General Music Chat

From the various opinions expressed here I'd say we have identified not only various ways of making it, but the fact that bands may come at from different but equally valid points of view:

Song writers who play instruments - the folks least likely to want to do covers.

Big Talents who perform - for someone like Elvis, the challenge is to find material that will let him showcase his talent.

Talbot

Well said Mike.

What was totally ignored was the main thing that made all those players, practice, practice, practice. Do you plan on making it without constantly practicing and improving your musical skills on every level? While speaking of song selection (ie cover vs original), no mention of ability to perform, and what it took to reach that level, which is what made the artists, not the song, as it has been clearly pointed out here. Someone quoted Segovia saying something smartassed about practicing 8 hrs aday, did he mean the Beatles in Hamburg, or Mick, Keith, and Brian in London, or Lynyrd Skynyrd in Hellhouse practicing in the heat. So practice is the real take from the Ops article.

Do you practice? Do you practice to a metronome or a click track? How can you measure how good you are if you don't? I hear players on this forum say I attack, yeah but at what speed, you can't directly measure your playing ability, so we fall back on to its my ear, and I have a feel. Yet with our ear or our feel we can't read pitch or rhythm, like the masters have the past 500 years, and the current masters. It seems most here are happy with there playing abilities, and see that there time could be better spent elsewhere then on there instrument(s), how wrong could you be? To truly master the guitar you have to know every note on the fretboard, and then put transfer that knowledge to the staff, and understand how all the intervals sound, and how some of the masters really worked the intervals.It's also been put out there that Plant/Page stole a lot of their material from the old blues players, Is that because Lennon/Mcartney, Jagger/Richards, Rogers Hammerstein, George and Ira Gershwin and countless others, had already stole every little phrase masters from Bach to Chopin? Steven Tyler's said it best, "I stole everything I ever did."

Practice with a metronome, with a click track, or drum machine something. Constantly try to improve your musical skills on every level, and it will show in your performance, which is all that matters.

I'm wordy, so I gave you 5 bucks worth.

Well, how about 2010:
http://flashmobrocks.wordpress.com/2010 ... -sony-bmg/

Or 2012- Playing covers live over 7 years to "make it"
http://marqueemag.com/2012/10/01/the-sh ... bel-debut/

Yes, bands covering other peoples music live are still getting picked up by major labels today, just as they have been over the last 50 years. It is definitely one of the well worn paths to the OPs "making it". I think this was my point all along.

The article on Flashmob was from 2010 and they still don't have album out, on their own website or on Sony/BMG. Nothing, nada, zip...

The Sheepdogs are doing their own music and finding success at it. I can't find anything about them being a cover band at all, so I'm not sure why you thought they were a good example?

I rest my case!

Yes, one can have a successful career as a musician doing covers. That doesn't mean that you will find success as a recording artist, and that is the point of the Lefzitz blog. Outside of venues, no one in the music business is looking for cover bands.




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I'm a great believer in regular practice what made the Beatles and Stones so tight was that they played constantly - working all the time. Practice can take you to a good place but you'll get there quicker playing gigs.

Talbot