Bailey Brennan

3 areas in the music industry

The three areas I will be covering in this essay are; Session musicians; Music Journalists
and Live sound engineers. These three roles require very different skills and abilities to
each other but there are most definitely some common skills required for them.

Session Musician

Session musicians for the most part are musicians who aren't part of a band, and specialise
professionally in one or more instruments. This job requires great knowledge in the
maintenance and performance of the instrument(s) being played. An example of a well
known session musician is Jeffrey Thomas "Jeff" Porcaro, he was an American drummer,
songwriter and producer best known for his work with the rock band Toto. As well as those
abilities, Porcaro was one of the most recorded session musicians in history. Porcaro shows

that sessions musicians often do more than just one thing.

Duties
It is important for a session musician to own professional level instruments that are well
maintained and to possess the knowledge to service and fix any part of them. This means
that when a session musician is booked for a recording session, they are expected to show
up with a high level instrument that is ready to go when recording begins. It is important for
session musicians to have knowledge and ability in various fields/genres on the instrument
they play. I say this because this can set them apart from the crowd and land many more
jobs than someone who is stuck to one genre or style of play. Though this isn’t the only way
to be a successful session musician, alternatively you can focus and play just one genre, at
a very high level. By doing this you won’t be open to such a wide range of jobs but for the
jobs that you can do your name will be top of the pile due to the high level that you can play
in that genre. Relating back to my last couple points, this can be said for musicians who are
multi-instrumentalists or just play one instrument. A multi-instrumentalist may land a lot of
work and play at a professional level, but not play as well as someone solely focused on one

instrument.
As well as the ability to service instruments, the ability to tune instruments and do this
correctly and efficiently is very important. Skills like these play a big part in making a good
reputation for yourself and landing future work.

Skills
One of the most important skills for a Session Musician to possess is the ability to read
music, furthermore the ability to sight read will give you an advantage over someone who
cannot do this. Sight Reading is the ability to read sheet music and play it in a matter of
minutes, this is a skill that takes years to master. In addition to sight reading, it is important
for the musician to play the piece perfect every time. Again, these skills all add to the

reputation of the musician.

Another skill that is very necessary for this field is good communication and social skills. This
includes the ability to converse with anyone you meet at a job, take onboard any criticism
and adapt to any requests, be approachable, have great patience, be confident in your ability
and composed. A good eye-to-eye understanding with the people you meet in the field can
make for great work and will most definitely land future work with them or people they know

through word of mouth.

Lastly, another very essential skill is timekeeping, having good time management makes you
reliable and If you were to show up late to a job you may have many people waiting on you,
possibly a whole band. Therefore timekeeping and being either early or on-time really helps
with reputation. A good way to start building a good portfolio as a musician would be to take
a music theory exam, to take a ‘Grade 5 exam’ it would cost you £36. On top of this you
would most likely need to have taken a fair few lessons on the instrument you are learning to
play. The cost of lessons can range from £20 to £100 per hour or more. By achieving a

grade you show that you are at a high level of playing ability.

Wage
The wage of a session musician really depends on the level of playing the musician is
capable of. A world famous session musician may charge £200 per hour whereas a low-level
session musician may charge £20 per hour. Session musicians decide their own price, this is
a great advantage for musicians who are always learning and improving their playing
because their price can rise if the demand stays consistent. A disadvantage of a session
musicians wage is that you earn a set fee that is agreed beforehand, this is more often than
not a good amount of money but it doesn’t include royalties. This could be very frustrating if
a musician played a vital part in the making of a song that went to number one but only
earned little money in comparison to those who earned the royalties. Another aspect of a
session musicians earnings that isn’t ideal is that you have no security with your earnings,

the income may be consistent some months and sparse other months.

Work patterns
As you may have gathered from my previous paragraph, a session musicians work can vary
in consistency, the work patterns are often very irregular. This is something that some
people would find hard as you cannot really plan around an irregular work pattern, this
means you need to have as much time available as possible as jobs can pop up at random
days and times. This could mean very early starts as well as very late finishes. This isn’t
always the case though, some session musicians may be under an exclusive contract that

offers consistency and fixed timings. This would most probably be for a limited time.

