Skitch
Pioneer Member
I get emails from time to time asking "How do I become a studio player...I really think that I can do it!" I get some others but this is usually the most common.
Here is my reply:
"My first inclination is to ask why you want to be a session player in the first place? If your answer is fame, money, notoriety of having your name on the credits then you are seeking it for the wrong reasons. There isn’t as much studio work these days as technology has taken its toll on demos which is where the bulk of recording used to take place. This means that even the master session players are hurting and trickling down into the demo and jingle sessions. It’s a common misconception that the recording session world is like it used to be back in the days before drum machines, loops and DAWs – it’s just a plain false assumption. Watch the movie “The Wrecking Crew”. When they say that those days are over, they do know what they are talking about. There are more “hobbyist” bands in the studios these days, paying for the time themselves and they want to use their own drummer.
So, let’s say that you really have your mind made up to try anyway which is fine. You have to be brutally honest with yourself regarding your playing first and foremost. You have to be critical of what you’re playing and use discretion.
Your time with a click track has to be immaculate. I was on a session recently with a bass player who rushes and he complained that I was dragging. We went into the control room and the merciless playback showed that he was rushing. If you can’t play to a click or are all over the place with your time, then that is one of the first areas you will need to improve upon.
Do you notice any “habits” when you play such as crashing on the downbeat of nearly every bar? Here again you must be honest with yourself as the “tape” doesn’t lie and shows no mercy; when it sounds good, it sounds good. When you sound bad, it sounds bad.
Can you copy drum parts of songs note for note quickly? One of my mainstays used to be a Karaoke studio which copied the songs note for note. This was each week for whatever songs were climbing the charts. So, can you take a listen to music that you don’t like playing and copy those parts? Modern country is one of the last bastions where real musicians are still used in the recording process.
Also, don’t try to get your foot in the door by offering to work for free. No producer or studio that I know of will hire someone who sees no value in their own work. This simply a mental thing; the thinking is that if you don’t charge anything for what you do, then you must not be very good and why waste their valuable time finding out. A good way to look at it is like this; would you let someone who claims that he is a car mechanic work on your car for free? Would you trust him to do the job right over someone who is really qualified?
Now, the music world has really changed, especially in the last ten years. Songs used to be recorded for consumers to buy/purchase. The record labels would invest in artists and studio time and, being a business(s), they rightfully expected a return on their investment. Since the advent of “file sharing” and “free music” this means that the record labels are less willing to risk their capital for little or no return on investment which means that they are not using as much studio they used to which trickles down to the studio players having less and less work.
Speaking of charts, do you read charts and how many different kinds of notation do you read? Being a session player is much different than being in a band. A session player usually has very little time to come with a part whereas being in a band means that you have probably played the arrangement over and over and know what to expect. The session player has to read because there is time and money involved and this means there is time for 6 hours of rehearsing or learning by rote. Just think of it like this; let’s say you’re paying for the session at $120/hour and taking 6 hours for the guitar player to learn a song. That’s $780 to just record the song; not master it or press it.
How many different styles can you play like it is the only music you ever play? You probably won’t get called to play exactly what you like to play very often. Being a session player is about professionalism as much as anything else and this means that you have to be professional enough to handle anything thrown at you.
Who are the drummers that you admire and aspire to sound like? John Robinson, Jeff Porcarro, Lonnie Wilson, Paul Leim, Chris McHugh along with Rich Redmond and Kenny Aronoff are all highly regarded session drummers. Yes, there are some phenomenal drummers out there but they don’t get the session work. When I first arrived in Nashville, I replaced a guy who sounded as though he expected Dave Matthews to call at any second. I guess that he didn’t really that he was playing a Stevie Ray Vaughn shuffle song. And this means that the end product has to be bigger than you.
So, I don’t mean to dissuade you but you, along with many others, do need to be informed that they golden age of being a session player is diminishing greatly and the competition out there isn’t going to stand idly by. You just need to be aware of what is fact versus what has been romanticized and is in the past.
