General Music Chat

This was a truly interesting post, with all the different opinions. I like playing originals myself. Like one of the earlier posters said, if the people want to hear a song that was popular some years ago, they'll either go to the jukebox, make a request to the DJ, or buy the CD. I'm not hating on coverbands or anything like that, but I feel that what I have to offer musically is worth more to me than getting up there and doing "Mustang Sally" for the fifty-eleventh time. I want to get paid for playing, it's true. But I want to get paid for playing "my" music, not get rich from drinking another bands blood. Innovation is my cornerstone, and if I never make it in the music business, oh well, life goes on. But if I "do" make it, I'll only have myself to thank. And when people tell me how good I sound, they're telling "me", not Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton, or whoever else. Just my humble opinion.

Jody, you said:
". . . when people tell me how good I sound, they're telling "me", not Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton, or whoever else. . . ."
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Good point, man.
When you get a compliment, it means a WHOLE lot more when what you've been playing is 100% you.

originals- fresh, new, never before heard.
covers- i attempt to make some of them fresh & new.
the remaining covers have my groove... never had a beer bottle thrown yet.... but i've always got an eye open
i reccomend reading the floor and flexability on the list.... good luck.

Good points flatbilly. Reading the crowd and being flexible is essential. After all, we are there to do a job, not musical masturbation. Go home and play to the plants if you don't care about that.

that's the spirit brother... but without a presentable act there is no audience participation.... and as we clearly agree the audience is paramount... not egos or cash.. for me anyway.

flatbillysg, a few posts back, you said:
" . . . .originals- fresh, new, never before heard. Covers- i attempt to make some of them fresh & new. . . . "
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Yeah, and you know - there are other people who do it just the opposite.
They write "original" music that is actually a thinly-veiled copy/ripoff of someone else's original.
I hate that.

In some sectors of our society, it is very much poo-pooed to offer up original material. In those places, for some reason, imitation is held higher than CREation. That notion is very much in play when you get into discussions like this.

It takes a real set of balls to stand up and offer your own material in a culture rife with rip-off, plagiarism and cheap renditions.

Spot on Irminsul, totally agree. Personally I play only original material and never have nor will I ever play a cover in public. In fact I am so passionate about this subject that on more than one occassion I have scrapped a piece of music because someone has said that sounds a bit like such and such. What really annoys me is the fact that so much of the music out there is plagiarized especially by those talentless poncy boy bands.
I have never quite understood why someone can come along and blatently copy a piece of music note for note word for word and make more profit from it than the mastermind that originally wrote it.
If I was offered fame , money and all that bollocks to do a cover version there would be no hesitation in my refusal. No thanks give the fame and money to the artists that produced the material originally.
If people come and see me gig then they see me my bandmates and our own work good or bad at least we have the balls to be ourselves.
Another thing that I have never understood is the amount of musicians that I have met or jammed with over the years that can technically blow me away and play to such a high standard yet they will play nothing but other peoples work, perhaps someone can point out the rationale behind this sort of musician.

Another thing that I have never understood is the amount of musicians that I have met or jammed with over the years that can technically blow me away and play to such a high standard yet they will play nothing but other peoples work, perhaps someone can point out the rationale behind this sort of musician.

I've wondered about that myself, and have no definitive answer for you. Maybe they're scared to step out on a limb with something that's not already a big hit?

I've also met some people who were excellent players, and wouldn't play in a band. All they want to do is sit at home and play. No gigging out, none of that, wouldn't even try it. Sure is a shame to see someone sit there and play their butt off and never step out the door with it...What's really strange, is I met a songwriter like that. Good songs, very good player, didn't want to play in public at all. Go figure...

Not everyone is a performer. They may be great musicians or writers, that's their aptitude. That's why there's no shame in covering someone else's song, there's just as much work involved in performing as in conceiving. And just because you have authored something doesn't necessarily mean its original or good; a lot of "original" music is neither. Finally, many musicians think they are superior to other musicians because they have written some music. You're not. Many cannot cover someone else's music to save their life because that's not their aptitude. There's no shame in that either. It's a big world and there's room and a place for everyone.

This goes back to the rating system for musicians, though:
A - class musicians,
B - class,
C - claas . . . .
and less than C - class. Lets just forget about them. They either have no talent, or they don't practice enough.
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But, I don't think everyone is an A-class, B-class, C-class musician . . . straight across the board.
You can really be 'graded' more than one thing.
I think, for the sake of this discussion, there are Three things we are concerned with here.
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1) How SKILLFULLY do they play what they know?
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2) How much KNOWLEDGE do they have? That is: not how many years have they played . . . bu t how much have they LEARNED? (techniques/chords/songs, etc.)?
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3) How CREATIVE are they?
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Mayby people who'd get an "A" on skill and knowledge might get a C or D on Creativity.
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And, many people who'd get an A on creativity might get a C or D on Skill or Knowlege or experience. Not enough to fulfill their creativity.
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And, the number of years experience one has is only a general idea of how good a musician is, by the way.
It's not how many years you've put in, but what you've put into the years.
Many musicians just play the same kinds of songs, year after year.
After 20 years, they have just one year experience - 20 times.
But I try to look at what people have accomplished, and try to ignore the rest.

Another thing I was thinking about regarding Knowledge . . .
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. . . how much knowledge you have is important . . . but there's another consideration;
Are you really good in several areas of music knowlege, but deficient in others?
That is, like me, do you have 'holes' in your knowledge?
For example, are you a really good shredder, but you maybe only know 20 chords?
Or the opposite?
Or, maybe you're really good in two styles of music. But ONLY those 2 styles?
Or, maybe you can play 12 styles if music, but none of them very good?
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My main deficiency is lead playing. But I don't want to change that deficiency, because I'm currently using chords to play leads, on my newest songs . . . That's pretty hard for me to do, because the newer songs are pretty damned fast . . .
But, the harder it is for me to play, the better I become . . .
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. . . key phrase: "I become . . . "
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Yet, I just prefer to play rhythm guitar to lead guitar. I LIKE lead guitar, (and Bass) but I like to PLAY rhythm . . .

Just remember - every cover tune started out as someone's original.

I prefer playing lead, but that is just me. It is still taking me a long time to learn to do it efficiently, but I have the patience I guess. Something I have fun with is arpeggios, just taking a chord and playing individual notes and letting them ring out, love the sound. A lot of my songs contain that, I am a major fan of it. That is probably why I like songs like "Nothing Else Matters" (Metallica of course) and "Hemorrhage" (Fuel), I know how to play both.

Playing rhythm just does not have the same appeal to me, unless it is an awesome riff. Some songs I could see just doing rhythm in, some have some awesome pieces. I guess taste is taste.

I like cover tunes, prefer it actually. That is probably because my aim is not to go professional, otherwise, as I have said, I would do originals. At least mix in many originals between covers.

Peace out, GuitarAnatomy.

Irminsul said, ". . . every cover tune started out as someone's original."
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Right on.