How to approach a studio..?

[Jongleur]

I'm thinking about taking a demo cd around to local studios, introducing myself, and making it known that I'd like to do session work. Any suggestions or advice? Where can a musician hook up with tv and radio commercial producers? Film producers? I'm thinking I need to stop hanging with musicians, and start hanging around people who HIRE musicians.

[Hink]

yeah, most studios are union so you'll have to be a card carrying member of the musicians guild to do session work in the larger studios (where the money is)...

[Sascha Franck]

Are you good enough?
From my experience, these days studio musician skill levels are EXTREMELY high. There's just a few jobs left, and those into the biz are really skilled.
If so, I'd like to listen to your demo reel - not to get you any jobs, for personal pleasure only
No offense meant, but as of yet, I have heard close to nobody on KVR being qualified for such a job. That's why I'm curious.

[Jongleur]

Are you good enough?
From my experience, these days studio musician skill levels are EXTREMELY high. There's just a few jobs left, and those into the biz are really skilled.
If so, I'd like to listen to your demo reel - not to get you any jobs, for personal pleasure only
No offense meant, but as of yet, I have heard close to nobody on KVR being qualified for such a job. That's why I'm curious.

Alright, I'm ready for your honest opinion. My entry in this months contest is about the peak of my ability...Jongleur

There are only two tracks in this recording, the rhythm part and the piano, (with some extra sound effects thrown in the middle section).

[moonlite]

is the piano panning or am i just imagining it? :D

[Sascha Franck]

Playing is good on that one, phrasing seems a bit "stiff" to me at times.
IMO, to get into any sort of studio biz, you'll have to be able to suit a shitload of styles, especially as a piano/key player. I mean, everybody and his mum know their ways around sequencers these days. Fast improvised runs are hardly ever required either.
So you need a broadband stylistic range along with kickass sounds and certainly also along with some proper arranging skills.
Might be slightly different if you were a guitar player (that's what I am), because in that case you might be asked for a specialized thing (chugga chugga rock riffs, groovy funk guitars, tight doubled acoustic git tracks, etc.), but I think keyboarders do live a tough life these days.
I'm a truly less than mediocre keyboard player, yet I usually manage to record/program anything required for the job.

In the end, I'd recommend doing a really great show reel, featuring a variety of styles along with some tasty arrangement skills. Of course it'd be optimal if it'd show some personalized style in addition.

[kara]

ok, i'm a professional studio musician for over 15 years now and can only agree with Sascha here. i could add a couple of things, you'll need.
-Instant reconition of keys & scales. Generaly they play a track and will say to you can you add a hook there or a small riff there,....
- Something nobody metioned here : Social skils !! You have to work with some f*cking wanny be or real star who think they are the best of the planet and you're just the pianist... and you're not even capable of understanding what they want.
- You do realise that this is like a 9-5 job do you ? Play what they want & how they want even if you don't agree.

good luck with you project

Rony

[Jongleur]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement, Sascha and kara. I had no idea what you were going to say!

is the piano panning or am i just
imagining it?

That was a pleasant surprize. I didn't do that and I can't find any option for panning on the sampler I used. (Reason's NN19) All I can figure is it must have been recorded that way when they sampled the piano!

[Sascha Franck]

Oh btw, I highly agree with Rony, social skills probably are the most important aspect.
Sometimes you'll find yourself working for a bunch of people that you, under normal conditions, would call nothing else but assholes. Yet, you need to be friends with them (and no, just pretending sometimes doesn't help).
I haven't done all that much studio jobs in my life, but there's been a few... it's not allways a pleasant experience, I tell you.
Add to this that sometimes producers (or whomever will tell you what to play) don't even have a clue about your instrument. I've been asked to do some classical style picking on an electric and the likes... (and yes, they expected the sound to be classical).

[Sepheritoh]

Good advice you got. The business may be different in each town, but usually it is not studio owners and radio producers who hire session men. That is almost always the record producer or the musicians who have the say in that.

If you want to work on commercials you want to get to know the composers. The best strategy I would say is to get your name out there and play with as many musicians as you possibly can. Get to know every band in town and do sit-in sessions whenever somebody is sick or needs a break. This will not only get your name our there, but also give you experience in adapting fast to whatever they want.

Session musicians never have the advantage of listening to a track and get inspired before laying down that killer performance. When you get called in the studio timeclock is running and you probably get no more than 1 hour to lay down your thing from hearing it for the first time to the final cut. For that you need a great ear and sight reading abilities. Having a huge arsenal of ready-to-use tricks and licks up your sleeve that you can call upon is a key.

[Hink]

dont forget some people will want someone who can sight read music as well...

[Sepheritoh]

PS - one place to meet the right people are the clubs. Some towns have these "buskers nights" where you can join the band and play along with whoever walks unto the stage and want to sing their songs. That is a great place to get experience and people remember the names of the musicians there. i.e. the public almost never care who the band is, but the poeple in the business will most likely write your number down.

[edit - and NEVER use drugs or alcohol whenever a producer is around. I don't care if you use it or not, just do not let them see you use it. That is almost a sure way of letting them scrap your name from their lists.]

[Sascha Franck]

As a guitarist, I've never been asked to do any sight reading in the "classical" sense at all. That's why I'm not all too shiny with it either.
I got faced with some sheets though - usually chord symbols and some rhythm kicks. Without patting myself on the back too much, I'm rather good at dealing with those (at least nobody ever complained).

[Hernan]

I agree that the playing sounds a little stiff. Perhaps you might want to add some blues licks to your repertoire?

(Or conversely, if you are going for some new-agey type of sound then you may need to de-funkify the track a little bit.)

Just my 2 cents, of course. The track sounds very good, and the playing is very clean, just those scalar runs are a little dry for my taste.

L

[soulata]

Hmmm, I do some studio work here (pop/rock/jazz/jingles mostly).

Sight reading is rarely required, what is required is good ear, broad understanding of music that you have to record (oh how I hate jingle producers - " I need you to play whatever melody fits the chords but make it sexy"), instrument skills...

I usually listen a lot and talk much less than the one that hires me, it works for me everytime.

k

(Still don't know if I'm good enough though, and that's after some 100 recording sessions)