The Gig I Played Without Rehearsal OR Soundcheck

What is your default? What’s the one thing you rely on that you can gravitate toward and lean on in a tough musical situation? In other words - What are you so comfortable doing that you can excel at it while chaos ensues around you? A recent gig made me think about this…

A drummer friend in town asked me to sub for him on a cover gig. I eagerly accepted, mainly because I like the challenge of learning new songs in a less familiar genre. Sometimes I get so into the groove (no pun intended?) on my regular gigs that it’s easy to stop growing as a musician. When the opportunity came to play with people I’d never met at a venue I’d never played at…playing a lot of unfamiliar songs…I jumped at the chance.

My friend sent me a setlist of the tunes they most commonly played at this particular club, so I got to work charting about 30 songs. I enjoy gig prep, and I love being forced to listen to stuff I don’t hear everyday in order to gain proficiency in a genre I don’t play everyday. But once I had thoroughly listened to these and written solid charts, I felt ready for the gig. I made sure to practice key parts and grooves that I knew I needed to nail, because there wouldn’t be any time for mistakes. Did I mention there wouldn’t be a rehearsal?

There was no rehearsal, and there actually wasn’t even a soundcheck. We dove straight into the setlist. No time for adjusting things, no time for getting my bearings, and no time for NOT sounding like I knew what I was doing! I was in at the top on most of the tunes, and the band was looking at me for a lot of the count-offs. I’ll admit this was all a little bit scary. I literally showed up at a new venue, met the guys I was playing with, and we counted off the first tune….which I’d never played before. This was out of my comfort zone…but hey - these are the kinds of situations that teach you things.

Now I could talk a lot about many different aspects of this “new-gig” situation (you know what I’m talking about if you’ve been here before!), but today we’re focusing on the playing default concept. Though I knew the songs and was very confident on my instrument, I still felt a little bit uncomfortable. Any time you’re having to focus so much attention just on listening to where the band’s going, you can’t fully relax into the song and make your best music. Sure, there are session guys in Nashville who do this very thing on sessions every day, and they nail it on the first take. But I’m speaking for the rest of us here. Really you have to rely on your base level of skill. What can you default to when you’re not sure what the band’s doing or where they’re going? What can you default to when you’re struggling to hear from that floor monitor that’s not close enough?

Here were my “defaults” throughout this gig:

Play simple.

When in doubt, play less notes. Keep things clean, and listen more to others than yourself. It’s better for the band director to have tell you he’d like you to play louder or busier than the other way around.

Play the grooves.

A lot of the tunes we were playing were funk, soul, and dance tunes (groove songs). This was a “get everybody on the dance floor by the end of the night” kind of gig. I made sure to notate the given groove for the song on each chart, so I knew the exact groove to play. This was a “don’t ever stop playing” kind of deal, where you keep the groove going unless the band leader starts waving at you to quiet down.

Know the genre.

The genre generally dictates the style of fills you play. Don’t blast into a punk-rock fill during Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition.” Common sense things like this are a great default.

Listen. Really listen.

When you’re playing songs you’ve never played with people you’ve never played with at a venue you’ve never played at, pay attention to your surroundings. Fight the urge to bury your eyes in the kit, and stay visually aware of what’s going on. Hand signals were happening all the time on this gig, so it was important to catch them. Also, listening well is a great way to internally “predict” where the band’s going (dynamically or arrangement-wise). Listening carefully to them will clue you in on how to gel more and make your playing feel better in each moment.

Honestly, that was about it. Following those guidelines got me through the gig, and ultimately I had a blast. Did I play every fill like the drummer did on the record? I doubt it. Did my playing feel just like every drum track on the recordings? Probably not. Did I play PERFECTLY?? Nope. But I paid attention, served the music, and gave it my very best. (This wasn’t a tribute gig, so we didn’t need to dead-on emulate something anyways.)

When the gig was over, the bass player complimented me on “holding things down” throughout the night. I provided a solid base for the rest of the band, and he appreciated that. Clean and simple grooves drove the band, and they were able to relax and make music on top of that. We all enjoyed the night, and they even asked me back to sub on another show. ;)

Know your “defaults.” Know what you can lean back on and rely on in an uncomfortable gigging situation. For the most part, those four things I listed will apply to just about any gig you do. If you play a Dave Weckl kind of fusion gig, you might be able to throw the “play simple” thing out the window. But otherwise follow those points, and they’ll serve you well in the practical gigging world.

God Bless,

Stephen