packed gym high school dance. I had a blast. I knew all the stuff cold and I kicked ass. If I had a driver's license and a B3 of my own, I would have landed a great gig. Instead, the whole thing became one of those stupid war stories.

 

I did everything I could for two years to raise cash so that I would own a B3, a leslie, and a van on the day I got my license. The next five years were a blast. I bounced from band to band. Guys with Hammonds who could play were in demand. There was no shortage of fun stuff to play, and plenty of great gigs.

 

I was a better piano tuner than a player, so I wound up doing a lot of that for most of the '70s. I was doing piano rental too, so my road rig was usually the B3 and a Yamaha C3, but sometimes I'd take the C7 or the Steinway B. By 1980 I was back to mostly playing. When my meal ticket band melted down, I stumbled into a software gig that paid real money. Thought I was done playing. Sold most of my gear. When the stock, real estate, and job markets tanked in the late '80s, I had to fall back on playing music. How f*cked up is that?

 

The early '90s were grim. Playing an M1 and a DX7 felt like prepunishment and preparation for hell. The Kurzweil PC88 sounded ok, but it disintigrated under my wimpy fingers. Many actions, or keybeds as the kids like to say. Between countless bands, hosting up to three blues jams a week to make a few bucks on off nights, I probably played with well over 5000 different people in the '90s. Most of them sucked, some were ok, a few were great. It was more aggravation than fun. I quit playing forever for the third time in 1999. I didn't play a note for four years.

 

In 2004, I thought I signed up for a tour of festivals, casinos and such for $X, but it turned out to be the Bob's Country Bunker tour from hell for $X/4. I've been slowly easing back to playing locally full time since. I'm being very careful to do only what I like (fun paying gigs) and none of what I don't like (band drama, rehearsal, unpaid work, ...)

 

I'm not booked more than three months out, and there are holes, but they always seem to fill up. I have a few semi regular gigs with other folks who play in lots of bands. I get a lot of last minute sub work because I have a good reputation for doing that sort of thing. I've been playing around here forever and I know a lot of folks. I'm on the sub list for so many bands, that I'm looking for other keyboard players to sub and swap gigs with me. I'm playing with so many great players, and such a variety of stuff I like, that I couldn't imagine having this much fun playing with any one band, no matter how good they are. I run into new stuff almost every day. Things are going so well, it's beginning to scare me.

 

The mercenary thing has been the key to happiness for me. I'm on par to double last year's 80 gigs, and I'm pretty sure I'll do between 200 and 250 next year. And it doesn't matter what happens with any one, two, or five bands. There are a lot of gigs and a lot of great players.

 

I'm not making big money, but it keeps getting better. I'm getting by and having a blast. Do I need any more than that? I'm the happiest overrated bar band hack in town.

 

 

[BluesKeys]

I was also a 1968 first year gigger. I was recruited to play in my older brothers band. Being 5 years younger I always took a lot of crap but I spent 10 years with that band and thought I was on the road to stardom.

 

I know we played several High school sock hops in the spring but the gig I remember was that summer, coming in second in a Battle of The Bands at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, NC. We played In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, and Time and I forget the third song.... could have been something like Green River. I just remember playing to a huge crowd and I was hooked.

 

I took a "real job" in 1979 and scaled back playing to anywhere from 5 to 15 times a year for the next 25 years.

 

I am proud to say that I am back as a full time musician and happy as a clam. I do wonder what I could have become or if I would have survived if I had not gotten off the music trail.

 

I know this I wouldn't be any worse off after two failed marriages and a failed business. LOL

 

"It could be the purpose of my life is only to serve as a warning to others."

[Legatoboy]

Dave,

 

Congratulations in regards to all your June celebrations and your 40th. Though I don't have time to go into it all right now in more detail, as I am at work, we are of the same vintage. I'll be 53 this year. My first ax was this GEM Model P10b(below). I believe my first actual paying gig was June of 68' (correction) at a private birthday party in the ritzy Forest Hills section of Queens at a 'mansion'. I did play 'teen club' Sundays in 1967 I think actually at the Catholic Grammer School. I was just out of 8th grade on the first paying gig and worked it with my partner in crime a guitarist I grew up with and went to grammar school with drawing stage amp, drums and keyboard stage pencil drawings since 4th grade....

 

Material was the Doors, Sam and Dave, Stones, Beatles etc and yes maybe a Monkees tune or two. . .

 

My GEM, forget about VOX's. . . .My dad 'the marine' was leery about music to some degree in terms of spending big on instruments and 'being a musician', this was a real impediment to my gigging in the 70's, though he wasn't as hard about as it may sound. His saving grace was he grew up on the lower east side of Manhattan and was a big band fan in the 40's, a true 'dead end kid'. He likes music, but playing it is another thing as far as he was concerned in the later 60's with R&R, I had to be 'versatile' if I was going to be a musician and play his music to prove it was going to be a valid vocation. I played R & R, so! Long hair was a light problem for him also so he Archi Bunkered on alittle to the late 60's!

 

The 'serious fun' musical side of my family came from my Mom's side, both sides of her family, my grandfather being a guitar player who gigged parties with his friend 'shorty' on mandolin, that's how he meet my grandmother in 1917 or so. My grandmother's brother played saxophone and gigged occasionally. . . My bro became a very successful society drummer, he's 58 1/2 now, so I had all the 'Venture' band practices at our house in 1960-61 and listen to the best music from 60-65 all the way up to the Mommas and the Popas and the Who in 1966 and the Airplane! That was a trip! Where the drumming thing came from, nobody knows.... Latin rhythms were his speciality as a society drummer and he made alot of dough supporting his kids in the 70's playing weddings!

