how to become a studio musician - skip saylor (Part 1) Level:Beginner

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• published: 03 Jun 2014
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Hey guys! Today Skip Saylor will be covering a very interesting subject "How to become a studio musician" Part 1: The path to becoming a session musician is not very easy, especially in today's market. With studios closing down and being auctioned off, it is still possible to make a decent living being a session musician but rules are changing, so we have to be on it! ampmore I will be sharing my knowledge and experience to help you on your journey and I am really hoping that my advice will guide you along the way! There are 3 common ways to getting gigs through: - 1 Producers - 2 Bands/songwriters - 3 Internet Now lets talk about each one of them in detail! Producers are people who make records come to life, they range from executives in 3 piece suits to an engineer with a home studio. From my experience, the home studio producers will give you much more work than a big record label, of course for a much smaller amount of money. You will likely find that these homegrown producers will most often refer you to bigger and better paying gigs, as they are always working with different musicians constantly, the way to find these producers is very simple; they are everywhere! I found my first session on craigslist and did a lot of work for free, before the money started to come in. You can find a list of local producers and just send them an email with your samples and wait for a reply, it might take a while to get started, but don't give up because eventually someone will come through. When I moved to Los Angeles I got my hands on a list of local producers in my area and I remember sending more than a thousand emails out, those connections I made 8 years ago still bring me money today! rockband Bands are a very good tool. My advice is, be in as many bands as you can. Play with as many musicians as you can. You never know who they can become and if they like you, guess what? They will refer you! Also it's a great way to meet producers when your band is recording an album or a demo. And who knows? That producer just might want you for work on other sessions! ALWAYS EXCHANGE CONTACTS WITH PEOPLE YOU ARE WORKING WITH AND STAY IN TOUCH! This is a little trick I've learned a long time ago. I always take a persons info, it doesn't matter who it is as long as it has to do with music and I always stay in touch. When I'm stuck in LA traffic going to my next gig I call alot people of people just to say "Hi" and see how they are the doing. It is very important to keep your relationships fresh, that way they will remember who I am and when something comes up they will call me! NEVER ASK FOR WORK!!! It is ok to say: "Let me know if something comes up" I personally dislike it when people are only calling me to get gigs, I will never refer them... The Internet is one of the key aspects in getting gigs. It is very important to have a great web presence and be marketable. Imagine a grocery store and you are a customer, there are way too many brands and way too many products so how will you choose from brands that you don't know? Simply by looking at the product, so make sure your product stands out and looks impressive! Invest a little time and money and create a website that people will want to go to! The way you present yourself is crucial. YOU HAVE TO MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION! Unknown Use social networking to your benefit. You won't believe how many gigs I get through Facebook and Twitter. Social networking is a big part of the market and most of the time it allows you to work from your home studio and you are not limited to just the city you're in, the whole world is open for you! In the past I've gotten paying gigs in Germany, France, Russia and many other countries just by using social networking! Go to guitar forums and communicate with other musicians! AND BE NICE!!! Last part is a big thing I've noticed that on guitar forums people are tend to be aggressive with each other and almost 90% have know it all syndrome, which is really funny to see! I read what people post about me and other guitar players and it is very funny to see some guy saying that he could be a star and he is amazing blah, blah, blah you get the point.I hope this little article will help you to get where you want to be and do what you want to do. If you have any questions feel free to send me an email and I will be more than happy to answer all your questions and help as much as I can! See ya! Find me on: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/alexfeather Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/alexfeather Website: http://www.thebestguitarplayer.com Thank you for watching! Don't forget to subscribe!!! Releases: New video every Monday New Lesson every Wednesday New Backing track every Friday