Hired for How You Think: Rick Watford on Session Guitar Etiquette (Episode 38)

Reliability beats virtuosity.

Rick Watford and Nomad go way back, to Nomad's Florida and Nashville days. Rick went to Atlanta, Nomad went west to LA, and somewhere along the way Rick's session credits started to rival Nomad's own. In Episode 38 of The Career Musician, Nomad calls him the modern bridge of gospel, R&B and jazz guitar, and the intro credit list runs from Shirley Caesar and Andraé Crouch to CeCe Winans, Marvin Sapp and Luther Vandross.

What Rick brings to this conversation isn't licks. It is how a session guitarist thinks. Here is what he shared.

It starts away from the instrument

Rick learned by sitting next to his dad in church and watching his hands. But ask him what makes a successful career musician, and he doesn't talk about guitar.

It starts with being a man of your word, being on time, being a businessman, and taking responsibility. Know your music. Know your itinerary, where to be and when. Don't make waves. Be an asset to the artist, not a liability. That is Reliability beats virtuosity and Low maintenance / no drama in one breath.

Rick describes reputation in stages. At first you show up before your reputation does. Then you and your reputation arrive at the same time. Then it starts to precede you, and once it does, it had better be good. Nomad was honest here: there were times his own reputation preceded him and somebody said they needed someone with a little less aggression. He learned to let things go. Rick learned the other side, to fight for himself when he needed to. It's a balance.

Play less, think more

On the gig, you are at the artist's disposal. You replicate what is on the record.

"At the bottom of the gig totem pole is the freedom of doing what you want. At the top of it is doing what they want."

Rick Watford, 10:55

That takes more discipline and thought, and fewer actual notes. Rick has found that the bigger the checks got, the fewer notes he played. And he has a line for why.

"You don't get hired for how you play, you get hired for how you think."

Rick Watford, 12:31

Line up ten players with the same skill, and the only thing that separates them is how they think. The artist is watching: why did he leave that space when he could have filled it? The hookup can get you in the door, but it won't keep you there. Nomad added his own guitar note: learn to make a tasteful statement without screaming it, and learn to work with other guitar players instead of fighting them.

Studio etiquette: listen, decipher, deliver

In the studio, Rick says, it's not your job to tell the artist or producer what they want. It's your job to listen, decipher what they want, and deliver. You will meet two types. One has the script and will hand you your exact part. The other says, I hired you for what you do. Both are nerve-racking in their own way. Wait to find out which one you are dealing with.

The biggest compliment on a session player's resume, to him, is a list of producers across country, jazz, pop, gospel and rock. That means you adapted, and they referred you.

"Adaptability comes from humility. You don't push yourself or your agenda on a thing."

Rick Watford, 17:11

Be an open circuit, he says. Then when they give you the green light, close the circuit and show them why they called you. That is Humility, straight from ETHOS.

Confidence, accommodation and the uneven month

On negotiating, Rick says you need humility matched with confidence. Clients pay for confidence, not doubt. Show them you are able, and that you will accommodate whatever they need. Bring answers. Whoever has the answers keeps working.

Then the money itself. Nomad laid out a familiar picture: eight grand one month, one grand the next, three after that, twelve in the summer. How do you balance that? Rick says it can take ten years to get your head around it. You come home from a tour with money in your pocket, eat out, buy clothes and gear, and wonder where it went. Learn your average month. Look at yourself the way an accountant would. And Nomad's tip: study basic economics, supply and demand.

Rick also admits saying no has been his weak spot. Wanting to accommodate people has cost him. A little sternness sets the margins for who people know they are working with. That is Make Music Your Business.

Fifteen minutes that turned into a movie

Rick got a call to go to a studio in Atlanta. They needed a guitar player, that was all he knew. The producer played him the song, Rick heard what it needed, and said hit record. Fifteen minutes later he was done. The producer went and got another producer, who told Rick the song was for a movie, The Fighting Temptations. Everything on the track was programmed except him. She loved the organic energy and asked if he could give her the next two weeks to be in the movie. Everything you do is an audition. A quick session was the tryout.

There was a catch. He had already committed to a gospel session in Mississippi inside those two weeks, with someone who had wanted him for three months. Rick hated to do it, but it was the biggest opportunity he had ever had, and he told him.

Nomad's point: my word is bond, but in business there are exceptions. How you handle them is what counts. Rick's method for a double booking is to disclose all the facts and ask, what would you do if you were me? Recently, weighing a live session against a TV pilot, he did exactly that, and the other artist offered to have him overdub his parts later. Face it head on, and you live to fight another day.

The takeaway

Be the player whose reputation arrives ahead of him for the right reasons. Think before you play, play what the record needs, and handle conflicts with honesty. If you want to get in the room where those reputations get made, start with the free Get the Gig guide, and check out Rick's AllMusic credits.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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