Oregon Music News

Mike Prigodich has cancer. But truly unfortunate is that the disease overshadows a much more significant collection of stories. For Mike, cancer was a turn of fate propelling him to greatness. Just like in his past life, he is still a Quality Assurance Engineer, husband and father. And with what must be a maniacal amount of energy, he is now realizing his calling as a musician.

What it takes to be a musician

“My dad tried to teach me piano, but it didn’t stick,” relates Prigodich. “In middle school I started to teach myself. I kept at it. I’ve been wanting to be a jazz musician ever since high school.”

Mike’s conversion from reluctant student to Jazz apprentice was a result of discovering Chuck Mangione and Dave Grusin. Soon after, he discovered Chick Corea. Prigodich mentions “My muse is Chick. I’m never going to be him, but I’m going to die trying.”

At the risk of painting Mike as a superman-in-spite-of-adversity, it is worthwhile to note that he has struggled with setbacks. “I thought about being a music major in college, but in my freshman year, I injured my hand while practicing piano with bad technique. That kept me from playing for almost two years. It’s only been in the last few years that I’ve built up enough muscle strength to be able to play octaves.”

The pursuit of music, at least for Mike, has been a series of physical challenges. But muscle tone isn’t the only challenge. “I’ve given up leisure time. I’ve given up a lot of overtime at work. I’ve given up time I would have been spending with my family, and I’ve given up a lot of sleep,” says Prigodich. “Sometimes I fall asleep at the piano. Then the muse kicks in again.”

So Prigodich’s success is due to his hard work, and willingness to overcome some physical obstacles. Is that all it takes to be a musician?

“I’ve spent 40 years absorbing music,” says Prigodich. “I think what is coming out is a result of listening to good music and trying to emulate it somehow. I’m finding a voice.”

If you’ve studied a musical instrument – or tried to learn any skill, you know that practice is an essential part of the process. Daniel Levitin, in his book “This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession,” writes that 10,000 hours is required to achieve the level of world-class expert in anything. If you do the math, that’s 27 hours every day for just one year. No wonder that seems difficult.

“For me, I hate practicing. I like playing stuff I know, I don’t like working on stuff I’m no good at,” agrees Prigodich. “But I started using composition as a way to practice. Now if I want to learn something, I write a tune that teaches me something I need to know.”

“I decided at some point to stop worrying about my playing – it was important to do it and not self-critique. And it was only by playing live that you get better, you can only accomplish so much practicing at home – you need to perform. Get up the courage to start playing at Jam sessions or with friends, or booking gigs.”

“There’s been many times I would get depressed playing music. I never feel I’m good enough. Several times I thought I should just sell my piano. But my wife hasn’t let me. She’s been very encouraging – she’s my cheerleader. She’s really excited about how things are going, and in such a short period of time.”

You too, can be a musical composer with these three easy steps…

Prigodich writes a LOT of music – much of it complex. For example, consider Nigel’s Theme…

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Written in 11/8, it’s a tribute to Nigel Tufnel and his amplifiers that go all the way up to 11. It’s a driving tune, a bit tricky to count, but with an interesting chord progression.

“When I write, I’ll pick the time signature first, then I’ll grab a mood or groove, then chord progression. Lay a melody on top of that. My melodies are slow-motion improvised solos over the chord progression. I like interesting harmonic movement.”

Don’t assume that Prigodich is interesting just because he embraces weird time signatures. “Stevieland” is a straight-ahead 4/4 composition that sits on a traditional blues scale. Prigodich attributes it to Stevie Wonder…

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“A lot of my writing is stream of consciousness – I’ve learned that it is detrimental to the creative process to edit yourself real time – its important to get a a bunch of ideas out. Then I’ll end up with fragments, and I arrange them into a complete piece. Most of my tunes pop out in fifteen to thirty minues. Then I focus on a pretty chart – tweaking a melody, or chord progressions.”

Prigodich admits that writing music is sometimes a difficult task to get started on. We all have sat over our morning coffee, dreaming of the big day when our adoring fans will meet us on the jetway as we duck into the waiting limo. Assuming, we can just get that song published. And assuming we actually write the song we are hoping to get published.

