Introduction:
Interpreting the definitions provided by UK’s Musician’s Union (MU), a session musician is an artist who is paid for a recording, but not contractually signed to a recording label. This includes session recordings or live performances for TV Shows, adverts, album/EP recordings, films and any other scenario that requires professional musical performance. Qualifications necessary, financial/legal issues, self promotion and personal/career challenges are all part of a Session Musician’s career; this makes these factors crucial to examine in analysing the profession of a Session Musician.
Qualifications, Skills and Responsibilities
Professional session musicians are responsible for their own equipment maintenance, thought, the amount varies for different instruments. A classical pianist would not be expected to transport a grand piano around a city in comparison to a a guitarist who will need to travel with expensive equipment. If drummers want to bring their own kit beyond cymbals, they will need to pay for a car, insurance and petrol just to get to the session. While singers do not need to travel with expensive equipment, they need to take constant care of their voice as a throat injury or even a cold can result in the inability to work for weeks. Another responsibility for session musicians is keeping up theoretical and practical musical skills. This includes skills such as scales, arpeggios, rudiments and improvisational techniques. Many famous hooks for popular songs were created by session musicians on the spot during a recording session. A famous example of this is Saxophonist Raphael Ravenscroft, who played the infamous Baker Street saxophone solo, stating that “If you’re asking me: ‘Did Gerry hand me a piece of music to play?’ then no, he didn’t.” (Bagchi, 2014) This shows that improvisation is a key part of being a working session musician. Another example of this is the iconic bassline from Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side; in which Herbie Flowers had the idea to double track double bass and electric bass guitar. This bassline is now one of the most well-known basslines in musical history, as the BBC said “[It] is as well known today as it was at the time of its release. If not, even more so.” (BBC, 2010) This highlights further the importance of session musicians having the ability to improvise on the spot as well as keep on top of theoretical practices.
Session musicians must prioritise consistency over instrumental virtuosity in their playing. To note, Zak Starkey was let go from the 60s band The Who, after a performance in which he overplayed, making the performance much harder for other musicians. Often, if a session musician is noticed during a performance or recording, they are playing in a manner that is too complex; this risks the event of being let go or fired from the job. Acclaimed Toto member and session musician, Steve Lukather, states in his autobiography that “You had to be able to bring it every time or else you would have got fired, game over.” (Lukather, 2018) This shows the competitive nature of the music industry as it forces session musicians to be consistent on every gig; the ability to play exactly what is needed and nothing more is imperative. Being fired once can destroy a musician’s reputation, as information spreads quickly through word of mouth. Other producers and artists who could supply work are less likely to hire a session musician who has been fired.
Maintaining relationships is another crucial skill in order to conserve a good reputation, allowing for success in finding work. In a recording studio, keeping the work environment non-toxic and relaxed is a vital part of the process as it allows everyone involved work as efficiently as possible. A famous example of this is Red Garland being fired by Miles Davis. This is an example exclusively due to work ethic rather than skill level as Red Garland is a highly regarded jazz pianist, and one of the greats of his era. However, the time in which he was working with Davis was when he was less experienced and much younger. Garland even admitted to being inebriated and joking around during recording sessions. Due to this behaviour, Garland was fired by Davis on the spot during one of their recording sessions. Given Garland’s immense talent (shown in the recordings around the time he was fired), and his musical reputation since this incident, it can be concluded that his musical skill was not the reason for discharged. It was only down to his “sloppy” (Flophousemagazine.com, 2016) work ethic at the time. This is proof that attitude and responsibility is equally, if not more important in the success of a session musician than their musical skill. While this example is from the 1950s, there are similar recounts from Brian Sweet’s Reelin’ in the Years: The Steely Dan Story, in which it details producers Donald Fagen and Walter Becker often replacing musicians for minor details about their work ethic. This highlights the importance of being respectful in the environment of a recording studio, despite musical skill.
Financial/Legal Issues:
Session musicians are almost always self employed, meaning they have no employer to organise income tax and national insurance on their behalf. According to the UK Government website, anyone self-employed earning over £12,570 a year and over the age of 16 must begin to pay national insurance. The UK Government website also has a self assessment feature for self-employed workers to pay their income tax. Frequency of work and rates vary drastically for session musicians across the UK, based on factors such as location and the type of session work. The estimated average salary for a working, experienced session musician in the UK is around £49,000. This estimation is from Session Expert, though other starting salary estimations for session musicians were around £31,735 by Jooble. This is considerably lower, however Session Expert appeared to be a more credible source.
