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| Session guitarist in studio |
Respected for their versatility and high professionalism, studio guitarists (also commonly referred to as session guitarists) have always been some of the most demanded musicians in the music industry world. Being a studio guitarist means at first place having a flawless guitar technique that allows you to perform in a wide range of music genres, knowing how to use a wide variety of guitar and recording equipment to achieve the desired guitar sounds in any given situation and last, but not least, constantly working to improve your playing skills. You will also have to be either great at improvisation or at sight reading (prima vista) or ideally - at both. We will also give you some useful tips and thus hopefully help you achieve your dream to become a professional studio guitar player.
Still determined to become a studio guitarist? OK then, here's where to start from:
1) Practice, practice, practice - you should practice on a daily basis. That involves making different exercises to increase your speed, endurance and coordination, but also playing actual guitar songs, learning advanced guitar techniques, reading guitar books and articles, watching guitar lessons, practicing improvisation and sight reading. However, be extremely careful not to overwork and injure your hands. Doing all of the above-mentioned activities within a single day is way too much for a beginner (in fact even for an intermediate guitar player), as it requires at least 4 hours of playing per day. If you're not used to playing that much, your hands won't be able to handle the sudden change and you will most probably injure yourself. So to avoid injuries you have to gradually increase your playing time instead. Start with 45 minutes of guitar playing and 15 minutes of rest.
If your hands feel relaxed after the rest, you can go for another 45 minutes of playing and another 15 minutes of rest. You can keep increasing your series like this, until you reach 8 series per day, which is equal to a total of 6 hours of guitar playing and 2 hours of rest.
2) Play with bands - Find some bands to play with. A new band is always a new challenge and you will always learn new things, either from your bandmates, from the songs that you rehearse or from the fact that the place you're rehearsing in is filled with equipment that's completely unknown to you. With time you will not only increase your repertoire, which is always a good thing for a studio guitarist, but you will also get used to shaping your guitar sound with amps, effects, and even guitars that you have never used before and that's a thing that happens way too often in the career of a studio guitarist. One thing that's important to note - when playing with different bands, try not to stick with bands that play in the same genre. For example playing in 3 different hard rock bands won't be very useful to you compared to playing in a hard rock band, jazz band and country band.
After all, you need to learn to be versatile.
3) Make contacts - Playing with different bands, performing live, visiting different studios and rehearsal rooms will undoubtedly result in meeting many new people related to the music world. As you practice steadily and your skills improve these people will start noticing you and at some point you will get some session recording offers. Every producer needs some fresh blood, so don't think they're doing it from good heart. The truth is that the market is swarmed with skilled session guitar players, BUT these guys are usually in the business for quite a long time and know their price really well, and if a producer is short on budget, which tends to happen a lot when you're working with less known artists, and you have the skills, he will gladly hire you instead. That put, it doesn't sound too good, but actually it is a great way to gain some real studio recording experience and to build a portfolio of projects that you've worked on. These will later open your doors to working on more serious projects and with more popular artists.
Following these 3 steps you are much closer to becoming a real studio guitarist. To be successful you have to keep repeating them throughout your career, but in such way that:
- Your practice sessions get much more complicated than before.
- The bands you play with consist of much more skilled musicians and sound much more professional than your previous ones.
- Your contacts in the music industry world get much more influential being able to secure you working in better studios with better recording engineers and artists.
And before you begin your journey, here are some final tips that will increase your chance of success:
- Listen to music a lot and in as many different genres as possible. Don't just limit yourself to only one genre.
- Learn to play on as many different guitars, amps, stomp boxes and effect processors as possible. You never know which studio you may get into and what equipment you may have to use, especially in the beginning of your career.
- Learn to use audio recording software. Sometimes you simply need to show the recording engineer what you're trying to tell him.
- Try to find suitable contacts on your own instead of waiting someone to notice you. Ask the owners of the places where you rehearse or the people that you meet on gigs if there's someone that may need your recording services.
- Don't worry if your first studio recording sessions are crap. You can't expect working with world acclaimed artists right from the start.
Last but not least - don't get easily discouraged. Finding the right bands to play with may take you an year or two. Finding your first contacts with people belonging to the music industry may take even more. Just be patient and both of these will happen sooner or later.
Good luck!Session guitarists are also known for their mastery of gear. There are thousands of different effects that people look to a session guitarist to produce in the studio. But, this doesn't mean that to start out as a session guitarist you need to go out and buy every piece of gear available and master it all. Often times this is obtained during your career. Find out what you need to start out as a session guitarist here at http://www.guitarworld.com/session-guitar-you-dont-need-fancy-gear-get-started.
I’ve been a professional studio guy for some 30-odd years. In that time, I’ve learned a few tricks, playing methods and recording techniques I can share with you to make your playing standout and have the client call you back time and time again.
