We recently connected with Chris Vazquez and have shared our conversation below.
Chris, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
There is certainly a chip on my shoulder. Throughout my career, I have been told “no” so many times that eventually it lost its power over me. This journey began when I was very young. From a very early age, I knew that I wanted to be a guitar player, a performer, a musician. When I was 14, knowing that I took music very seriously, my parents pointed me in the direction of a place called “The Baltimore School For The Arts.” This is a prestigious arts high school with a storied history. I auditioned in my 8th grade year to enter as a freshman. I worked tirelessly to prepare scales, chords, sight reading skills, and what I thought was a classical guitar piece. At the time, I had no idea what classical guitar was, so I picked something that sounded classical to me, which was a piece by Randy Rhodes called “Dee” from Ozzy Osbourne’s classic “Blizzard Of Oz” album. Now, based just on that description, I’m sure even a non-musician can get the idea that this was not an appropriate piece. But, as I came to learn, you don’t know what you don’t know.
I was rejected from the school for freshman year. This was a pivotal moment for me because I had the opportunity to stay at my current school all the way through high school or to go to another school that may have had an alternative arts program, but that’s not what happened. Instead, I went back the next year and auditioned again. This time with a year’s worth of private classical guitar lessons with the instructor who worked for the school under my belt. My Father suggested that I take lessons from the person who is going to make the decision. This taught me a lot about how to interface with the world, and this approach would come in handy over and over again. I was accepted and entered as a junior.
When I wanted to go to Boston to study at Berklee College Of Music, I was again told no. I auditioned in the Fall of that year in Baltimore, where I am from, and applied for early admission. While I did get accepted, I did not receive any scholarship. With the financial needs that I had, this meant that I could not go. Instead of accepting that, my Father and I drove up to Boston to audition in person at the school during a high school jazz band competition. It is rare for people to get the opportunity to audition twice within the same admission period, but considering we had come from so far, and put in so much work between the first audition and that audition, Berklee gave me a second chance. From that, I received a scholarship that was enough to get me in the door.
When I was at Berklee, I could not get into any of the classes or ensembles that I wanted to get into. I didn’t have the credentials, which at Berklee they called ratings. These are numbers, 1 through 7, based on your ability to read, improvise, and interpret music, as well as your technique. Though I auditioned every semester to improve my ratings, my nerves often got the best of me, and I never had the numbers needed to get the best classes. But I learned to go directly to the teacher, to talk with them and let them get to know me. I wanted them to know my work ethic and that I would do whatever it took to keep up with the class. More often than not, the teachers would let me audition for them privately and accept me into their class. Through this process, I was able to create great relationships with my teachers, and ultimately, this led to more scholarship money. In my junior year, I received a final scholarship that brought me up to full tuition status.
Diligent work, breaking down years into months, days into hours, I found power in momentum. I knew early on that I wanted to move to Los Angeles after I graduated, but that I would need a job right out of school to afford the move. With this in mind, I auditioned for cruise ships and tours every time they came to Berklee to hold auditions. This was in the hope that I could get a summer job to save up money to eventually move to LA when I did graduate. No one would give me a job. My skill just wasn’t there yet. But, one audition came along for a tour that would start in Washington D.C. and end in Los Angeles. At the same time, Berklee was offering a summer internship program in LA. Though I was rejected for the guitar role on the tour, I went back to the people in charge and offered to intern for free on the tour as a PA in exchange for school credit and a trip out to LA. Then I applied for the summer internship program and got it. Through that process, I learned more about being persistent, and that I would never again accept a role of that nature. After all I had been through, I wasn’t going to accept anything less than being the one on the stage.
In my senior year, I was honored to have a master class with a jazz legend who I deeply admired. This gentleman, who will remain unnamed, stopped my performance to tell me in front of the entire class that I would never be a musician. His exact words were “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this son, but music isn’t for you.” This was nearly the straw that broke the camel’s back, but somehow it wasn’t.
