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jasehackman
Hey everyone!

I just joined the family!

A little about myself:
I'm 25 and I live in Nashville, TN where I'm chasing my music dreams.

I'm a fender junky. My work horse guitar is my 2010 American Deluxe Ash Strat. I call my Strat "The Girlfriend" because it is where all my time goes, my money goes, and I can't keep my hands off of it. I also have a 1986 MIJ Tele named Pearl who's nickname is "The Mistress" because i'm always cheating on the girlfriend when i'm playing it. smile.gif

I've also got a squire strat i've modded to heck and has a couple of Seymour Duncan pickups in it right now, and an epiphone special that i've upgraded. I love modding guitars. I've always got one in pieces that i'm working on. Right now it's my squire, cuz i'm changing out the nut to improve tuning stability. I'm about to bust out my soldering iron to start building some pedals, which should be a fun adventure!

My primary acoustic is a early 80's Tacoma, but it is getting sick these days and will need to be replaced in the next year sad.gif
I always own a low level ovation that as I use for all the places I don't feel comfortable taking my tacoma, such as to teach lessons, around a campfire, or if a gig will result in me needing to leave an acoustic in my car.

Most of my giging is done with my Mesa Transatlantic 15w. It's a great little amp that can handle just about any situation and genera I can throw at it. It is especially great for studio work where I need lots of classic amp tones for one session.

I love soul music such as funk, blues, and r&b. Now being in Nashville I spend a fair amount of time playing country music, but I get work in almost every style. I've had to fake my way through every style at least once.

I'm a big big music theory geek. And I love improv. I'm not a planned solo guy. Much more go with the flow.

I'm also a singer/songwriter and about to release my first full length album which is full of fun guitar riffing and solos.

Don't know what else y'alll want to know....
Cosmin Lupu
Hey man!

Welcome to GMC and I must say that I am very happy you decided to introduce yourself! I think that along with our friend Ken, you are one of those guys with TONS of experience as a session artist and people here will most likely benefit greatly out of reading about your experience as a session artist, especially in Nashville, which is pretty well known for being a Mecca of session players biggrin.gif

Tell us a bit about Nashville and the industry there - is it easy to get payed jobs? How did you build a name for yourself?
Bogdan Radovic
Welcome to GMC! smile.gif

>I've had to fake my way through every style at least once.

I think this is a trade every musician must master and if one does - it opens up quite a few doors.
Modding guitars sounds so much fun, I always envy you guys as I'm really bad at even simply fixing a broken cable.

It is really inspiring to hear about your experience as a working musician, when was the time that you have decided to just "go for it" and chase your music dreams instead of doing something else?
Monica Gheorghevici
Hi and welcome to GMC! If you like to improv, I'm sure that you will love to take part in our collaborations smile.gif See you around the forum wink.gif

jasehackman
QUOTE (Cosmin Lupu @ Dec 7 2014, 08:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Hey man!

Welcome to GMC and I must say that I am very happy you decided to introduce yourself! I think that along with our friend Ken, you are one of those guys with TONS of experience as a session artist and people here will most likely benefit greatly out of reading about your experience as a session artist, especially in Nashville, which is pretty well known for being a Mecca of session players biggrin.gif

Tell us a bit about Nashville and the industry there - is it easy to get payed jobs? How did you build a name for yourself?


Nashville is a strange but wonderful place. There is a special energy to this town because it takes a special kind of person to uproot themselves from where they grew up to chase a dream and that is almost every person in Nashville. There is a standing joke that no one in Nashville is from Nashville, we are all transplants. Because of that, it is an extremely welcoming city. Everyone was new at one point and is in Nashville to chase their dreams. I hear a lot of major music cities are very competitive but I haven't found that to be the case in Nashville. We more have mindset of we are all in this together and your success is my success. At least those who have a healthy outlook on the pursuits hold that mindset.

It is easy to find places to play in Nashville, but much harder to find paying work, or well paying work. There are sooooooooo many talented musicians in Nashville that the market is over saturated. If you wont do it for free, they can find some other musicians who is begging to get a shot to play. I'm confident I would be making a lot more money in music if I lived in a different city. But another city doesn't have the opportunity Nashville does. This is where the industry is. So if you want to get a really amazing, high paying, or highly visible music job, you have a better chance of finding it here. Yes it is the recording capital of the world, but it is also a major hub for national touring acts because of the caliber of musicians here and Nashville's location, at the intersection of several major interstate highways.

