Chris Gibbs is one hard-working MF, playing an average of 250 performances per year in Western Australia.

Chris performs regularly both as a band member and a soloist. He plays lead guitar for up and coming WA artist CLAIRE CLARKE and lead guitar for his own new instrumental project, FASHION WITH A GUN. Chris’ other original act, KINGPIN, has recently completed a new album which is due for release in 2008.

Visit FASHION WITH A GUN and KINGPIN myspace pages here.

In 2008 Chris will release his first guitar instructional DVD, ‘Too Much Rock For One Hand - The Lost Art Of Two-Handed Tapping’.

And check it out, he even has his own signature pick!

 

Keep reading to learn more about Chris and how he has made guitar and music his career.

He has a lot of solid tips for how to make it as a successful musician that you don’t want to miss out on!

PS. Enjoy his song, Shifting Gears while you are perusing!

 

 

Hey Chris! Describe for the readers your musical background.

I have been playing guitar for 21 years this year. I started at 15 in high school. I took about ten lessons, where I learned a few bar chord shapes and a minor pentatonic scale. After that everything else was self-taught, although I have just completed an Advanced Diploma of Contemporary Music at WAAPA (West Australian Academy of Performing Arts) which included two years of weekly lessons with Simon Jeans, a prominent Perth jazz/fusion guitarist.

So how did you began work as a session guitarist?

I guess it more or less came from two main areas: working with studios on my own projects, which exposed my playing to producers; and working live with numerous musicians which built a reputation. Eventually musicians that I gigged with would ask me to play on their projects and studios would invite me back to work on other projects.

How do you break into the studio scene?

Well for me it was through recording at studios during my own projects that got me follow-up work. I think another good way would be to send studios short samples which cover your strongest styles and see if you can get some interest that way.

How important is reading music in the studios these days?

I have never used sight-reading for any studio session. So far it’s always been listening on the spot or receiving audio in advance. But I still think that it is a skill that all guitarists should take a little more seriously. Guitarists are not typically strong readers due to the nature of the instrument, but a good understanding of charts, even from a musical direction point of view (eg- understanding codas, repeats, etc.) is a worthwhile skill to have. I was recently hired to play in the live orchestra for the national finals of STORM THE STAGE, a kind of IDOL competition for musical theatre. There was only one rehearsal and one run through with the contestants, so an understanding of chart direction, time signatures and tempo changes was vital in that instance.

How much gear do you need to start out to be considered professional?

A decent guitar and a decent amp, maybe a decent effects unit or some good stomp boxes. The key is versatility though, you need guitars that pull a variety of tones, amps that cover numerous tones. I use Godin guitars for most of my work and a Fender Tele for extra twang. Most of the time I use my Digitech GNX4 for the tones. I have an endorsement for Digitech products through the Australian distributor, CMI. I do a lot of session work at one particular studio, Soundbaker, and the producer Rob Agostini loves the sound of the GNX4 going through a rack-mounted Avalon pre-amp for a little warmth. He loves the ease of that set-up too, no cabs to mic up, no spill to worry about. But I do have a custom made, all-valve 100 watt KING head, made right here in Perth, which I run through a Framus 2×12 if ‘real’ amps are required.

 

It’s good to spare a thought here for the little things too: a good capo, a really reliable tuner, spare strings, tool kit, different pick gauges and types for different sounds, a slide, spare leads. Be prepared!

What is the hardest part of the studio musician’s gig?

Letting go. You need to put in your best but you also need to remember that it is not your baby, you need to achieve what you are being asked to achieve. Sometimes that may not be what you would actually do, given more control. It’s about pleasing the client, you need to balance that against your own satisfaction.

What should an aspiring studio pro be learning to do? Who should they be talking to?

Talk to people who are out there doing it, I think most guitarists enjoy talking shop. Maybe visit some studios, see what the process is like. Really assess your playing too, are you enough of an ‘all-rounder’ to be able to service a variety of projects? Be honest about it too, could you take on a country song? A blues? Metal? Funk? Work out your strengths and promote them, work on your weaknesses and widen your scope.

What three things are vital to success in session work?

Professionalism, versatility and fast thinking. You need to conduct yourself in a professional manner at all times: show up on time, know your gear, listen to instructions, know your parts if you have been given them already. You need to be versatile and flexible, able to think outside of your normal frame of reference and be open to new ideas. A good grasp on multiple styles is a big advantage too. You need to be able to think fast, in case a stylistic or structural change has been made to the material without prior warning, or if multiple ideas for the same song are required.

So what was your worst experience in the studio?

A horrible day in the studio still beats an awesome day in an office or behind a counter, I think! But still there have been occasional frustrations. Probably the time I recorded an Air Supply cover ‘Even The Nights Are Better’ for a client. The bass line had already been done, it was slightly out of tune and several really cool chord substitutions had been ignored, making everything a little clunky. Not so much frustration I guess but disappointment at not being able to work around the bass part.

What is your most memorable experience?

It’s all been great so far but probably nailing a first take solo on a song. We actually tacked the session on to the end of one of my own project sessions so I was really warmed up, Rob Agostini (the producer) ran the section once and then we went for it. The first take was exactly what he wanted. That was a song called ‘Inner Strength’ by an artist called Kalli, the single has just been released out here.

What are you most proud of in your musical career?

So many great moments so far, and hopefully many more to come. Let me see: touring the UK with my rock band KINGPIN in 2002, winning the Most Popular Guitarist award at the 1997 West Australian Music Industry Awards (WAMI Festival), supporting NICKELBACK in front of 8000 people at Burswood Dome in 2006, winning the rock category of the West Australian song contest in 1998 and 2001. Those moments all come to mind, there are so many other things too, it’s just a joy to be able to play music constantly and make a living from it!

