Do you "Write" and/or play "Original" material, or mostly "Covers?"

[FirstMeasure]

You can still avoid that by listening to said songs....don't need to know how to play em.

Well, that's true. But to me, not learning standards, not learning covers, not learning traditional folk runs, and not participating in the Blues or other kinds of music that is communal, all adds up to a very lonely journey.

[ShredAstaire]

Well, that's true. But to me, not learning standards, not learning covers, not learning traditional folk runs, and not participating in the Blues or other kinds of music that is communal, all adds up to a very lonely journey.

 

I disagree but definitely respect your point of view there...the band I was in where we played originals was a lot of fun and FAR from lonely. The closest we came to a cover was interjecting a breakdown of Whole Lotta Love in the middle of one of our songs....for like 45 seconds...

 

Meow that I am not in a band, I miss the interaction, but that's a whole different thing that really has nothing to do with THE MUSIC.

 

I do agree that I am missing out on some skills by not learning other people's music but at the same time, I believe i have developed and continue to develop my own style because of it.

 

I'm learning some songs in my guitar class that I take every week but thats my least favorite part of it. I prefer to learn about the music, the concepts behind the music, the rhythm, timing etc. The more i learn of that type of thing, the better I will become.

 

Like I said...its a choice and respect both sides of it...what I don't understand is people who ONLY want to play covers and not write their own music. Its sooo much fun.

[FirstMeasure]

I disagree but definitely respect your point of view there...the band I was in where we played originals was a lot of fun and FAR from lonely. The closest we came to a cover was interjecting a breakdown of Whole Lotta Love in the middle of one of our songs....for like 45 seconds...

 

Meow that I am not in a band, I miss the interaction, but that's a whole different thing that really has nothing to do with THE MUSIC.

 

I do agree that I am missing out on some skills by not learning other people's music but at the same time, I believe i have developed and continue to develop my own style because of it.

 

I'm learning some songs in my guitar class that I take every week but thats my least favorite part of it. I prefer to learn about the music, the concepts behind the music, the rhythm, timing etc. The more i learn of that type of thing, the better I will become.

 

Like I said...its a choice and respect both sides of it...what I don't understand is people who ONLY want to play covers and not write their own music. Its sooo much fun.

Absolutely, writing is not only fun, but it's what makes music art.

 

But by lonely I don't just mean Band situations, I mean Jam situation. Garages and backyards, open mic nights that turn into Carl Perkins revivals. It's like belonging to an exclusive club with its own language, who's initiation hasn't changed in hundreds of years. That initiation is learning to speak the language of music. That may be a romantic notion, but I like being connected to the past in that way.

 

And when you are in a gigging cover band you get to know all the other gigging cover bands, which leads to sitting in, which leads to after party's, which leads to jamming, which leads to songs written.

 

Plus, we're writing and jamming out original stuff all the time in my band now, we often get requests to do an original. Gotta be able to deliver on that one as well.

 

I don't mean to disrespect anyone's approach, I just have so much fun living without boundaries I can't help but try to talk folks into playing it all. The rewards go far beyond the obvious.

[ChanMan]

That's right, you don't want to accidentally write "Needle and the Damage Done" or the "Kit Kat Song".

 

 

I actually wrote and excellent country riff.... that unfortunately turned out to be the vocal run from "Your Man". It happens.

 

 

 

 

But what you say is very much a fact.... if all you do are originals, what do you play when you get the chance to play with Van Halen, or Clapton or Jimmy Page?

 

 

It's not like they are likely to know your stuff......

[ShredAstaire]

if all you do are originals, what do you play when you get the chance to play with Van Halen, or Clapton or Jimmy Page?

 

 

It's not like they are likely to know your stuff......

 

Some of us live in the real world Chan....Canada! ;) That **** ain't likely to happen! 1 in 10 million or more i'd say...

 

If it happened, i'd just start a chord progression and i'm sure they could keep up. :)

[ChanMan]

Some of us live in the real world Chan....Canada! ;) That **** ain't likely to happen! 1 in 10 million or more i'd say...

 

If it happened, i'd just start a chord progression and i'm sure they could keep up. :)

 

 

Nashville is the real world, and getting the chance to jam with some recording star does happen here.

 

If all I knew was "chanjam in Am", I'd be hosed.

[FirstMeasure]

Clapton and the gang aside, jamming with folks of you own ilk can really be a lot of fun. And I personally don't care to "Keep Up" with someones chord progression if that person can't keep up with mine.

 

I don't mean to start picking on you, Shred, but do you really think your chord run will excite a room full of Jammers. The guy that showed me my lead scales played with Waylon Jennings, **** Dale lives right at the base of my Mountains, Robert Plant frequently stops in to Jam at Pappy and Harriets, which is a Venue in our circuit (you can imagine how hard it is to get into that place).

 

To a guy like me, saying, "I'll just start a chord run and they can follow", shows a lack of respect for the music. I mean, if "Tulsa Time" isn't good enough for you, why is your song good enough for Clapton?

[ShredAstaire]

FM, I get what you're saying....I don't feel like you're picking on me...but i don't go out and jam with a bunch of people I don't know. I'm simply not interested in that. If and when I do jam, its with people I know and they are my buds...

 

And then i want to jam out on something that is not already a song....or write a song...to me, that's a HELL of a lot more fun than jamming on Freebird or something...

 

*shrug* I dunno what else to tell ya.

[ChanMan]

I get ya Shred. Used to do it all the time, just to warm up... take a simple chord progression and just jam to it. It IS fun... and if you do it like we did, it was our opening number :).

 

 

Still, around these parts, it's a good idea to have a pocket full of classics for those odd times when someone you know knows someone you know and asks you up to play....

