How comfortable is a bandleader putting your name on the gig?
Photo: Tricia McCormack Photography.

Yesterday I had lunch with my friend Ralph Rolle, who once walked me through this situation.

You’re driving to a gig an hour away and your car breaks down. There’s no way you’re making the downbeat, so you find a musician friend who can cover and call the bandleader with their name.

The bandleader says, “They’re good, but...”

Maybe they had a bad experience with that player. Maybe they heard something that makes them hesitate. Either way, they pass on your sub and ask you to call somebody they trust.

You don’t want to be the player with a “but” after your name.

The bandleader knows your friend can play. What they’re weighing is whether they feel comfortable hiring that person and putting them on the bandstand with their band. That question usually gets answered long before anybody’s car breaks down.

That’s what we’re going to talk about in The Trust Economy: how to become the musician people trust and call first.

We’re four days out. The masterclass is live on Zoom this Thursday, October 29, at 5 PM Eastern / 2 PM Pacific, and the replay is included.

Only a few VIP spots remain. If you’ve been meaning to register, grab your seat here.

I moved to Las Vegas at the end of the summer.

New city. New scene. Nobody here owed me anything.

In less than a month, I landed my first gig. The bandleader had never heard me play a single note.

He hired me because two drummers vouched for me.

I met both of them through relationships built over years. One of them used to live in Las Vegas. When he moved to New York, I recommended him for gigs there. When I moved here, he returned the favor.

You open doors for people. Years later, they open doors for you.

Then it happened again.

Through a mutual friend, I met one of the busiest, most well-known drummers in this city. No pitch. No ask. I just started hanging with him. We talked. We listened to music. We got to know each other.

Last week, on his recommendation, I landed a gig at a high-end venue here.

No audition. No reel. No cold email.

People trusted me, so they said my name.

Work That Finds You

When people trust you, they do your marketing for you. I just watched it happen twice in two months.

They mention your name when you’re not there. They bring you in before the job is ever posted. They put their own reputation on the line for you, and that carries more weight than any audition.

A Career That Lasts

Trust compounds. Every gig where you make someone’s night easier turns into the next call, the next show, the next chair. That’s how musicians stay working for decades instead of seasons.

It’s also how a 60-year-old drummer walks into a brand-new city and starts working in a month.

This Is What I’m Teaching on Thursday

None of what happened to me in Las Vegas was luck. It was decades of showing up, keeping my word, and taking care of the people around me.

On Thursday, October 29, at 5 PM ET (2 PM PT), I’m breaking down exactly how that works in The Trust Economy, a 60 to 90 minute live masterclass built from 33 years in New York and 26 years in musical theater on and off Broadway.

You’ll learn why some musicians keep getting called while others fade out, what contractors and bandleaders are really listening for, and how to become the name people say when you’re not around.

Talent gets you noticed. Trust gets you hired.

Pick Your Seat

General Admission, $97
Live session plus lifetime replay
https://book.stripe.com/dRmcN51rza2CeXy8YS3Je03

VIP, $197
Everything above plus a 30-minute private call with me
https://book.stripe.com/dRmfZheel0s28za2Au3Je01

Group License, $497
For teachers and programs, up to 10 students
https://book.stripe.com/fZu7sL4DL8YydTu1wq3Je02

Full details: https://www.broadwayboundandbeyond.com/p/talent-gets-you-noticed-trust-gets

Can’t make it live? Register anyway. The replay is yours to keep.

See you Thursday,

Clayton

P.S. Know a musician who’s good enough but still waiting for the call? Share this with them before Thursday. The next name someone says could be theirs.

Seven days.

That’s how long you have to decide whether you keep guessing why the calls stop, or you learn how this business actually decides who gets hired.

On Thursday, October 29, at 5 PM ET (2 PM PT), I’m teaching The Trust Economy live. Here’s everything you need to know.

What You’ll Walk Away With

You’ll leave knowing three things most musicians never figure out.

Why good players get dropped from sub lists without a word. What contractors and bandleaders are really listening for when they decide who gets the next call. And how to become the name people recommend when you’re not around.

Not theory. A clear way to approach every gig, every hang, and every relationship from here forward.

What Not Knowing Costs You

I learned all of this the slow way.

One gig at a time. One mistake at a time. Years of watching some musicians get called again and again while others faded out, and slowly piecing together why.

That’s 33 years in New York and 26 years in musical theater on and off Broadway. Most of it nobody explained to me. I had to figure it out while the clock was running.

You don’t have to spend decades guessing. I pulled everything together from my book, my course, and The Broadway Sub Playbook into one 60 to 90 minute session.

For $97, you get the live class and a lifetime replay. That’s the shortcut I never had.

What Your Career Looks Like After

The phone rings because someone said your name.

You stop chasing. You stop sending “just checking in” messages. You stop wondering what you did wrong.

I just watched this happen to me twice since moving to Las Vegas. Two gigs, both from recommendations, and one of the bandleaders never heard me play a note before hiring me.

Next week, I’ll tell you exactly how it happened.

Talent gets you noticed. Trust gets you hired.