With the help of my teachers, mentors, and my Father (who is also a musician), I was able to collect and work through book after book, put in the hours, and persist. Over time, with focus on what was in my control, I became a strong reader and improviser. This allowed me to audition again in my senior year and get the job that cruise ship job I had so desired. Then just before graduation, something remarkable happened. The guitar department head, Larry Baione, called me into his office. Ringling Bros. Circus had come to the school and asked for a guitarist referral. They needed someone to join the tour right away with a starting salary that was more money than I had certainly ever made and a renewable annual contract. Larry recommended me out of the nearly 1,200 guitar players at the school. This wasn’t because I was some kind of virtuoso on my instrument. It was because I had developed that reputation of being someone who was reliable, who would put in the work, and who would make the school look good. I told him then that I had already accepted the job to work on cruise ships and I didn’t know what to do. He looked me in the eye and said, “If you start your career as someone who breaks their commitments, then that’s how you will be thought of in the professional world. You got this recommendation because you put a lot of time into being thought of as someone who is reliable. I am going to recommend that you keep your commitment. See it all the way through. And even though this job is for more money and has a longer contract, your word will set you apart. And if you build your career on that kind of integrity, you will never need to look for work.
All of this came into play when I entered the professional world. Once living in Los Angeles, the “no” word didn’t stop. It was amplified. There was a stretch of time where I was auditioning for major guitar positions 2-3 times a week for months on end. Every time I would be in the top two or three candidates, but come home empty handed. While this was challenging to say the least, all of those experiences before gave me a thick skin. I kept going back again and again, giving it everything I had every single time. Eventually exactly what Larry Baione told me began happening. All of those musicians, music directors, artists, and managers that I met saw my work ethic and my attitude. The tables turned, and eventually I developed a career not by being the best, but by keeping good relationships and being reliable, prepared, and easy to work with.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a Baltimore native. Give me all the crab cakes, crab dips, and steamed crabs that you can possibly find. I’ll take them all. This is the city that shaped me. I found music at the age of 11 after attending a Metallica concert. The whole story of that concert goes right back to the question about resilience. When my mom and I were waiting in line for tickets, we were the next people just as they announced the tickets were sold out. I wanted to go so badly that I agreed to work helping a friend of my mom’s clean houses all summer long to save up the money to buy tickets. A friend of my father’s had some for sale, but they were four times more expensive than the ones my mom and I had initially waited in line to purchase. Something about this process made the concert more special. I came home and immediately told my mom “I am going to my room because I have to practice. I’m going to be a musician.”
For high school I attended Baltimore School For The Arts to learn classical guitar, then off to Berklee College of Music to focus on jazz and popular music, and then to Los Angeles to begin my career as a sideman. Over the years, I’ve had the great fortune of working with incredible artists such as Air Supply, Anthony Evans, Andre Cymone, Leona Lewis, JoJo, and so many more, travelling through nearly every continent. This instrument has been such an incredible friend to me. Though my journey has been difficult in terms of being told no at every turn, the skills that I’ve acquired in the face of obstacles became something that I really wanted to share with the next generation.
In 2014, my best friend Michael Torres and I started a music school together. We called it SoundLife, which to us meant using the power of music to empower people with the tools to live a sound and prosperous life. Our mission was then further distilled into this “to instill creativity and confidence through music.” This year we are celebrating 10 years in business, serving over 150 families a year with not just individual lessons, but performance opportunities, band coaching, songwriting and recording classes, and numerous workshops that all help further our mission.
SoundLife’s primary service is private in-home lessons; we do not have a brick and mortar building as that was never part of our vision. Instead, we provide a service that connects professional musicians with students in the comfort of their own homes, and then we support those students as they grow with opportunities to meet them where they are and further inspire them.
Over the years building SoundLife, I was forced to learn how to run a business from scratch. After all, I went to school for music, not marketing, design, analytics, leadership, management, accounting, or for any of the other skills related to running a successful business. Through this process, I suppose I had an entrepreneurial seizure. I fell in love with looking at the world through the entrepreneurial lens, solving problems, and fulfilling needs.
Once I became hooked, I began looking for an opportunity to create another business related to performing. I met a friend named Max Benson, and he and I launched GB Entertainment, an agency dedicated to providing classy, jazz-inspired entertainment for private events and weddings. Our mission with this company is to create a culture that treats musicians as the specialists that they are and to serve our clients with the highest level of service, showcasing the best of what musicians can bring to the table.