When recording for an artist, session musicians do not typically get royalties to the track, instead they will be paid a flat hourly fee for their time. This means that whether the track gets 10 streams or 10 million, the session musician will not be paid any more than their pre-established rate. A possible system to overcome this is provided by the PPL organisation (Phonographic Performance Limited). The PPL collects money from businesses and broadcasters who play music into a public place and distributes it to performing musicians as well as record labels. PRS is another organisation which also collects money from businesses and broadcasters who play music in a public place; redistributing it to songwriters and composers. For a session musician the most important of these two is PPL, as it covers performances and will reward session musicians who performed on commercially successful pieces that result in more deserved income than the previously agreed upon flat hourly fee.
Marketing and Promotion:
For session musicians, the Atlanta Institute of Music and Media suggests that one of the largest contributors to frequency of work is networking and knowing the people who are looking for musicians to record. This can involve online presence, joining local songwriting groups, going to local artist’s gigs and meeting people who would likely offer work in the future. Shawn Leonhardt from Fusion Bags suggests that building an online portfolio is necessary for finding work as a session musician, so that clients have evidence of musical proficiency before hiring. Another benefit to this approach is that it can be viewed by anyone, whereas a more personal face to face networking approach can only target a few people at a time however – a downside to this approach is that is it much less meaningful and personal than building a real relationship with a client, therefore will likely be less effective.
Personal Challenges/Career Progression:
A personal challenge that affect lots of musicians is imposter syndrome (IS). According to the MU Imposter Syndrome is “the persistent inability to believe that one’s success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one’s own efforts or skills.” (musiciansunion.org.uk, 2021) This can lead to confidence problems and anxiety, making self promotion or networking extremely mentally challenging. This then leads to struggles in finding more employment for Session Musicians, affecting their livelihood and overall career trajectory. A&R Factory suggests that session musicians should “Find the root cause of [their] IS” (Vandergast, 2023), and disassociate those negative feelings from their musical skill. IS is something to constantly work on improving for many session musicians, as confidence is an important skill for getting work and performing well.
Paycheck uncertainty is another big stress factor for self employed people, especially musicians as even minor injury can result in no employment for an uncertain period of time. A famous example of this invovles the pianist Leon Fleisher, a session pianist who developed focal dystonia for his right hand at the age of 36. Fleisher progressed his career towards teaching and conducting after this injury, though later in life, he regained the ability to use his right hand through physical therapy therapy. As Fleisher had an established and respected career before his injury, he could pivot his focus. Through this he was able to make money within other avenues of his musicality. However, it is important to note that without a foundation in the industry as strong as Fleisher’s, it is much harder to keep making an income with music. Christopher Goldshieder was a viola player for the Royal Opera House’s orchestra in London until 2014, when he had to leave due to permanent hearing damage. This is an example of a musician having to give up an income stream due to an injury that affects their musicianship, in this case Goldshieder chose to sue the ROH – as the positioning of the brass players was successfully proven to be the cause of his hearing damage, getting him £750,000.
As session musicians get their name more established in their area, they will meet more musicians. Some of which will be big names in the industry, which open up possible career developments. When a session musician has their name established, one potential career progression opportunity would be to pivot into being an artist of their own. For example, Jimmy Page was a session musician until 1968, when he started Led Zeppelin, which went on to be one of the most famous rock bands in history. Page said in an interview with Louder that “It was like an apprenticeship and I treated it like that”, while referring to his session work. This show that the skills he built as a session musician helped him pivot his career and rise to success later in his life. Another example of the session work helping Page form Led Zeppelin, was in hiring a bassist. Page knew John Paul Jones as he had worked in many sessions across London through the early 1960s. Page also met John Bonham the same way. This is clear evidence that working as a session musician builds up networks that are crucial to future career developments and progressions.
Conclusion
There are many factors that contribute towards a successful career as a session musician, and with more and more musicians coming up for producers to select from, the skill ceiling or the competitive nature of the industry is not decreasing. The most valuable skills for a session musician on top of musical consistency are networking, relationship building and financial awareness.
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