“Sometimes it’s hard getting motivated to create, you have to figure out how to remove the barriers to your passion,” agrees Prigodich. “Its easy to just waste a lot of time surfing and Facebook, but if I actually shut off the computer, and tell myself I’m going to write a tune tonight, I wind up with something worth keeping.”

“Chick Corea has written about how you become a better composer – simply write as often as possible. Randy Halberstadt wrote Metaphors for the Musician. He said that if you think you’re a bad composer, then set a goal to write three bad tunes. Odds are at least one will be good. Between those two quotes, I realized I needed to write more.”

Mentors, Peers and Unexpected Collaborators

Damian Erskine

“He’s working VERY hard, writing some of the coolest jazz/fusion to come out of Portland in quite some time,” writes Damian Erskine, Portland Bassist of Note.

Prigodich has done well at surrounding himself with top-notch talent. David Ogilvy mentions that “First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are.” Taking that to heart, Mike has been fearless in reaching out.

“I took piano lessons with Clay Giberson. He encouraged me to go to jam sessions. I was scared to death. Produce row was intimidating. Then I discovered Ben Darwish’s jam at Someday Lounge. It was different – You had to bring originals with horn charts. If you played standards, you had to do it in an unusual time. I was writing compositions, and I got to try them out with other musicians. It was there I met John Nastos and Julio Appling. When the Someday Lounge jam shut down, I just started jamming with friends.

Julio Appling

“We didn’t have a bass player, so I sent out an A.P.B. to all the bass players I knew. Julio missed playing jazz, so he joined us.”

“About March of 2009, we decided we should try to perform in public. I didn’t know how to book a gig, I’ve always been a sideman. I was able to set up a jazz event at West Hills Covenant Church, they were open to letting me use the auditorium. We worked up a bunch of tunes – some originals, some bebop. We survived, and it went over pretty well. Then Julio got some gigs at the White Eagle.”

“Recently I booked a regular gig with my band Someday Syndrome at Vinedeus – once a month through the end of the year.”

Prigodich started small – showing up for Jam sessions, making connections, learning how to book gigs – and being brave/foolish enough to start playing out. Pretty soon, he moved from local contacts to national names.

“I’ve started using Facebook to network with jazz musicians and all of my idols. I would contact each of these people, and ask them if they would check out my tune, give me feedback. A few responded, among them Andy Milne with Dapp Theory.”

“I have a dream that someday I’ll meet Chick. I’ve never sent him my stuff – I should. I did try to leave a copy of my charts on his piano bench, but right before he got on to play, someone came up and cleaned up. Took the charts, probably threw them away.”

Making lots of contacts is one thing, persuading people to perform with you is another. Prigodich followed an unexpected path to his current band members.

“Some of the things I write are difficult, and I needed a strong drummer. But how do I find one? I contacted Reinhardt Melz to see if he had any students he could suggest. He told me he couldn’t really think of anyone that could play my music, but he’d like to give it a shot. At first I thought it was a joke.”

“But we had a blast playing together. Suddenly the music was starting to sound like what I was hearing in my head. I started writing stuff for Reinhardt that was difficult for him – that blew me away. He started requesting songs in 11/4 and 13/4.”

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“Wizard of Odd” is one of those songs. Written in 15/4 specifically for Melz, you’ll find that harmonically it isn’t that difficult. Mostly E-minor and A-flat. OK – that’s a bit of a simplification (quite a bit of a simplification) – but the drive of the song relies on it’s unexpected meter. You, the listener, are never given the chance to passively clap on the 2 and 4. Every measure, you have to reset your 4/4 expectation to the lost beat. Interesting stuff…

Financing an Album

Being a musician means that you record music – live music isn’t enough. But don’t be fooled – recording music is quite a bit different than performing live. Plus – it costs money to do it right. As much as Apple would like you to believe that you can do it in your basement with an assortment of $5 microphones, it really is tricky to get it recorded correctly. And then, there’s mixing, duplicating, and distribution. All of them are punctuated with multiple dollar $igns.

