General Music Chat

[quote="fisherman bob"]I went one step further, I went to your profile page to listen to your playing posted there. There's nothing there for me to listen to. Do you have any of your music posted anywhere on the internet? quote]

The answer to that is no not yet recording is new to me but soon i will have some tunes of me and the wife up but done with my camera.

Everytime i get a lil ahead something knocks me back so things get put on the back burner (priorities)

Having fun for me starts with playing with people who have a very good idea of what they want to accomplish and are capable of accomplishing it. I agree with Crip that there's so many cover tunes out there in all genres that each band member should be satisfied with EVERY choice of tunes. Occasionally there's at least one tune that your audience will request often and sometimes it's wise to learn that one even if one or more band members don't like that particular tune. I've been in bands where we played songs I thought were crap but people loved them. Sometimes that helps pay the bills...

In general the (serious) dos and don'ts look pretty good.

But on the subject of cover songs, well, this is something I've spent a lot of time thinking about. I've been in a couple too many bands that couldn't succeed because one or two people refused to do songs we should be doing.

That's where it gets muddy. Who decides what should be played? I guess if you're in a tribute band - for example Elvis - it's a no brainer to know that you should do "Hound Dog". But if you're in a less specific cover band - say one that does 70's thru 90's - how do you decide what should be played? Is it based on requests - "we get a lot of requests for "Takin' Care Of Business" so we should do it" - or what other similar bands are playing? The reality is you should do the songs that you sound good doing. If the song is not in the singer's range or has a distinctive musical part that the band can't mimic, the song should be dropped.

There has been a huge interest well beyond what i expected for a topic like this and i thank everyong for contrubiting and to keep going

So, I've done so much thinking on this that I actually wrote a rant about it. Well, more a series of rants. In any case:

http://www.allnightmusic.com/MichaelRiehle pretty much covers where I come down on this stuff.

And when you tune that axe, USE A FRIKKEN TUNER - A-440, unless the band has other requirements, if you please!

Nothing I hate worse than having to listen to some sap tune by ear. I've never met anyone who could do it consistently well. Use the tool, fool! And, for the record, if you plan on tuning by ear on stage, you might get away with it once, if I'm in an especially good mood, but I'll never work with you again. I've been known to unplug ppl's axes for that crap, as I hand them a tuner.

Don't bring an instrument that won't stay in tune, or has a busted jack, or sounds like crap cuzza the buzz buzz buzz of the bad ground, either.

Well, it couldn't be helped this time. I show up and they didn't tell me they were tuned to drop C... Incorrectly. Trying to retune a bass w/ a trem is a bitch when the guitar player (who noticeably doesn't use a tuner) won't stop for half a minute and is FRIKKIN up your tuning.

And when you tune that axe, USE A FRIKKEN TUNER - A-440, unless the band has other requirements, if you please!

Nothing I hate worse than having to listen to some sap tune by ear. I've never met anyone who could do it consistently well. Use the tool, fool! And, for the record, if you plan on tuning by ear on stage, you might get away with it once, if I'm in an especially good mood, but I'll never work with you again. I've been known to unplug ppl's axes for that crap, as I hand them a tuner.

Don't bring an instrument that won't stay in tune, or has a busted jack, or sounds like crap cuzza the buzz buzz buzz of the bad ground, either.

Well, it couldn't be helped this time. I show up and they didn't tell me they were tuned to drop C... Incorrectly. Trying to retune a bass w/ a trem is a bitch when the guitar player (who noticeably doesn't use a tuner) won't stop for half a minute and is FRIKKIN up your tuning.

Perfectly proves my point. I wouldn't work with a-holes like that!

Yeah. Whats with those danged guitar players anyways?