A Drummer’s Guide To...

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’A Drummer’s Guide To...’ is the podcast that dives into everything it takes to thrive as a professional musician beyond the practice room. Hosted by Emily Dolan Davies, a drummer since 1999, pro since 2008, and a passionate mentor since 2018, this show unpacks the real-world challenges, triumphs, and strategies for building the career of your dreams. Whether you’re chasing gigs, navigating the music industry, or balancing passion with practicality, Emily’s got your back with honest insights and inspiring stories. Find out more about Emily at EmilyDrums.com

Episodes

Jul 13, 2024

152 - Uncomfortable Truths

Jul 13, 2024

31 min

🚨 Is avoidance of pain keeping you from success? 🚨

🙈 There’s a common misconception that I’ve seen flying around that if you do everything ‘right’ you’ll breeze into being a pro, and stay there as long as you stay consistent.

❌ Nope ❌

😖 It’s HARD - I don’t know any session musician that hasn’t gone through feelings of doubt, imposter syndrome, not feeling good enough, and then losing gigs, not getting auditions, and feeling embarrassed and humiliated. It’s part of the job, it’s part of life.

🤔💭 You should expect all these things and rather than being so afraid of them that it paralyses you out of making the hard moves, know that it’s going to be hard either way, so you may as well take your shot, and keep taking the shots until it’s normalised.

☝️So here are my top tips for facing these uncomfortable truths…

😥 When bad things happen (and they will happen!) face them head on. Whether it was a shortfall in skill, or a mismatch of personalities, or any other type of epic fail, take responsibility.

Ask yourself:

1️⃣ what was my role in this?

2️⃣ what I can do to mitigate this every happening again?

3️⃣ what positives can I take from the situation?

🥵 To say this is confronting is putting it so mildly that Nando’s don’t even have a sauce to illustrate it!

🧌 However, ignoring it, creates a much bigger problem in the long term, making monsters you’ll become terrified of, guarding the door to opportunities that could be perfect for you in every way!

🎙 I’ll share with you the most confronting moments for me in this week’s episode, A Drummer’s Guide To... Uncomfortable Truths

#sessionmusician #musicianmindset #professionalmusician #acceptance #ADrummersGuideTo #Podcast #promusicians #musicianproblems #musiciansofig #sessionmusician #musicianlifestyle #sessiondrummer #musiceducation #musicianslife #behindthescenes #musicindustry #professionalmusician #drummer #drums #drumming #lessons #drumlesson #drumlessons #remoterecording #homestudio #remotesession #productivity #ama #askmeanything

Jul 3, 2024

151 - Acceptance

Jul 3, 2024

38 min

🚨 Are you in control of your career? 🚨

🫣 To a point you may be, but honestly, with all the moving parts of this life, it would be arrogant for us to think we could control all the outcomes

😩 In reality, you will just be burnt out, unable to perform at your best, and take advantage of opportunities if they do arise.

😔 Accept that there is only so much you can control, things will go ‘wrong’ and it’s how you react to that that will make the difference.

🙏How do I accept things going wrong in career and life?

1️⃣ Accept the uncontrollable, and try to make peace with the situation
2️⃣ Reflect on evidence of past events that may have seemed ‘bad’ in the moment
3️⃣ Excavate the gold of the situation - use it as fuel, inspiration, a source of gratitude, motivation, or as a dose of (often confronting) reality

🙌 Just focus on what you can control, and then relinquish the rest because who know what can come from any situation 8 weeks, 8 months, or 8 years from now.

👀 Check out this episode A Drummer’s Guide To... Acceptance and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes!

#sessionmusician #musicianmindset #professionalmusician #acceptance

Jun 29, 2024

150 - Embarrassment

Jun 29, 2024

36 min

🙅‍♀️Is fear of looking or sounding stupid keeping you from a successful career?

🙈 It certainly was for me for many years!!!

🤔What do you think will get you more work… someone watching you perform and being like ‘oooof that’s a lot!’ or not even notice you when you’re on stage?

😩Yea ok, both aren’t ideal, but the first version is waaaaayyyy better because they’re noticing you, which means that so are other’s in the audience, and although we as humans are great at focusing on the negative and ‘threats’ (it’s literally biological), for every person that may watch your performance and not resonate with it, there may be another 100 that will feel connected, in the moment and inspired by you 🙌🫶💪

🫥The second version of events, no-one’s feeling anything, and that’s not what music is about.

🧐So how do I tackle fear of embarrassment?

