Keep reading to know the way to hire session drummers for your music project.
How to find and hire session drummers
When you live in a city with a strong music scene, hiring session drummers from within your network is always a great option.
However, it may be hard to seek out variety and expertise that fits your project—especially if you’re strapped for time or are looking for a specific sound.
A simple method to increase your options is to hire session drummers online using a gig network like LANDR Network.
It’s a fast, easy, and affordable option to find the right drummers and the best recordings for your projects.
Working and collaborating remotely allows you to hire drummers for projects big and small, and increase your relationships and networks outside of your own community.
How to become a session drummer
Networking, building relationships, and increasing your connections are the best strategies to get started on the way of turning into a session drummer.
Even if you’re networking in person, an online presence is a must for showcasing your sound, past projects, availability, and expertise to potential clients.
For example, think about creating an account on gig networking platforms such as LANDR Network. It’s an effective way to find extra opportunities that you wouldn’t get otherwise.
If you’re able, building relationships with local venues, studios, or local music programs can also be a good choice to start your network.
How to work with a session drummer
To get the most out of a working relationship between a producer and a session drummer there’s a couple of expectations to remember on both sides.
Here’s what you need to be looking out for.
Your track should be ready for drums
You want something {that a} drummer can play over.
Generally, this means having a project reasonably close to completion in a DAW that you could share either as a saved DAW project or in stem format.
It’s also best to have a good mix of your track prepared, so the drummer can hear everything that’s happening and be able to make decisions based on what’s happening in the music.
So, don’t forget to incorporate a vocal track and clearly mark sections and changes in instrumentation—these are cues {that a} good drummer will listen to and play.
You should know how to describe what you want in the drum take
If you want the most effective results you should describe what you want within your drum take.
That means explaining how and when the drums evolve over the course of the track, the type of drumbeat you need, and the overall style of drums you expect.
For instance, if your track starts off with guitars and vocals only and includes a tom breakdown during the bridge—you need to specify that.
You don’t have to be an expert in drum patterns to be able to communicate the general style of drums you need in your track.
However, figuring out a few drum styles and patterns may help when explaining the general sound of what you need in your track.
Use track form and drum kit terminology in your directions
Get familiar with the completely different parts of the drum kit and use common song form terminology to explain what you want in each part of the track.
It will allow you to make everything super clear for your drummer when you can say something like—” I need a tom breakdown in the bridge, a simple hi-hat beat in the verse, and go all out on the crash in the chorus”.
Keeping your requirements clear will help everybody get as close to a dream take as possible.
Hot tip: Do your drummer a favor and include the BPM you’ve tracked everything to. If you’re sending your track in stem format, think about adding a version with a click track.
Don’t walk, drum
I can always tell when I’m listening to a drum track that was made with a computer.
Sure—electronically produced drums work and are integral to many genres of music, especially electronic.
However live drums are so essential in lots of popular genres—especially neo-soul, country, rock, R&B, and even hip-hop.
Fortunately, good drummers aren’t as hard to seek out as they once were, especially with online gig networks like LANDR Network.
If you produce music that’s begging for a live drum take, now why getting a great session drummer on your track is so essential.