25102096
SHR4C007R
Working in the Creative Industries
Job role: Session Musician
To be a session musician, you don’t need any qualifications such as A levels or a degree and no specific experience is required, however, in order to be successful within this job role, many session musicians started off by pursuing a degree in music or gaining lots of band experience, developing their musicianship and networking skills.
Even though there are no qualifications needed for this job role, many skills are necessary to be successful in this career. The most important being, expert level on an instrument. Such as high level of sight reading, high level of music theory understanding, and advanced improvisation skills. As well as high music theory knowledge, high knowledge of the music industry is important, as it helps with building a career that’s sustainable. Some other skills necessary may include being flexible when playing with different artists and more importantly, different genres, which also involve having good communication and collaboration skills. Marie (2025) Wrote in an article “You don’t need to be aiming to adapt to anything super extreme, but just be ready for melody changes, set changes, band member changes, location changes, and similar situations.” Having these skills and qualities will increase the chances of being called back and will also boost your reputation within the industry. Another essential skill needed is punctuality and reliability, for example, some session musicians may be more talented than others musically, however if they are late to a rehearsal they will not be called back, and the more punctual musicians will be much more likely to get work. Session musicians must also be able to learn and memorize music quickly and be able to perform these pieces under pressure and in a live environment. Camp (no date), wrote an article interviewing session musicians where one stated “I could read music; I was more or less clean and presentable; I could be relied upon to turn up on time”. He was discussing the important skills session work had taught him. These are essential in a job role like this, which leads to my next point of what the job may consist of.
Unlike other music careers, a day’s work for a session musician can drastically vary for different kinds of musicians and what the nature of the work. It can differ from studio sessions, to one off live performances, or playing in a pit band for a series of shows and concerts or even going on tour with a successful band. If they have secured a piece of performance work, a typical day of rehearsals will most likely start early in the day, where they will spend many hours rehearsing with the other musicians. For a pop guitarist for example, there is going to need to be a lot of communication involved, when following the other band members, which is where a good sense of rhythm and good collaboration and musicianship skills come in. In a typical day of a studio work, musicians will need to collaborate with producers and other artists that are recording, potentially needing to come up with recording ideas where appropriate, and being consistently good at communicating and being open minded and giving a good impression to the other collaborators, as that is what is more likely to get you work in the future. Musiversal. A day in the life of a musiversal Session Musician: Behind the Scenes with Ally, Gonzalo, and Bruno. Available at A Day in the Life of a Musiversal Session Musician: Behind the Scenes with Ally, Gonzalo, and Bruno. | Musiversal talks about what it looks like to be a professional singer, drummer, and bassist doing session work, and their recording experiences at Musiversal.
Session musicians struggle to be recognised for the work they put into the music industry. For example, session musicians were not receiving royalties for their work, when being sold or streamed. There have been some recent changes made to this, so they are now being increasingly recognised for their contributions and are able to protect the work they do. However, they are most likely to only get paid a flat fee rather than getting income from streams. This means they do not receive long term earnings. Some other issues that these musicians have been impacted by are, public performance royalties and international revenue sharing. This means that artists from other countries were not able to claim royalties from performances they’ve done in the UK until 2025. However, a new reform has been put in place, where a wider range of international artists can now claim royalties when their music is played across the UK. Another concern includes AI, where artists’ music is being used to train AI systems unless the artists actively opt out of it. This means musicians will need to be significantly more precautious in preventing their work from being used without permission. AI is an issue in many aspects of the music industry and careers, not just session musicians. Christopher, C.W. (2025) The AI Music Problem: Why Machine Learning Conflicts with Musical Creativity. Abingdon: Routledge.Contracts are a major legal factor in session musicians’ careers. They are the most important business documents in the music industry. For session musicians, they must understand the contracts they are presented with in order to protect their rights and their money. Michael, A.A. (2008) The Musician’s Legal Companion. Second Edition. Boston MA: Thomson Course Technology talks about the main contracts used in the industry for different career pathways. A major issue for session musicians is the unpredictability of receiving work. For example, they may struggle to plan financially, as one year they may be lucky with the work they receive, and the next year they are struggling to get hired for one job. They also won’t receive holiday pay or sick pay, which is a major setback financially. This shows how risky this job is in terms of stability.
In order for a session musician to promote themselves, their portfolios must be up to standard. Meaning they need to be taking videos of recording sessions, their live performances, showing their flexibility with different styles and genres, and also showing the contrast between them playing solo and playing in an ensemble. This includes making an online website or EPK. This is likely to make you recognisable. To promote yourself and potentially gain some credibility, the use of social media is important. For example, building up a platform on Instagram, posting professional photos from live performances and backstage. TikTok is also such a huge platform at the moment, so posting videos using the right algorithm can boost your visibility massively. For example, posting demos, or short regular clips in studios or videos of collaborations with other musicians with a following perhaps. This can then increase their fanbase/following by being exposed to other audiences. Networking is a huge factor in employment for session musicians, as many musicians get their work through word of mouth from earning a good reputation and relationship with other people in the industry. This can involve attending jams, gaining strong relationships with producers, trying to promote themselves and spread the word of their high reputation. This is the most important aspect of marketing and promotion, as well as reliability, in terms of punctuality and professionalism. Another way for session musicians to market themselves is by demonstrating that they have high quality equipment, such as instruments, recording gear and amplification, also showing that they have a substantial home studio. They should also prove their high level of notation reading and versatility amongst different instruments and styles/genres. Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM). (2019) ‘How To Become A Session Musician’. Available at How To Become a Session Musician | ACM covers areas such as building your own website or portfolio in order to progress as a musician in the long term.
