When I first decided that I wanted to really pursue being a professional musician, this is how my Google search history read…

“how to be a professional musician”

“professional musician blogs”

“how to make it as a professional musician”

“James Duke”

“professional musician + health insurance???”

Laugh if you’d like at my awful Google search etiquette, but this was how it went for the most part. I’d rummage through these blogs to try and formulate some sort of action plan from all of them on how I would make it as a professional musician. They all read the same for the most part. It would either be some sort of rule-book post or a ploy to join some sort of “professional musicians’ union”. I hated it. It was all directed to the singer songwriter and the classical/wedding musician. Of all of the rules, one thing that I really have not grabbed onto yet was “Time Management”. Honoring time. I did everything else. I buckled down on my theory, got my dream gear together, bought some Levi 510s, but I kinda threw time management by the wayside.

When an article on Vic Firth’s website referred to time management they were talking about the respect of your employer’s time. Personal practice time, load in, rehearsal and call times. This was a huge point that they focused on for much of the article. I mean, think about it. For me, when I first left my full-time job to prepare for my summer traveling, I had forgotten what day it was after the first week. I slept in every day until noon and had no real order to my life. I was exploring becoming an artist/musician. It was ridic.

I’ve since gotten better about my time management, but still, I have a long way to go. How many of you guys are using Planning Center? I find that Planning Center and Student Life staffers do the best job of running my life. Just this past week I was messing around with the Planning Center app on my phone and I realized that along with the “service time” and “rehearsal time” David had designated a “load in” time for 7:30 a.m. Now this is hilarious in comparison to the many other musicians who play at mega churches like Elevation or NewSpring where they have something like a 6 a.m. load in. I later realized he had been doing this for a while, and then remembered that he himself drives 45 minutes every Sunday to be there even earlier than that just to make sure everything is made ready for that Sunday’s service.

“LOAD IN”, for those of you who have not experienced this, or maybe your leader calls it something different, is exactly that. You load all of your gear into the venue in which you are about to shred and make sure you are ready and set to start playing at the designated rehearsal time. In short…Load in comes before rehearsal. They are not one and the same. If your rehearsal starts at 8 you cannot show up at 8 to set up.

So here is what I’ve decided to do. This week I started honoring people’s time. Worship leaders I play for, my wife and my friends. It’s been tough but I’m seeing it’s oh-so-important. So far it has made me really think about and plan my day. I’m not stressed or worrying about everyone judging me for getting there 10 minutes before I am supposed to start playing. And because it doesn’t take me a full 30 minutes to set up I can do my thing and get in the zone before rehearsal. Now as far as applying it to my home life, I feel like it shows my family and friends that I value the time I am spending with them. Believe me when I say that mirroring the two is kind of a big deal.

Something I learned from an old employer is that it’s very hard to do something in your personal life and it not be reflected in your professional life and vice versa. If you show up to work late, more than likely you also show up to the game night at your friend’s house late. We are creatures of habit. They follow us wherever we go.

So this is me. Challenging myself. Part of being a “professional musician” is being a “professional”. I am buckling down. I am managing my time more wisely. I am going to honor those who have set those times as well as the commitment/service I offer to the church and God.

Now please don’t concentrate on the word professional so hard that you, the volunteer musician, exclude yourself from the conversation. This is so important. It’s an honor to get to do what we do. We’re not doing anyone a favor by showing up out of the kindess of our own awesome, rockstar hearts. We are serving a great purpose.

**Something to think about**

For the volunteer worship musician who wants to see their church grow and be able to pay their musicians…Is it fair to expect the church to honor your time with a check if you can’t honor their’s by being on time and prepared to serve?

Just thoughts…

What do you think? How do you manage your time? Are you a ninja on Planning Center? Comment below! :D

Hey folks! Here’s the demo for the JHS Morning Glory. A really sweet overdrive pedal from a pretty sweet company. Please check them out here! My good buddy and worship leader, Joel Reid, let me borrow the glory. Thanks, Joel!

My thoughts on the Morning Glory:

I liked it a lot. It’s similar to my Paul Cochrane Timmy [but different] in that it’s the type of pedal you wouldn’t mind having on in the background at all times. It was pretty sensitive to my playing. I really enjoyed the bright cut switch and how it made my chords really pretty as well as the darker upward position and how it made my guitar sound like it had 13′s on it.