They use to say Nashville is a 5 year town, but now word on the street is that it is a 10 year town. Meaning it usually takes 10 years to feel like you are truly established in the industry here. I'm on year three, but I'm a pretty driven person and I think i'm a little ahead of the curve. If you want good work in this town you have to be good. When I first moved here I wasn't good enough, so I practiced my butt off so that now I am. Not as good as I want to be but good enough to handle 80% of what comes my way without stressing out about it. But being good is just half of it. The other big factor is being "a good hang". There are lots of good musicians but when you are in the studio all day with an artist or stuck on a tour bus with them, are you someone they want to hang out with?

If session work is what you are after, you are in luck! Home studios are popping up everywhere with the advancements in recording technology. Sadly, with that, it has become easier to use technology to make up for good musicianship. So if you can step into a recording session and be a killer player, with all your crap together you will get called back. You have to have killer time. It isn't an option. LIVE WITH YOUR METRONOME!! Tone is extremely important. Know your gear and how to get different sounds out of it. With studio work you need to be able to quickly pull out drastically different tones for different styles.

Be a good musician. Now that may seem obvious but guitarist are notoriously crappy musicians. Just because you can play fast and play a few chords may make you a guitarist, but that doesn't make you a musician. A good musician knows their instrument but also has a strong understudying of music theory and has a strong ear. A good musical knows when not to play as much as when to play. I was in a studio session for an artist a few weeks back, laying down guitar on a few tracks in her album. A few songs in they pulled up a beautiful song that was very chill, acoustic driven with strings and a clarinet. They wanted me to come up with some things for the song. I told them I could find things to play, but I would be doing the song a diservice. That it was perfect how it is and I would only distract from the song. Well me not playing on a song means me getting payed less, which sucks, but that musical awareness got me a call back for future work.

As you can tell, I can talk about this stuff for ever. I hope that all made sense.
Todd Simpson
Welcome to GMC!!! This place is amazing and you are gonna dig it smile.gif
Dieterle
Yeah WELCOME here !

Hehe and i own a low level Ovation too tongue.gif

Greetings from Swabia !

Dieter
Kristofer Dahl
Welcome Jase!

QUOTE (jasehackman @ Dec 7 2014, 02:36 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I'm a fender junky. My work horse guitar is my 2010 American Deluxe Ash Strat. I call my Strat "The Girlfriend" because it is where all my time goes, my money goes, and I can't keep my hands off of it. I also have a 1986 MIJ Tele named Pearl who's nickname is "The Mistress" because i'm always cheating on the girlfriend when i'm playing it. smile.gif


Cool, the strat is pretty similar to the one I have got (lesson). It is also Am deluxe with (swamp-) ash body. The bright sound it gives is killer, and the neck profile is perfect for me.

I'd love a tele as well - and I should probably have got myself one long time ago - but the other (guitar-) ladies are so demanding. I just haven't got the time I need to play them all so I don't know what to do with yet a guitar. However that spanky tele tone is something I have had in my head for a long time - so sooner or later...
Cosmin Lupu
QUOTE (jasehackman @ Dec 7 2014, 08:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Nashville is a strange but wonderful place. There is a special energy to this town because it takes a special kind of person to uproot themselves from where they grew up to chase a dream and that is almost every person in Nashville. There is a standing joke that no one in Nashville is from Nashville, we are all transplants. Because of that, it is an extremely welcoming city. Everyone was new at one point and is in Nashville to chase their dreams. I hear a lot of major music cities are very competitive but I haven't found that to be the case in Nashville. We more have mindset of we are all in this together and your success is my success. At least those who have a healthy outlook on the pursuits hold that mindset.

It is easy to find places to play in Nashville, but much harder to find paying work, or well paying work. There are sooooooooo many talented musicians in Nashville that the market is over saturated. If you wont do it for free, they can find some other musicians who is begging to get a shot to play. I'm confident I would be making a lot more money in music if I lived in a different city. But another city doesn't have the opportunity Nashville does. This is where the industry is. So if you want to get a really amazing, high paying, or highly visible music job, you have a better chance of finding it here. Yes it is the recording capital of the world, but it is also a major hub for national touring acts because of the caliber of musicians here and Nashville's location, at the intersection of several major interstate highways.

