Yesterday

Yesterday at college we had a talk from Perth College lecturer and session musician - Pete Honeyman. Peter told us about life as a young session musician and instrumental instructor working all over the country. Listening intently, as I realised this might be the career that I will pursue after college, I realised that I have a big hill to climb before I can walk down the road of the session musician.

The key things I learned about session work is that you have to be versatile and adaptable. You can always plug your guitar in and play in the style or manner that you prefer, you have to be able to play the instrument the way that the producer or MD wants you to - whether that be playing distorted or clean; finger style or with a plectrum, or even just playing the acoustic guitar. Whatever the situation, you have to be prepared and have the right equipment.


I’ll be honest and say “I cannot use a plectrum to play the guitar…”
I taught myself the guitar when I was fourteen and preferred using my fingers to play as I realised I could play both melody and accompaniment. Since then, I have never really bothered to pick up Satan’s plastic and try to sweep-pick my nuts off. After what Pete has said, I know now that I will need to vastly improve my sight reading skills and my guitar technique.

So yeah lets try and use a pick…oh dropped it…oops dropped it…ahh sack it… Hell yeah, just played a pinch harmonic with my fingers ;) alllright, high five!



Besides the talk, the word session has been hitting us from all angles. Thursday afternoons see us in Session Skills class with Gavin. For the past couple of weeks he has also told us of his career in session work, ranging from outside events and television shows, to studio recordings and adverts.
Within the next week or so, Gav will be making us create our own band/sessions and testing our sight-reading, teamwork and organisational skills. I do look forward to playing some Motown.





P.s. If anyone is actually reading this, Eat Dr. Ape have a gig on the 2nd of October at ‘Maggie Mays’ in Glasgow. Its quite an important gig so it would be great to have everyone along to support us :D