Session Work: 3 Important Things to Consider

I’ve often hired people to lay tracks for me on various projects. And sometimes I’ve been the hire-ee in other studios. So I have developed some opinions that I felt like writing down, and I hope you’ll enjoy them or maybe benefit from them. Recording for film and TV is now my main gig, so by necessity I’ve had to learn these things.

1. Work for hire agreements. This is an easy step, and if you do it, you’ll end up with complete control over your recordings. Say you hire a harmonica player to knock out a solo for you for 75 bucks. The day of the session is the best time to have him sign it. Mention it beforehand so there’s no confusion. That way if the tune is going to be used on a TV show or movie, or if you get a publishing deal of some kind, you can say you own all the tracks free and clear. It’s much easier to do it right then, than to go tracking people down a year later when you may be about to license the tune. “Uh, hey can you sign this thing for that track you did a year ago? You know, that way you have no rights to the song…” It’s way more awkward after the fact.

It is possible to register the player as an “artist” on with your BMI or ASCAP registration, without cutting him in on any of the profit. So you can use that as more bargaining power. His name will appear on the credits wherever it’s used. So maybe he’ll give you bro-rate, or severe bro-rate.

None of this is to say that you shouldn’t ever share the royalties. I do it all the time. I have co-writers, and depending on the amount of work needed by each person involved, you can divide the royalties up to whatever exact percentages you agree upon. With my usual co-writer Steve, I end up putting more time in, overall. But most of the work we’ve been doing has been for libraries that happen to need world stuff, which he’s really good at writing. So he writes up a composition in a couple of minutes, rotates around to each instrument laying tracks, while I engineer, produce, and suggest a chord or a tempo here and there. I’ll be mixing the tune for another two hours in my own time and space. Then we call it even. But you can chop it up any way you both agree upon.

If you haven’t registered with a performing rights organization, it’s really easy. And one thing I should mention is that royalties come in a total of 200 percent. The writers share is 100 and the publisher’s share is 100. But if you write and record, and release it yourself, nowadays they have it set up that you just take 200 percent as a writer. It used to be that you had to form a publishing company to get that other 100. It’s just way easier now.

2. Charts. Learning how to use charts in the studio can be a huge time saver. What I’ve discovered is, the ability to read charts is pretty much the same as the the willingness to simply say, “I can follow charts”. To use them, it doesn’t take a huge amount of learning, but it does take a small amount of commitment. For most styles, a studio chart may have 10 percent or less actual notation. The rest of it is “time” (4 slashes indicating that a measure is going by) and what I call “traffic signs”. These would be repeat signs, first and second endings, DC Al Coda, DS Al Coda… They sound confusing at first, but usually after 1/2 hour I can have a person understanding them and using them. Notation (reading music) takes quite a bit longer to learn. But if you can get an understanding of the song overview, that’s the most important aspect of charts in the studio. It’s really just a map that saves everyone time. You don’t have to try to explain anything. Just say “Take it from letter C”, and there is a universal knowledge of where you are in the the song. When you’re paying for studio time, this will save you money.

And of course it matters what type of song you’re going to record. For some sessions it won’t matter much, like of you’re just going to knock out a couple of 12-bar blues songs. But at noon today I have a session with three people, and they are all chart players. It was necessary to get readers because these songs are in a more jazzy vein. If you want a great way to learn reading charts and notation, I wrote a book for guitarists called “The Guitarist’s Link to Sight Reading”, and the same title for drummers, and one for bassists. You kind find them on my site (below).

3. Lose the Ego. I’m not talking about being a prima donna. I mean, even if you just spent a couple of hours, and got paid really well, and the artist who’s paying you really likes the track, you may find out a week from now that he dumped it. It hurts. But you move on. Because his investment in you wasn’t a waste. He may have a very specific vision on, not just what will work for YOUR part, but what the gel is of all the players. I know the way I am. I will reshoot my own guitar part 150 times, and then a week later go, aaah I think I’m going to try a banjo instead. But no feelings are hurt, because it’s ME dumping ME. If I hire you to lay a conga track, I don’t want to feel trapped by that decision forever. I’m going to treat it like it was me that laid the track. I’m going to say, cha… you know what? I’m not really digging congas on this song. Then I’ll run into you a week from now and go, hey, no I kind of switched directions on that tune. And just plan on there being a small sting, but not a bad one. Hey, we have to get our way if it’s going to be art, right? I mean I figure if I do a great job of guitar playing on a track, I might look like a star if I keep it. But I don’t care about that. I care about what the song needs. I’m looking for magic. And I’m not going to quit trying things until I find it. I’d say I end up scrapping about nine out of ten tracks I lay down. So if I scrap yours, just pretend I’m scrapping another one of mine, because that’s the way I’m looking at it.

Now, all of that being said, your track could have just sucked. You hope that’s not the case. But you’ll never know if it is. So just always work on tightening up your chops, and learning as much as you can about music. That’s about all you can do for that particular problem. That, and make sure you’re feeling up to the session, as in, you’ve been hitting the gym, getting good sleep, eating well, getting some practice time… just everything that keeps you on top of your game. If any health factors are out of whack, such as your blood sugar is wacky, from living on Jack in the Box, that will affect what you’re able to deliver.

