The music industry offers a lot of career pathways, all of which require a specific skillset. A session musician is a pathway that I see myself going down given the correlation between the skillset that I have and hope to improve on and the skillset that is required. That is that of a skilled instrumentalist and someone that is be reliable, efficient and consistent. The day-to-day life of this profession is something that I see myself doing and enjoying. However, in most cases, this career does not offer enough finances to meet the cost of living which may be viewed as a challenge however, this allows for the freedom to enter other fields of work, most-likely in the creative industries but also in something completely different depending on what the person wants to do. What is also appealing to this pathway is that there are no academic requirements to do this job. So long as you have the skillset, you can be successful in this line of work. A difficulty that some may find in this field are the promotional and financial aspects. Promoting yourself can always be difficult but this has become even more of a demand with social media. The philosophy of a session musician is something that I find interesting. Approaches can vary greatly in this line of work.
“The session guitarist’s job is to create and contribute parts appropriate for the song, both sonically and contextually.” (Reid, 2023:11) This applies to and provides links between other pathways in the creative industries, such as production, performing, composition, arranging etc. This means that, as a session musician, you can be involved in many aspects of the creative process which is something that I find enjoyable. Despite this, when working with other artists, session musicians need to fulfil what the artist is looking for, which could be viewed as a restriction however, the possibility to be creative within these ‘restrictions’ could be helpful. The job is to add something to a recording, even if it is small. So, to play within the framework that the artist has given you, it is up to the session musician to add something that is right for the song and the artist agrees with. This is what a session musician is and ought to strive for. As a case study, in the song Beat It (Jackson, 1983) Steve Lukather talks about how originally the counter melody on the guitar part was just a repeated 1-bar phrase, but he added another bar afterwards so that it doesn’t repeat too frequently. (Rick Beato 2, 2023) The original one-bar idea can be heard at 0:31 and the second idea at 0:33. This is not a drastic change to the song; however, it changes it enough to make a difference.
There are not any academic requirements for this career. It is certainly possible to be successful in this career without a degree. This is not to say it would not be helpful. “It’s a good idea to be adept at playing multiple different styles at a reasonable level…Alternatively becoming a specialist in one particular genre or niche can improve your reputation as the go to guy or girl for one style or sound.” (ACM, 2019) University is one of the places where you can achieve this due to the high-level teaching that can give you the high skill set. Experience, however, is often required. The characteristics of a session music is that of someone who is reliable and can get the job done. Previous experience is proof of that, making studios and artists much more confident in hiring you for a job. A second reason why it may be useful to go to university is the networking opportunities. When going to a specialist music university, or studying music, each time you interact with your peers, they are networking. After university, it is common to work in the creative industries after studying something creative. As you have interacted with these people and made friends with them it is likely they could employ you. What is noticeable about this however, is that it is not the degree that gives you this advantage, rather it is the experience of having years to learn how to do something to a professional standard and collaborating with contemporaries. As the degree isn’t what is important, these conditions could be recreated in other contexts. For example, high-level private lessons are findable and the opportunities to collaborate could arise from self-promotion.
Social media is the most common way to promote yourself with social media profiles essentially offering musicians a free and popular portfolio space to upload what they can do and sell themselves. “Having an online portfolio that potential employers could use as a reference is very valuable.” (ACM, 2019) As aforementioned, this can be challenging as it requires a certain amount of confidence to put yourself and your work on the internet. Social media can also be used to network and make connections. Commenting and direct messages are commonalities in the creative industries. “I’d messaged Cory to see if he needed a bassist. He sent me his tour manager’s phone number and said, ‘See you in two days’” (Wells, 2024) This was the story of how Vincen Garcia became Cory Wong’s bass player for a European tour without ever having met. This portfolio, as well as experience and connections are what often gives a session musician the opportunities to get paid work in the creative industries.
