Chances of what? Getting on some albums? Playing on cool tracks? Earning a comfortable living?

For starters, I'm going to guess that the demand for session work in Portland is pretty similar to the requirements for session work in every American city that isn't Los Angeles, Nashville or New York, which is "very light." So if you want to increase your opportunity for work, move to a music city. However, also recognize that everybody else who has a dream of making it in music has already beaten you there and that if you don't have a driving need to live in Los Angeles, Nashville or New York, the opportunity for advancement is unlikely to be worth it.

So with that in mind, getting the work that is available is going to come down to "who you know" and if you're cold-calling studios, you don't know enough people. Also bear in mind that studio owners and studio engineers aren't the ones who will hire you, it's producers, and at the "portland" scale "producer" means "guy who decides things for the band."

The best way to know those people is to play out. Live. A lot. At every opportunity. For free, for fun, for favors, for beer, for the hell of it. You don't want to commit to one band, you want to commit to three or four bands and you want to be on stage as often as you can, in front of people as often as you can, playing every style of music that even vaguely interests you, getting good at it, getting professional, and above all having a hell of a good time. Because as you say, if you don't do what you love in this life, you're wasting your time.

Here's an anecdote: i work with a guy who was one of the studio techs at Record Plant for ten years. He's got credits that would blow your mind - Patty Scialfa, Bloodsugarsexmagik, Rod Stewart, you name it. And he still occasionally mixes bands for fun on his crotchety old HD3 rig. And one up'n'coming band really wanted a session saxophonist to replicate (x famous sax solo) on (y famous album from the '80s).

My buddy said "well, that's ZZZ. He works at Guitar Center Hollywood. I'll bet we could get him for a half-rack of beer."

And they did.

So really - it comes down to playing a lot with people you like in places you want to be for audiences you want to impress and letting it follow from that. Because if you try and be business-like about it, you'll discover that the music business wasn't really a business even at its height and it certainly isn't now, so focus on having fun and let the opportunities follow.

Good luck.

obviously KB's advice is great.

I was told that the one thing that you can do to increase your employability as a sideman immediately is get good at backing vocals. You give them officially one less person they need to find and hire, and are a step ahead of some of the competition (and on the same level as a lot of the rest).

Yeah man! I don't have any experience with this topic to share with you, but I've been playing bass for ages now and have thought about doing what you're doing once of twice. I'd love to hear updates from you as things advance.

Are you looking to break into a specific "scene" or just any studio at this point? Can you refresh us on your musical background?

Best of luck!