We are in a service business. It is the client’s music, and it is important to deliver what he or she wants. Sometimes, of course, they don’t know what they want, and it’s your job to use your experience and give them some part-appropriate playing.
But even if it isn’t necessarily my favorite type of music, I try to find something in it to make myself and the client happy. Then it is a good day. I have a lot of good days. So can you.
The first and most important thing we must speak about are assets. What are the biggest assets you have and will use on the road to becoming a pro studio guitarist? In order:
1. Talent
2. Experience
3. Ears
4. Gear
5. Something to record and playback on (for home studio sessions).
I could go on and on about the first three, because they are the most important, but right now I will concentrate this space on gear realities.
You can look online and see a studio kingpin like Tim Pierce working in his home studio with a pile of guitars/pedals/boutique amps/Pro Tools, etc. Serious cash. But he’s a guy who has made it, and he deserves it all.
I have a fairly nice collection of guitars/mics/amps/outboard and software-based thingies, too. Do I use them all, all the time? No. Ninety-nine percent of my work is done on a guitar or two, one amp or modeler, one mic, a PC -- and that’s it!
I LOVE my gear. I NEED my gear. I am happy sitting, being surrounded by it. Maybe I have a problem and need a meeting. Maybe. But I wouldn’t go. I’d just end up passing a music store and picking up some guitar therapy. Then go back home to my very understanding wife!
Here’s what I use.
My main studio guitar? A 1985 Casio MG510, Midi-disabled. One humbucker, two single coils, solid tone. It can sound like any guitar. $400 or less, used. Line 6 Pod XT Live, $400. Alvarez acoustic guitar -- you guessed it -- $400 bucks. SM57 mic, $80.
So for less than 2G’s, you can really cover a lot of bases. It’s not the wand, it’s the magician. Check out my video below to hear what a few simple tools can do.
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| Guitarist in home studio |
This week, we're going to look at what you really need, computer-wise, to do sessions at home.
Back in the day, a session player ran from studio to studio, trekking his/her guitars, amps and effects. Usually there would be charts to sight read, other musicians playing at the same time, and time constraints to get it done quickly and correct.
Occasionally this happens in 2011. However, most of the time, sessions are sent via the Internet, and parts are recorded in the comfort of your own home. Time is usually not a factor, nor is the ability to sight read (or to get out of your pajamas).
But I do get calls asking if I can have a 30-second piece of music written and recorded and sent back within the hour! Of course, the answer is always YES! It happened recently for a popular beer that needed a song for an Internet commercial. You’d be surprised what you can do when the pressure is on.
Now, what software is best/necessary to do professionally compatible sessions at home?
There are so many choices, so many options and a wide range of prices. Guess what?
Don't let salesmen fool you. You do not need Pro Tools. If you use it, great! If not, great!
Use something else.
I know just as many PROFESSIONALS using Acid, Sonar, Nuendo, Logic and Cubase as well as PT. Any one of these can export and import end to end WAV or AIFF files. That means instant compatibility! The sound of certain software does differ, but not that much, and certainly not enough to stop you from handing over a professional-sounding product.
You also will need a breakout box. AD Converter. These seem to have more of a sound influence on your recordings; but once again, not that much. If all you can afford is the smallest M Audio, buy it! I use and love MOTU; I do not use APOGEE. Why? They are reliable and also seem to sound warmer and less strident. Just an opinion? Maybe, but I have been at this for a while.
PC or Mac? It doesn't matter, as long as it is powerful enough. And please do not keep your studio computer online -- only when necessary, like when registering software or downloading updates. I don't even use mine for sending or receiving files.
The biggest and most important thing to do is have a dedicated drive for your audio. Programs on C. Audio work on D. And backups on as many drives as you can!Correct microphone placement for amplifiers is another important lesson to learn for session guitarists and all guitar performers for that matter. Professional studios will probably have you covered for mic placement, but it's not something you should ignore and trust anyone. Know the sweet spot that produces the best sound on your amp when there's a mic in front of it. Find tips and suggestions for mic placement here at http://www.guitarworld.com/microphone-placement-advice-recording-meister-steve-albini.
This time, I want to speak a little about miking guitars in the studio. An integral part of one’s recording projects are microphones and the positioning of microphones on guitar amps and cabinets in order to capture a desired tone and sound.
Speaking to many engineers over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that at the end of the day, there is no single miking method and technique that is favored over any other. It really comes down to an individual’s taste -- and experimentation.
Recording meister Steve Albini further brought home this point to me recently when I put the question to him.
“Some people do have magic methods where they may take a particular microphone, place it a certain amount of degrees off-angled at a particular point, and position it a certain distance away from a part of the speaker cone,” Albini says. “But I haven’t found anything that works reliably 100 percent of the time.
