No one can accuse Curt Bisquera of being unprepared. But hey, the man's a pro, so whether he's showing up at a recording session or leading a clinic at the LA Music Academy, he's equipped with a career's worth of good habits. He's also more than happy to share them with anyone aspiring to forge their own path of professional musicianship, which is why a recent evening in the Performance Hall was, to say the least, time well spent. In fact, drummer Curt Bisquera, guitarist James Harrah, and bassist Mark Browne articulated one of the Academy's most professionally enlightening clinics yet. Their cohesive yet flexible agenda amiably swayed toward any and all areas of inquiry, while remaining structured and entertaining. When a seasoned pro affably announces, "I want to keep it loose, I'll take any questions at all," you'll hopefully leave with a few less question marks than you arrived with. More than a few students also left with party favors like free drumsticks and cymbals, thanks to the presence of reps from some of Bisquera's endorsements, like Regal Tip, Paiste, and DW.

Upon taking the stage, Bisquera sat down at his kit and launched right into a gratifying demo of his essential performing style. His drumming was laid-back but driving, and he never allowed the groove to get covered up by his melodic use of the toms. He often kept the pulse on the bass drum while exploring the snare, toms and cymbals with understated power, always allowing his musicality to guide the percussive motifs. He even triggered a laptop-housed loop and jammed to it, applying a few different rock and funk-based moods. The characteristics of this solo performance underscored the evening's theme, best described in his words: "[In a band,] we're all part of the same team, and we're all creating the music together, as one person. When I play drums, I'm always trying to come from that space, like, 'How can I make this song better?' I have some musical ideas that I feel can add to the music, and I think that's where I'm coming from - a place where you're adding to the music spiritually, mentally, and physically, with a groove and feel, making the music feel and sound right…As opposed to chops, licks, and stuff like that on top of the music, which don't always make sense." That Bisquera could so effectively apply this "team player" philosophy to a solo performance serves as an example of just how talented a drummer he is: He lucidly turned his drum kit into its own ensemble, each drum symbolizing an individual musician striving to unify the band into a single organism. Throughout the evening, every note played remained impressively faithful to that philosophy.

Distinctive to this clinic was its underlying intent to focus on life as a working musician. These consummate session players were here, not so much to dazzle students with their instrumental virtuosity, but to demonstrate how to optimize those abilities in professional situations. Once Harrah and Browne took the stage (fresh from a Thai food smorgasbord, it was noted), Bisquera announced, "We're going to play for you kind of a day in the life of what Mark, James and I do." The trio proceeded to re-create a commercial recording session, moving through each step of the process as if a producer were directing them. Bisquera started a 95-BPM click through the P.A. and began to narrate:

"We'll all have headphones on, and the producer will say, 'Hey James, do you feel the click? Play some sort of blues lick, in whatever key you want, and we'll build a track around that.'" On that cue, James Harrah plants the groove with a funky, catchy blues guitar riff. "Then the producer will say, 'Hey Mark, play something kind of slinky underneath it that'll work around James' guitar lick.'" Mark Browne brings in an anchoring bass line. "Last but not least, he'll ask me to play something, he'll say, 'Curt, try something on the side stick, real simple.'" Bisquera joins in to complete the groove, and the three of them briefly jam on Harrah's initial guitar riff. "So we'll start from that, we'll jam for awhile, the producer will look at us, and maybe he'll say, 'Man, that's boring, I want it a little more exciting, it needs a little more edge.' So he'll run the click again, and say, 'You know what, it's a little too slow, let's make it a little faster, let's take it to 102-BPM, cause this feels like it's dragging. OK James, play something a little more edgy.'" Harrah turns up the distortion and begins to play a rollicking chord figure. "And then the producer might say, 'Mark, come up with a walking bass line, up and down the neck.'" Browne responds with a 1-bar repeated phrase. "And usually what happens right here is the producer says, 'Yeah, that sounds really good. Curt, make it a little more bashy, more garage band. A little looser. Not so tight, make it a little grungy.'" And Bisquera comes in with a dirty, straight-ahead rocking beat, and the three of them briefly jam out a ragged, down-home rock feel. "Ok, so within what we just did, the producer will have been recording all of it, and he'll say, 'OK, we're gonna use that for the Toyota commercial.'" Could it really be that simple?

The evening progressed through an array of questions caringly tended to by the featured musicians. Even during moments that could've excluded all but the drummers in the room, Bisquera managed to make his preferred hitting technique universally understood by describing his application of a punching method he learned in a Bruce Lee book: Keep relaxed during the swing, tightening your grip only just before impact. Surely a lesson everyone can relate to. (Guitarists, you never know when you'll have to fight a street thug for your axe.) The theme of professionalism was always prevalent. Mark Browne especially detailed the gritty means of initially getting work and establishing yourself in your career's fetal stage: "I would just show up and bug everyone I knew, asking, 'Who's playing bass?' And I'd show up for auditions, and a lot of the time I'd get my heart broken; I wasn't the right guy. And then, when I did get the gig, I just really thought about what it meant to me to be a pro, and eventually people dig that, they really do, and before you know it, it's not an issue anymore." To which Bisquera chimed in with his mantra, gleaned from the late, great Jeff Porcaro: "Get to the gig early!" He continued: "You can be a terrible drummer, but if you're on time, you'll get a call back. I know, because I was one of those terrible drummers on a few gigs, and they'd call me back, because I was always there with a decent sounding drum kit, some great cymbals, a good attitude, and fresh pizza…"

Best start collecting those Domino's coupons; the man knows what he's talking about.