Case study - Carol Kaye

Carol Kaye is “One of the most prolific studio musicians” alive, she was born on March 24th
1935. She can play guitar, banjo and bass, she began to play in 1949 and is impressively
still active today at age 83. By the time she reached 55 she hit the milestone of 10,000
recordings, this puts Kaye into a very exclusive and legendary category of session
musicians. She played in many top hits, here’s just a few; ‘La Bamba’,’I get around’,’I got you
babe’ and ‘California girls’. With such a successful career and many hits having a connection
to Kaye, you could argue that these songs may have not been nearly as successful if she
had not played on them. Her bass playing was very clean and often she would improve or
adapt on what she was given to make the track better - when necessary or asked of her.
She has a unique sound because she uses a pick when playing the bass, this gives a
different sound to the traditional style of using just fingers when playing the bass.
Furthermore, her ability to adapt and compose lead her to come up with hit basslines. The
1967 hit ‘beat goes on’ by Sonny & Cher. Kaye is a pioneer of session musicians and
woman in the music industry, when she started out she was one of the only woman is her
field and most definitely faced her share of sexism. Her quote “A note has no sex, either play
it good or don’t” shows her thoughts on gender in the industry.
Kaye was a very hard worker back in the day, I believe she is still working today but at age
83 it is most likely not to the extent she once did. She would often do 3 to 4 sessions a day
as well as raising 3 children, she was a very hard-working woman and is a great example of
the dedication and perseverance required to reach the level she has as a session musician.

In conclusion a session musician is anyone who is paid to play on a track or to play live. This
job is often thankless, so even if the track or tracks the SM works on become very
successful - in most cases - they will not receive royalties. This doesn’t mean that being an
SM doesn’t pay well, because it most definitely can if you play at a high level.

Music Journalist

Music Journalists come in many forms today, from youtube critics with small and large
followings to magazine reporters. Music journalism is a job that often requires a lot of skill
and education, this often means that to become a journalist the best path is to go to
university. A very well known example of a music journalist was the late Lester Bangs, he
was very famous due to his large personality and opinions on music. He had such a large

following that he had the power to make or break new bands with his reviews.

Duties
The job of a music journalist is to give fair and unbiased reviews on artists, however most
reviews are biased. This is because the journalists who emit their personality and opinion
into their work are often more interesting than those who don’t. Most music journalists work
freelance, meaning they can work whenever they desire. The advantages of this are; the job
can be done in conjunction with other jobs; allows you to plan around freetime and work well
as its your choice. The disadvantages of this are that the job lacks consistency with timings;
if you lack self motivation to work then there is no driving force behind you to keep you
going. When music journalists are hired for for work there are usually very tight deadlines,
therefore a big pressure to hit them. Hitting deadlines is very important because if this isn't

done you’re reputation will suffer and can impact your future.

Skills
There are many skills required to become a successful music journalist, here are some of
the most important ones. To be very inquizitive, the ability to ask interesting questions is very
important for this job. By asking interesting questions i mean, try and be different and avoid
the crowd of questions because this is the way to get new material out of the artist. Another
very essential skill is to be a detailed and nimble scribe, it is important that a journalist can
keep up with the talker and not miss information in their notes. Specifically 60 words a
minute is the goal, this is done in shorthand which is a very abbreviated way of writing that
only journalists can understand. This writing is then revisited and expanded upon. The
writing as well as not missing information it must be engaging, this is done by not just
describing but detailing and explaining. Improvisation and managing situations are very vital
skills for this job as musicians are often unpredictable, they may be ignorant and idiomatic
and you must think on your feet and take different approaches to get through to them. An

example of this is the ‘James Brown Interview’ that I will speak about later.

Wage - work patterns

The starting salary for a music journalist is roughly £25,000, this is dependent on the amount
of work being put in and the quality of the journalism. This can be exceeded to £100,000 and
above with a lot of hard work. Many seasoned journalists earn around £50,000 a year which
is very reasonable. The wage of a journalist isn’t consistent as in freelance work, jobs often
come and go inconsistently so some months are better than others and this requires
sensible spending and planning ahead. Work patterns in this job are very irregular, this
means that the normal 9-5 isn’t common for music journalism. Music journalists must take
whatever work they can get and this may come in unsociable hours on unsociable days

sometimes so it's important to be available as much as possible.

Robert Hilburn in music journalism

In this video Robert Hilburn talks about his view on how to be a successful music journalist
and he states some crucial do’s and don'ts. Here are some of his main points. It is more
important to write good journalism than the number 1 trend all the time, by doing this you set
yourself apart from the crowd and this helps to build your reputation of sharing your view on
artists who may be not so well-known and you will have a trusted opinion. “Even if you don’t
like the music - review them”. It is important to review the good and bad as this makes your
journalism diverse and non-biased by showing you are writing on all types of music not just
your own taste. Another good point is that you have the ability as a journalist to make or
break artists, it is worth considering this as you may reconsider some of your journalism or

you may want to put it out.

Case study - ‘Nardwuar’ cult music journalist

‘Nardwuar the human serviette’ is an internet phenomenon for his very unique style in his
interviews of top stars in the music world such as Jay Z, Travis Scott and Lil Uzi Vert. He has
a very bubbly personality and speaks well when asking his questions. The video of
Nardwuar we watched, showed him at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Nardwuar has
been described as “a really magnetic guy” and “full of personality”. By being such a bubbly
and fun guy he has amassed a large fanbase over the years and has the ability to really help
up and coming artists. His style is very unorthodox in the fact he knows a lot about the
subject before he interviews them. He does this through great research prior to his
interviews that sets him apart from other journalists. This is part of what makes Nardwuar
interviews so unique, more often than not the common reaction from the artist(s) is shock
and amazement at the questions and knowledge he has on them. As well as being a
journalist he is also the lead singer in the band ‘The Evaporators’ and he interviews on the
radio, this shows he is a very hardworking man to be running several occupations at once.