They use to say Nashville is a 5 year town, but now word on the street is that it is a 10 year town. Meaning it usually takes 10 years to feel like you are truly established in the industry here. I'm on year three, but I'm a pretty driven person and I think i'm a little ahead of the curve. If you want good work in this town you have to be good. When I first moved here I wasn't good enough, so I practiced my butt off so that now I am. Not as good as I want to be but good enough to handle 80% of what comes my way without stressing out about it. But being good is just half of it. The other big factor is being "a good hang". There are lots of good musicians but when you are in the studio all day with an artist or stuck on a tour bus with them, are you someone they want to hang out with?

If session work is what you are after, you are in luck! Home studios are popping up everywhere with the advancements in recording technology. Sadly, with that, it has become easier to use technology to make up for good musicianship. So if you can step into a recording session and be a killer player, with all your crap together you will get called back. You have to have killer time. It isn't an option. LIVE WITH YOUR METRONOME!! Tone is extremely important. Know your gear and how to get different sounds out of it. With studio work you need to be able to quickly pull out drastically different tones for different styles.

Be a good musician. Now that may seem obvious but guitarist are notoriously crappy musicians. Just because you can play fast and play a few chords may make you a guitarist, but that doesn't make you a musician. A good musician knows their instrument but also has a strong understudying of music theory and has a strong ear. A good musical knows when not to play as much as when to play. I was in a studio session for an artist a few weeks back, laying down guitar on a few tracks in her album. A few songs in they pulled up a beautiful song that was very chill, acoustic driven with strings and a clarinet. They wanted me to come up with some things for the song. I told them I could find things to play, but I would be doing the song a diservice. That it was perfect how it is and I would only distract from the song. Well me not playing on a song means me getting payed less, which sucks, but that musical awareness got me a call back for future work.

As you can tell, I can talk about this stuff for ever. I hope that all made sense.


Thank you so much for the input, man smile.gif You know, it's funny how 90% of all the stuff you mentioned is common sense, but I'll be damned if in a stressful situation, that common sense would always kick in and be your trustworthy friend smile.gif

I think that EVERY GMCr should take note of your words here and practice accordingly. By the way, how old are you, mate and have you lived in Nashville long time before actually getting into the business? Which was the harders job you had so far? smile.gif

Once again, thank you for your priceless input!
Gabriel Leopardi
Hi friend!! Welcome to GMC! I've read both posts that you made here and I have to say that your words are very interesting! It's really good to see how things work on a city that is so important for music and that has a working industry with lots of possibilities and opportunities. It's also interesting to see how some things work similar to other parts of the world.

I find a parallelism with what happens in Buenos Aires about the 10 years thing to establish, we usually say that it's the time that take a band to establish in the music scene and industry. I had a band for 11 years and everything started to work great around 3 years ago. I can also connect with things to the fact that it's very important to be professional, have a good level of technique but also being able to play for the song, have a well trained year, and what's even more important, to be a nice person to hang with while touring, recording, and working.

When you say that you are working as a musician there, is it playing your original music? being a session player? playing on cover bands? everything? what's you main job there?
Cosmin Lupu
QUOTE (Gabriel Leopardi @ Dec 8 2014, 05:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Hi friend!! Welcome to GMC! I've read both posts that you made here and I have to say that your words are very interesting! It's really good to see how things work on a city that is so important for music and that has a working industry with lots of possibilities and opportunities. It's also interesting to see how some things work similar to other parts of the world.

I find a parallelism with what happens in Buenos Aires about the 10 years thing to establish, we usually say that it's the time that take a band to establish in the music scene and industry. I had a band for 11 years and everything started to work great around 3 years ago. I can also connect with things to the fact that it's very important to be professional, have a good level of technique but also being able to play for the song, have a well trained year, and what's even more important, to be a nice person to hang with while touring, recording, and working.

When you say that you are working as a musician there, is it playing your original music? being a session player? playing on cover bands? everything? what's you main job there?


I think that being a nice person is VERY important - I have friends that don't play that incredibly complicated or perfect, technique wise, but they are such amazing human beings that the music simply flows through them and that's why everyone loves them and they light up the place with their presence smile.gif
Darius Wave
Wellcome to GMC! smile.gif Nice to know Your interests. There is a lot of players who are inspiring and who made tons of famous riffs or melodies while not being a technical virtuosos smile.gif That's a cool path as well. Make sure to check out some of Javier's lessons - he's a groove man who really make's his guitar swim with the rhythm smile.gif
jasehackman
QUOTE (Bogdan Radovic @ Dec 7 2014, 06:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Welcome to GMC! smile.gif

>I've had to fake my way through every style at least once.