Pick Your Seat

General Admission, $97
Live session plus lifetime replay
https://book.stripe.com/dRmcN51rza2CeXy8YS3Je03

VIP, $197
Everything above plus a 30-minute private call with me
https://book.stripe.com/dRmfZheel0s28za2Au3Je01

Group License, $497
For teachers and programs, up to 10 students
https://book.stripe.com/fZu7sL4DL8YydTu1wq3Je02

Full details: https://www.broadwayboundandbeyond.com/p/talent-gets-you-noticed-trust-gets

Can’t make it live? Register anyway. The replay is yours to keep.

One week. See you on the 29th.

Clayton

P.S. Teaching students or running a program? The group license puts this in front of up to 10 musicians at once. One session, one price, and they all keep the replay.

This week's guest is Marc McDuff, and his career is proof that the call can come from anywhere.

Marc grew up in a town of about 1,200 people in central Vermont. His high school pulled students from five towns just to fill the building. His dad was a 1970s hippie and a lifelong drummer who kept a kit in the basement, so Marc started banging on it as a kid, took lessons, played the high school musicals, and never left that lane.

He auditioned for Berklee mostly for the experience, then used a tuition exchange to study at the University of Montana in Missoula, where a percussion director with North Texas roots was teaching. After college he moved to Seattle on a whim. No job lined up. Nobody he knew. He played regional theater, went to jazz jams, and met people.

That's how the work found him. A music director he had played shows with all through college got hired for The Wizard of Oz national tour and asked for him. That run lasted about three years, with two U.S. legs and stops in China, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

After Wizard, he drove his old Subaru Outback across the country to Brooklyn. He reached out to me, and we got him into the pit to sit in. Then COVID hit. He was working at a cafe in SoHo when he sent out a few cold emails introducing himself. Months went by. Nothing. Then the phone rang: we need a drummer next week, are you available? That became the Legally Blonde tour, and the same music director brought him onto The Cher Show tour for two more years.

In this episode

• Why a few cold emails, sent months earlier, put him back on the road

• Playing about 20 minutes of a show in pitch black after his light blew in Scranton, with no comms

• Walking an unrestored stretch of the Great Wall, where soldiers carved their names into the stone

• Reading the entire Game of Thrones series in the pit on Wizard

• Treating every injury as a technique lesson, from thumb tension to his current Achilles rehab

• Why the two hours onstage are the easiest part of touring

• His top five: David Garibaldi, Carter Beauford, John Bonham, Keith Moon and Keith Carlock

Marc's advice for college players is the part I want every young musician to hear. Say yes to everything. Community theater, regional shows, the brunch cabaret that pays $20 and a beer. Not for the money. For the music directors and theater people who do this for a living. Those relationships are where every one of his tours came from.

Episode chapters

• 00:01:33 Meet Marc McDuff, and his Seattle Mariners memories

• 00:04:21 Memphis in Seattle, and the Super Bowl finish I missed for places

• 00:09:27 Growing up in a Vermont town of 1,200

• 00:10:05 A hippie drummer dad and a kit in the basement

• 00:15:01 Skater days and a broken shoulder before college auditions

• 00:21:17 Auditioning for Berklee, and why he chose Montana

• 00:25:13 Seattle, regional theater, and the call for The Wizard of Oz tour

• 00:26:54 Touring China, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain

• 00:30:25 The stretch of the Great Wall tourists never see

• 00:34:45 Brooklyn, COVID, and the cold email that landed Legally Blonde

• 00:37:14 Two years on The Cher Show tour

• 00:38:40 The night the light blew in Scranton

• 00:40:54 How he stayed fresh playing the same show for years

• 00:42:38 Drumming injuries, technique, and Achilles rehab

• 00:46:04 What nobody tells you about touring

• 00:49:13 The one thing college drummers should start doing now

• 00:51:31 Marc's top five drummers

• 00:56:29 What's next for Marc

Connect with Marc

Follow Marc on Instagram at @marc_mcduff.

The Trust Economy: Live on October 29

Marc never landed a tour because of a résumé. Every call came from somebody who already trusted him.

Most musicians never learn how that works. They practice for hours, show up on time, play well, and still watch the call go to somebody else. Nobody tells them why. So they keep doing more of the same, and every month the phone stays quiet, somebody else is building the relationship that could have been theirs.

That's why I built The Trust Economy, a live Zoom masterclass on Thursday, October 29 at 5 PM ET / 2 PM PT. In 60 to 90 minutes, I'll break down what contractors and music directors notice that has nothing to do with your chops, what puts a name at the top of their list, and what quietly takes it off.

You'll walk out with a plan to become the musician people recommend without being asked. A replay will be available.

Save My Seat: $97

Claim a VIP Spot: $197

Get the Group License: $497

Want the full rundown first? Read the masterclass details here.

If you want the full picture of how a theater career gets built, pick up my book, Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician's Guide to Building a Theater Career. Just got the call to sub? The Broadway Sub Playbook walks you from the first call to opening night for $7.99.

Thanks for listening. If this episode helped you, share it with a musician who needs to hear it, and leave a five-star review wherever you listen.

Clayton

Clayton Craddock has spent 26 years in musical theater, most recently as the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball at the Broadhurst Theatre. Now based in Las Vegas, he is the founder of Broadway Bound and Beyond and author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician's Guide to Building a Theater Career. He teaches musicians the career skills nobody teaches them.

Michael Keller has seen thousands of résumés. He’s contracted more than 100 Broadway shows, including The Lion King, Wicked, and Hamilton, and he told me something every musician should hear:

“I can’t tell you how many fantastic résumés I’ve seen, but the execution on the other side hasn’t been what it needs to be.”