Nardwuar believes his style is “nothing new” and that “anyone can do it”.

BA (hons) - popular music journalism video

This video show a good path that can be taken if someone wants to become a music
journalist, Southampton Solent university offers “industry practice” and you leave the course
with “employable skills”. This course offers many opportunities outside of just the regular
curriculum, such as ‘Smile Fest’, this is a week of conferences and shows that allow
students to practice their training in the real world and allows them to find their desired
path(s). I think this university looks great and very able to set up anyone for a great career in

this field.

Live Sound Engineer

A live sound engineer is the brains behind a live show. They are essential for a smooth
operation and they are needed for; gigs, pubs, clubs, outside broadcasts and west end
shows just to name a few. Live sound engineers must multitask at an extreme level and be
very aware of the whole operation.

Duties
It is very important for a live sound engineer to get it right first time, there are no second
chances at a live show the operation must run perfectly. This requires great knowledge on all
the equipment and an understanding on troubleshooting any part of the setup. To reduce the
likelihood of a slip up there are often times when an engineer can soundcheck and this is
crucial for finding any potential faults that may occur. Engineers help to load in equipment
and setup as well as breakdown and pack away, these tasks must be done efficiently and
organised to make sure nothing is lost or damaged. Lastly a very watchful eye is required for
spotting any changes in the setup, it is very possible that miscommunication may occur so in

the event of this you must be extra observant of your surroundings.

Chris’ experience as a live sound engineer

This is a basic overview of Chris’ experience of being a live sound engineer for a college gig.
The shift started at 3 pm then load-in began at 4 pm, at 6 pm soundcheck began then at
7:30 pm the doors opened. The gig finished at 11 pm then packdown at 12:30 am. This
shows the long hours of a sound engineer and the many steps involved in the job. Working
from 3pm until 12:30 am is very tiring and demanding and requires you to have energy in

abundance to be on your A-game.

Pros + Cons of the job

There are many great things and perks that job offer you, here are just a few. This job is
often away from home, this means you get to see the world; meet new people and have
many new experiences. Travel may be a disadvantage to some as this means a lot of time
away from home, this is not desired if you have a family, if you get homesick easily. This
also means you won’t have much me time as your working most of the time, when your not
working your travelling and resting. Another advantage of the job is that when the live
show/gig goes well you get a great buzz and this is highly rewarding. On the other hand the
live show may go wrong as this may or may not be your fault, either way everyone will blame
you unless they know otherwise. This may be too much for some to take or you may be okay

in dealing with such situations.

Wage - work patterns

The work patterns of a touring live sound engineer will be pretty regular during the tour.
Usually this consists of evening shows and a lot of travelling. The work patterns of an in-
house engineer would be very similar as most gigs are held in the evening but without the
tiring travelling. “The average salary for a Sound Engineer is £24,553 per year in the United
Kingdom. Salary estimates are based on 44 salaries submitted anonymously to ‘Indeed’ by
Sound Engineer employees”. This isn’t particularly high in comparison to some other jobs in
music but if you apply this salary to a touring live sound engineer, the expense of
accommodation, travel and most probably food is covered so you get to accumulate money

on the tour.

Case study - David Martell

This video is an interview with ‘One Direction's’ sound engineer David Martell. He speaks on
how he helped one of the biggest bands sound great at their shows, how he got the job and
the buzz of being a “globe-trotting, country-hopping” live sound engineer. He states that the
job doesn’t offer much free-time and the hours are very long but as a whole the job is very
rewarding. He prefers this job over others, such as ‘studio recording’. He doesn’t like the
repetitive nature of going over and over the same stuff, he says “the devil is in the detail”. He
compares the buzz of the job with jumping out of a plane. He states that this job is always a
technical challenge and requires the ability to learn new things everyday. The job requires
you to run multiple things at once, the monitors, the 5 artists + band therefore 14 mixes
simultaneously in a very loud environment. This is a very challenging job that only few can

do.

In-house live sound Vs Touring live sound

In-house live sound engineering is when you work with a venue, you must deal with
whatever comes in. This requires the ability to adapt for each style and genre you meet, you
must have a wide knowledge on equipment as you will be meeting new pieces with every
job. Working in-house often means your in the same spot so there is no travelling involved.
Touring as a live sound engineer requires you to be very specialised to the style/genre you
are working with and you must know the exact requirements of the band. This involves lots
of travel and you will be working with new venues and people with every job. The two jobs
have many similarities and differences, they both require the ability to work with new stimuli

with each job as no two shows/gigs are the same.