Glossary of Music/Recording Related Terms

Session Leader – The musician who leads a session. They are hired by the producer and work with them. Their responsibilities may include writing number charts for the session, booking musicians for the session, and assisting the producer in keeping the session running smoothly.

Scratch Vocal – A guide vocal track which is sung while the musicians record the music for a song.

SESAC –The Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (because the privately-owned company was originally established in 1930 to serve European artists who were not adequately represented in the United States.)

Lead – A solo. An instrumental part played during a break in the singing. It usually showcases a recurring musical theme of the song and helps “sell” the attitude or emotion of the song.

BMI – Broadcast Music, Incorporated. BMI is a performing right organization: It collects fees on behalf of its songwriters, composers and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed.

ASCAP – American Society Of Composers, Authors And Publishers. Created in 1914, ASCAP is a membership association of US composers, songwriters, lyricists and music publishers.

Session – A scheduled block of studio time where music is recorded. Sessions are three hour blocks of time. They are referred to by what the time is used for, I.e. “tracking session”; “vocal session’ “mixing session”, overdub session”; or by the classification of the session; i.e. “demo session”, “Limited press session”, or “master session”

Overdub – Additional musical parts that are played after the basic “band tracks” are recorded.

AFTRA – The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is a professional organization for singers (as well as other performing artists and broadcasters) that regulates and enforces the fees they are paid for recording vocals. They act as a “vocalists union,” providing insurance and retirement benefits also.

Card Session – A session that is done on the union card. Fees to musicians are established and enforced by the Musicians Union. Players sign the union card at the end of the session and it is turned into the union. The producer then pays the musicians salaries, plus fees for their cartage, pension, and health and welfare to the union, who distributes them to the musicians.

Musicians Union – The organization that sets and regulates fees paid to musicians for various levels of recording and live performance.

Sideman – A player (musician) who does not lead the session, but plays one instrument on the session.

Producer – The person who works creatively with the client to choose and arrange songs and help establish and accomplish the goals for the project;. The producer chooses and books all of the players on the project (studio, engineer, musicians, vocalists, etc). It is their responsibility to protect the integrity of the song and artist they are working with. They keep the creative picture in focus and the project on budget. Their job is to define the project creatively and coordinate all of the elements of it logistically.

Engineer – The person who focuses on the technical aspects of the project. An engineer’s job is to make the producer’s creative vision happen.

Major Label – A handful of established record labels with deep pockets.

Indie Artist – An artist who does not have the financial support of a major label. Indie artists sometimes have financial backers who help with tour and project support, but many pay for their recording, touring and merchandise out of their own pockets. They do not have the benefits of major label marketing, but they are also unencumbered by the debt most artists incur with major label recording deals.

Staff Writer – A songwriter who is paid a salary by a publishing company to write songs. The salary is considered an advance on future royalties and is recoupable by the publisher. The songwriter will have a quota of songs to turn in and agrees to give the publisher first option to all songs they write during the length of the contract. The publisher agrees to pay the songwriter a monthly salary, give them a demo allowance and pitch their songs to artists. Any money generated by the songs is divided 50/50 by that publisher and songwriter.

Publisher – The person who handles the pitching and promotion of songs to artists, television, film and other outlets; the liscensing of songs, and the collection and distribution of royalties.

Song Plugger – The person who actually takes the meetings with A&R, and artists to play songs for them in hopes of having them recorded and distributed. (This is also known as “pluggin” the songs.) The song plugger may be “in house” and paid by a publisher to work the publishers catalog or he may be independent and paid by the songwriter.
Single Song Contract – A contract offered to a songwriter by a publisher for a single song, as opposed to hiring them as a staff writer and contracting their entire song catalog. It should have a reversion clause, so that if the publisher cannot place the song in a specified time, all ownership reverts back to the songwriter and their 50/50 agreement is null and void.

Chart – A Nashville number score sheet (a lead sheet) for a song. This is commonly used by the musicians during recording because it makes it easy to transpose the song to any key quickly and easily.

Nashville Number System – A system created in Nashville which replaces a full musical score. It is simple and easy to read and creates one common language and transcript for the entire band to follow. A typical verse number chart might read:
1 1 4 4
1 1 4 5
4 5 1 1
1 4 5 5
Let’s assume we are in the key of “C”. C becomes 1. If you count up the C scale, F is the 4th note. Therfore, the number 4 represents an F chord. The number 5 represents a G chord, etc. If the singer wants to sing the song in the key of G instead of C, G becomes the 1 chord, C becomes the 4 chord, and D becomes the 5 chord. Each number represents one bar of music.

Chaz Williams – The guy who wrote the book on the Nashville Number system. It’s called “The Nashville Number System”. If you’d like more explanation of it, here’s your source.

Bar – A place where songwriters congregate after writing sessions (and sometimes during writing sessions). Also, a measure of music.

Intro – The musical phrase you hear before the singing begins.

Turn Around – The musical phrase that happens between the end of the verse and the beginning of the chorus.

Slam Session – A recording session shared by several songwriters where they try to record as many tracks as possible in one session. (They are almost always “tracking only” sessions. Vocals and mixing would be done later at the songwriter’s expense.) These sessions are usually booked by a producer, engineer or studio owner. They go very fast with little time spent on overdubs or creative experimentation. They are an economical way to get good, basic musical tracks if you are capable and willing to finish the production yourself.

BPM – “Beats Per Minute”. This is the tempo of the song.

Lead Break – A musical solo section, played by a “lead” instrument.

Build – A musical crescendo, usually leading into a chorus or bridge.

Stop – A cold stop

Audio Files – The Digital files of each, individual track recorded on a session. (click track, all instrument tracks, all vocal tracks). They may be saved to DVD as ProTools files or consolidated files, for use in a different studio at a later date.

Track Mix – A mix of the musical tracks without the vocals.

Work Tape – A simple guitar/vocal (or piano/vocal) recording of a song, usually done immediately after writing it to document the song. This recording may also be used as a rough demo to use as a guide for the musicians.

Click track – A mechanical metronome that is played (and recorded on it’s own track) during tracking to keep all of the musicians on the agreed upon beats per minute.

Tracking – Recording the musical tracks for a song.

Rough Demo – A simple recording of a song which is used to show the musicians the groove and attitude of a song. It is also used as a reference to write the chart from.

Groove – The “vibe” of a song. The “feel” that helps establish the emotion the listener will feel.

Tempo – The number of “Beats Per Minute” a song is played at. “Ballad”, “Mid-tempo” and “Up-tempo” are general terms used to describe tempo, but a specific “beats per minute” will be used as a click track to keep the band in synch.

Group Demo Session – A demo session where the cost of a recording session is shared by several songwriters. This allows them to each afford higher quality demos for much less expense.

Break Down – A section of a song (usually a bridge or chorus) where the music “breaks down”; becoming more sparse and quiet. The rhythm section (drums and bass) will change the pattern they are playing during this section.

Lift – a musical climb that connects a verse to a chorus. It is bigger in intensity and usually higher in pitch than the verse, but less than the chorus. It is also referred to as a channel section.

Glossary will continue to be updated. Please check back often.
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