What are the (academic and professional) qualifications and/or experience required to enter the profession?
The profession that I have chosen is session guitarist. According to Landr (2022), being a session is can compose, perform, and record parts for each song over the course of multiple studio sessions, or they can play a straightforward, pre-written backing track for a single song. Also, there are different types of session guitarists that I can choose such as studio guitarist and backing or touring guitarist, I wanted to be a touring guitarist because it can perform on the stage. For the qualification to become a session guitarist, most session guitarists have a ton of hours under their belt and in many cases a history of music education whether they be self-taught or university graduates. Moreover, being a session guitarist has to know how to play many genres as they have to perform on the stage. Also, honing your skills and broadening your expertise is always key for getting started, the greater skills the guitarist have, the greater chances the guitarist can earn. The basic qualification is to achieve the grade exam to prove that you have a certain skill. With many performances experience of course will benefit the become a professional session guitarist. Not just only your performance skills but also your relationship with other musicians. According to an interview from 樂天國(2021), a famous Hong Kong guitarist – Jason Kui said he was invited by his friend to work on a project and after that he was found by other musicians because of his brilliant music work. It shows that relationship in music industry is an important element of being a successful session guitarist.
What knowledge, skills and personal qualities/attributes are needed for success within the profession?
Being a session guitarist definitely have to be familiar with music and your own instruments. Understanding music theory is an essential part for every musician not only just guitarists, but the more musicians also know the music theory as much as they can, the more they can present or apply to a song. According to a YouTube interview from jam in the room (2021), a famous guitarist in Hong Kong – Jason Kui mentions that creating your own music work is important as it will present when music style you are or what music vibe you maintain. He did give an example of why making music work is essential, when a producer wants to find a guitarist to cooperate, a music work is the best way to present to the producer what special you are. Speaking of personal attributes, a session guitarist has to be easy-going because there is so much cooperation with other musicians, a great cooperation ability is also needed in this job. For example, an easy-going session guitarist would be beneficial to the team because they can communicate easily. When a producer or a band is looking for a guitarist for touring, this personal attribute also would be their priority to choose because they do not want any argument during the tour. For the skills, basically a session guitarist has to play it literally no mistake, playing every note or lick so cleanly. A session guitarist usually records music or plays live, a producer would not hire a guitarist who always plays the music wrong. Therefore, mastering the guitar technique is a fundamental condition for a professional session guitarist.
What are the duties and responsibilities of the profession – what does a typical day’s work involve?
The duties and responsibilities of being a session guitarist are very diverse, studio guitarist and tour guitarist have their own responsibilities. For the studio guitarist, they usually just only record the guitar part of the song in the studio. According to Rhett Shull (2019), He is a session guitarist and recorded the guitar part on Noah Guthrie’s new record, and he brought 4 guitars for recording in 2 days. In this video, it is obvious that the studio guitarist is only records the guitar part on song. For the tour session guitarist, compared to studio guitarist, it is totally different duties. They only take part in playing the song on the stage with the singer or a band. According小豬 x 808 Studio. (2019), He is a famous tour guitarist in Tai Wan, he recorded a day of being a tour guitarist. It shows that session guitarists usually take flight or transport to different places for touring. Despite of this, they have to rehearse before the show gets started and fully prepared for the performance, except of these works, they have some free time for their hobbies. Therefore, tour guitarists are much more enjoyable and have time flexibility. However, they faced some pressure which they cannot to make any mistakes on the performance as much as possible, but the studio guitarist, even if they played something wrong on the recording, still got another chance because it is a recording project that allowed you to play a perfect version. Therefore, there are a variety of problems that different session guitarists face too.
What are the main financial and legal issues that impact on this profession?
Due to a session guitar is not like other jobs which have a contract, or a stable salary. Speaking of financial issues, a session guitarist is often freelance based which means they face irregular income, depending on how many works or jobs they can get. This unpredictability can make it challenging to budget. Not only do they receive irregular income but also other problems such as health insurance or retirement contributions. According to Ashley (2024), freelance have to work on their insurance because they do have not a contract that contains certain insurance. Therefore, session guitarist has to manage or purchase insurance by themselves.
For the legal issues, due to there may be miscommunications or disagreements regarding payment, usage rights, and duties because many session guitarists operate without formal contracts. Also, session guitarist especially studio guitarist has to be aware of the copyright, maybe a guitarist makes some guitar riffs for the song but it actually quite similar to another song. It will cause a copyright issue as it is not allowed to create similar or exact guitar parts. Otherwise, it will bring a lawsuit. For example, Dua Lipa songs “Levitating” is quite similar to a YouTube music video named “Live Your Life” in 2017. Unfortunately, as the music video did not apply a music licensing the producer of the song cannot bring a lawsuit to Dua Lipa. Hence, getting a music license is really important after writing or publishing a guitar part in a song, avoiding people stealing your idea. Usually, playing live or recorded music or stage live music events in public also needs a license named “TheMusicLicense”
What would the potential marketing and promotional aspects of this profession look like?
