I know a lot of guys who are in cover bands, but most of them do play in another band which write and play originals or have a hobby/solo thing going where they play originals. Then there is the cover band who also writes originals and integrates them into their set. Most do the cover thing to get a extra form of income while doing their originals thing also. I can image there are some people out there who enjoy being in a covers band and the music they play and do not want to go through the sometimes hassles of being in a originals band and having to write etc.
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Guys Who Only Play Covers: What Happened?
- Thread starter matante
- Start date
First point. The vast majority of "original music" isn't. It has all pretty much been done before. It has all pretty much been said before.
Nothing went wrong. I wanted to play the music I loved to listen to. Of course, like every 14 year old with a guitar we dreamt of being a rock stars. And like most 14 year olds with guitars we wrote a few songs and mixed them in with our bad covers of Led Zeppelin tunes. People preferred the bad Zep covers.
Playing covers, whether you're covering Bach or covering Adele, can be every bit as creative as stringing together some chords and coming up with a few lines of verse. From complete re-arrangements to lending one's own voice to a part that someone else wrote there is lots of room for creative expression in playing music that other people wrote. Which, if no one's pointed it out yet - I haven't read the entire thread - is the way it's been for most of music history.
Nothing went wrong. I wanted to play the music I loved to listen to. Of course, like every 14 year old with a guitar we dreamt of being a rock stars. And like most 14 year olds with guitars we wrote a few songs and mixed them in with our bad covers of Led Zeppelin tunes. People preferred the bad Zep covers.
Playing covers, whether you're covering Bach or covering Adele, can be every bit as creative as stringing together some chords and coming up with a few lines of verse. From complete re-arrangements to lending one's own voice to a part that someone else wrote there is lots of room for creative expression in playing music that other people wrote. Which, if no one's pointed it out yet - I haven't read the entire thread - is the way it's been for most of music history.
I have many years doing my music, I started to record it when I didnt even had a bass or electric guitar, all I had was a piano and a recorder with a faulty eraser head so I was able to mix it "at the fly".
With the time I have got a good number of musical instruments and I play all of them in my recordings... But.
When I play in my 60s tribute band... I play only covers, why? Because thats what my audience wants to hear.
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With the time I have got a good number of musical instruments and I play all of them in my recordings... But.
When I play in my 60s tribute band... I play only covers, why? Because thats what my audience wants to hear.
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I started playing bass nine years ago at age 41. I had no illusions about about making it big. I just wanted to have fun making loud rhythmic noise with my friends in front of others who dug it as much as I did. And that's pretty much what's happened. We mostly play covers, but we we have a growing list of originals, and I do enjoy creating original bass lines for those. But I get just as much pleasure out of trying to nail a good Jamerson line. It's all a gift, and I'm grateful for every day I can continue doing it.
- Feb 27, 2005
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Nothing "happened", except the realization that the songs I wrote were not going to generate enough income for me to support my family.
This was not a depressing realization for me, and it hasn't discouraged me from writing music. It just means that I focus on getting paid to entertain people, and put my creativity towards crafting a better show experience for my audience rather than crafting an album. So far it's worked.
This was not a depressing realization for me, and it hasn't discouraged me from writing music. It just means that I focus on getting paid to entertain people, and put my creativity towards crafting a better show experience for my audience rather than crafting an album. So far it's worked.
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
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Most of the Zeppelin originals were cover songs stolen and slightly changed and credited as written by the Zepplin members.
Most big bands cover some songs and most big bands started out doing covers.
I thought I had an original idea to do a punk version of "House of the Rising Sun" Then I went to youtube and saw there were a lot of people who had the same idea and recorded a video preforming it.
What happened?
A. I figured our most "original" writers couldn't write anything close to as well as Holland/Dozier/Holland, Lennon/McCartney, Dylan, Bruce/Brown, Gaye, Robinson, Nelson, Williams, Young, Wilson, et. al.
B. I want to play bass with other people FOR other people, not spend months in the basement rehearsing so we can play for the same ten people who listened to the rehearsals.
C. Playing covers lead to finding the good writers. They'd learned from the really good songs they covered how to write well.
D. Started as a huge fan of blues and fully stuff where the performance is important, not who wrote the song. Plus I never confused "performance", "recording", or "arrangement" with "song" or "composition".
John
A. I figured our most "original" writers couldn't write anything close to as well as Holland/Dozier/Holland, Lennon/McCartney, Dylan, Bruce/Brown, Gaye, Robinson, Nelson, Williams, Young, Wilson, et. al.
B. I want to play bass with other people FOR other people, not spend months in the basement rehearsing so we can play for the same ten people who listened to the rehearsals.
C. Playing covers lead to finding the good writers. They'd learned from the really good songs they covered how to write well.
