What does one do to become a studio musician?

[Drew5887]

I would like to do jingles, movies, and other studio work. I feel that in a few years my skills will be at a level that will allow me to do this.

 

Is there work in large cities other than NYC, LA, and Nashville, or is it mostly confined to these markets?

 

How do I get my foot in the door to begin doing this work?

 

Do studio musicians usually do other music gigs such as teaching and gigging, or do they mainly stay in the studios?

[primeelite]

Here in Nashville and same in NYC we call them session players and or studio musicians. They are usually friends with the producers and studio owners. It is all about networking with this as well as talent but with so many people being able to play the guitar well enough for a recording etc most of it is who you know. There are some job openings for larger studios where they hire musicians full time but the majority just hire them out as they need them. So basically you need to network with studios, producers, and artists who are recording albums.

[BlueStrat]

1. Be able to sight read fluently, all forms of written music-charts, scores, 'Nashville numbering", etc.

2. Be versatile. Know lots of different genres and their signature sounds.

 

3. Have lots of different guitars. At least a Strat, tele, LP, 335, and one or two others. Same with amps.

 

4. Make connections. As was said, it's as much who you know as what.

 

You could make a decent side income in smaller markets working for studios who do jingles. But again, it takes time to make those connections and work your way up to getting the first call.

[ZebraSteve]

Drew,

 

I actualy wrote an article about working as a studio musician. It may give you a few ideas. Check it out here: http://www.zebramusic.com/studio.htm

[Michael Blue]

Some good feedback there!

[Drew5887]

Thanks guys, this has been helpful. Just a few more questions.

 

 

When during the day do the recording sessions for television and film happen. Is it usually at night or during the morning/afternoon?

 

Can you get work sporadically for things that you want to do, or do you need to be willing to do any work in order to get the call in the first place?

[daddymack]

Thanks guys, this has been helpful. Just a few more questions. When during the day do the recording sessions for television and film happen. Is it usually at night or during the morning/afternoon? Can you get work sporadically for things that you want to do, or do you need to be willing to do any work in order to get the call in the first place?

usually daytime, but this is all up to the producer. When I did studio/session work, some times it was early AM (which really can suck, big time)...sometimes after 10PM (which cut into my drinking time )...there is no rule, it is all about the studio availability and studio rates, too.

 

Take every call until you can't take them all!!!

 

Also once you get into it, make certain you establish an hourly rate, and a MINIMUM...this is where you can make $. (Depending on the distance to the studio, and the type of session, I had a two or four hour minimum, but I was usually done in under an hour...sometimes in half an hour.) This works well when you are getting a lot of referral work (which is how I did it), because it says your time is valuable. Plus if you schedule correctly, and can typically nail the session in less than four takes, you can schedule multiple sessions in a day with the start times split a couple hours apart.

 

Since most sessions are now done in a booth, playing to recorded tracks (unless they hire you to lay the basic rhythm/guide guitar track with the click), you really need to be prepared to listen to everything the producer says...and then do your thing the best you can. Many times the producer has only a very vague concept of what they want from the guitar player as far as solos/fills, and generally you won't get a chart with the actual notes on it, just the changes.

[gtrbass]

Besides all the things which have already been said, keep in mind that it is a smaller business now.

 

In the old days you were going in to major facilities to do sessions and they were fast paced affairs. High quality Film/TV cues and jingles were knocked out at a rate of speed that was staggering. You ran it down once and then were expected to do a keeper take.

 

Besides orchestral dates, a lot of work today is done in project rooms or as overdubs rather than in an ensemble setting. So much of what is used today is samples played by the keyboardist/composer/producer with real instrument overdubs. The reason? Costs... Unless it's an 'A list' big budget Hollywood production, nobody invests those kinds of dollars in the music.

 

Record session work is totally different than commercial sessions. There are far fewer gigs. Paying demo work is all but gone in LA. I have no idea about Nashville or NYC. You might get $50-100 per session in someone's home project studio and it's for an 'indie release', not a demo.

[Drew5887]

Alot of good stuff here. Thanks.

 

Preferrably I would like to be a studio musician semi-professionally, and take only the jobs that I want to take when I am able to take them, two to three per month maybe. Is this possible or does it take a larger commitment?

[daddymack]

 

Alot of good stuff here. Thanks. Preferrably I would like to be a studio musician semi-professionally, and take only the jobs that I want to take when I am able to take them, two to three per month maybe. Is this possible or does it take a larger commitment?

Here again, in order to get the work, you have to prove you can do the work. A lot depends on the market, and how many gigs are going on. As I said earlier, my method was to take every call until there were more than I wanted or could handle.

 

You have to be extremely flexible, higly skilled and as gtrbass said, able to whip out a 'keeper' on the second take, or there will be someone else in your chair the next time.

To do what you want doesn't just happen. There has to be enough demand for musicians for you to get in the door and network.

 

I was lucky enough to have been recording with an 'expanded eclectic variant' of my band at the time, and the studio owner (a well known musician and producer) appreciated how I was getting things done (and essentially producing the session), and asked if I would be interested in some occassional session work on demos. Does this happen everyday? Nope. But once I did few demos at his studio, the engineers and producers I worked with also asked for my card, and daisy chained into a fairly nice side job with good $, crazy hours, weird outcomes...but it was never going to be enough to support my family, and with the advent of cheap digital technology in the late 90s, the work dried up fast.