How to have a career like Tommy Tedesco

The Navy School of Music had a special screening of award-winning  documentary "The Wrecking Crew" by Denny Tedesco, on fame studio musicians of the 50s and 60s in LA, including Tommy Tedesco, Carole Kay, Dan Randi, Hal Blaine, etc.

Here are the pearls of wisdom from the movie.

• How to Know if a Musician is Good- one of the studio musicians said that because all the musicians were always playing gigs, nobody could tell if someone was good or not from how much they played, but from how many gigs they turned down.The person who had to say no to the most gigs was the best player in town.
• 4 Reasons to Accept a Gig: according to guitar player Tommy Tedesco the four reasons to accept a gig are:

1. for money
2. for fun
3. for experience
4. for connections

• How to be Professional: Drummer Earl Palmer talked about how he didn't want to be associated with the pop songs he was recording because he thought he was better than what he was playing. But then he learned that to be professional he had to play the music like he loved it. He wisely said: 

"It's not beneath you if it supports you."