Hiring a session player: what to ask before you book
· 3 min read
The gap between a good player and the right player for your song is where most disappointing sessions live.
Most disappointing sessions aren't caused by hiring someone who can't play. They're caused by hiring someone excellent at something other than what the song needed.
Avoiding that is mostly about the questions you ask before booking, and the ten minutes of preparation almost nobody does.
Work out what you're actually buying
There are broadly three things you might want from a player, and they're different jobs:
Execution. You know exactly what you want and need someone to play it well. What matters is precision, tone and speed. Direction is welcome.
Interpretation. You have the song and a rough idea. You want someone to make it good. What matters is taste and experience, and you should expect to be surprised.
Rescue. Something isn't working and you don't know why. You want someone who's seen this before. What matters is judgement, and you're really buying diagnosis.
Players have preferences here. Some want to be told exactly what to play; others find it stifling. Neither is better, and a mismatch produces a technically fine session that leaves everyone slightly flat.
Ask directly: do you prefer a clear brief or room to interpret?
The questions that matter
Do you read? Binary and important. If you're bringing charts, this decides everything.
Have you done this style? Not "can you" — everyone can. Have you, recently, and can I hear it. Style is idiom, not technique, and idiom comes from having lived in it.
What do you need from me before the day? A good player will have an answer, usually involving a reference track, a rough demo, and a key. Someone who says "just send it over" may be relaxed or may be under-prepared, and it's worth finding out which.
What's included? For remote work in particular: how many alternate takes, are stems included, what's the turnaround, and how many revisions before it becomes another session.
What gear are you bringing? Sounds mundane, decides sound. Someone bringing their own snare has a sound they know. Someone using whatever's there is more variable.
What to send before the session
This is where most bookers underinvest and it costs them hours of studio time.
- A reference track. Not your song — something that sounds like what you want. Faster than any amount of description.
- A rough demo, however bad, with the structure clear. A phone recording is fine.
- The key and the tempo. If it's not to a click, say so.
- What you're not looking for. Genuinely useful. "Not busy" saves an hour.
- Where the song ends up. A demo, a release, a sync pitch. It changes how someone plays.
Ten minutes of this saves an hour on the day, and a session hour costs more than ten minutes of yours.
Remote versus in the room
Remote is excellent for well-defined parts: overdubs, a specific instrument on a finished arrangement, anything where the song already exists and something needs adding.
It's poor when the part needs to react to what else is happening. If you want a rhythm section that locks, put them in a room together. That interaction is a real thing and it doesn't survive being reassembled from separate files.
Middle ground plenty of people use: track the foundational parts live in a room, add the specialist overdubs remotely from whoever's best rather than whoever's nearest.
On booking someone you've never met
Two hours is a perfectly reasonable first booking. It's enough to do something real, cheap enough that a mismatch is survivable, and both of you learn what you need to know.
If it goes well, book the bigger thing. Plenty of long working relationships — and plenty of bands — started with somebody hiring somebody for one afternoon.
The thing worth paying for
If the track matters, hire above your budget's comfort rather than below it. The difference between adequate and right is usually one person, and it's usually cheaper than the extra day you'd otherwise spend fixing it.
Browse players — rates, styles and remote availability are on the listing, so most of the questions above are answered before you message anyone.