Session ace and recording artist RAVI returns to Getsigned.com with part #2 in his exclusive series on how you and your band can land the gigs of your dreams! Ravi reveals the secrets to getting the ULTIMATE session recording gigs here.

Becoming a session ace is no easy task. The field is highly competitive and the minority of musicians gets the majority of work. Great players are everywhere. The way to guarantee yourself work is to be the best player in your locality, and to let everyone in town know it. Big studios no longer handle the bulk of the work. Most jingle work now occurs in smaller project facilities. Plus, songwriters and producers are often building their own home studios, creating more recording opportunities for a greater number of musicians. Your services may be exactly what their session requires.
 
Discovering and developing your strengths is the first and most important step to getting your dream sessions. Studio musicians must be excellent sight-readers with great ears. He or she must be versatile and have the ability to adapt to a range of musical styles and perform them all convincingly.
 
Practice sight-reading daily by picking up a new piece of music everyday and playing it once from the beginning to the end without correcting mistakes. Then put it away. The next day, play that piece again in the same manner, and also repeat the process with a new one. Continue this ritual everyday without playing the same music for more than two days. You do not want to learn or memorize the tune, but rather improve your ability to read it straight from the page. By forcing yourself daily to play unfamiliar music, you will soon be able to tackle the many surprises that studio musicians encounter regularly.
 
To fine-tune your ears, collect CDs of stylistically diverse material and play over several of them daily. Listen to what the players on the recordings do, and practice adding your own ideas to the mix. Your ear will become familiar with the many different styles of music, enabling you to tastefully play under a host of different circumstances.
 
Keyboardists have dominated the session world for a long time because of the vast resources available though synthesis. With decreasing music production budgets, bass players and even drummers have lost a significant amount of work to hard working and versatile keyboard players/programmers. Also, the ability to sequence at home without incurring studio charges greatly reduces pre-production costs. By honing your programming skills and taking your talents beyond performance, your skills will be in much greater demand.
 
Some high-end guitar manufacturers are now outfitting their instruments with midi systems that have amazing tracking without noticeable latency. This enables guitar players to be more prominent in today’s studio arena. “We’re putting guitarists back to work!” exclaims Patrick Cummings, president of Brian Moore Guitars, a leader in this technology. With this increased capability, guitarists can play traditional parts as well as exploiting state-of-the-art synthesis, sequencing, and sampling technologies. Also, synthesized sax solos, string sections, and other parts that used to be restricted to keyboard players are now available to guitarists, and often with more convincing results.

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