I think wherever you have a network built and wherever you can keep getting work is great, whether it’s a big city or a suburb somewhere. Basically you just need to be in an area where there is a strong enough music scene to support your career. I live in Perth, Western Australia, this state has a massive area, our population is only a little over 2 million and yet Perth produces some of Australia’s most popular artists, so if the scene is strong, the isolation can work for you rather than against you. I guess the best advice on this issue is to explore every opportunity at your own doorstep first.

How much creative input are you allowed, like how much would you be likely to find if you had already developed your own personal style and original techniques?

I think that I got my early session work as a result of having my own style, producers recognised the style or the way I handled parts as something that would work on other projects. You don’t need to become a robot as such, you just need to accept the client’s ideas and work with them towards a result. Some sessions you get asked what you would like to do with a track and you can shape the result more to your own ideas, sometimes you are asked for a very specific type of performance. Both ways are rewarding, you learn a little more about yourself as a musician and person every time.

When looking to be a professional, do you sign with a record label to manage you as their hired gun, or do you just manage yourself as a freelance guitarist?

I have a booking agent for my live work but I am self-managed and I handle all of my session work independently. Occasionally my booking agent Frankie G (Champion Entertainment) will also throw me a lead for session work too. I don’t see any particular problem with aligning with a label too, but that’s not really an option for me out here. My strongest advice regarding contracts is to get a good music lawyer and always know what you are signing.

Once you are on the 1st call list, how do they go about maintaining their status?

Keep a good relationship with the producer. Don’t forget that once your part is done, producers still have a long way to go until they have a finished product. It doesn’t hurt to make contact and see how it all turned out, or to make contact and thank them again for the opportunity. Some unexpected work that I have secured over the years has been by making social calls to producers. If you show genuine interest in what is going on with projects, you may end up on those very projects.

Just curious but do you personally make more money as a session guitarist or from your own projects?

I make more money from live work, some of that live work is with my own projects (KINGPIN, FASHION WITH A GUN), some of it is as a session guitarist for other artists(CLAIRE CLARKE, PAUL BLACK), some of it is original material and some of it is covers (HUGE).

Do you give guitar lessons on the side?

I actually ran my own guitar tuition business, FULL ON GUITAR TUITION, as my main source of income for about eight years. After that I only really conducted lessons when approached by friends or colleagues. Recently though I have secured a contract teaching primary school children two days per week at a local school. I finished my music studies, looking forward to getting all my days back, but true to form I have started filling them all up with music again!

How much time daily do you practice? And what are you mostly practicing?

I wish I had more time to practice! During semester breaks last year I devised a daily two-hour practice regime which included warm-ups (using the 30 Day Guitar Workout book), sight-reading (Berklee Method Book 1), chart-reading (whatever I could find, usually something with jazz chords and styles), style development (I used Steve Lynch’s Two Handed Technique book and Pat Martino’s Hot Lines book last time around) and improvisation (where I played over changes I had recorded or to other recordings).

When I can’t fit a proper session in, I tend to practice along with albums or backing tracks and also work new scale exercises.

What’s more important: tasty lead playing or solid rhythm work?

Both are important, but I think solid rhythm skills are overlooked far too often. There’s no point having awesome lead chops if you can’t hold down an eighth-note chordal pattern without losing the time.

What sort of practice method did you use to build up your reading chops?

Start simple and work your way up, find a simple reading book, like the Berklee book or Aaron Shearer’s Classical Method and just start on page one. Also if you are having real hassles with it, try getting a program like Guitar Pro and tab out some of your favourite lines, then look at what they look like in the music notation section. That way you get a feel for what your playing ‘looks like’ and you may start to recognise that in other charts too. Also, read simple charts and clap them out rather than play them, that builds a strong sense of rhythm. Something like Louis Bellson’s book is great for that, pages and pages of rhythms to clap or sing.

What do you think are some of the setbacks or constraints that keep guitar players from becoming a studio guitarist?

Not wanting to think out side the box or expand your learning can be a big issue, some players get so set in their ways that they essentially cut themselves out of so many markets. I make a good living as a guitar player, but it is because of my versatility as a player that I do not need to have a ‘day job’. I play covers, originals, acoustic shows, solo gigs, duos, trios, sessions, teach lessons, write and arrange for other artists, you name it. If I only wanted to play, say funk music, and I only wanted to perform Parliament tunes, then I’d probably get very good at that but it is such a small sector of the market, I couldn’t make a living from it.

I think some players also get very precious about what is ‘cool’. If you made every decision regarding session work based on a projects ‘coolness’ then you probably won’t get too far with it. Think bigger, there’s nothing cooler than having your instrument make money for you, and it is TOTALLY cool to be a musician full time!

Are there any trends as to where professional and studio guitar is going in the future?

I think files will be transferred via the Internet a lot more than they already are, most players who also write have a pretty decent home recording set-up, there’s no reason why sessions can’t get recorded at home and emailed back to the studio. I have only done that to demo ideas back and forth thus far, I still prefer the studio experience because I think watching others work is the best way to learn. File transfers via the Internet open up massive possibilities regarding international session work though!

What last advice would you give to an aspiring studio guitar player?

Know yourself and know your gear. Promote your strengths and work on your weaknesses. Network as much as you can. And don’t be afraid to ask for work. Just set your goals and do everything you can to achieve them. In a lot of ways, if you do that you have already succeeded.

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