Studio & Session Players: Professional Musicians

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village my name is Jim Dufresne, I'm here to tell you about how to make a living playing music. Well to make money as a studio musician there again you got to be at the top of the field. You have to have some sight read music notation, you have to sight read tablature and you've got to have a big set of ears. I'm not talking about ears that stand out, I'm talking about ears that you can hear something or hearing need for something and be able to play it. George Harrison was just a fabulous guitar player because he always played just the proper thing for the song, George Harrison, everything George Harrison played was just the right thing for the song. You'll hear a lot of the guitar players playing too many notes or stay with just a scale, there's more to music than just a scale. I've always taught my students that learning the scale is fine but it's like painting with just one color, you got all these other scales you can have fun with. Now as far as owning a studio there again you have to figure out what the needs of your community is, if you have about 5-6 studios in your town and they're all fighting each other for it that's the last thing you want to do is start a studio. Studios typically don't make a lot of money but some do because they provide a atmosphere they have very high level of craftsmanship, and they provide the needs and the technology that music and contractors are looking for."