It is really difficult to be an outstanding session guitarist, and you have to brand yourself as a unique session guitarist. Guitarists have to establish some special style to the producer, no matter is playing style or even the vibe of the guitarist. It is important to make a good impression on someone who looking for a session guitarist. After the guitarist figures it out what the style, he/she has, they can share their talent on social media platforms such as YouTube. In this technological era, everyone can easily to access different social media platforms. According to Vertex Effects. (2024), A YouTube interview that hosted by 3 people, and they were interviewing my favorite guitarist – Mateus Asato. He shared how social media changed his life during the pandemic, he mentioned that when the whole world was on lockdown because of the pandemic, he decided to upload a video on Instagram and YouTube, and he did not expect so many people were watch his video. Hence, he became famous as he posted guitar videos on the internet. Not just only posting your own guitar video, but also collaborating with other musicians to enhance your spotlight. Recently, many guitarists would cooperate with other musicians to play a song together.
Joining some gigs is also good marketing and promotion to people who are looking for session guitarists. When you are participating a gig, there will be a time to introduce the band members by the singer, and here is the chance to let other musicians or producers notice you. Therefore, posting your own music video on social media platforms and participating a gig would be the most effective way to promote yourself.
What are the intellectual and personal challenges presented by the profession and how might these be dealt with?
Speaking of how personal challenges presented on being a session guitarist, one of the big personal challenges is self-doubt. There are so many great guitarists in the music industry when guitarist opens their social media platform, they will always see other guitarists who also post their music videos on social media. It will only make the guitarist feel stressed because of the comparison with another guitarist. To deal with these personal challenges, the best way to tackle it is to practice more and more until u satisfied with your techniques, and he/she will not compare to others. Practicing more will improve your playing skills, which also means you don’t have to worry someone will play better than you and erase the self-doubt. Moreover, as the essay mentioned before, session guitarists a freelance workers, and they face irregular income each month, which also becomes a personal challenge of living their life. There are 2 solutions that can solve this problem, diversify income and save during busy periods. For the diversified income, session guitarist can teach guitar to explore additional revenue, during their free time for waiting the job, they can earn money from teaching, maybe daily or 3 times a week. It can also boost their saving to live a better life. Saving during busy periods can help session guitarists live, making a saving plan for getting through the busy periods would benefit a session guitarist’s economic status. For example, as soon as the guitarist gets paid, allocate a percentage of your earnings to savings before spending something unnecessary.
What career-progression/development opportunities are available within the profession?
Being a session guitarist, there are numerous progression and development opportunities in the music industry. With a difference of genus in session guitarists such as jazz and blues and become specialized in these genres. By playing this different genre continuously. After that, it may attract different producers and get invited to become studio guitarists for different projects.
Session work can lead to different work positions such as studio guitarist, tour guitarist, concert arrangement, and even band leader. Being a session guitarist is only just work for playing guitar on backstage, it is possible to work in different music job positions. As long as you are able to contribute to the project perfectly. Since the guitarist has been experiencing different genres, he/ she is able to open a private lesson as a teacher. Offering lessons, workshops or even a YouTube channel can boost your personal brand, not only increasing income through the class or workshop but also enhancing yourself in the music industry
After a guitarist has earned such much experience in this music industry, they are able to create their own brand such as a studio or even an artist development company as they know how to music industry works and they can work by themselves regarding their previous experiences.
Reference:
Ashley. (2024, May 21). Why does a freelancer need professional indemnity insurance? With Jack. https://withjack.co.uk/why-does-a-freelancer-need-professional-indemnity-insurance/
Jam in the Room. (2021, March 25). Jason Kui點樣走出國際?成為音樂人需具備的條件?最受影響的樂隊? | Mushare Jason Kui 專訪(下集) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIxe5gYA504
Landr. (2022, December 12). What are session guitarists? the basics of pro guitar explained. LANDR Blog. https://blog.landr.com/session-guitarists/
Vertex Effects. (2024, August 6). Mateus Asato Talk gear, career, & inspiration [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8j0AVsJ1Cc
Rhett Shull. (2019, February 26). Session guitarist: 2 days in the studio [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUQBTAd4aSY
樂天國. (2021, May 10). 【樂天國 EP.48 樂天國有Jason Kui (上)】 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6yqJefMJjU
小豬 x 808 Studio. (2019, September 12). 李榮浩 – 年少有為演唱會 濟南站|樂手的一天#01|TOUR Guitarist VLOG #01|吉他手 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDyohZ8r20g