Paper doesn’t get you hired. Being heard does.

In the video version of our conversation, you get to watch Michael tell these stories himself: wheeling his drums through Manhattan in the ‘70s, playing his first Broadway show at 21, and getting the call from Marvin Hamlisch that turned a drummer into one of the most trusted contractors on Broadway.

He also explains how he actually builds a band. He doesn’t just look for a great drummer. He looks for the drummer and bassist who lock in together. He admits that early on he hired great players who weren’t great people, and he paid for it. After that, he narrowed his list to two questions: Can you play, and can you get along with people?

His advice for getting in is simple and demanding. Sub first. Ask to sit in the pit, even when nobody needs you. Never say no. Find every chance to be heard.

Here’s the hard part. You can practice for years, build a strong résumé, and still never get the call. It’s not because you can’t play. It’s because the people doing the hiring don’t know you, haven’t heard you, or don’t trust you yet. Every month you wait for talent alone to open the door, someone else who built those relationships gets the chair.

That’s exactly what I’ll be teaching live in The Trust Economy, a masterclass on how working musicians really get hired: how to get heard, how to build trust with the people who make the calls, and how to become the name that comes up when a chair opens.

Thursday, October 29, at 5 PM Eastern. Can’t make it live? Your seat includes lifetime access to the replay.

👉 Save your seat for The Trust Economy

Watch the full video above, and if it hits home, forward it to a musician who’s still waiting on their résumé to do the work.

Leave a comment

About Clayton Craddock

Clayton Craddock has spent 26 years in musical theater, most recently as the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball at the Broadhurst Theatre. Now based in Las Vegas, he is the founder of Broadway Bound and Beyond, host of the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast, and author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career. He teaches musicians the career skills nobody teaches them.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball. He has also played tick, tick…BOOM! and The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbed on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

He has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards, and has performed with Chuck Berry, Ben E. King, Kristin Chenoweth, and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

Here’s the math nobody does.

One contractor stops calling you. That’s not one lost gig. That’s every sub date, every recommendation, and every show that contractor would have put you on for the next ten years.

Now multiply that by every person who quietly decided you weren’t their first call.

Most musicians never find out what that cost them. They just wonder why the work dried up.

This Business Runs on Referrals

Broadway and the wider music world don’t hire off a job board. They hire off a short list of people someone already trusts. If you’re not on that list, your talent never gets the chance to matter.

What Learning It the Hard Way Looks Like

I learned most of this one gig at a time over three decades. Some of it I learned by getting it right. Some of it I learned by watching the phone go quiet and figuring out why.

You don’t need 30 years. You need one focused session with someone who’s been on both sides of the hiring decision.

The Trust Economy, Live on October 29

For $97, you get the live masterclass and a lifetime replay. One saved relationship pays for that many times over. One recommendation can change your year.

Talent gets you noticed. Trust gets you hired.

On Thursday, October 29, at 5 PM ET (2 PM PT), I'm breaking down exactly how that works in The Trust Economy, a 60 to 90 minute live masterclass built from 33 years in New York and 26 years in musical theater on and off Broadway.

Pick Your Seat

General Admission, $97
Live session plus lifetime replay
https://book.stripe.com/dRmcN51rza2CeXy8YS3Je03

VIP, $197
Everything above plus a 30-minute private call with me
https://book.stripe.com/dRmfZheel0s28za2Au3Je01

Group License, $497
For teachers and programs, up to 10 students
https://book.stripe.com/fZu7sL4DL8YydTu1wq3Je02

Full details: https://www.broadwayboundandbeyond.com/p/talent-gets-you-noticed-trust-gets

See you on the 29th,

Clayton

When I landed my first Broadway chair on Memphis, one name kept coming up: Michael Keller. He has contracted more than 100 Broadway shows, including The Lion King, Wicked, The Book of Mormon, and Hamilton. Before that, he was a drummer from Queens wheeling his kit through Manhattan.

The Beatles got him started. He was subbing off-Broadway at 19, played his first Broadway show, Promises, Promises, in 1970, toured with Dionne Warwick, and spent 15 years as Marvin Hamlisch’s drummer and conductor. Hamlisch opened the door to contracting, and the 1994 Barbra Streisand tour changed everything. Nobody mentored him. He figured it out himself.

What I love most about this conversation is how simple his hiring philosophy is: “I want a great player who can get along with people.” That’s the whole list. He also explains why your job changes once a show opens. Most of the audience is seeing it for the first time, so your job becomes keeping it fresh and consistent every night.

His advice for breaking in: sub first, be persistent, ask to sit in the pit, never say no, and find every chance to be heard. A great resume won’t get you hired. Your playing will.

He also tells the story of hearing Steve Gadd for the first time and choosing inspiration over quitting. Every musician faces that choice eventually.

Michael’s message is the heart of what I teach: talent gets you noticed, trust gets you hired. Join me live for The Trust Economy masterclass on October 29 at 5 PM Eastern.

👉 Save your seat here

Leave a comment

About Clayton Craddock

Clayton Craddock has spent 26 years in musical theater, most recently as the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball at the Broadhurst Theatre. Now based in Las Vegas, he is the founder of Broadway Bound and Beyond, host of the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast, and author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career. He teaches musicians the career skills nobody teaches them.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball. He has also played tick, tick…BOOM! and The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbed on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

He has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards, and has performed with Chuck Berry, Ben E. King, Kristin Chenoweth, and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

I recently spoke with Matt Robinson on his Substack show, The Writer’s Block, and I had a great time.