1️⃣ I challenge it, and face it head on

2️⃣ I test it out to check that the fear of looking sill is warranted for SURE

3️⃣ I reframe it in a way that actually makes the potential of me looking silly a POSITIVE

😌Just focus on being true to who you are as a player… FEEL it, the way your favourite players made you FEEL it when you first picked up your instrument, and how other’s make you FEEL it today.

👀 Check out A Drummer’s Guide To... Embarrassment and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes 🙅‍♀️

#ADrummersGuideTo #Podcast #promusicians #musicianproblems #musiciansofig #sessionmusician #musicianlifestyle #sessiondrummer #musiceducation #musicianslife #behindthescenes #musicindustry #professionalmusician #drummer #drums #drumming #lessons #drumlesson #drumlessons #remoterecording #homestudio #remotesession #productivity #ama #askmeanything

Jun 22, 2024

149 - Patience

Jun 22, 2024

35 min

🤔 ‘If I work harder, I will be successful’ - is this what you believe?

❌ I did - I was WRONG! Well not entirely… but there was another part to that puzzle that I was no good at, and arguably am still working on!

🧘 Patience

😬 is this one skill keeping you from success too?

3 ways to develop patience
1. Falling in love with the process
2. Diverting your attention to other areas such as fitness, education in other areas, hobbies
3. Getting curious about others’ stories, and remind yourself you’re not the only one

--- Join my Session Musician Accelerator Programme to go full time as a session musician - DM 'FULL-TIME' on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilydrumscom ---

#ADrummersGuideTo #Podcast #promusicians #musicianproblems #musiciansofig #sessionmusician #musicianlifestyle #sessiondrummer #musiceducation #musicianslife #behindthescenes #musicindustry #professionalmusician #drummer #drums #drumming #lessons #drumlesson #drumlessons #remoterecording #homestudio #remotesession #productivity #ama #askmeanything

Apr 27, 2024

148 - Community

Apr 27, 2024

20 min

Join me in this episode, A Drummer's Guide To... Community as I share how important a sense of community has been in my pursuit of being a professional musician, even when it was just a community of 2!

---If you'd like to support this podcast, now you can at https://www.patreon.com/emilydrums---

Apr 20, 2024

147 - Navigating Egos and Personalities

Apr 20, 2024

25 min

Join me in this episode, A Drummer's Guide To... Navigating Egos and Personalities where I share how I choose to see and react to 'bad behaviour' or difficult people on the road as well as sharing some of my own shortcomings (of which there are many!!!)

---If you'd like to support this podcast, now you can at https://www.patreon.com/emilydrums---

Apr 13, 2024

146 - Job Insecurity

Apr 13, 2024

31 min

Join me in this episode, A Drummer's Guide To... Job Insecurity as I share with you how to make your job as a professional musician more consistent, stable and reliable, and I even talk about a massive shift that is on it's way with my career! Chaos has ensued!!!

*** If you'd like one-on-one coaching with me... www.emilydrums.com/coaching ***

---If you'd like to support this podcast, now you can at https://www.patreon.com/emilydrums---

Apr 6, 2024

145 - Session Musician Misconceptions

Apr 6, 2024

35 min

Join me in this episode, A Drummer's Guide To... Session Musician Misconceptions as I address the reasons people claim they can't be a session musician, as well as some of the incorrect assumptions I made as a musician coming up to being a professional. Hopefully this will help you get over those barriers too so you can keep striving towards 'the dream'.

---If you'd like to support this podcast, now you can at https://www.patreon.com/emilydrums---

Mar 30, 2024

144 - Introverts Unite!

Mar 30, 2024

48 min

Join me in this episode, A Drummer's Guide To... Introverts Unite! I share how I navigate being an introvert in the extroverted world of music, and the drawbacks, benefits, and tricks I have to thrive in this space. I also share how I have cultivated an extroverted persona on stage and on camera, but rest assured, at my core, I am an introvert too! Weird I know!

---If you'd like to support this podcast, now you can at https://www.patreon.com/emilydrums---

Mar 23, 2024

143 - The 6 Human Needs

Mar 23, 2024

41 min

Join me in this episode, A Drummer's Guide To... The 6 Human Needs as I talk about the filter I run all of my career choices through to make sure I'm the most fulfilled I can be, or if I'm feeling down or empty what needs aren't being met so I can change it! I've found this very useful, and I hope you do too :-)

---If you'd like to support this podcast, now you can at https://www.patreon.com/emilydrums---