Michael Dolce: How to become a Session Guitarist

I’d like to welcome Michael Dolce, one of the leading Australian Session Guitarists and recording artist , (check out my review of his album ‘Everything Til Now’) , who has written a 2 part series on how to become a session guitarist. Michael has years of experience and has learned the ins and outs of the business so this is a great insight into what really goes on.

Hi everyone and welcome to Guitar Noize. In a 2 part series I’m going to be talking about one of the most frequently asked question “How do I become a full-time session guitarist and how do I get into playing for profile artists?”. As simple as the question may be there is no simple answer, but i can offer you my experiences from the time I decided to play guitar for a living. Hopefully it will help you clear up some thoughts on this topic and maybe steer you in the right direction.

SESSIONS
The first thing that comes to mind is remembering doing my first paid session with a local singer, i was 16 at the time. Having had no experience in a major studio before and going in blind was quite daunting. I was quietly confident knowing I had done years of recording demos at home on my 4 track recorder so I thought to myself it couldn’t be that much different or anymore difficult than playing over my original music which, at the time, was sounding a lot like Vinnie Moore and Joe Satriani.

So I had a check list which consisted of the following…
1. Guitar
2. Lead
3. Amp
4. Pedals
5. Legato licks
6. Pivoting licks
7. Tapping licks
8. Picking licks
9. Good lead sound

Looking at the list now makes me laugh… How wrong I was hahaha…There were a few things I seemed to miss on my check list.

I remember walking into the studio, the producer started playing the track as I was setting up and this over whelming feeling of sickness came over me. I thought to myself this sounds nothing like Vinnie Moore or Joe Satriani what am I suppose to do on this track? Things got worse when the producer wanted me to go direct from my Boss pedals into the desk, even I knew that was going to sound like a swarm of bees. I argued the point (rule #1 never argue with a producer), we did it his way of course so we went direct. Then the real fun started, trying to play over this track was like learning to play guitar all over again. I felt useless, nothing I played worked I just wanted to get out of there. At that point I knew I wasn’t ready for this, I needed to go home and start listening to all sorts of music and styles I.e pop, funk, R&B, straight rock etc… So I started building up a variety of patches and ideas, preparing myself for anything that was thrown at me, this was a must if I wanted to follow my vision as a full time session guitarist.

We eventually got through the session but all I could think of was ,“I don’t want anyone to hear this, cause my playing sounds like crap haha.” As expected he never called me back and you soon realize that it’s not about how many sessions you get or gigs for that matter it’s how many times you get called back.

So for the following years I sat down and started learning songs from the radio and various records. This opened up my eyes and gave me an insight on how i needed to approach songs from a musical perspective and not from a shredders perspective cause at the time it was always about trying to squeeze in as many licks and notes. I started to reminisce about why I loved listening to the music of “The Shadows” at an early age and it hit me! So I started listening to bands like U2, Midnight Oil (legendary Australian band), Dire Straits, Queen, Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Simple Minds, Simply Red, Spy v Spy (Australian band) it taught me to create parts and work on the perfect sound that works for the song, soon enough I started applying this new way of thinking to all my recordings at home and started noticing positive feedback from friends and fellow musicians. I always took on free sessions for various producers just to build up my confidence with styles at the same time building strong relationships. No matter how many demos I had sent out to various studios to try and get work no one would hire me. It is quite a common road for producers to go with what they know and stay away from unfamiliar territory, they’ll stick with musicians they’ve used over the years and feel comfortable with. So nothing beat playing in their studio, it gave them a true idea of what I was capable of doing and this eventually led to bigger and paid sessions .

Getting called for a session requires honesty, if you feel that the description of the session is a little leftfield to what your capable of playing then you’re better off saying no to it, there’s nothing worse than turning up to a session knowing that you’re not confident it will frustrate the producer and more than likely you won’t get called back. It’s ok to say no and save yourself for a session you feel comfortable on. Remember it’s all about the call back!

Tips

• Good timing, able to create on the spot and bring stuff to the table, good feel, good attitude towards the music is a must.
• Being able to interpret a producers idea is really important.
• Don’t worry about how long the session is taking if the producer wants a certain thing, it might take time to achieve it, there’s nothing worse than giving the producer the impression you want to get out of there. I’ve done sessions that have taken 5 minutes and I’ve done ones that have taken 6 hours you take the good with the bad every session is different.
• Never get too attached to your parts. There have been so many times where I’ll do a bunch of ideas that sound great on the day that don’t even make the final mix, don’t take it personally, at the end of the day it’s all about the song.
• Keep your guitars set up and re-strung regularly.
• Always bring a few choices in guitars to sessions i.e, strat ,hollow body, les Paul, acoustic guitar.
• Always bring a tuner with you and check your tuning all the time during the session.
• Bring slides, capos, e-bow, volume pedals and anything that might be useful for coloring the track. Even if you think the description of the track might not need these items it’s always good to have in your bag to offer the producer a different vibe.
• I would highly recommend you get yourself a basic recording set up at home and write music cause it’s going to help you hone your creative skills.
• Spare strings is a necessity
• It’s always good to be able to write a quick chart on the spot, if your not used to writing charts that doesn’t matter, a great ear is just as good.
• I wouldn’t worry too much about bringing your amp these days about 90% of sessions I do is directly into the desk with plugins, most producers prefer it cause it gives them the option to tweak the sound later on.
• Always listen to what the producer has to say and most importantly listen out for what the song requires and have some initiative to make suggestions.