Best regards,
Mike"
Here is my reply:
"My first inclination is to ask why you want to be a session player in the first place? If your answer is fame, money, notoriety of having your name on the credits then you are seeking it for the wrong reasons. There isn’t as much studio work these days as technology has taken its toll on demos which is where the bulk of recording used to take place. This means that even the master session players are hurting and trickling down into the demo and jingle sessions. It’s a common misconception that the recording session world is like it used to be back in the days before drum machines, loops and DAWs – it’s just a plain false assumption. Watch the movie “The Wrecking Crew”. When they say that those days are over, they do know what they are talking about. There are more “hobbyist” bands in the studios these days, paying for the time themselves and they want to use their own drummer.
So, let’s say that you really have your mind made up to try anyway which is fine. You have to be brutally honest with yourself regarding your playing first and foremost. You have to be critical of what you’re playing and use discretion.
Your time with a click track has to be immaculate. I was on a session recently with a bass player who rushes and he complained that I was dragging. We went into the control room and the merciless playback showed that he was rushing. If you can’t play to a click or are all over the place with your time, then that is one of the first areas you will need to improve upon.
Do you notice any “habits” when you play such as crashing on the downbeat of nearly every bar? Here again you must be honest with yourself as the “tape” doesn’t lie and shows no mercy; when it sounds good, it sounds good. When you sound bad, it sounds bad.
Can you copy drum parts of songs note for note quickly? One of my mainstays used to be a Karaoke studio which copied the songs note for note. This was each week for whatever songs were climbing the charts. So, can you take a listen to music that you don’t like playing and copy those parts? Modern country is one of the last bastions where real musicians are still used in the recording process.
Also, don’t try to get your foot in the door by offering to work for free. No producer or studio that I know of will hire someone who sees no value in their own work. This simply a mental thing; the thinking is that if you don’t charge anything for what you do, then you must not be very good and why waste their valuable time finding out. A good way to look at it is like this; would you let someone who claims that he is a car mechanic work on your car for free? Would you trust him to do the job right over someone who is really qualified?
Now, the music world has really changed, especially in the last ten years. Songs used to be recorded for consumers to buy/purchase. The record labels would invest in artists and studio time and, being a business(s), they rightfully expected a return on their investment. Since the advent of “file sharing” and “free music” this means that the record labels are less willing to risk their capital for little or no return on investment which means that they are not using as much studio they used to which trickles down to the studio players having less and less work.
Speaking of charts, do you read charts and how many different kinds of notation do you read? Being a session player is much different than being in a band. A session player usually has very little time to come with a part whereas being in a band means that you have probably played the arrangement over and over and know what to expect. The session player has to read because there is time and money involved and this means there is time for 6 hours of rehearsing or learning by rote. Just think of it like this; let’s say you’re paying for the session at $120/hour and taking 6 hours for the guitar player to learn a song. That’s $780 to just record the song; not master it or press it.
How many different styles can you play like it is the only music you ever play? You probably won’t get called to play exactly what you like to play very often. Being a session player is about professionalism as much as anything else and this means that you have to be professional enough to handle anything thrown at you.
Who are the drummers that you admire and aspire to sound like? John Robinson, Jeff Porcarro, Lonnie Wilson, Paul Leim, Chris McHugh along with Rich Redmond and Kenny Aronoff are all highly regarded session drummers. Yes, there are some phenomenal drummers out there but they don’t get the session work. When I first arrived in Nashville, I replaced a guy who sounded as though he expected Dave Matthews to call at any second. I guess that he didn’t really that he was playing a Stevie Ray Vaughn shuffle song. And this means that the end product has to be bigger than you.
So, I don’t mean to dissuade you but you, along with many others, do need to be informed that they golden age of being a session player is diminishing greatly and the competition out there isn’t going to stand idly by. You just need to be aware of what is fact versus what has been romanticized and is in the past.
Best regards,
Mike"