[ShredAstaire]

Well, usually its more riffs than a simple chord progression but yeah....i guess Toronto is different....you're either a cover band or you're an original band that might play a cover during a show...

 

In any case, i'm not gigging anymore...so that becomes moot. I play guitar for my own pleasure...and i write music that I like to hear. Yes i listen to my own tunes! :)

[ChanMan]

I listen to your own tunes, too!

 

[milod]

Most of the time if I wanna see how an arrangement of a piece is working for me, I'll listen to it a lot to analyze why it may or may not be working.

 

I know some may say that's a bit of musical narcissism, but it's my observation that what you think is going on when you're playing and/or singing ain't necessarily what comes across - and it's usually obvious enough for you to hear on your own material.

 

m

[ShredAstaire]

I listen to your own tunes, too!

 

 

Aw thanks buddy!!!

[FirstMeasure]

FM, I get what you're saying....I don't feel like you're picking on me...but i don't go out and jam with a bunch of people I don't know. I'm simply not interested in that. If and when I do jam, its with people I know and they are my buds...

 

And then i want to jam out on something that is not already a song....or write a song...to me, that's a HELL of a lot more fun than jamming on Freebird or something...

 

*shrug* I dunno what else to tell ya.

I totally get where you'er coming from, and maybe I'd feel the same way if any if my "Friends" (like the guys I grew up with) actually played. The people I've met and friends I've made from just jamming, open mic nights, and sitting in actually share my passion. That's is and was a big attraction for learning standards and covers.

 

And I love jamming originals, just not exclusively.

[damian]

Originals only........mine and collabs.......except for jazz studies...

[FirstMeasure]

Also, learning covers, standards, traditional, or whatever....doesn't mean Freebird and Sunshine of your Love. It could mean "Freak on a Leash", or "The Beautiful People". It's about carrying on what you love about the music, a tradition (I believe) is important to the longevity of any given type of music.

 

Where will Metal be in 50 years if there's no traditional Metal Tunes?

[ShredAstaire]

I totally get where you'er coming from, and maybe I'd feel the same way if any if my "Friends" (like the guys I grew up with) actually played. The people I've met and friends I've made from just jamming, open mic nights, and sitting in actually share my passion. That's is and was a big attraction for learning standards and covers.

 

And I love jamming originals, just not exclusively.

 

That's it...we all come from different places and our passions have been built on different foundations.

 

This thread has helped me understand another side of the cube though...though I think I will never understand a guitar player who doesn't want to ever write an original. (Its cool if they don't, I just don't get it)

 

And for the where will metal be in 50 years? That's a big topic...maybe dem00n can answer that one. To answer that you have to define what traditional metal songs are. I'm not sure that everyone would agree.

 

Anyway FM, cheers...i'm glad we discussed this gentlemenly. :) You're a good dude and I get where you're coming from and I think you get where I am coming from too.

[milod]

Please don't take this as any sort of insult to any style of music, but...

 

Because of the technology and availability of pre-Internet music only from a smaller group of sources in the "corporate record manufacture" era, I don't think much music post 1990 will be considered the classics that pre-Internet music has been and likely will continue to be.

 

That's all genres, btw, not just metal.

 

In fact, I'd suggest that the trend of too much stuff for the sort of general marketplace recognition of a tune, if not a band, probably began as cable television offered people increasing listening and viewing options.

 

Like the piece or not, I doubt you'll find too many people over age 30 who haven't heard the Beatles "I want to hold your hand" or even more, how many people over 18 haven't heard at least some version of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode?" It's not a matter of liking or disliking - such stuff was ubiquitous and impossible not to have heard.

 

But now, if the under 30 generation would do some traveling outside their own circles, I wonder how many folks even in their own age group have seen their specific genre of music exposed to the degree of mass marketplace that was the case through the 1970s...

 

By comparison, almost everyone in the US heard Elvis Presley and the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan television show. Figure it - no Internet, just 3 tv networks and FM radio was just coming into its own and there were no more am stations than today. Fewer outlets had broader audiences. More outlets today = smaller market segments.

 

That's my reasoning. I don't think much stuff from the 80s forward will have the degree of exposure to the mass marketplace, thus into "classicism" that earlier pop material has enjoyed.

 

m

[FirstMeasure]

That's it...we all come from different places and our passions have been built on different foundations.

 

This thread has helped me understand another side of the cube though...though I think I will never understand a guitar player who doesn't want to ever write an original. (Its cool if they don't, I just don't get it)

 

And for the where will metal be in 50 years? That's a big topic...maybe dem00n can answer that one. To answer that you have to define what traditional metal songs are. I'm not sure that everyone would agree.

 

Anyway FM, cheers...i'm glad we discussed this gentlemenly. :) You're a good dude and I get where you're coming from and I think you get where I am coming from too.

Thanks man, you're a good dude, too. And I do completely get where you're coming from. I also agree that doing only covers and never writing would leave something to be desired, actually a lot to be desired.

 

Milo- I can't agree with you there although the points you make are accurate. Everyone from the ages of 18 - 35 have heard Metallica or they've heard someone do Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade". Because of Cover Bands, not because of the internet or the radio or whatever.

 

Evanescence "Bring me to Life" will live on because every cover band with a powerful female singer is doing a version of it. That song is approaching ten years old, that makes it a cover staple in my book, likely it will be remembered and still played in another 20 years.

 

I really do believe it's the cover band or artist that keeps the songs alive. That chain that keeps the local listeners aware. Like you said about Chuck Berry, everyone's heard some version of Johnny B. Goode, but how often do you actually hear the original recording. If metal doesn't embrace that cover attitude.....who knows.