Christopher Cardenas

I'm mainly a drummer. I got my first of 3 teachers when I was 11 and continued lessons thru age 17. I can play just about all styles of music but some stuff I'm not that good at. like some styles of jazz, (be-bop or new orleans zydeko) and I don't EVEN attempt the speed metal stuff. not a lot of call for these styles but I can fake them well enough and most people can't tell the difference. I do get busted from time to time though. / / /I also play guitar but not well enough to claim to be a guitarist. I've found that if I say I play guitar then most people think that I can solo as well. I CAN'T. I mainly play guitar for my own amazement (yes, I meant that). when I was about 15 or 16 I realized that I wanted to write my own music but you can't really play chord changes very well on a drum kit so I picked up the cheap nylon string acoustic that my mom had lying around and taught myself how to play it. I used to get these song books that showed you where to place your fingers on the neck to make the correct chords. as I improved I began trying to write my own material. amazingly enough, the first song that I ever wrote on my own was really good. it's just the ones that followed were nowhere near the quality of that first one (that's a nice way of saying that they sucked!). it took me a while to figure out what works and what doesn't and eventually found my own voice. / / /as far as my vocals go, I never really took any voice lessons. I had done the choir stuff in school but no formal lessons. I used to have close to a 5 octave range (between bass and soprano) but my voice really changed after about age 35. I don't have the higher range that I used to but my voice has a much fuller sound that I really like. it's a give and take. I did get hooked up with a vocal coach at one point. he gave me some vocal and breathing exercises but he didn't want to change anything I was doing. he really liked my vocal style and was concerned that any instruction that he gave me might change my sound. it was fun to see the look on his face when he wanted to check my range. he played notes on the piano and I was to match what he played with my voice. he kept raising the notes by a half step and I kept matching him all the way up the keyboard. at one point he just stopped the excercise and said "well, your high register works." / / /after graduating high school I worked with many bands. it's the common Los Angeles story about getting into a band and trying to "make it". most people I knew thought that getting a record deal was the end all, be all. but that's not where my head was at. I really just wanted to be able to work as a musician. reaching stardom was never really a concern for me. so after countless bands and countless attempts with countless record companies I started to get real sick of the whole scene. everything became very transparent and I had had enough. I was so tired of all of it. you know, hanging with the right people, saying the right things and making sure to be seen in the right places wearing the right clothes. what exactly does any of that have to do with creating music? nothing as far as I can tell. so in early 2004 after many "no chance" auditions I moved to Las Vegas to pursue work as a musician. I was pretty sick of playing drums so I wanted to try to get work as a singer but I found there was much more work for a drummer than a singer so I'm back behind the kit again. every once in awhile I'll get a gig as a singer so I can get my "ya's" out from time to time. / / /as of now I'm lucky enough to be playing drums with a really good band called Sixties Mania as well as continuing to work with whomever I can, whenever I can.