For today’s post, we welcome Mella Barnes to The Crafty Musician Community! Mella is a full-time session musician who lives in Nashville. For more information about Mella, see her bio below.
Whenever I tell people I’m a full-time session singer, I usually get one of two questions: “What is that?” or, if they are a musician, “how do you do that? I’d like to try it.”
The answer to the first question is this: Songwriters hire me to sing their songs, either to pitch it to a major artist or to release it themselves. I do background vocals, lead vocals and/or adlibs, whatever the client feels they need to bring their song to life. I’ve been doing this since I was a young child, but I’ve done it full-time for about four years now. I love helping clients achieve the song they always wanted to write! You don’t have to be a singer to be a session musician though, there are session instrument players as well.
The answer to the second question is vast, but I’m going to give you 5 key traits you’ll need in order to be a successful session musician. Anyone can make decent money doing session work, but these tips will help you get ahead in the industry and find solid support.
Be Able To Take Criticism Well
When you’re working with clients, they often don’t know how to convey what they want (or they don’t know what they want yet). Not everyone will sugarcoat their feedback, so it’s important to leave egos at the door. I know several extremely talented singer/songwriters who could not do session work because they said they couldn’t handle the criticism.
I once had a client who responded to my first take as “This isn’t what I wanted at all! What were you thinking??” It stung, because I thought I did exactly what they asked for, and no one likes to hear that their work wasn’t good. I swallowed my pride and asked the client to elaborate on what they wanted, and how my version differed from that. We were able to work together to correct the issues, and he ended up loving the final result.
Any creative freelancing job will involve a bad client or two. You’ll have to roll with the punches and remember that the end goal is to deliver the best work you can, to the client’s satisfaction. You may disagree on what “the best work you can” means, but if the client is happy, that’s all that matters.
Be Confident
While taking criticism is important, it’s also important to know that you can handle it when things go south. Some clients can be sarcastic, rude, or straight up demeaning, and it can rattle your confidence. Knowing who you are and knowing your worth will prevent them from tearing you down.
This is something I still struggle with, so I’m “preaching to the choir” a bit here. I find that the longer I’m in this business, the more I realize I’ve handled similar projects before. Confidence does come with experience, but I’m also working on self-care and going inward to develop more inner strength.
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Confidence is also important when negotiating prices. There shouldn’t be a lot of negotiating, and if someone is needling you about the price, you should feel confident to stand your ground or walk away.
Be Technically Proficient
Way too many people think that all you need in order to be a session musician is to be good at singing or playing an instrument. The truth is, if you don’t know your equipment and DAW like the back of your hand, you’ll struggle in the industry. I tried to get a friend into session work as he’s an amazing piano player, but he had never recorded himself. He ended up not pursuing it because he didn’t want to learn the technical side of music. That’s totally fine! Session work isn’t for everyone, but if you want to do it, you’ll have to be great at recording.
Do you know how to soundproof a room? Do you know how to properly record? Do you know how to export dry stems that are zeroed out? Do you know how to troubleshoot in case a client can’t open a file or has another issue?
These are all things I learned as I went, but you can avoid my pitfalls by learning these out of the gate!
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Bonus: Does Gear Matter?
Obviously, you’ll want to deliver high-quality tracks to your clients. However, gear prices can range from ridiculously cheap to outlandishly expensive. My advice is to go mid-range to start out, then splurge on things you use a ton or that need upgrades.
The only time gear has really “mattered” to me is when clients ask what I use. You will definitely have the occasional gear-head client, so just prepare a list of what you use so they can decide whether or not to hire you. In all honesty, I don’t care about gear. I understand its importance, but I think it’s more about using what you have than buying something expensive and not using it well.
Three must-have gear items for any session musician starting out is a high quality computer, a microphone and a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). With the microphone, you’ll of course need a stand, cable, interface, etc.
Be Business-Minded
Once you start this, you are officially a business. This means you’ll want to focus on your brand, brush up on your entrepreneurial skills, and either take some accounting courses or hire an accountant (I chose the latter and highly recommend it).
If you’re a book lover, I recommend the following books for new session musicians:
- The Right Brain Business Plan by Jennifer Lee. Most musicians are at least a little right-brained, and this book walks you through the entire process of creating a business plan while breaking it down in a simple, creative and less-scary way.
- Your Business Sweet Spot by Racheal Cook. I also highly recommend her Fired Up & Focused book, but Your Business Sweet Spot will help you carve out a niche in the industry.
- The Conquer Kit by Natalie McNeil. This is a fun activity book that gives creative tasks to help your business along.
- Way Less Cowbell by Me. I know, shameless self-plug, but this is literally a book I wrote for songwriters and session musicians, so you’re not going to get a more specific book than that!
If you’re more into videos, here are some channels I recommend:
- The Crafty Musician (obviously, we know it’s a good channel 🙂
- Full Stack Creative – A great musician-based business channel, regardless of what you’re trying to do in the industry
- Adam Ivy – Another music-business related channel with great tips for beginners
- MellasPage (aka Me) – Again, shameless self-plug, but I do talk about music industry stuff! Come hang out with me in the Melluminati
At any given time, I’m always enrolled in at least one class, reading one business book and/or learning one new skill to help my brand. I don’t recommend overloading yourself too quickly, but the sooner you think of yourself as a business, the sooner you’ll start to become one.
Be Good at Marketing
There are so many articles about this already, but the fact is that no one can hire you if no one knows about you. It’s tough to “be everywhere,” so I recommend picking 2 or 3 of your favorite social media platforms and focusing there. Post reels and videos of yourself, show people your gear, let them know what you have to offer.
There are endless debates over how much “personal” info should be on social media. I’ve seen session musicians share every detail of their toxic relationship (not a good idea), and I’ve seen others refuse to share anything personal. In the latter situation, they wind up coming across as stiff and impersonal. I think the best balance is somewhere in the middle. You can decide how much you want to share and change it as you go.
One important marketing tip is that your social media content should be roughly 80% about others and 20% about you. This means that not every post should be you in the studio, or constant tweets about what you’re working on. You can (and should) post those, but add in other content, such as industry news (what do you think of Taylor Swift’s new album? What’s going on with Spotify’s songwriter royalties? etc), you can shout out other musicians you know and love, or post inspirational or funny memes (be careful with the humor though. Remember, professionalism is key!).
Social media is where I meet a lot of my clients (they usually find me through searching “session singer” in various ways on each platform), but you can also find clients in songwriting groups and tags. Remember, a lot of songwriters don’t KNOW they need you yet! They don’t know you exist, and they don’t know what you bring to the table. Meeting them and showing them how you can improve their craft will make them excited to work with you.
At the end of the day, if you can say “I did the absolute best I could” on every project, you’ll be a successful session musician. These five tips are not easy to implement, but they will go a long way toward securing yourself in the session musician industry. If you have any questions, please let me know! I’m always up for a chat about music.
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Thanks for sharing your experience with being a session musician Mella! It’s very interesting work. I tried it once. And what you said about difficult clients, I can relate. I had someone ask me to sing over a vocal track. And I thought I had done it to his specs, but apparently I didn’t and the response was over the top. I ended up blocking him and never tried session work again. Lol! You definitely have to have tough skin.
Oh no so sorry! It’s definitely not for everyone and I do NOT recommend continuing if you don’t enjoy it – life is too short for that! You’re killing it on your own so if you don’t need it, don’t worry about it I say! 🙂 Thank you again for having me!
Thank you so much for having me! I really love the layout of your blog and appreciate the time you took into making my work look good 😊 Happy to answer any questions anyone has on the topic. Thanks again!