All in all a great pedal from JHS. Built very well, in a very sturdy box, beautifully wired. Enjoy the video and feel free to leave comments!

A very cool Sunday. I was able to play with David at City Church where he serves as Worship Pastor. I go there and I love it. We had one of the best sets I’ve ever been a part of.

Last week I learned a lot about how David builds and prays through a setlist/worship service. It kinda blew my mind. You can read about it here. Anyways…We all had a lot of fun. Did a few John Mark songs, a few of David’s new songs and even some spontaneous worship.

As of late I’ve been thinking about and evaluating this in my own life: how do you prepare for a service at your church or when invited to go out on the road? How many hours do you spend on the material? Do you sit down with all your gear and program all your rhythmic delays and POG 2 settings? ;] Or do you just show up, hope someone printed out charts and wing it? You’re a volunteer, right? Or do you get paid?…How do you prepare?

Me, I like to try and spend as much time with the material as possible. Hours, if necessary. Like it’s my job. Like I’m going to be tested. I never want to show up Sunday morning for soundcheck and it be the first time I touched the songs. I want to show up, get my monitor mix ready, make sure we’re all on the same page and worship and lead others in worship.

Sitting down with my gear during the week is something I just started doing in the past few months. Before, I would show up with a bunch of  ideas for tones and delays and then have to make them work the morning of. LAME. Now I trek all my gear home, up two flights of stairs, in road cases twice a Sunday, so I can stay sharp for the service/outing/whatever I’m involved with.

When do I feel worst about my playing or my sound? When I show up unprepared, make everyone pay for my not knowing the songs and sabotage myself from ever really being able to enter into an intimate time with the Father. It is awful. Also…everyone can tell. When you play with musicians who did the homework they can tell.

There is nothing like walking into a service and just knowing your parts and how it will work with everyone else’s. Knowing that if it’s done right you’re not going to totally distract all the other guitarists in the room with your janky tone. That you are a part of creating a hospitable environment for real encounters to happen with the Lord. Because, guys…that is what it is all about. Real encounters with God. We’re ushers. I politely challenge you…think about how you will prepare for next week’s service. For the next DNOW. The next Student Life. You’re an important part to the process. An important process. Honor it and serve it well!

:D Hey! If you’re still reading this and don’t hate me, here is the set from this past Sunday!

Closer – John Mark McMillan [David screams in this song. He is the best singer ever. Shivers...]

Sing My Love – Sarah McMillan

~~~~~spontaneous awesomeness~~~~~

One Thing Remains – Jesus Culture

