Freedom Within a Framework: Ruslan Sirota on Building a Versatile Music Career (Episode 6)

You learned how to make music. Nobody taught you how to make a living making music.

Born in the Soviet Union, raised in Israel, educated at Berklee, working in Los Angeles, and introduced by Nomad as a Grammy winner. In Episode 6 of The Career Musician, pianist and composer Ruslan Sirota tells a story that only makes sense looking backward, and he admits as much.

If you have ever wondered how to build a career as a versatile musician, Ruslan's path, from smuggled keyboards to pop, jazz and TV work, is a good map.

Play by ear, then learn the rules

In the Soviet Union, Ruslan played by ear as a kid, picking up songs from the radio. That was frowned upon. What are you, a street musician? At seven he started proper classical training, but his father knew that wasn't the whole story.

So his dad found the one guy in town who had been kicked out of every institution: a songwriter who listened to American music, wrote songs against the government and improvised on a little Yamaha keyboard smuggled across the border. His father paid him to teach Ruslan in secret, once a week. They improvised and recorded from cassette to cassette, overdubbing because there was no other way. The teacher's wife was a classical pianist, so Ruslan studied with both: an hour of classical, then an hour of making music.

The classical work was strict: here's the method, do it. Four to six hours a day, and he still wanted to play more.

Freedom is within a framework

At nine his family moved to Israel. Suddenly playing by ear was no big deal, and there was the Yamaha School of Music. He kept up classical, but as a teenager jazz took over. Nomad asked if that was about craving harmonic freedom. Ruslan agreed, and then added what he learned later.

"What you find eventually is, again, freedom is within a framework, and you have to have the good sense to realize that."

Ruslan Sirota, 7:17

Freedom without fundamentals isn't freedom. That is true at the piano and in a career.

Move where the work is, and keep the employer comfortable

At 17, Ruslan got a full ride to Berklee. That scholarship was his ticket to the U.S., and he credits Gary Burton with helping pay his way through college.

By 25 he was already playing with Stanley Clarke and got the Brian McKnight gig, his first pop gig. Both were based in Los Angeles, so he moved there. He wanted to keep the gigs and didn't want his employers stressing about flying him in. As the conversation put it: if you are employed, you don't want to stress them out. You're great, but there are other great people too.

Living on a friend's couch in North Hollywood, he got called to audition for Seal. After two rounds, he got the gig and finally got his own place. From there came Josh Groban, music directing, more jazz, commercials and TV.

"When preparation meets opportunity... if you have all kinds of different preparations, you end up having all kinds of different opportunities."

Ruslan Sirota, 11:56

That is Luck = preparation + opportunity, spelled out by a guy who lived it. He also told Nomad that around 2004 he listened to nothing but gospel for two years and played church three or four times a week. It opened doors to a whole other circuit of work.

Gospel taught him what fits

Ruslan said you can't fully get a music without getting the culture. The deeper he went into gospel, the more he realized he would never sound exactly like the players he learned from. Eventually you come back around to who you are, but you never come back the same.

What he brought back was sensitivity. In gospel, the competition is playing the right thing at the perfect dynamic time. Do that for a while and you ask the same question in every genre: does this fit here?

Let what you love be your North Star

Nomad asked about the principles and methods behind his practice. Ruslan's answer was refreshingly practical.

"Your tastes and what you love in music is a good sort of North Star to help you navigate through what you are here to do."

Ruslan Sirota, 18:46

Study the music you already love, because you will happily sit with it. Then apply method to it: take two chords from a passage you dig and move them up a half step, then through more keys. Start from something you love and let that be the pool you fish from. It's still work, but you will actually do it.

He also told an old-school practice story from his teens: a box of matches, one match in for every clean run of a passage, all of them out the moment he missed. He doesn't recommend it, because it can burn you out. The trick is balance.

Decide early, and be reliable

Nomad brought up his own story: he always knew he was an artist, but the sideman path paid, and the artist side took a back seat. His challenge to young players is to make a decision early. Ruslan, who had just finished his second record as an artist, had a sharp point about the difference.

When people complain that some famous frontman isn't as good a musician as their buddy who teaches or plays a bar, Ruslan says that is a profound misunderstanding of what it takes to be a front guy. Being great on your instrument is a small piece of the puzzle.

The other piece is acumen. If you're not responsible and organized, you won't meet your commitments. Even for this conversation, with no money changing hands, they checked in the day before to confirm. How many musicians double book, forget, or just don't show up? That bites you very quickly, whether you are a solo artist or a sideman. Reliability beats virtuosity.

The takeaway

Ruslan's career isn't a straight line, and he says if he had planned it, it wouldn't have happened this way. What it shows is how preparation across many styles, a willingness to move where the work is and plain reliability add up. And he keeps creating, now with covers of pop songs for string quartet and jazz rhythm section, because you are supposed to make music. As Nomad says, content is king and collaboration is key. If you are working toward your next gig, grab the free Get the Gig guide.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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