We were lucky to catch up with Joe Bergamini recently and have shared our conversation below.
Joe, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
I have made a living playing, teaching and writing about the drums since I was out of college at 23 years old. I commuted to school and majored in architecture, since my parents wanted me to have the typical “something to fall back on.” During my college years, I studied and practiced, played in many bands, and learned the business. Luckily I had an amazing mentor, my teacher Dom Famularo. He showed me ways to build a teaching business and make money full time in music, while pursuing my playing career at the same time. From my college graduation it was a slow build from there. I don’t believe there are any shortcuts to a career doing this; above all you have to have put in the hours of practice to survive among the great musicians that are looking for work in any major music market, And develop the business and personal skills that go along with it.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I think the easiest way to do this is to share my bio. My career today is essentially three parts: Performing, teaching, and working in the industry as an author, editor and consultant. My bio gives the details:
Joe Bergamini maintains a diverse career as a drumming performer and educator. Enjoying various styles of playing, he is known for his progressive rock drumming in the bands Happy the Man and 4Front, and he is the current international touring drummer for The Doo-Wop Project. Based in the New York area, Joe has worked extensively on Broadway. In 2018, he held the drum chair for the Broadway production of Gettin’ the Band Back Together, and he has also performed at over 15 other shows including Movin’ Out, Jersey Boys, Rock of Ages, In the Heights, Beautiful (The Carole King Musical), Hamilton, The Lion King, Million Dollar Quartet, and others. Joe has also appeared on the first national tours of Movin’ Out, Jersey Boys and Beautiful, and with many major symphony orchestras including the Philly Pops and the Detroit, Nashville, Seattle, San Diego, Indianapolis and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras.
A best-selling drum set author, Joe has won four Modern Drummer Readers Poll awards for his drum books, including best drum book of 2013 for Neil Peart: Taking Center Stage. He is also the author of The Working Drummer’s Chart Book, Stewart Copeland: Drumming in The Police and Beyond, Drum Techniques of Led Zeppelin, and several other books. As the Senior Drum Editor for Hudson Music since 2009, Joe has worked closely with many of the world’s greatest drummers, acting as editor on books with Steve Gadd, David Garibaldi, Steve Smith, Liberty DeVitto, Mark Guiliana, Tommy Igoe, Stanton Moore, Todd Sucherman, and many others. He is also the co-owner, with Dom Famularo, of the independent publisher Wizdom Media, with books distributed by Alfred Music. Since 2015, Joe has also been Education Consultant for Sabian, designing and directing the Sabian Education Network for drum teachers.
Recognized internationally as an educator, Joe has given hundreds of drum clinics in schools, retail stores, and conventions. He has appeared at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) multiple times, the Ultimate Drummers Weekend (Melbourne, Australia), the Cape Breton Drum Festival (Nova Scotia, Canada), KOSA (Vermont, USA), and the Sonny Emory Drum Camp (Atlanta, USA), and has done two clinic tours for Tama Drums. He has been teaching privately at his own studio for over 30 years. Among Joe’s many private students who have gone on to pro careers is world-renowned jazz drummer Mark Guiliana. Joe proudly endorses Tama drums, Sabian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks, Evans drumheads, Latin Percussion, and Cympad.
Have you ever had to pivot?
As many young musicians do, I dreamed of being a rock star. I worked hard to get good gigs and become known by the people who were doing what I wanted to do. Through playing hundreds of gigs, I finally got an audition with a touring band that was known and had a record deal. By this time I was engaged to be married. When I was offered the gig, I realized that I would be giving up everything I had built in the New York/New Jersey area–not only lots of local gigs but my teaching business, that I had build through my own sweat, and which I owned–to travel around for low pay, sleeping in a van with a band that was hiring me to pursue their dream of stardom. I also would be leaving my future wife behind to do this. It was then I realized that other things in life were more important to me than becoming a rock star, I passed on that gig, and stayed home. Eventually I did plenty of touring and traveling, and my wife knew that was part of the lifestyle I wanted, but I got it on my terms. This pivot is also what eventually led me to playing on Broadway, and that was the major step up in my career.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
There really is no one particular story, but this is an interesting question, because the nature of being a working musician is essentially unstable in the sense that any gig can end at any time. Unlike the corporate world, where losing a job can be an infrequent and traumatic experience, Broadway shows close all the time, leaving the musicians, actors and others looking for the next gig. You have to be resilient to survive, and you have to deal with failure as well. One of the ways that I stay resilient and deal with the instability is to have my teaching business, which is my own and which no one can take away from me. This gives me an anchor for when other things become unstable.
The pandemic also forced resilience upon all musicians. For me, I moved my whole teaching business online in one day (fortunately I already had been teaching online for a few years). When Sabian thought they would eliminate the program I run for them, I convinced them to keep it alive, and agreed to keep working on it for a few months without pay until they determined what their financials looked like. This saved the program and my consultancy with them, while also showing my loyalty to the company (I love them and have been endorsing their cymbals for 25 years). With Hudson Music, I’ve met and worked with almost all of my drums heroes. But the world of educational music media has changed so fast in recent years that we’ve had to navigate decreasing revenues in print, expansion into digital books, and much more. Hudson’s owner Rob Wallis was a trailblazer in the world of drum video, and his foresight has kept us going through every challenge.So through hard work and openness to change, I still make a good portion of my living doing drum books as an author and editor, and I love that work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.joebergamini.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joebergamini/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joebergaminidrums/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-bergamini-8777417/
- Twitter: none
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/joebergaminidotcom
- Yelp: none