I think this is a trade every musician must master and if one does - it opens up quite a few doors.
Modding guitars sounds so much fun, I always envy you guys as I'm really bad at even simply fixing a broken cable.

It is really inspiring to hear about your experience as a working musician, when was the time that you have decided to just "go for it" and chase your music dreams instead of doing something else?


I've been in Nashville 3 years, and for the first two years I tried to make a career type full time job, and music work. But it didn't. I found myself drained from my full time job and having no energy or time for music. So at the beginning of the year I quit my job and hit music hard.

I feel called to music and doing anything is being disobedient to what I was designed to do. Since I know music is what I'm suppose to do I try to make all my decisions with that in mind. Sometimes that means doing things that aren't music so I can support music. Like right now, music is always very very slow in the winter. No one is touring, or doing studio work because of the weather and holidays. So in order to pay bills I do a few other things on the side. Right now I'm working part time in sales, and am designing a website for a client while I wait out the winter, but once we hit spring hopefully I can shed both of those again and concentrate more on music.

But there is always the temptation to work on other things that pay more. I could put more hours in to my sales job but that would sacrifice my practice time, and freedom to take music work when it comes. Music is more important to me than money. Unless you are part of a small percentage, there isn't a ton of money in music. You have to readjust your priorities and your standard of living. Life was a lot more comfortable when I was working full time but now I'm a lot happier.


QUOTE (Kristofer Dahl @ Dec 8 2014, 10:17 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Welcome Jase!



Cool, the strat is pretty similar to the one I have got (lesson). It is also Am deluxe with (swamp-) ash body. The bright sound it gives is killer, and the neck profile is perfect for me.

I'd love a tele as well - and I should probably have got myself one long time ago - but the other (guitar-) ladies are so demanding. I just haven't got the time I need to play them all so I don't know what to do with yet a guitar. However that spanky tele tone is something I have had in my head for a long time - so sooner or later...


That strat is such a great guitar. It doesn't sound 100% like a strat because of the N3 pickups but the zero hum, all the pickup combinations, and quality craftsmanship make it my giging guitar most of the time. It is like a multi purpose tool. It doesn't do anything 100% but I can get about 75% there on any tone I would need at a moments notice.

QUOTE (Cosmin Lupu @ Dec 8 2014, 11:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Thank you so much for the input, man smile.gif You know, it's funny how 90% of all the stuff you mentioned is common sense, but I'll be damned if in a stressful situation, that common sense would always kick in and be your trustworthy friend smile.gif

I think that EVERY GMCr should take note of your words here and practice accordingly. By the way, how old are you, mate and have you lived in Nashville long time before actually getting into the business? Which was the harders job you had so far? smile.gif

Once again, thank you for your priceless input!


I'm 25 and i've lived in Nashville for 3 years.

The hardest gig i've ever had was a fill in for a country artists tour, for one show. I got the call the night before that he needed a fill in. The set list was about 40 cover tunes and 5 originals. I had played about 10 of the covers before, but the rest I didn't know. I stayed up the entire night charting out every song and uploading the charts to my ipad so I could use them on stage. I then had to drive 6 hours to the gig. Got there, had load in, had 30minutes to soundcheck & practice and then it was show time. That sucked.. but it payed well smile.gif

QUOTE (Gabriel Leopardi @ Dec 8 2014, 05:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Hi friend!! Welcome to GMC! I've read both posts that you made here and I have to say that your words are very interesting! It's really good to see how things work on a city that is so important for music and that has a working industry with lots of possibilities and opportunities. It's also interesting to see how some things work similar to other parts of the world.

I find a parallelism with what happens in Buenos Aires about the 10 years thing to establish, we usually say that it's the time that take a band to establish in the music scene and industry. I had a band for 11 years and everything started to work great around 3 years ago. I can also connect with things to the fact that it's very important to be professional, have a good level of technique but also being able to play for the song, have a well trained year, and what's even more important, to be a nice person to hang with while touring, recording, and working.

When you say that you are working as a musician there, is it playing your original music? being a session player? playing on cover bands? everything? what's you main job there?


I've done some of everything.

My least favorite is cover gigs. We have a big cover gig scene here in Nashville, and for awhile I was a part of it, but it just didn't do it for me. I'm too much of a creative to play someone else's licks every night. I like learning them because they make me a better player but I don't like having to spit them back out note for note every single night. I take those gigs if they come my way but I don't seek them out.