Thanks, hope you all enjoyed the info. J

Jerry Jennings is a jazz-rock fusion recording artist, an author of music instruction books, and an advocate of freedom.

www.jerryjenningsmusic.com, www.jenningspublishing.com, The Guns of Freedom

In order to play probably 90 percent of all rhythm patterns, what is needed is a steady down-up motion of the strumming arm. My first step in getting you to understand any pattern is, start by muting all the strings with the left hand. (Lay your fingers across the strings with no pressure.) This gives you a not-so-noisy way to just get the initial motion started. Begin to strum down and up on the strings (in that order). Once you get that started, you can begin to count, “One and two and three and four and”, steadily with the strums. Make sure the beats (one, two, three, four) are all down strums, and the “upbeats” (and, and, and, and,) are all up strums. You will want to actually just practice this step for a while before moving on. You want it to be second nature.

How many times are we flying past the strings in each measure? If you count all the beats and upbeats, that would be eight passes by the strings, right? (It won’t always be eight if we are working with other time signatures or if we are doing 16th notes, which would double it. But let’s keep it simple.) So we have eight even chunks of time. I refer to this as the “grid”, because it provides the background for whatever strum pattern you’re doing.

Think of a picture with low resolution, like in a newspaper. Think black and white. It’s made of a very predictably spaced dots that will either be black or white. Black dots would be the equivalent of passes by the string in which you hit the string. White dots would be the times you miss the string. But the steady movement of the hand never varies. If you were ever to stop your strumming arm and think “let’s see… I just did an up stroke and now it says down…” then you’ve just entered into the “shopping list” mode of thinking. The down and up arm movements HAVE to stay steady.

Try it on a G chord. Decide beforehand which of the eight passes by the strings will actually make contact, and which ones won’t. Here’s a sample:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +

Notice I underlined the one, the “and of two”, and the four. Those will be the strums that make contact. The others will be misses. In case I didn’t mention it enough, the steadiness of the down and up motions is everything.

In my beginner book, “Guitar One – Start Out Jammin”, I get into a lot more rhythmic patterns. And they are all on the DVD as well, in song examples.

Fast forward to the 90s, when all the emerging guitarists seemed to want to rebel against quality itself. Don’t get me wrong, the songs were ok, but nobody cared about actual skill on the guitar any more. Well that decade passed and now with the net and everything, people are listening to just about every style. But guitarists are learning from tab a lot. The only problem with that is, if you learn a song from tab written by a 20 year old, and it’s a song from the 70s, he won’t have all the minute details of a player who was actually alive in that era. For me, I’m very picky about some of these details. There’s “doing” it, and then there’s completely understanding where it came from, and nailing every aspect of it. Authenticity is what it is, I think.

After teaching people certain solos by some of the 70s guitarists such as Clapton and Hendrix, I started seeing that some of the hammer-on/pull-off combinations were giving most people trouble. I set up a series of steps to overcome each one of them. Hence the book/DVD Classic Rock Rudiments for Lead Guitar.

I had tried in vain with all the books I could find. But the only books that taught reading were either for child beginners, or were very dry and technical. After I had taken all my theory in college, and still didn’t feel like I could sit down and read a music chart. Circling chords in a four part choral helps you learn your way around, but that’s a different skill, even though it’s on the staff.

Eventually, as I was teaching guitar, I began to write out exercises for my students in the 5th position. I was about to explain a page to one student and he started playing what was in front of him, better than I could have. I started to see strengths in limiting yourself to one position to learn to read. Too many choices will slow you down. But if the position you choose is the open position (as with all beginner books), you are hampered by the limitations of that position. It’s not where the guitar is centered on the staff, AND it’s not a moveable position. The 5th position is centered on the staff perfectly, and anything you learn there can be transposed up or down simply by sliding up or down a fret. Those exercises eventually became the first edition of my book, The Guitarist’s Link to Sight Reading.

Another strength of The Guitarist’s Link to Sight Reading is, it’s laid out like a method book for beginners, but it’s not for the day one guitarist. It’s for somebody who at least has started being able to get around the neck and play some songs. It’s also not for a child mentality. It’s not a children’s book. It doesn’t assume that since you’re not a proficient reader that you must be a kid. It’s for guitarists who play– at SOME level– whether you’ve been in one band or playing for 30 years– and want to learn to read.

Additionally, the book contains 9 songs, which are recorded by a live band on the cd which comes with it. You play the melody part you rare reading, along with backing tracks of a live band. If you’re teaching, this can also be used for recitals, where you want the sound of a full band while the student plays the melody. The songs are blues, classic rock, country rock, jazz and latin. 

I almost forgot to mention… there are exercises in the book that put you on the writing end of the process also. If you’re a player that wants to read, or a guitar teacher looking for a way to teach your students to read, I really think you’ll have a good time with this book.

Thanks, J