We covered a lot of ground. I talked about discovering the drums as a kid and the players who shaped me: Steve Gadd, Steve Smith, Steve Jordan, and Tony Williams, plus the soul, funk, jazz, rock, and early hip-hop I grew up on. We got into my years on tick, tick... BOOM!, Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball.

We also talked about something I don’t think gets discussed enough: the discipline it takes to deliver the same show at a high level eight times a week. I shared lessons from my mentors, the story behind my book Broadway Bound and Beyond, and what I’m building now through C.R.A.D. Global Ventures and Cincopated Publishing.

Matt is a thoughtful interviewer, and his show features writers, artists, musicians, and creative people of every kind. If you enjoy conversations about the creative life, his Substack is worth your time.

👉 Watch the full interview here

Matt Robinson's Writer's Block

Clayton Craddock: From Drums to Broadway | The Writer’s Block Interview

What does it take to build a lasting career as a Broadway musician…

Listen now

2 months ago · 4 likes · Matt Robinson

👉 Subscribe to Matt Robinson’s Writer’s Block

Thank you, Matt, for having me. And thank you all for watching!

About Clayton Craddock

Clayton Craddock has spent 26 years in musical theater, most recently as the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball at the Broadhurst Theatre. Now based in Las Vegas, he is the founder of Broadway Bound and Beyond, host of the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast, and author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career. He teaches musicians the career skills nobody teaches them.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball. He has also played tick, tick…BOOM! and The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbed on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

He has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards, and has performed with Chuck Berry, Ben E. King, Kristin Chenoweth, and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

Most musicians leave a gig with a paycheck and a question: Will they call me again?

On October 29, you’ll leave The Trust Economy with answers.

Result 1: You’ll Know Why the Calls Stop

Good musicians fall off sub lists every day. They played well. They showed up on time. And the phone still went quiet.

You’ll learn exactly what contractors and music directors notice that has nothing to do with your chops, and why it decides who gets the next call.

Result 2: You’ll Know What They’re Really Listening For

When a music director asks, “Who should we bring in?” the answer comes fast. You’ll learn what puts a name at the top of that list and what quietly takes it off.

Result 3: You’ll Have a Plan to Get Recommended

Not a pep talk. A plan. You’ll walk out knowing how to become the musician people recommend without being asked.

Where This Comes From

33 years in New York. 26 years in musical theater on and off Broadway. I pulled this masterclass together from my book, my course, and The Broadway Sub Playbook into one 60 to 90 minute live session.

Talent gets you noticed. Trust gets you hired.

On Thursday, October 29, at 5 PM ET (2 PM PT), I'm breaking down exactly how that works in The Trust Economy, a 60 to 90 minute live masterclass built from 33 years in New York and 26 years in musical theater on and off Broadway.

Pick Your Seat

General Admission, $97
Live session plus lifetime replay
https://book.stripe.com/dRmcN51rza2CeXy8YS3Je03

VIP, $197
Everything above plus a 30-minute private call with me
https://book.stripe.com/dRmfZheel0s28za2Au3Je01

Group License, $497
For teachers and programs, up to 10 students
https://book.stripe.com/fZu7sL4DL8YydTu1wq3Je02

Full details: https://www.broadwayboundandbeyond.com/p/talent-gets-you-noticed-trust-gets

Can’t make it live? Register anyway. The replay is yours to keep.

See you on the 29th,

Clayton

My first time subbing on Broadway was Rent. Jeff Potter heard about me while I was playing tick, tick... BOOM! off-Broadway and offered me a shot. I was overwhelmed, so I did what I still do before every sub gig: I prepared with intention. I told myself if I could nail that opening fill, I’d be fine. It worked. I subbed there for years.

That wasn’t luck. Most subs never get asked back, not because they can’t play, but because they don’t know how to prepare, earn trust, and manage their time in the pit.

The Broadway Sub Playbook is the system I built out of 25 years of doing exactly that, on Broadway and off. It’s built around what I call the Four-Week Formula: listening and studying the score, watching the chair holder, building your own sub book, rehearsing the setup, and running the show until it feels natural. Same five stages every time, whether there’s a month to prepare or just a few days.

It’s seven ninety-nine, less than what a single missed callback costs you.

Get the Broadway Sub Playbook here!

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Almost all of it was gone before his career caught up.

That’s the part nobody tells you. You can have the chops. You can have the savings. But if you don’t know how the scene works, the money goes fast and nobody’s calling.

Tanner knew how to play. He grew up in Oregon and Idaho on Steve Gadd, Jim Keltner, and Roger Hawkins. He landed a cruise ship gig in February 2020, then watched the world shut down. He went back out anyway and spent three years on the ships, sight-reading shows in front of live audiences almost every night.

What he didn’t know was how to network. So on his last contract, he started listening to the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast to learn how people really get the call.

Today he’s the drummer on the Book of Mormon national tour.