“My wife wants to be a college professor – that takes a Doctorate degree. My album is going to take about $10,000. Those two things have to come out of the same pot of money. Doctorate or music. She’s 100% supportive of my album, but won’t let me go into debt to do it. I’m hopeful that getting a CD recorded will be helpful with landing better gigs and to make more people aware of the music.”

Most of us can sympathize. Hopefully, we’ve all learned our lesson about debt financing, home equity loans, and the dark side of hedge funds. Cash is King – but a very elusive King.

“Some co-workers at HP heard me moaning about album finances, and suggested kickstarter.com. I wasn’t sold on it. Part of it is that Kickstarter keeps five-percent of the gross. Plus you don’t get any of the funds unless you meet your goal. Initially, I didn’t know if this was the right thing – I was investigating other options. Some friends wanted to organize shows, dinners and other events. Someone suggested using paypal. But they all required being a 501-C-3 charity. Which I’m not.”

“Zack Orr, a friend and guitar player is working on his second album. He’s using kickstarter to fund the mastering. I thought ‘hey – if he’s doing it, I may as well see if they’re interested.’ Kickstarter has an online form you fill out. They came back within a day or so and said it sounds like a great fit.”

“Twenty-five percent of the funds came within the first 24 hours. I have no idea if I’ll meet my own goals.”

“There’s quite a few well known jazz artists using ArtistShare. Their method is to let your fans fund your albums, and the artists keep the rights. The industry is moving this way, a lot of artists are going independent. I’m doing it this way because I don’t know how else to do it.”

The Business of Music

Using Kickstarter or ArtistShare to fund an album isn’t the accepted route to enter the music business. Traditionally, you build a following, do a LOT of touring, and finally, in some smokey bar, get discovered by a major label. At that point, the stories diverge as to this being a good thing or a bad thing. Some musicians wind up in poverty with no rights to their music. Some musicians wind up as superstars, usually O.D.ing in a hotel bathroom. In all cases, there is a massive effort to control the products of the creative process – called “Rights Management.”

“I’m not that interested in selling the rights,” says Prigodich. “I’ve got some friends that don’t own rights – if the label goes out of business, you lose the rights to distribute, and the album will go out of print.”

“I started putting charts on-line before I did gigs,” Prigodich continues. “I think I’m a good composer, and I was hoping someone better than me would like my charts and play them. I’m only a performer because I haven’t found someone else to play those charts. I’ve had some people tell me not to post them online because people might steal them.”

“I’ve asked people if I need to join the union – I’ve been told that unless you’re playing theater shows, they didn’t see any reason to join. Most restaurant gigs can’t afford to pay union wages. So far, I’ve been happy to have place that allows me to play for tips and in public. I would love to play in places that would pay better – it would make the other musicians in my group happy. I haven’t been able to book larger venues. Jimmy Mak’s and Someday Lounge want 200 to 300 people.”

“I have thought about hiring a booking agent, I just haven’t taken the plunge. I’ve been holding back due to job and kids.”

Prigodich seems to be following a largely independent route to success – which may not be all that unusual in today’s economy, considering the decline in the fortunes of the music industry.

“I’m not so much shutting out the music industry. But most albums are financed on credit cards, then shopped around to distributors. Credit cards aren’t an option for me. If a record company came along, I wouldn’t turn that down. I’m doing it this way because I don’t know how to get a record company to approach me and offer a contract. This is just a way to get the music recorded. Then I’ll distribute through iTunes and cd baby, amazon. If a label wants to license it, then we can talk. It’s not a goal.”

Gitup offa that thing, dance and you’ll feel better

“Hopefully, other people won’t be as stupid as I was to get cancer before they pursue their dreams,” says Prigodich. “I’ve been putting off the music thing all my life. I would get around to it when I retired. I’m kind of glad it happened. I’ve made some major changes. I’d still be a workaholic, wouldn’t be playing music in public.”

According to Kickstarter, there are at least thirty-nine other people that are hoping to hear more from Prigodich. “The world will be a better place with a CD from Mike and his band,” says Kickstarter contributor Jean Shirkoff.