I'm gaining a growing reputation for my ability to play on the fly. I mean really on the fly. I get a call from an artist to play a show the day of, I don't know any of their songs, and they don't send me any. No rehearsals. I step out on stage with them individually or with their band and they start playing. If i'm lucky they shout me a key, but they usually don't. As soon as they play enough notes for me to know the key, style, and feel the groove I start playing with them, making everything up as I go. These gigs have forced my ear to grow like crazy, and have taught me to be very present while i'm playing.

I'm getting more and more studio work all the time, which I really enjoy. It gives me the opportunity to play lots of different styles and get very nit picky about my playing. I learn a lot about my strengths and weaknesses as a player from studio work.

About half of my time is split between to original projects. One of them is my own music. I'm about to release my first solo album, which I'm super excited about! I'm doing mix revisions right now for it, but it should be out in January. Next year I'll be hitting the road to do shows to promote my record. I'm also part of another band, both as a player and part of the creative team. We've been together for a year and just released our first EP.

That's some of the stuff I'm doing. I don't have a main job, i've got lots of them. I make money from lots of things some being music, and some not. Just depends on the day.

QUOTE (Cosmin Lupu @ Dec 11 2014, 09:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I think that being a nice person is VERY important - I have friends that don't play that incredibly complicated or perfect, technique wise, but they are such amazing human beings that the music simply flows through them and that's why everyone loves them and they light up the place with their presence smile.gif


Dude it is HUGE! Skill as a musician is only part of what gets you there. If you are good to people, people will be good to you.

And you are also touching on the difference between technique and musicianship. A guy who can play 1,000 notes per minute but doesn't know how to use those 1,000 notes is useless. A guy who can play only 10 notes but knows how to use them effectively will get way more work.

Plus, I consider a guitarist job to be part of the rhythms section. I spend more time sitting in the grove with some chords, or a few notes then I do playing fills and lead lines. Sure I can kill a solo if one comes my way, but only 1 in 3 songs has a solo in it, and that solo is (at most) 20 seconds of a 3 minute song. Sooooooo most of the time I'm lying in the grove. Creating texture and feel.

QUOTE (Darius Wave @ Dec 11 2014, 02:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Wellcome to GMC! smile.gif Nice to know Your interests. There is a lot of players who are inspiring and who made tons of famous riffs or melodies while not being a technical virtuosos smile.gif That's a cool path as well. Make sure to check out some of Javier's lessons - he's a groove man who really make's his guitar swim with the rhythm smile.gif



Absolutely, I'll have to check them out!!
Cosmin Lupu
Mate, you could write a book - 'The musician's code to making a living in the industry' wink.gif I think it would be sold out sooner then you think biggrin.gif Do you have any favorite music/musician oriented books?
klasaine
QUOTE (jasehackman @ Dec 11 2014, 05:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Plus, I consider a guitarist job to be part of the rhythms section. I spend more time sitting in the grove with some chords, or a few notes then I do playing fills and lead lines. Sure I can kill a solo if one comes my way, but only 1 in 3 songs has a solo in it, and that solo is (at most) 20 seconds of a 3 minute song. Sooooooo most of the time I'm lying in the grove. Creating texture and feel.


Truer words were never spoken!
If you want to be a 'working' musician - i.e., pay your bills with guitar (or keys or bass or drums) in hand - you better know this and live by this.
I've played plenty of solos on people's records but I only got that chance by being a good rhythm section player. A 'team' player.
When you can sit in the groove of the section and make everything 'feel' good and everything and everyone sound better than they would without you - then the songwriters, singers, other players, and the engineers and producers will keep calling you and eventually you'll get that chance to add fills, riffs and a badass solo to somebody's tune.

Welcome to the forum jasehackman.
Kristofer Dahl
QUOTE (jasehackman @ Dec 12 2014, 01:13 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
That strat is such a great guitar. It doesn't sound 100% like a strat because of the N3 pickups but the zero hum, all the pickup combinations, and quality craftsmanship make it my giging guitar most of the time. It is like a multi purpose tool. It doesn't do anything 100% but I can get about 75% there on any tone I would need at a moments notice.


Yes I have SCNs (also noiseless) in mine, and I pretty much thought they were the best thing that ever happened to me. But I am starting to feel I would want something more standard (and alnico) for really dynamic playing on the bridge pickup, though as you said they are versatile and I doubt the high gain stuff would come out as well / at all on standard SC pickups.

Good news is that I have an excuse to start drooling over another lady =)
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