~~~~~more spontaneous worship~~~~~

Beautiful Rescuer – David Walker

What A Love – David Walker

~~~~~even more spontaneous/hymns and greatness~~~~~

Let me know what you think. Disagree? Agree? Tell me about your process!

All in all it was a great trip. We saw hundreds of kids learn more about their identity in Christ. We saw a multi-generational church come together and worship to howling guitars and a cage-less drum set. And finally I was asked by a mother in the church to pray over two of David’s CDs. That they may minister to her son’s heart and that he may feel and understand that he is loved by the Father. It is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done.

Here are some pics from the weekend!

Pinkerton, me, David…in a hotel lobby

The folks at Valley View took us to a cool meat place! I had the meat!

and sweet tea!

Skype date with my wife!

I present the Timmy from Paul Cochrane Audio. I love this pedal. It has been one of my favorite overdrives for the past year. This is kind of a weird version of the pedal because it’s not the 2nd version but it is different from the 1st version of the pedal where Paul was still using the old waffle style chip. So I’m going to say it’s the…Timmy v1.2…ish.

I bought the Timmy back when I first started playing with David Walker. Most of his new album was done with it and I wanted to be consistant with the tone of the record. You can check that out here.

Watch the video! Tell me what you think. What are some of your favorite overdrives? Ones that will never leave the board…leave me a comment and subscribe.

Hey guys! Here is my pedal board demo that I’ve been wanting to do for some time.  Feel free to check out my gear page to get some more detail on what I’m actually using. I try to keep it as up to date as possible. Make sure you subscribe to my youtube page for more updates. I’ll be releasing a new gear video every week. I’m really excited and hope you all enjoy. Leave comments and like the video if you can!

2011 was an amazing year. I knew it would be a year of change for me but in what sense I really didn’t know. This past year my wife and I stepped out in faith as I left my job as a Director of Interactive Media at a marketing firm here in town to pursue playing guitar professionally and as part of a ministry. We celebrated our one year anniversary with finding out that we were pregnant! None of this has looked at all the way I thought it would but with faith, family and friends this has been one of the best years of my life.

It’s now, in the first days of 2012, I’m beginning to understand that God’s timing is different from mine. He is much more patient than I am and has a much broader view of what’s in store for me and my family. I thought I would leave my job, jump on a bus and go play a couple hundred days out of the year, get endorsed and have thousands of followers on Instagram. I thought that in the first year of marriage it would be the easiest thing for me to go travel for almost a month straight and barely see my wife. I thought Meg and I would have a few years to be that young, hip married couple that were well traveled and had a trendy house downtown before we had children. All that to say…none of this has happened.

I reflect on all of this not to complain but to celebrate having faith in the One who is greater than I. In marrying the right girl. Meg. The one who makes me infinitely cuter than you. And trusting your friends and family to encourage you to dream and step out. To challenge you and build you up. 2011 was a year of tasting for me. 2012 will be a year of building my foundation. Want to know more about that, keep looking for updates on this blog! I am so very grateful for all of this and hope that you had a wonderfully adventurous/faith filled year. brb, I’m going to go own 2012.

Make any crazy life-altering decisions in 2011? What are you doing in 2012 to keep your vision going? Leave a comment below!

I know I’ve been a bad bloggist for a little while now. I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone. I’ve not mentioned this yet on the blog, but my wife and I are expecting a baby girl April 12 so the holiday has been filled with baby furniture and baby accessories. We could not be more excited.

Last night was special. I played at CRCC‘s Christmas Eve service with David Walker. It was the first time in what feels like forever that I got to play with my brother. My little brother plays bass. I love him. He’s a great musician and it’s hilarious to look across the stage and see the little guy rocking out as hard as I am to worship music. His name is TJ and he is the bassist for Andy Lehman & The Nightmoves, an amazing singer/songwriter-y band whose new album should be coming out sometime soonish in 2012.

Anyways…Here is the set from last night. Mostly Phil Wickham covers. They were amazing.

The First Noel – Phil Wickham

Silent Night – Phil Wickham

Evermore – Phil Wickham

Joyful [The One Who Saves] – Benton Brown

*photo courtesy of John Pinkerton. He’s a sweet boy.

Such a great Sunday with Crossroads Community. I had been looking forward to today since our Tuesday rehearsal. The worship service pretty much started in the “greenroom” and then overflowed into the whole rest of the service. Rich [my pastor] was all ready to teach about the Gospel of Luke but then with Rich’s blessing we all kinda just went after it, worshipped the whole service and had an amazing encounter with the Father.

It’s important to remember that when you pray, you are praying to a Father. The Father. Nothing like our earthly ones.

Here’s our set from today…

Better Than I Know – David Walker

Sing My Love – Sarah McMillan

Glorious Day – Jeff Johnson

Prone to Wander/Jesus Paid it All – David Walker and whoever wrote JPA

Your Presence – Bethel Live

Break Every Chain – Will Reagan & United Pursuit

Fire Fall Down – Hillsong United

Spontaneous x3 or 4 to wrap it all up

It was so much fun and the room was heavy with the Father’s love. There is not a doubt in my heart that people were freed and lives were changed.

Here are the lyrics!

A Thousand pairs of firey eyes
Burn like a serpent down the hwy 5
As the Long amber tail to Los Angeles unwinds
I’ve got resurrection down in side my skin
But for all my revealating
I just cant make sense
Of this gravity we’re in

Cause I’m a dead man now
With a ghost who lives
Within the confines of
These carbon ribs
And one day when I’m free
I will sit
The cripple at your table
The cripple by your side

A thousand miles of pain I’m sure
Led you to the threshold
Of my hearts screen door
To tell me what it is I’m dying for
Gravity comes
Like a cold cold Rain
To lead me to the rope again
But someone is standing in my place

Cause I’m a dead man now
With a ghost who lives
Within the confines of
These carbon ribs
And one day when I’m free
I will sit
The cripple at your table
The cripple by your side
The cripple at your table
The cripple by your side

And I sit beside you
And I sit beside you
And I sit beside you
And I sit beside you