Marc Friedland
From:
Fort Collins, CO
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Posted 2 Nov 2005 9:26 pm |
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I’d like to share a recent recording experience that went quite well.
From a referral, I received a call from a player/producer guy that has his own studio about an hour away from my house. He said he was working with a couple of songwriter/players who were interested in having pedal steel played on some of their songs. I told him I was available, and later one of the guys called me. We talked, and came to the understanding that I would play a 3-hour session for the price of $200. They sent me an email of mp3s of the songs, so I could at least be sort of familiar with the tunes. There were 4 songs they thought the steel might sound good on, with two of them being important, and the other two, only if there’s time. They were basic 3 and 4 chord songs with sort of standard country/pop arrangements as a backdrop for humorous, racy, and sort of clever lyrics. I got there at 12:00 and left at 3:00. I had recorded 2 songs on the pedal steel and one on 6-string. I played through each song about a half dozen times, trying to understand what types of things they were and weren’t looking for. I don’t know if I played one take totally correct, but it was done on Pro Tools, that they seemed quite adept on, and I’m sure with a few cut & pastes, they’ll have what they want. They paid me in cash and everyone was happy.
Here’s part of an email I received from them later”
“Thanks again for your help today. You definitely added a layer of color to the tracks that was much needed!! I hope we can count on you for the next batch of songs as well.
Thanks again. It was a real pleasure.”
Attention Newbies:
For any of you that are reading this, please take note.
I’m pretty sure some of you could have done well on a session similar to this, so don’t be afraid to try it sometime. Of course, it’s only right to let the person know you’ve had limited experience, but sometimes that doesn’t matter.
There was no need for fast picking or extended chord voicings, or to have a large library of cool impressive licks to fall back on.
If you can play the 3Cs, cleanly, concisely and confidently, you would have earned your pay and gained a fun and valuable experience.
-- Marc
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