My research portfolio is on a session musician. Session musicians must be able to demonstrate multiple musical skills as well as professional skills. Berklee online explains that most session musicians today have tertiary music education, as sight reading and theory knowledge are ‘critical’ to the job. Berklee School of Music alumni feature some of the best session musicians, such as Steve Vai. However, when looking at hugely famous session musicians like drummer Jeff Pocaro and bassist Carol Kaye, we can notably see they have no formal tertiary education. These session musicians all share common characteristic however, such as deep instrumental proficiency, sight reading skills, versatility, and the ability to learn quickly, as well as being reliable and good collaborators. So perhaps there are no qualifications needed, but rather vital skills that make up the ideal session musician. The next steps I would take once acquired the necessary skills to be a session musician, is to become a house musician for a particular studio or producer, as well as continuing with performances and band work. Artists need musicians, so it’s important to always be there for those artists, so they know you when they need a session musician.
Berklee Online: ”A session player who develops a reputation as consistently reliable and easy to work with, in addition to being highly skilled and versatile, is most likely to get steady work.”
Berklee online explains that most jobs are generally found through word of mouth; thus, networking is of the utmost importance. Reading the biography of Carol Kaye, you can see fantastic testimonials from accomplished musicians. This shows her quality of musicianship and encourages people to hire her; it also shows a personable side, exclaiming that she is highly professional and gets the job done fantastically. Forbes says: Testimonials affirm our credibility and trust.’ All of which affirms the session musician’s skill. This shows the importance of having good testimonials (or references), which could help lead you to more job opportunities. Cory Wong says that all session gigs he has received have been through word of mouth. This demonstrates the importance of having good credibility among peers, as they are likely to recommend you to others.
Word of mouth is probably the most notable way of ‘marketing’ for a session musician, as recommendations and testimonials are more likely to lead to gigs than a session musician advertising himself. Cory Wong says that you normally won’t see a session musician advertising ‘Session musician for hire’ as this displays almost a desperate feeling. A fantastic way to ‘market’ yourself, however, is through social media, doing ‘playthroughs’ or showing your work with artists. This allows people to see your skill level and who you are working with, which can leave a great impression and could lead to being hired. Social media can also help develop your personal brand, to which, if people can relate to you and find your work appealing, they will be more likely to come to you than anyone else. It’s important to have a strong online presence so people know what you are up to and how to contact you. Ultimately, marketing yourself is limited within this field, as people would rather see the quality of your work than hear about it.
In terms of career development, there really is no hierarchy of roles unless you want to change disciplines and become a producer or engineer, etc. However, naturally, over time with experience gained, your work will show for itself and if good enough will become recognised. People will start wanting you more, and you will become busier by the day. Also, progression can be seen through artists with bigger names hiring you. With all this experience, you can start charging more as your sound and experience are unique and individual to you.
Session times can generally start at any time during the day, normally up to the artist. Studio sessions are typically 2-3 hours, and musicians should get there early to do the necessary preparation to put their best foot forward. The scheduling of the day would really be up to the amount of work the musician has been given and how much they are willing to do within a day. A day’s work could range from 4 to 16 hours. A drummer, Gonzalo Eyaguirre, explains that his day begins at 8am, when he arrives at the studio to prepare the drum set and respond to clients’ emails. He says that he tends to do up to 11 sessions in a day
Into the modern era of recording and session work, we can increasingly see more people have their own studios at home, allowing them to produce their instrument(s) quickly and individually. This might not be a full studio with a live room but rather incorporates only the specific tools needed to get high-quality sound from the musician’s specific instrument(s). This is due to increasingly more access to the internet; musicians can now collaborate globally. This is fantastic as it minimises travel costs and social anxiety, as musicians can record from the comfort of their own home. Kirby says, “The traditional recording studio is now no longer the main site of production, as small Internet-connected DAW-based studios are the new studio paradigm”. This raises financial issues as acquiring all the necessary gear to capture high quality sound can get expensive quickly. When you include an interface, preamps, microphones, and a DAW, it tends to be north of £1000+, which can be an expensive investment. If the session musician prefers to work at an established studio, one must factor in travel costs.