Some intellectual challenges that session musicians are presented with, consist of, having to learn, create, and adapt to music in a very short space of time. For example, sight reading requires extreme concentrate and there is no room for mistakes, as it may damage your reputation or you may lose money due to the cost of studio time. Therefore, in order to attempt to eliminate this risk of mistakes, they may need to be practicing sight-reading very regularly, which includes sharpening up on and rehearsing theory knowledge, such as knowing/learning keys and modes. Another intellectual challenge that session musicians may face, is the genre and stylistic changes. Session musicians may have to switch regularly, depending on the jobs they are given, between genres such as jazz, funk, pop, soul, musical theatre etc, which they will have to master, using techniques such as studying the different rhythms and common textures and melodies used in each genre, so they’re able to improvise and play each of these to a high enough standard. Other challenges include things like, producers using non-musical vocabulary with less of a straight forward direction, saying things like asking for it to be warmer, which musicians have to turn into musical language in order to play an accurate representation of what they’re asking for, but they can get around this by playing a few different options for the producer to choose from. Sessions tend to also be very long hours, so developing some sort of stamina for these sessions is highly important. Things like adding breaks throughout the day, and practicing playing for long hours is definitely useful.
However, some more emotional and personal challenges that session musicians may face, could include things such as high amounts of pressure, for example when have to play perfectly and in front of people. So, session musicians must be able to perform well under pressure. This can be built up by managing anxiety and breathing techniques and repeatedly practicing pieces that need to be built up to a perfect standard. A major personal challenge for session musicians is the unpredictable income as it can cause stress and anxiety about future stability. “I had two weeks…on hold…I ended up with no work…” (Musicians’ Union, 2019). Therefore, to increase the chances of work, musicians must build good relationships within the industry, they must be strategic with their budgeting and may need to see what other small jobs they can find such as teaching and doing gigs.
There are many different pathways a session musician can progress to, Berklee College of Music. (n.d.) Session Instrumentalist – Career Overview. Available at Session Musician | Berklee. mentions the career paths that different session musicians can go down, including performing live and going on tour etc. With enough experience, session musicians can progress to become a go-to musician for labels or producers that are quite successful, meaning you get higher pay, and your work is much more consistent. Or a great opportunity would be getting the chance to tour with a big artist or being able to play in the West End/Broadway pit band. This is likely to gain lots of recognition and is also much higher pay and a steadier income. Lots of very experienced session musicians however, often become musical directors, including assembling and managing bands and running their rehearsals, being an arranger etc. This is also higher pay, but it gives them more control which makes a change, therefore could be why it’s so appealing to go into as a session musician. Some may go down the path of producing, as they are likely to understand arrangement and sound and are able to navigate their way around a studio. They may also have high knowledge of musical equipment and understand how to make a track sound up to standard; therefore, this pathway makes logical sense. Some session musicians may use their instrumental skills and harmony and style knowledge to go on to becoming composers. They may be asked by other big artists to co-write with them, or similarly, asked by companies to write for film or television or even video games. This pathway offers higher pay as it has the opportunity to earn royalties unlike with session work. This also ties in with arranging, lots of session musicians have exceptional arranging skills and therefore are likely to be asked to arrange for other writers, including string or brass sections. They also may be orchestrating for film or shows. These areas have more consistent work and are higher paying which is appealing to the majority of session musicians. A massively popular route to go down for session musicians is teaching. This may be private instrumental lessons or teaching in college or university. Teaching private lessons is a good career to go into alongside session work and is very popular for session musicians to do on the side to earn a little more money, particularly in a dry spell of session work. However, with teaching, the income is much more predictable and gives time for gigging and performing outside of teaching hours.
Bibliography
Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM). (2019) ‘How To Become A Session Musician’. Available online How To Become a Session Musician | ACM (Accessed 8/12/2025)
Berklee College of Music. (n.d.) Session Instrumentalist – Career Overview. Available Session Musician | Berklee. (Accessed 8/12/2025)
Camp, L. (no date) What being a session musician taught me about winning clients. Available online GUEST COLUMN: What being a session musician taught me about winning clients – The Financial Services Forum (Accessed 8/12/2025)
Christopher, C.W. (2025) The AI Music Problem: Why Machine Learning Conflicts with Musical Creativity. Abingdon: Routledge (Accessed 8/12/2025)
Marie, Y. (2025) 10 Skills You Need as a Session Musician. Available online 10 Skills You Need As A Session Musician – Yona Marie | Yona Marie Music (Accessed 8/12/2025)
Michael, A.A. (2008) The Musician’s Legal Companion. Second Edition. Boston MA: Thomson Course Technology (Accessed 8/12/2025)
Musiversal. A day in the life of a musiversal Session Musician: Behind the Scenes with Ally, Gonzalo, and Bruno. Available online A Day in the Life of a Musiversal Session Musician: Behind the Scenes with Ally, Gonzalo, and Bruno. | Musiversal (Accessed 8/12/2025)