In this episode

• The 30-minute, 55-style audition video that got him a call the next morning

• How one message to Jordan Rose turned into his first gig in the city

• Playing Into the Woods and Annie on a cajon for children’s theater, and why it mattered

• How an audition that didn’t work out still put his name in front of the Book of Mormon team

• His first-90-days plan for anyone moving to New York. It starts with “get a job.”

Listen before you move. Your bank account will thank you.

The audio came out earlier this month. If you missed it, you can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. The full video is above and on our YouTube channel.

Tanner’s story shows how the next gig usually comes from the last person you met. On October 29th I’m going live to go deeper on exactly that. More soon.

Follow Tanner on Instagram:

Leave a comment

About Clayton Craddock

Clayton Craddock has spent 26 years in musical theater, most recently as the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball at the Broadhurst Theatre. Now based in Las Vegas, he is the founder of Broadway Bound and Beyond, host of the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast, and author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career. He teaches musicians the career skills nobody teaches them.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball. He has also played tick, tick…BOOM! and The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbed on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

He has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards, and has performed with Chuck Berry, Ben E. King, Kristin Chenoweth, and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

Let me tell you something nobody told me when I was coming up.

When a contractor needs a player, they usually don’t hold auditions.

They pick up the phone.

And the name they call isn’t always the most talented player in town.

It’s the one they trust.

I’ve watched this play out for years. Great players practice for hours, show up to every jam, hand out business cards to anybody who’ll take one, and still watch the calls go to somebody else. Nobody ever tells them why. So they keep doing more of the same and wondering what they’re missing.

I know that feeling.

In 1993, I walked up to a stranger outside the Winter Garden and asked him what it was really like. I didn’t know it then, but that was my first real lesson in how this business works.

Thirty-three years later, after Memphis, Ain’t Too Proud, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, that lesson hasn’t changed one bit.

I call it the Trust Economy.

Every hire in this business comes down to a few questions nobody says out loud:

Can I count on this person when it matters?

Will this person make me look good?

If I send this person in, will I get a call about it later?

Contractors ask them. Chair holders ask them before they hand you their book. And most musicians have never been taught how to become the answer to those questions.

So I’m going live to teach it.

Save My Seat for October 29

THE TRUST ECONOMY
Broadway Bound and Beyond: LIVE
Thursday, October 29
5:00 PM ET / 2:00 PM PT, live on Zoom

What we’ll talk about:

• How trust really gets built in a small industry, and why it has so little to do with networking

• The Ramada Inn lounge gig that started my path to Broadway

• How to reach out to people in a way that actually gets you working

• How the reputation you’re building today shapes the calls you get tomorrow

You’ll walk away seeing your own career, and the people already in it, a little differently.

I'm In: Save My Seat

Choose your seat:

General Admission: $97
The live session plus lifetime access to the replay.

Save my seat: $97

VIP: $197 (only 10 spots)
Everything above, plus a private 30-minute follow-up call with me within 30 days to talk through your own career.

Claim a VIP Spot: $197

Group License: $497 (up to 10 students)
For teachers and music programs. Live access plus the replay for your students.

Get the group license: $497

Questions:

Can’t make it live? Every seat includes the full replay, and it’s yours to keep.

Who is this for? Everyone is welcome. You don’t have to be a drummer—or a musician. If you’ve ever wondered why somebody else gets recommended, hired, or called back, we’ll talk about the part talent alone doesn’t explain. My examples come from music and theater. The questions about trust, preparation, and reputation reach beyond that.

How do I join? Your Zoom link appears right after checkout, and I’ll send a reminder the day before.

Other questions? Email info@broadwayboundandbeyond.com.

Save My Seat for October 29

Talent gets you noticed. Trust gets you hired. Let’s work on the part nobody teaches.

See you on the 29th!

Clayton

Leave a comment

Clayton Craddock has spent 26 years in musical theater, most recently as the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball at the Broadhurst Theatre. Now based in Las Vegas, he is the founder of Broadway Bound and Beyond, host of the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast, and author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career. He teaches musicians the career skills nobody teaches them.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball. He has also played tick, tick…BOOM! and The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbed on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

He has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards, and has performed with Chuck Berry, Ben E. King, Kristin Chenoweth, and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

There’s no application process for Broadway. No open auditions for pit musicians. No website where you upload a resume and get called.

So how do people get these gigs?

Broadway isn’t a meritocracy. It’s a trust economy. Reputation, relationships, and reliability decide who gets the call, not raw talent.

That’s the whole premise behind How to Land a Gig on Broadway, and it’s free.

Four steps:

• Learn the system

• Become sub-ready

• Build the network

• Know the business

This isn’t theory. This is how the business runs.

Get the free roadmap here. If you’re serious about working in musical theater, this is where to start.

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Short answer: It’s less like a gig and more like joining a family that happens to make a show together, eight times a week, sometimes for years. The music is only one thread. What actually determines whether you last is how well you connect with everyone else in that building, not just how well you play.

I learned this on my very first Broadway show, and the lesson didn't come from behind the kit. It came from the wig department.

It Starts With Who’s Around You, Not What’s In Front of You

Memphis The Musical was my first Broadway chair, back in 2009. Our musicians’ locker room happened to be right next to the wig department. I started talking to the folks in there almost every day, not about wigs, just about life. I got to know their craft, their personalities, what made them tick. That’s when it hit me how big this whole ecosystem actually is. It’s not just about drums. It’s about the entire village it takes to pull off a show, night after night.