"But what I have found that does work every time is being critical with your listening and trying to make intelligent choices. A lot of people sort of have a reflex where they, through force of habit, reach for one particular microphone to use on electric guitars, for example.
I think that is a mistake as there are just as many different sounds coming out of an electric guitar amp as there are different sounds in a forest.”
And when it comes to choosing the right microphone for the job, it is another purely subjective matter based solely on the sonic wants of the individual. Again Albini offers a few closing points to help steer all us DIY musicians on to the right path:
“For wide-spectrum stuff that has got a fairly flat dynamic, that is a heavily distorted guitar that has got a lot of high frequency within a low frequency content but doesn’t have a lot of dynamic range, and where the signal is going to be coming out pretty much the same volume all the time, then something like a condenser microphone, which can capture subtleties and dynamics really accurately, is not necessarily going to be appropriate. It may be appropriate if there’s an extremely interesting high-frequency content and you really want a flat representation, then sometimes a condenser microphone will work great for that, but really a ribbon microphone would be more appropriate for this situation.
"If you have a very dry sound that doesn’t have a lot of distortion to it, but where the dynamic range is really wide and you need to capture a full-frequency spectrum, then using a dynamic mic would be a mistake because their dynamic range representation is not necessarily as nimble as a small condenser or ribbon microphone is.”
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| Session guitarist playing in recording studio |
A few years ago, I had the honor and great joy to play guitar and bass on a record called Shadowman, the third solo outing from one of my heroes, Steve Walsh.
Steve is better known as the lead vocalist and keyboardist for the group Kansas. For those of you who don’t know, he is the soaring voice behind the classic radio staples “Carry On Wayward Son,” “Dust In The Wind” and “Point Of No Return.”
Besides being one the best rock vocalists in the biz, he’s worked with some of the best guitar players as well: Kerry Livgren, Rich Williams, David Ragsdale and let’s not forget the incredible Steve Morse; all are Kansas alumni.
Another guy Steve has played with is one of the best guitar players you’ve probably never heard of, by the name of Mike Slamer. Mike played with Steve in the band Streets, a great pop-rock band that put out two fantastic records in the early '80s. He later played on Steve’s solo record, Glossolalia.
Needless to say, I was a little intimidated (and extremely excited at the same time) to be not only playing guitar but also bass on this new progressive-rock record with the ominous title Shadowman.
As luck would have it, I was humming right along when it became apparent I was not going to finish all my parts before my band Collective Soul was scheduled to go out on tour. All of the sudden, I found myself scrambling and kind of freaking out a little.
These songs were not your average little pop “ditties.” They were long, complicated arrangements with almost everything double-tracked, and I really wanted to get some extra stuff on there as well and sort of out-do the original demos.
This predicament is what led me to one of my favorite recording techniques ever: re-amping. Re-amping is basically the technique of recording a clean D.I.’d track straight out of your guitar and then later using a re-amping box such as Radial’s X-Amp to send it out of your DAW and to the amplifier of your choice.
This idea has basically saved my ass about a hundred times over! So what I did with Steve’s record was to get an Mbox, a nice D.I., a POD, a laptop, of course my guitar and just hole up in my hotel room whenever I had the chance, banging out tracks.
How I did it:
First I’d create two tracks in my session, one would be my pure D.I. track and the other would be my “vibe” track that was split out of the D.I. and through a POD that was set up for an appropriate sound (Another option is to use an amp-modeling plug-in on the D.I. track if you can get away with the latency issues). This way I could just listen and play along using my POD track to get a feel for how I should play the song, all the while knowing I had a great D.I. track I could manipulate later.
So whenever Collective Soul had a break, I’d go home and fire up the amps and whatever effects etc., and re-amp these tracks I’d been working on. I used Radial’s X-Amp, but I think there are a few other companies making comparable products as well. This technique is useful on so many levels; it allows you to preserve your workflow when you don’t have access to a proper studio; it gives you peace of mind knowing that if you’re not happy with your tone, you can always change it later (something I do all the time); it allows you to tailor your sound and effects to the song as it comes together; and most of all, it’s fun to hear your performance blasting out of your amp while you twiddle knobs and experiment.
Maybe you’re not able to make noise in the apartment you’re living in or maybe you’re itching to record but you can’t get in the studio right away. No problem! Just slap on some headphones and go to work; later you can fire all that stuff up, and the great thing is you won’t be wasting time in the studio trying to get the perfect take.
All you’ll have to worry about is getting killer tone, man!Hopefully these tips well help you reach your dream of becoming a professional session guitarist. For more guitar tips make sure to check back at Mike's Guitar Talk. I appreciate any and all feedback, so feel free to write back.
Have fun and stay tuned!
Mike
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