Most session musicians are freelancers, meaning how much they are paid for this work depends on how much they do it, and how much they do it depends on how much time they have. Many session musicians are also live musicians, and they may be touring or doing many gigs in the local area. This can make it difficult to predict how much a session musician gets paid per annum. However, we can look at how much they may be paid per session or hour. The Music Union has agreements with many organisations such as the BBC and ITV, and they have fixed rate agreements for when they want a session musician. For example, a session musician who is a part of the music union who does a basic three-hour session for ITV will be paid £226.00. On average, the hourly rate for a recording session without a Music Union agreement is £15.68. (Jooble, 2025) There may also be royalties involved for secondary use fees which is when your recording is used for something else such as a film or an advertisement. The amount is usually determined by a recording agreement that is signed between those who own the rights and the musician themselves. These royalties are usually organised through PRS, making it important for session musicians to be signed up to PRS to receive these payments.
The day-to-day life of a session musician can be challenging and requires versatility and a high level of skill. When entering the studio, it is unlikely that the musician has heard or been given the music beforehand, this makes being a quick learner, having a good ear and being able to sight-read important to perform the job effectively. As studio time is expensive for the artist to book, speed becomes a factor to consider, meaning being able to record your part quickly and well enough to use is a trait that is desirable. To do this effectively, it is good to be as versatile a player as possible and to perform these varying genres to a professional standard. Alternatively, as mentioned at the beginning of this essay, you could become extremely talented at one specific genre, making you the person that studios want for that niche. Outside of music, to fulfil this role well, there are personal characteristics that are required. With time being a factor, to be known for your punctuality is certainly helpful as studios can rely on you. Secondly, being friendly and easy to get along with is an easy way to make lasting connections. Arguably, no matter how good of a musician you are, if these qualities are not met, it would be very difficult to be successful in this business.
What is commonplace more recently is to record from home on your own and send your recording to the artist/producer. This requires an even wider skillset than what was perhaps required before this option became available. This could be from knowledge of basic production techniques such as micing up and understanding the different sounds different mic placements make, to knowing your way around a DAW. Because of this, high-level equipment is almost expected as well as a variety of this equipment. To bring it back to the philosophy of a session musician, it is their job to meet the artist’s vision. Having a wide variety of equipment gives you a better chance of meeting this vision. This can be a challenge for a session musician as the equipment is expensive, and the production skills can be difficult to learn if you are inexperienced in this part of the process.
However, once a musician has these skills it can be common for them to progress to a production job. Having a lot of experience in a studio, even just as a musician, is appealing to companies looking for a producer. When in a studio, you are almost always working with a producer, making it easy to learn the skillset and gain the connections. Another common progression as a session musician is to go on tour with the artist that you recorded for. Artists’ like doing this as the musician will already know the parts for the songs and their also may be a rapport between the musician and the artist making the musician the obvious option for this job. What is important to mention here is that this is always up to the musician, it is common to turn down these jobs and to continue, solely as a session musician. What is usually more common is to do all of these. Session musicians often have multiple job titles with touring musician and producer usually being the most common.
Being a session musician is a highly specialised job and career, not only does the skillset have to be high, it also must be varied. Being a high-level instrumentalist is a must and this needs to be able to relate to almost all specialities. Owning a variety of equipment that specialise in different sounds and understanding this is important. However, the skillset is not the only thing that is required of this job. Without the connections and the network, it is difficult to be successful, meaning that being reliable, punctual and friendly is important, otherwise no one will work with you more than once. Thirdly, understanding the industry and the legal/financial aspect is a necessity. As a freelancer, you must keep on top of your budget and your time, essentially being your own manager. This could be from having multiple income sources, or a very strong single income stream. So, to fulfil the philosophy of the job, these are the three conditions that a session musician must meet. Each of these conditions faces its own challenges, both personally and industrially that need to be overcome. These are the reasons why this career pathway is one of the most difficult in the industry, yet one of the most respected.
Bibliography
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