Session musician

A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a tour. Session musicians are usually not permanent or official members of a musical ensemble or band.

Many session musicians specialize in playing common rhythm section instruments such as guitar, piano, bass, or drums. Others are specialists, and play brass, woodwinds, and strings. Many session musicians play multiple instruments, which lets them play in a wider range of musical situations, genres, and styles. Examples of "doubling" include double bass and electric bass, acoustic guitar and mandolin, piano and accordion, and saxophone and other woodwind instruments.

Session musicians are used when musical skills are needed on a short-term basis. Typically, session musicians are used by recording studios to provide backing tracks for other musicians for recording sessions and live performances, recording music for advertising, film, television, and theatre.

In the 2000s, the terms "session musician" and "studio musician" were synonymous, though in past decades, "studio musician" meant a musician associated with a single record company, recording studio or entertainment agency.

Session musicians rarely achieve mainstream fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders. However, top session musicians are well-known within the music industry. Some have become publicly recognized, such as the Wrecking Crew, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and The Funk Brothers who worked with Motown Records.

Session musicians may play in a wide range of genres or specialize in a specific genre (e.g., country music or jazz). Some session musicians with a classical music background may focus on film score recordings. Even within a specific genre specialization, there may be even more focused sub-specializations. For example, a sub-specialization within trumpet session players is "high note specialist."

The working schedule for session musicians often depends on the terms set out by musicians' unions or associations, as these organizations typically set out rules on performance schedules (e.g., regarding the length of sessions and breaks). The length of employment may be as short as a single day, in the case of recording a brief demo song, or as long as several weeks if an album or film score is being recorded.

Musicians' associations and unions often set out the remuneration terms. Some musicians may get the minimum scale rate set out by the union. Heavily in-demand session musicians may earn much more. The union rates may vary based on whether it is a music recording versus a film/television recording. While the film/television rates may be lower, there may also be residual payments to compensate them for reruns, DVD sales, streaming usage, and so on.