GB Entertainment holds residencies around Los Angeles and books jazz duos, trios, and vocal groups throughout the year. Together, these two businesses represent the two largest parts of my professional life. The ultimate goal is to change the musician’s story and help creatives thrive.
The true job of the entrepreneur is to create more jobs, and with that in mind both companies are expanding this year. SoundLife is offering new workshops, jam sessions, open mics, and more. These offerings are open to all music students, not just those taking lessons with our team members, but anyone studying an instrument. To accommodate for this expansion, we created new positions and supplemental opportunities for our team members, allowing us to promote from within. We recently created the role of Lead Instructor / Team Manager for our longest serving teacher Enrique Lara. Mr. Lara is now able to hold a management position within the company alongside his work as an instructor and performer. GB Entertainment is also expanding, as we recently launched new offerings for solo guitar and piano, as well as a completely redesigned website to encompass future expansion.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three most important things an artist needs are passion, process, and persistence. It takes passion to go against the grain and create a path that has not yet been charted. It takes a process to navigate that uncharted path. This process takes time to uncover and so it must be coupled with an exceptional work ethic and an uncompromising commitment to the end result. The last quality is probably the most important. Artists will inevitably get told no over and over and over again. Considering artists are often the most vulnerable people, as they wear their emotions on their sleeve, this endless rejection can be devastating. It helps to know that persistence, coupled with passion, will result in progress. I don’t mean to harp on all of these ‘P’ words, but they all hold true.
As a musician who also helps run two businesses, I think I have a unique insight into the balance and the skills required for an artist to thrive. When we work toward mastery of our medium, we often have tunnel vision and enter the world with an unbalanced set of skills. Many artists do not have the tools to be successful in life but have an abundance of talent and skill. I think it would benefit any emerging artist of any medium to look at their career through the entrepreneurial lens. Ask the most important questions: Why am I here? What is my purpose? How can I be of service?
If a person can answer these questions for themselves, then they only need to work their way backward and find the tools necessary to achieve the answers to those questions. They will quickly realize that all artists are entrepreneurs. They are all creating something out of nothing. They are all purposed to serve with the skill and talent that they’ve worked so hard to cultivate.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
There really isn’t any one person who has helped me overcome my challenges. I am a husband, father of two, active musician, and business owner; trust me, I still have plenty of challenges.
As a young child, seeing my mother go above and beyond for others taught me the value of service and the joy of giving. This helped me, as an adult, learn how to channel my skills into a vehicle for service. Also, in my youth, my father taught me how to work hard, how to set goals, and how to persist in the face of opposition.
If there was one person who truly stood out, I suppose that person would be a man named Kenny Werner. Mr. Werner is a world-famous pianist. In my senior year at Berklee, the biggest obstacle that I faced was myself. I was riddled with performance anxiety and felt that my dreams were something that I might never achieve. I was scheduled to perform in a master class and Kenny Werner happened to be the substitute teacher. He stopped my performance in the first 30 seconds or so. Instead of telling me how bad it was or anything of that nature, he told me to put my hands down by my side and take a very deep breath. Then, he told me as I let the air go these magical words: “You are enough. You are more than this instrument, you are more than this moment, you matter more to the world than you could possibly comprehend.” Something about that moment changed my life.
After the class, I went to Mr. Werner and thanked him for his time. He asked me if I had read his book called ‘Effortless Mastery.’ I said that I had heard of it but that I had not yet read it. He said, ‘Well, that doesn’t do much good, does it?’ After that, I went straight to the bookstore to buy his book, and the person at the counter had a copy right there at the desk waiting for me. That moment led me on a path of personal growth that I am still on today and will be on for the rest of my life. I am a constant student, and as a result, there have been many mentors, guides, coaches, teachers, and role models that I have looked up to and continue to look up to. For these people, I am eternally grateful. I can only hope to be the same kind of light for others.
Contact Info:
- Website: soundlifelessons.com, www.gbjazz.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/soundlifelessons, www.instagram.com/gbjazz
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/soundlifelessons
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/soundlifelessons
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/soundlifelessons
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/soundlife-music-academy-los-angeles-2
Image Credits
Delia Bush Tyler Golden Kelly Elaine