 

http://www.combo-organ.com/Gem/ModelP10b.jpg

 

lb

[Dave Ferris]

Hmmm....maybe I should move to Boston.....sounds like there are more gigs there. Hmmm......brrrrrr.....I think I'd freeze my !#@ off!

 

Well, one things for sure, I wouldn't have to travel to run the Boston Marathon....no hotels!

[Legatoboy]

dave,

 

i sent you out some stuff yesterday btw. . .I hope the dogs don't start sniffing it!

 

the cd's that is!

lb

 

[Legatoboy]

WMP,

 

Great, I loved your story man!

Good Luck brother with all your playing!

 

lb

[mate stubb]

Dave, looks like I predate you by a year. In '67 I was in 8th grade, a classical music nerd. My mom taught piano and had started me when I was 4. I was winning the jr. high talent shows as well as state competitions playing stuff like Rachmananoff's Prelude in C# Minor.

 

One day the local school bully (in my grade but already a couple years older) cornered me in the bathroom and informed me I was going to play in his band. I pointed out that I had no equipment so he "borrowed" a Doric organ and Jordan amp from another guy, which I used for a year before returning them and buying my first Farfisa.

 

The very first song I learned was Light My Fire. I discovered to my satisfaction that I had a very good ear and could just pick the song out. It helped that Ray's style was well suited for somebody coming straight from classical like me. The other two big albums blowing our minds that summer were Are You Experienced and Disraeli Gears. We were playing the usual garage band songs also, Gloria and Louie Louie.

 

Our first paying gig was in the living room of a girl in my class that summer of '67. We made $30, which the drummer promptly confiscated to buy a strobe light. For you youngsters, back then a strobe light was a box with a hole in it, a 150 watt spotlight bulb, and a cardboard disk with a hole in it driven by a sewing machine motor.

 

I ditched that band and upgraded to musicians a year older than me, and basically was playing fraternity gigs by the time I was 15. Toga! Toga!

 

I came closest to fame and possible fortune in 1973, when my originals band Slaughterhouse was being wooed by Island Records, around the same time other midwest bands like Kansas, Head East, and Starcastle were being signed. Our manager hid us on the road and proceeded to screw up the negotiation, and nothing ever happened. We broke up shortly afterwards, but that was when I got my taste of roadies, limos, playing for 40,000 people, groupies, sex drugs and rock and roll.

 

I played on full time for another 10 years, on the road in show bands and cover bands during the dark years of disco. Oh, the inhumanity! During the last 7 road years my wife was with me running lights and later sound. We finally gave up the road in 1981 to settle in Cincinnati, and I still played full time until the birth of my first daughter, which caused me to reevaluate my responsibilities. I went back to school for an engineering degree and played part time henceforth.

 

Whew, I'm exhausted!

[Legatoboy]

Matt,

 

I was another 'Light My Fire' right of passage boy. There are many I would imagine our age in the states! I learned Ray's long solo that summer and that made me a hero. I didn't nial it note for note though but I was in the ball park and feel wise it was good enough. Man that brings back memories, same hear Doors, The Hendrix 'R U Exp' album and Disrali Gears. . . what a year that was 68'.

 

lb

[Dave Ferris]

Tony

 

Looking foward to hearing your stuff...thanks for sending.

 

Dave...wow Light my Fire.....if I would have been able to play that note for note back then, I would have been looked upon as some child prodigy, that was deep sh...t back then.

 

I thought I was big time when I copped a couple of Chuck Leavell licks in the early '70's...Southbound, Jessica, etc.

[Benjy]

Well, Dave, it seems that your anniversary is my birthday, so, um, yay June 20th.

 

My story is far less romantic than y'all's (yes, that's proper Georgia grammar...even though I'm from Long Island).

 

Took piano lessons from age 7, and was pretty darn good at the classical stuff, but wasn't real enthused about playing it. Then, one day in early 1984 (at age 9 1/2), I heard "Jump" on the radio, and my life was changed. I NEEDED a keyboard. It would be 4 years later, as a Bar-Mitzvah present, that my dream would be realized.

 

Dad and I walked into the local Sam Ash store, and after much playing, talking to the staff, and more playing, walked out with a Roland D-20 and a Fender Sidekick Keyboard amp. Hooray for built-in 8-track sequencers.

 

I decided then that "piano" lessons weren't cool enough, so I began taking "keyboard" lessons at a local music shoppe from a feather-maned rock dude named Kevin. Kevin was the keyboard player for a struggling Long Island rock band who recently had changed their name to Dream Theatre...yeah, it was Kevin Greene. Cool cat. He even gave me a demo tape of theirs which I sadly and stupidly misplaced. Ah well.

 

A few high school talent shows (playing some Rush, Asia, Zeppelin) and many failed "jam sessions" later, I went to college, and basically did very little with my board. A few jams occurred, and we had one gig at the Providence Civic Center playing UN-MIC-ed in the lobby. Interesting.

 

After college, moved down here to Jawja for some reason, and spent the next 6 years or so not playing. The bug hit again, and I sought a replacement for my trusty-yet-thin-sounding Roland, and began my current rarely-gigging band.

 

Thus ends my all-too-long-yet-not-nearly-interesting story.

[SuperAce25]

Thanks for all the war stories... it's great to hear about how people actually make it in this business.