D. Started as a huge fan of blues and fully stuff where the performance is important, not who wrote the song. Plus I never confused "performance", "recording", or "arrangement" with "song" or "composition".
John
#1: This is a disgustingly elitist view. You clearly think less of those who have no desire to write music. This is wrong in many ways.
2#: Most of the great popular and jazz music of the 20th century is "covers". All of Glenn Miller, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Rodgers & Hammerstein, etc. etc... is played over and over with endless variations according to the taste of the musician. This is nothing to look down on, and in fact is a highly regarded, highly respected form of music. Like JTE above, I note that is the PERFORMANCE that matters, NOT who wrote the music.
3#: I started in classical music and enjoy playing Beethoven, Handel and others....ALL OF WHICH according to the biased view above is "covers" and therefore lesser. Give me a break.
4#: I have no desire or talent for writing music. Whyinhell should anyone think less of me for playing great music written by others??????????????????????????
I want to keep participating because there are some very good, very well thought out responses here, and some with very good advice. However, there are a lot of posts by people who either haven't read the thread, misunderstand the premise of the thread, or are simply misinterpreting the original question. There are many assumptions being made here and I don't have the time or the will to address them all.
Let me explain my initial assumption this way:
I've never met a film student whose SOLE career goal was to do remakes of his favorite films. I've never met a sculptor, an illustrator, or a painter, whose SOLE ambition was to learn to recreate the masterpieces, without any desire to create original works. Based on that, and my consideration of music as an art form, I think it's a perfectly reasonable and valid assumption that people who pick up an instrument do it for artistic reasons, or is music not a form of art?
Many of you assert that you picked up the bass with no intention whatsoever of creating your own music, therefore my assumptions were wrong. I accept that. I personally know several violinists, saxophonists, and pianists who would never attempt to create something in a million years, but I hadn't thought about bassists in that sense before. Bass isn't an instrument you're forced to play at school. It's not an instrument you play because your parents pressure you to. People play bass out of their own enthusiasm. I know that music is an art form whose practitioners study and rehearse for years to improve and maintain their technique with no intention of creating original works, I just didn't believe that Bass Players would start out that way.
Let me explain my initial assumption this way:
I've never met a film student whose SOLE career goal was to do remakes of his favorite films. I've never met a sculptor, an illustrator, or a painter, whose SOLE ambition was to learn to recreate the masterpieces, without any desire to create original works. Based on that, and my consideration of music as an art form, I think it's a perfectly reasonable and valid assumption that people who pick up an instrument do it for artistic reasons, or is music not a form of art?
Many of you assert that you picked up the bass with no intention whatsoever of creating your own music, therefore my assumptions were wrong. I accept that. I personally know several violinists, saxophonists, and pianists who would never attempt to create something in a million years, but I hadn't thought about bassists in that sense before. Bass isn't an instrument you're forced to play at school. It's not an instrument you play because your parents pressure you to. People play bass out of their own enthusiasm. I know that music is an art form whose practitioners study and rehearse for years to improve and maintain their technique with no intention of creating original works, I just didn't believe that Bass Players would start out that way.
NicJimBass
Flossin'? I thought your name was Munson!
What happened? For me, I put my heart and soul into an original band for 3 years, only to have it disappear in an instant when a couple fellow bandmates decided to move on. We were close to doing something, then it fell apart. At that point, I realized I had wasted all that time and energy for literally nothing. Sure, I had memories, but I also had debt from gear and I had lost all the time I had put into the band. After that, I decided that if I was going to play music, I was going to get something out of it. Now, I play at least twice a week, to large audiences, and I get paid well to do it. I never really had a hand in writing any of the original music, so essentially, I was always playing covers...lol. Just now, I can justify all the time away from my family by using the time to provide for them.
It's fascinating to me that you seem to have no issue grasping this concept for more "traditional" instruments, yet you're floored that the bass (which is very much NOT a composer's instrument) doesn't attract more composers.
Everybody is different and has their own reason for playing an instrument. I have played in bands that did covers, bands that did originals, bands that did a combination of both and even a tribute band. Most of the musicians I've met never had any intention of creating their own music. They picked up an instrument because they liked a particular band, had friends who played or thought it was an easy way to meet girls. Why be critical of what other people decide to play? The most important thing is that they enjoy it.
- Jan 27, 2010
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Around here the bands that play mostly covers do 4 or 5 gigs a week. The ones who play only originals do maybe 4 gigs a month at best. Personally I didn't start playing bass so I could sit around and look forward to my gig next month.
Bassist4Eris
Frat-Pack Sympathizer
The simple rebuttal: Mustang Sally, Brown Eyed Girl, Play That Funky Music White Boy
