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Do you "overplay" covers

Do You "overplay" covers

  • Never I stick to the original cut as close as passable

    Votes: 18 7.6%

  • Rarely, I sometimes add to the sonic space, depending on the track

    Votes: 116 48.7%

  • I offer up my own interpretation, solo, whatever I think the song needs

    Votes: 92 38.7%

  • Carrots, cover food for bassists.

    Votes: 12 5.0%
  • Total voters
    238
#65
I think for me it depends on how many other guys are in the band that night. sometimes a few of us 3 piece it, on those nights I probably tend to overplay, but I'm really just trying to fill up space....some gigs we have about a 7 piece band in which I play as little as I can get away with so I don't step on toes...
 
#66
This:
steve.roark said:
... if you understand pocket you should be able to jump out and embellish some but for the song not the coolness.
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This, quite often:
jaywa said:
I don't learn parts note for note but I do learn the signature licks and rhythms... sometimes the band will wind up taking a song at a different tempo than recorded (usually faster), and when that happens sometimes the recorded bass part doesn't work anymore and I have to scale it back (i.e., fewer notes). Or, maybe the drummer isn't quite copping the same feel or has taken liberties with the kick pattern or whatever and at that point I give myself license to do what I need to do to lock-in to what the drummer is laying down and make the song "feel" right again.
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And definitely this:
Art Araya said:
you gotta know when to speak and when to be silent. it takes lots of musical maturity to get this right. i don't claim to get this balance correct.
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#69
I would like to play more covers exactly as the original, in terms of lines and structures, I don't usually learn every fill a bassist plays note-for-note.

The problem is no one else wants to learn the songs right, so we end up chopping them up, usually simplifying them. Most of the time the desire by everyone else is to actually change the groove and feel of the cover, to "make it our own", but I don't know, sometimes I wish we played them more faithfully to the originals.

People in the audience don't seem to notice o rmind, or maybe the ones that do and don't like it are gone by the time the set ends? The ones dancing don't seem to mind.
 
#70
PopaWoody said:
10 words, three of them I. Not into yourself much are you? :rolleyes:
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I guess one could draw such a conclusion from the quoted statement. I dont generally form opinions of others based on 10 words, though. Is there something wrong with being into oneself? Would it make any difference if I were to say that I dont generally play covers? We do have one in out set right now, and I dont overplay on that one.

64 words, 5 of them I. What conclusions do you draw from that?
 
#71
After over three years in cover band playing only bars, this is so amazingly on point it's almost stupid.

And after seeing some of the other posts, if your drummer can't keep a beat, it's time for a new drummer. That's his f'ing job. If he forgets that, he needs to go back to 5th grade band where percussionists were allowed a bass drum, a snare, or the cymbals.

If your guitarist can't keep a beat, that's typical.

tycobb73 said:
I actually underplay. There are a lot of fills on a cd I don't do. The average bar dancer can't pick up a beat so I feel I have to help reinforce it by staying to quarter or eigths.
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#77
Big John66 said:
I play with a drummer that thinks time is a magazine. So I can't overplay even if I want to, cause the drummer would fall apart without me holding the groove.
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I had to laugh at this one. I used to play with a drummer like that. If you tried to do a fill, he would come back in on the wrong beat and leave you hanging. I had to keep it simple to keep his timing on track.
 
#79
With simple covers I have the tendency to make my own lines using the chord scheme. When we're playing songs with iconic basslines (almost all the RHCP songs:p) I will stay close to the original bassline. But I never play exactly like the original song, simply because I'm not the same bassplayer as the one who wrote the song.
 
#80
the only song I remember "overplaying" a part was when we used to do 2 tickets to paradise - the pattern was simple and pretty boring to me - so I "added to the sonic space" - Listening to the tape afterwards it didn't really make the song any better.
it was one of those "light bulb moments" since then I'm pretty judicious when it comes to playing a specific bass part. Not holding to the letter, but try to get it as close as possible if we're doing a strict cover & not an interpetation
 

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