A pit isn’t a jam session or a wedding gig where you show up, play, and leave. You’re sitting with the same group of musicians and crew members for years sometimes. You hang out between acts. You crack jokes, talk about life, share more than just the music. How you carry yourself in that room matters just as much as how you play in it.

The Music Is Only One Thread

Once I understood that, I got curious about everything else holding the show together. During Ain’t Too Proud, I went up to the back of the theater just to learn how the spotlights worked. I talked to the stage manager about how scenes get cued. I hung out with audio engineers, props handlers, electricians. I wanted to understand how the whole machine ran, not just my part of it.

That curiosity made me a better player, not a worse one. I started noticing how a swell in the music would trigger a lighting change, or how a drum fill needed to land right on a scenic shift. The more I understood the full production, the more locked-in my playing became.

Here’s the part people don’t expect: talent gets you in the door, but it’s not what keeps you there. I’ve watched genuinely talented musicians get passed over because they brought bad energy into the room. The band room conversations, the small moments between shows, that’s where trust actually gets built. Nobody’s reviewing your resume in there. They’re just noticing whether you’re someone they want to sit next to for the next three hours.

This is part of Chapter 16 of my book, Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career — “Navigating the Broadway Pit.” I go deeper there into what it actually takes to be a great teammate in that room, not just a great player. And I’m building the full career framework in Broadway Bound and Beyond: The Course — The Career Foundation Every Working Musician Needs (But Nobody Teaches). Coming soon!

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Clayton Craddock was most recently the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

If you’ve been reading these emails for a while but never picked up the actual book, here’s your reminder that it exists, and here’s what’s in it.

Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career is the foundation everything else on this platform is built on. Not a book about how to play your instrument better. It’s a book about how the business actually works: how musicians get hired for Broadway, how they stay hired, and how to build something that lasts past the run of any one show.

It’s been featured in International Musician and in Allegro, Local 802’s own magazine, and it’s listed in the Musicians section of the Broadway League’s own careers site now.

None of that happened because the book flatters anybody. It happened because it says the true thing out loud: there’s no application process for Broadway, no open auditions for pit musicians, no website where you upload a resume and get called. It comes down to trust, who’s prepared, who’s reliable, and who people feel comfortable calling when it matters. The book is the long version of what that actually means.

Readers who’ve actually put it to use have said it better than I can:

“This book goes beyond drumming. The chapters on business structure, financial planning, negotiation, and managing your professional image apply to any serious musician trying to build something long term.” Juan Carlos Mendoza, Amazon review

“As a music coordinator, I was lucky to have Clayton play drums on several productions I coordinated for Broadway. Times and methods have changed, but Clayton has been actively part of it for the last 20 to 25 years and he knows whereof he speaks. His book is an invaluable resource for all.” MPK, Amazon review

“Author and musician Clayton Craddock has spent a number of years interviewing musicians who have actually managed to find a way to successfully create a career as players. No easy task. Much of what’s missing in conservatory training is pragmatically covered in this book. If you’re a young musician aspiring to a career in music, it can only help.” Charlestd, Barnes & Noble review

If you’ve already read it, the Course picks up right where it leaves off. If you haven’t, you can grab it on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, or straight from broadwayboundbook.com.

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Short answer: There’s no official number, but here’s the honest pattern I’ve seen play out again and again: the first cancellation gets forgiven. The second one gets noticed. By the third, you’ve quietly become someone people stop fully trusting, even if nobody ever says it to your face.

I’ve had a version of this conversation with more than one musician over the years, most recently this week.

The Pattern I Keep Seeing

A musician subs a Broadway show. He also books and commits to his own gigs on the side, work he cares about outside the theater. Every so often, the calls to sub start landing on nights he’s already committed elsewhere. The Broadway gig often pays more. That’s just the truth. And every time it happens, he’s stuck with the same question: do I cancel the gig I already gave my word on for the one that pays better?

The musicians who’ve asked me this all say the same thing. It’s not that the money isn’t good. It’s that it doesn’t feel right to keep bailing on the gig they committed to first. But here’s what’s actually happening underneath that discomfort, whether they realize it or not: they’re tracking a number without meaning to. And so is everyone else.

On paper, canceling looks simple. More money, take the call. Almost anybody would. But the math never stays this clean, because it’s not a one-time trade. It’s a running tally.

Why the Third Time Is the One That Sticks

The first time you cancel a gig for a better one, most bandleaders let it go. It happens. Life happens. They might even respect that you took the bigger shot. The second time, something shifts. Not out loud, but they start wondering if it’ll happen again. By the third time, the wondering is over. They already know the answer, and they start planning around it. Quietly, without a conversation, you go from the first call to the backup.

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I understand this from both sides, because I’ve lived both of them. I’ve been the one who felt the pull to take the higher-paying gig instead of the one I already committed to. And I’ve been the one calling subs for my own gigs. If I call someone and they can’t make it, that’s not a problem — I just move to the next name on my list. But if they say yes, commit to the gig, and then bail on me later, that’s different. That’s the one that actually costs them.

When it happens once, I notice. When it happens more than once with the same person, I stop calling them first, because I’ve learned I can’t count on their yes.

That’s the part nobody tells you. It’s never one dramatic conversation where someone says “I don’t trust you anymore.” It’s just fewer calls. A gig that used to be yours is going to someone else, with no explanation, because none was needed.