Often musicians must bring some of their own gear to be recorded, such as guitars, horns, cymbals, etc., which will require maintenance and upkeep, which is vital to have high quality gear. Instrumental upkeep may be expensive as cymbals, guitar strings, reeds, and more don’t last forever. This should be factored into the overall budget, as if damages occur, the price can sneak up on you. It’s important that musicians have an array of sounds, so one guitar or 2 cymbals might not be good enough. This gives the producer and artist more options to work with, which will ultimately make them happier as they are more likely to find the sound they desire through you, which is exactly what a session musician wants.
Consent is a big legal issue within production. Consent in writing is required before a producer or label can: reproduce the recording, distribute the recording, rent or lend copies, or make available to the public. This is to protect the musician and the work they have created. Session musicians may have many types of contracts when working. For example, they may be hired with a set fee (E.g. £250 for 3 hours) or they may be a leading collaborator, in which case they will be given a certain percentage of royalties. If the musician is given royalties, they may earn a certain amount of money every time their work is played on TV, media companies, commercial enterprises (shopping malls, etc.), streaming platforms, and more. Session musicians must be sure of compensation before they complete their work, which opens a grey area where perhaps they lead the creative development process and now feel they deserve to be a named collaborator, but the artist doesn’t want that.
Cory Wong explains that the studio environment is very fast paced and highly demanding. This can be a heavy challenge for certain individuals, as some may prefer to work more slowly, in a more relaxed space. This can cause huge personal distress, making people overthink and full of anxiety. This can be dealt with by breathing exercises (or meditation) to relax the mind so that you can perform as well as possible. Therapy will help you to, so you can talk out how you feel and gain professional advice on how to improve. With the option of remote sessions from home studios, this does eliminate this factor where the musician will be able to work at their own pace in the comfort of their own home, which is hugely beneficial. So perhaps if you love the creative development side of being a session musician but can’t cope with the highly demanding environment, then a home studio may be your best option. It also may not always be a steady source of income, as one month may be fantastic for work, and another may be challenging. Certain people may struggle with this as it lacks monetary consistency, which can, in fact, be very hard if you don’t know how to spend or budget your money. This could cause personal distress and make overall performance poor, which could lead to a bad reputation, etc. Thus, overall, it is vital to be on top of your mental health and personal factors, as if it is not managed could lead to less work and an unhappy lifestyle.
Being a session musician would be great, as it will always intellectually push you beyond your skill level. With new genres to learn about and different tempo’s its all-invaluable experience that will push your skill level every day. It might be a hard challenge, and may not be for some musicians, but if you can do it, I believe it would push your skills, and you would constantly be learning. Samuel Organ says, “I learn so much about arrangement or equipment from working across different genres of music. Being part of all these different worlds is great.” This shows there is endless opportunity to learn in this area of music, which means that you can be a more knowledgeable player, which means that you can help in more situations when needed.
Session musicians have faced huge challenges, such as, for drummers, the release of the drum machine in the early 1980’s. However, we can see how drummers overcame this by actually learning how to use the drum machines and also emphasising the natural sound that a real drum kit has. Charlie Shew adapted and said that he would sit down with the artist and find the right drum pattern on the drum machine, then he would play it behind a drum kit and record it. He then got to charge the artist twice!
AI is also a threat to the industry, with emerging models becoming increasingly better by the day. AI can be useful in terms of idea generation and handling admin quickly and easily; however, models such as Suno that can create music on the spot are dangerous for the industry. We can foreshadow that a lot of commercial businesses (such as shopping malls and restaurants) might move to this as it will be copyright free and they won’t have to pay anyone to play their music. But one can then argue that the music being played is meaningless. Overall, AI is in a rapid advancement and significant adoption phase, so it might still be early for music AI; however, it will be something session musicians will need to learn to manage and overcome.
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