General Music Chat

This group was one of those that plays all the b-side songs, you know the unknown songs. Its great if everyone is on board with that...

That's not "great" whether everyone is on board or not.

It's got to be one of the dumnest things a COVER band can do, is to mostly play songs that are technically "covers" but they are covers that only a limited number of audience members know. It kind of defeats the whole purpose of being a COVER band.

Not everyone bought that album.

Play the songs EVERYONE knows.

Throw in a B-Side once in a while...

"How many of you guys know who recorded the song "whatever" - Well, this wasn't a hit, but it was a great song, by a band all of you guys know, and it's one of our personal favroites by this group, so... we hope you guys will like it too!"

You can't blame bands for getting burned out playing the hits. How many times can you do "Brown Eyed Girl", "Taking Care of Business" and "Wonderful Tonight" before you go off on someone

ONCE

Jimmy Im not blaming them, but look at it from your standpoint if you were called in last minute to play a 2 hour show, 20-25 songs and nothing on the list is familiar. When they called me and I asked what bands they covered it was all the familiar names so I figured no biggie. They had this huge list on the wall and I did see some familiar songs, when i suggested we do them the reply was thats one we are working on. We would try these and sure enough they were just working on them.

Im just saying it might be good ot have some of those gimme songs as a point of reference to make sure the show can go on.

Im a loose player but when I go in for a gig my whole goal is to kick ass. I dont want to be standing up there looking at other players trying to figure out what they are going to do next. My philosophy for live is just straight ahead, I shouldnt have to be wondering what is fixing to happen.

Jimmy Im not blaming them, but look at it from your standpoint if you were called in last minute to play a 2 hour show, 20-25 songs and nothing on the list is familiar. When they called me and I asked what bands they covered it was all the familiar names so I figured no biggie. They had this huge list on the wall and I did see some familiar songs, when i suggested we do them the reply was thats one we are working on. We would try these and sure enough they were just working on them.

Im just saying it might be good ot have some of those gimme songs as a point of reference to make sure the show can go on.

Im a loose player but when I go in for a gig my whole goal is to kick ass. I dont want to be standing up there looking at other players trying to figure out what they are going to do next. My philosophy for live is just straight ahead, I shouldnt have to be wondering what is fixing to happen.

As long as I had a week to prepare there would be no issue. I learn songs very quickly.

Cover bands should just play songs that drunk girls like to dance to anyway.

Ussually I dont need a week just a couple of hours to get to a gig LOL

I wont go any deeper cause some of those guys may be on this board!

People crack me up.

- "I could learn all these song in one week."
- 'Oh yeah, I could learn them all in a day or two"
- 'Hell, just give me a couple of hours.'
- 'I could learn all those in 2.8 minutes!'

Unless they are playing off of charts or just Fakebooking it - no chance.

Are you serious? If you can't learn 20-25 songs in a week quit!

Are you serious? If you can't learn 20-25 songs in a week quit!

No kidding ... I'm with you on that one Jimmy

Not to be disrespectful of my musical Elders but that's BS.
If that's truly the attitude one would take with any endeavor worth the effort.
Why try at all??

What I mean is, there are SO many guitarists that are really good, and can learn 25 songs in a week, that if you're not up to it get out of the way or get run over.

Look guys I could learn every song on the list, but if the base band doesnt really know them, then what difference does it make!

Zip really if you consider yourself a competent guitar player learning 25 songs shouldnt be a stretch. If your playing a lot of standard stuff then a lot of it is ussually repetitive anyway.

I will say that if you were playing some hard core prog rock it would take longer, or it would for me.

I have had calls at 6pm for a 9 oclock show with folks Ive only occasionally jammed with and pulled off a decent show. In the case of this band I didnt think it would happen with just a practice. It would take a lot more, and for one gig whats the point if you cant just throw it together and do it.

This aint rocket science, its rock n roll!

Right on John. I mean, if you can one Aerosmith tune it's not that much of a stretch to learn another. But you're right, if it's bunch of complicated or original stuff it's gonna take more work. I believe you made the right call.

It's not about learning 25 songs in a week, its about remembering all your parts when you play them at the end of that week.

Sure you can just go with the progression of each song and put your own sh*t on top, or an approximation of whats really played - which is lame IMO.
Or you can use charts, or written music.
It depends on what type of songs they are and if you care or not if its note for note.

lol - get out the way eh Jimmy?
How about cuttin heads, pops?

Ooooh, cuttin' heads.. The sinister side of me likes that idea. But the musician side of me doesn't like the idea of musical art as a competition.

I did guitar solo competitions in the past. But it was a bogus venture. Whoever brought the most people with them always won for the night. The winner was based on cheers from the crowd. You could have tore it up Vai-style, but if some hack brought 30 people with him, he won for the night.