So the honest advice isn’t “never cancel.” It’s this: treat every cancellation like it’s using up a limited number, because it is, whether or not anyone’s counting out loud. Save it for the moments that are genuinely rare. A real tour offer. A once-in-a-lifetime call. Not “a little more money this week.” And when you do have to use one, do it right: give real notice, find your own sub, and own the conversation instead of disappearing into a text message.

I’ll be honest: canceling a gig never feels good, even when it’s the right call. I generally don’t like doing it, and I don’t think you should get comfortable with it either. It’s uncomfortable for a reason. That discomfort is worth listening to, because it’s telling you something true: this costs you, even when it doesn’t feel like it in the moment. Do it rarely enough and people understand. Do it too often, and it quietly catches up with you.

You can build a great career saying yes to the bigger gig sometimes. But you build a career on being the person people trust to show up. The count is always running, whether you’re keeping track of it or not.

If this is the kind of thing you want in your inbox, hit subscribe. I write about this stuff every week.

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Where’s your number? How many cancellations is one too many for you? Tell me in the comments.

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Clayton Craddock was the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

This week’s podcast guest is Tanner Schut, and he is currently out on tour with The Book of Mormon. When we recorded, Tanner was actually on a layoff. The tour was sitting in Toronto dealing with a musicians’ union situation, so the whole band got a few weeks off before picking back up.

Tanner joined Book of Mormon mid run, which is its own story. The drummer before him left to rejoin Blue Man Group, and Tanner got the call after a chain of connections that started with an audition for the Water for Elephants tour that didn’t even work out. He made an impression anyway, and when the Book of Mormon music director went looking for a drummer, his name got passed along.

He grew up in Corvallis, Oregon until he was eleven, then finished growing up in Boise, Idaho. He picked up drums in middle school, almost by accident, and by his teenage years he’d fallen hard for the studio legends: Steve Gadd, Peter Erskine, Vinnie Colaiuta, Roger Hawkins, Jim Keltner, Jim Gordon, Steve Jordan, Steve Smith, Steve Ferrone. You can hear all of that in his playing, honestly. I told him as much before we even started recording.

Tanner went to the University of Idaho, where he bounced between social work, music, and eventually landed on a journalism and broadcasting degree, which he crammed into two and a half years. From there he spent three years working on cruise ships, mostly in house orchestras backing production shows and guest entertainers, before making his way to New York and subletting a spot in Bed-Stuy. That’s also where our paths first crossed. He found this podcast during his last cruise ship contract and started listening to figure out how the New York music scene actually worked.

What we got into

This was a genuinely great conversation, and it went in directions I didn’t expect:

• The Water for Elephants audition that didn’t land him the gig, but landed him the one that mattered more

• How he talked his way onto his first cruise ship job with an audition tape most people would call excessive: fifty five different styles, chopped together into one continuous take

• What a real week on a cruise ship actually looks like, and how close he got to burning out after a nine month contract

• The honest version of what it takes to break into the cruise ship world, agencies and all

• What he’d do differently moving to New York, after watching his savings disappear faster than he ever expected

• The strange, small-world way a family connection led him to another drummer in New York before he’d even unpacked

Tanner stood up for the entire interview because he couldn’t sit still, which somehow felt like the most fitting way to talk to a touring drummer. Nobody in this business sits still for long, and this conversation is proof of that.

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Clayton Craddock was most recently the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

Back during the pandemic shutdown, when Broadway had gone dark, I built something out of everything I’d picked up over three decades of subbing, touring, and holding chairs on and off Broadway. I called it Broadway Drumming 101, because drums are my instrument and that’s who I figured I was talking to. That name doesn’t fit anymore.

I asked myself what I knew well enough to teach other people, and the answer was obvious: how to play drums on Broadway. But the more I stepped back from just the idea of playing drums, the more I realized it was growing into something much bigger. The years since told a different story. The questions kept coming from bass players, guitarists, brass players, people who’ve never touched a drum kit in their life, all asking some version of the same thing: how do you actually get in, and how do you stay in once you’re there. Somewhere along the way it became obvious the name was smaller than the point. This was never just about drumming. It was always about the whole path: how musicians get in, how they stay in, and how they build something that lasts past the run of any one show. Broadway Bound and Beyond is the name that covers all of it.

Here’s the practical part: going forward, you’ll be getting emails from me at Broadway Bound and Beyond instead of the old Broadway Drumming 101 address. Nothing you need to do on your end. Same inbox, same person writing to you, just a new home. If something ever looks off or an email doesn’t come through the way you expect, just reply and let me know.

Here's something worth saying out loud: a lot of you have never actually seen the site. You get these emails, you read them, and that's the whole relationship, which makes sense. But there's a real platform behind them at broadwayboundandbeyond.com, with more sitting on it than any single email could ever cover.

There's a goldmine of free material here: video shorts, long-form interviews, and dozens of essays and articles I've written over the years, not just about Broadway or how to play in a pit.

And if you want to go a level deeper, Real-World Training is there for paid subscribers, ten dollars a month, for the more tactical, sleeves-rolled-up breakdowns that don't fit into a free email.

While you’re poking around, take a look at the navigation up top. Everything lives here now: Notes, Chat, Real-World Training, Podcast Episodes, Videos, Resources, Perks, About, all of it.

