What does it take to be capable of being a studio musician?

naffa said:
Ok.. So you're telling me that even though I know numerous people that have made very successful livings as session players, without being able to fluently read music, it's still essential?
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I think you'd have to be exceptionally lucky or incredibly good to get very far as a 'session musician' without being able to read manuscript, and I say that having worked as one for a while.

arty
 
arty said:
I think you'd have to be exceptionally lucky or incredibly good to get very far as a 'session musician' without being able to read manuscript, and I say that having worked as one for a while.

arty
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Care to share your experiences of it with us?
 
lemonkettaz said:
My 2 best friends from school are in their final year of a music related Degree...

They are caking themselves i think because there seems to be a very small opening when they finish...

What are their chances anyone?
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What are their chances of working as session musicians? Or getting music related work in general?
 
alexthecheese said:
Care to share your experiences of it with us?
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I don't there's anything I could say that isn't reasonably obvious. I mostly did last-minute work, so organisation, familiarity with a wide range of genres / styles and perfect pitch all help. Improvisational skills were essential in what I tended to do, and also coping with some fairly poor musicians without getting flustered by inane responses ('so it's in 6/8?', 'no, it's in 2', 'but it is compound time, right?', 'what's compound time?' etc.).

Knowing a lot of standards was also pretty helpful, more for jamming along with people as a warm-up than actually for recording. Technical ability counts for quite a bit, but being able to jam along well and 'groove' is usually more important. Professionalism is vital; if you turn up late without any idea of what's going on, mess around loads to 'warm up', are constantly playing about or joking inappropriately then some bands / studios / managers get incredibly annoyed very quickly. I saw this happen with other musicians and they didn't last particularly long.

Also, excessive name-dropping doesn't work. People who say things like 'oh, I toured with xyz for a couple of years' as an introduction rarely live up to it. Being modest and honest and playing second fiddle to the 'leader', be it the band, the singer or the manager, was something I had to get used to pretty quickly.

Those were a collection of random thoughts. Sorry if they are a bit disjointed :)

arty
 
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