General Music Chat

I know I expect well-known solos to be as close to the original as possible, when listening to a cover-band, otherwise I spend the next 20 seconds grumbling to myself about how I know that wasn't the solo I heard on the album lol.

Should people strive for note-for-note? I don't see why not - if you're covering in order to learn and glean that artists' nuances, then good for you! Not many cover bands go gold, so what does it really matter? Just as long as the people you're playing for enjoy it!

Christian A.

Signature licks are important, but as we've seen with Robt Plant's new version of Black Dog, recently, even they can be altered without losing the integrity of the song. I'm on the fence on this, myself. If you can play a song, & make it good...just do it the way you wanna...but don't expect ME to play the bass lines note for note!

lol Phill like the one post wonders with instant lookatmeness: “Everyone please critique this excellent song of mine, but only if you have something good to say.”

Hey Chippy you said it was crap so I go to your profile and you got no audio loaded, go to you’re My Space, reload my SB drivers so I can hear and the whole time I’m thinking: “Well if the guy really sucks I just won’t say anything.” But it’s all good man, you lied. Hey Collector RC2 sounds like something from Moody Blues, interesting structure good tunes really polished too. All my references are old, you think I would actually listen to commercial music once in a great while.

People still "calling us out" ... to play live

Lady sent us an e mail today. She wants us to come out early before the show so she can cook for us.

He he he

I love it.

Even if you are out there in the working muso world, learning stuff note for note is good for you.
If the piece is over your head, you'll become better technically.
Then, if you reflect on what you learn and what was going on, you can possibly broaden your palate.
Learning stuff note for note is great ear training.

Finally, for you craftsmen and mechanical types here, to me it would be kind of like not learning the correct or the best way to build or repair somethin. Going off like, "Aw, I'll figure it out my own way".

Learn something precisely first, and then once its wired into your system go back and make your tweaks or improvements in different little ways that work for you best.

Having said that, these days with songs that I'm not wild about, I''ll do about 70% note for note because I just dont have the time to sit around and disect 50 songs.

But if it was a song that was dear to me, youd get a boot to the head if you didnt learn it note for note Phil.

For those familiar with Christian Praise and Worship music there is an interesting format for most all well known groups out there in that field - they all play other people's songs, enjoy doing so, and so do their audiences. So, the attitude behind the music seems to be whether or not its a good piece of music, something which speaks to their own heart and sense of music and message.

I've been amazed to look at the number of songs on a given group's dvd or cd and see how many have been written and performed by others.

On the other hand, all these groups play their own music, too. But in the local arena being a P&W group and being able to "copy" well known songs is considered a good thing.

I was watching Return to Forver at Montreux last night, playing along on a practice set. Hey, if there were a fusion cover group around here playing that stuff I'd plunk my money down to go see them. And I'd play in a group like that and enjoy every minute of it, too, probably.

But if the bottom line of the discussion is not the music, but the musicians which play covers, and cop "I'm better than you" attitudes in doing so ... indeed, wrong attitude.

How many Christmas albums are sold every year? Big name artists all doing the same songs over and over and over again, decade by decade. But they put their own "voice" upon it, or attempt to. Still - it's just a professional 'cover band' cd when all is said and done.

There is not much I would rather do than set in my music room discecting songs and just seeing what makes them tick. I could do it for days on end! When I learn a song I try to get inside it! After learning exactly the way it is written I can feal it man! It is in my SOUL! Sometimes I will play the first solo note for note and play the second one in my own style it just depends on how feel at the moment. I have written a lot of songs in the past and never recorded them. I think playing this cover stuff has taken away from that. However there was a time in my life when I put EVERYTHING into original music just to have it totally break my heart. When it comes to music I just go back and forth. I make more money playing covers so thats my story and I'm sticking to it!

Ah heck just lick the neck and plug her in .

Ok I'm ready ...