But if you only click on one thing today, make it the Enroll Today link. This is what gets you to my new online course. It’s six modules built straight out of the book, but it’s way more than what I have in my book. It’s the career foundation nobody hands you when you’re starting out.

Everything else, the book this is built on, a free roadmap if you want to start there, signed copies and the Sub Playbook, all lives on the site too. More on those soon.

I'm still the same person writing to you. The new name just finally fits where I'm headed.

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Clayton Craddock was most recently the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com

A month ago, Cats: The Jellicle Ball played its final show at the Broadhurst. Eight shows a week, gone. We recorded the cast album before closing during several sessions at Power Station at BerkleeNYC. There wasn’t even a countdown to something unfinished. Just a closing notice, a last show, and nothing on the calendar with my name on it.

I wrote about that moment a few weeks back, what actually happens the day a Broadway show closes, and it traveled further than I expected, including a mention in The Hollywood Reporter’s coverage of the closing itself. Apparently, a lot more people than I thought were interested in what happens when a show like Cats: The Jellicle Ball gets its closing notice, and what a musician does the day after the marquee comes down.

I remember exactly how it went after Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations closed in January of 2022. The contractor suggested we start making calls to our colleagues and get back into subbing. I was still furious about how that show had gone, the COVID protocols included, and I had zero interest in asking my colleagues to sub for me. I’d already started this platform by then and was looking forward to doing other things. I never went back to subbing on that show.

I decided to move differently in 2022 than I had the last few times a show closed. I kept the club dates going, and instead of waiting on the industry to remember me, I stayed inside the ecosystem by interviewing almost everyone who was on a Broadway show, or had ever been on one. I started building something different for myself instead of chasing the next chair.

That building started with books, getting everything out of my head and into my computer instead of just letting it sit there, and publishing what came out of that. Here’s where it’s landed:

The free roadmap, How to Land a Gig on Broadway, is up at broadwayboundbook.com/roadmap, the same four-step system built around the idea that Broadway isn’t a meritocracy, it’s a trust economy. The Broadway Sub Playbook, the deeper, tactical breakdown of what it actually takes to sub on Broadway, is still up at signaturebrandworks.com for $7.99.

The book, Broadway Bound and Beyond, is still selling on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble, and I’m proud of the numbers it’s been putting up. If you’ve picked up a copy, thank you, and if not, you can grab it directly at broadwayboundbook.com. And if you’ve purchased anything from the merchandise at signaturebrandworks.com, there’s a lot of new gear up there now. A few items are almost sold out.

None of that stopped because a show closed. It started because one did, back in 2022. And that same decision, build instead of chase, is what led to the newest thing I’ve built: Broadway Bound and Beyond: The Course.

Relationships, versatility, financial resilience aren’t theory. They’re the actual mechanics of staying working in an industry that hands out zero guarantees. I learned them the hard way, over three decades, mostly by getting them wrong first.

That’s the whole case for the course. Six modules built around exactly those three things, for musicians who’d rather not learn them the way I did.

It’s not open yet. If you’re already a subscriber, you’ll be the first to know the moment it is, before it’s announced anywhere else.

Free subscribers get this post, plus everything else on the free side: the podcast, all 110 episodes and counting, audio and video, the Resources page, and the Notes section, where I drop quick things as I think of them. There’s also the Chat, where I post job leads as they come in, a few community members have landed actual gigs just from responding to one, so that’s worth being in there for on its own.

Paid subscribers get all of that, plus:

• Full access to Real-World Training, the section where pieces like “Why You’re Not Getting Sub Gigs (And How to Fix It Now),” “Beyond the Gigs: Why Musicians Must Face Real-Life Responsibilities,” “I Bombed My First Sub Gig—Now What?,” and “What If Your Dream Gig Isn’t on Broadway?” break down the actual how behind everything this post only points at.

• A discount on the course, plus early access before it opens to the public.

All of it, for $10 a month.

Upgrade for $10/Month

Click HERE to see exactly what’s inside, module by module, and get in before it opens to everyone else.

Clayton

Tanner Schut moved to New York with a decent cushion in his savings account, figuring he’d land a wedding band gig or two within a few weeks to keep the bills covered while he found his footing. That’s not what happened. Those gigs take months to break into, not weeks, and nobody tells you that part until you’re already living it. His savings drained a lot faster than he expected, and there was a real stretch where going back to the cruise ships looked like the only way to stay afloat.

Tanner’s on the Book of Mormon tour now. This clip is about the part before that, the part where the city doesn’t care how good you are and rent still shows up every month whether the gigs do or not.

Full conversation with Tanner coming soon to the Broadway Drumming 101 podcast.

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Clayton Craddock was most recently the drummer for Cats: The Jellicle Ball on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre. He is also the founder of Broadway Drumming 101 and the author of Broadway Bound and Beyond: A Musician’s Guide to Building a Theater Career.

His Broadway credits include Memphis, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Ain’t Too Proud, and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, with additional credits spanning tick, tick…BOOM!, The Hippest Trip: The Soul Train Musical, and subbing on Rent, Motown, Evita, Avenue Q, and the Hadestown tour.

Clayton has appeared on The View, Good Morning America, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Today Show, and the Tony Awards. He has performed with artists ranging from Chuck Berry and Ben E. King to Kristin Chenoweth and Norm Lewis.

www.claytoncraddock.com