How accurately should you learn songs?

[dbsfgyd1]

It's a cruise gig as an "entertainment" band, and I was told there would be no sheet reading required, we play our own repertoire. It's a European company, and here there is a dedicated show band, who do read sheet music during their preformances.

I’ll bet there are a lot of posters who would like this gig, with no reading involved. Have a good cruise. Wheee you heading off to?

 

[bassbully]

My theory has always been close to the recording as possible and twisted to suit the band.

 

[Spidey2112]

It depends. Are you an artist or a musician? You can't really be both at heart.

A musician accurately recites music created by others. This is like a cook following a recipe.

An artist knows the language of music itself and can capture the feel and essence of the original without delving into the details.
This is like a chef who knows what to do when given a set of ingredients and no recipe.

Neither is better than the other because they can both make their clients happy.

You had me, at 'depends'...

 

[Proton90]

I’ll bet there are a lot of posters who would like this gig, with no reading involved. Have a good cruise. Wheee you heading off to?

We are still putting the repertoire together, and we have no contract yet, but it should mostly around European countries like Sweden, Norway, Italy, Spain, etc. We're really not picky, anything should work for us

 

[Proton90]

Absolutely that would be worth the effort. It's nice to see musicians who really want to work to learn parts. You'll be a valuable asset if you add keys to your bag of tricks; good keys players who are willing to do synth and other incidental parts are very hard to find.

Well, at least I have an alibi for not singing, plus it could be a huge homage to Geddy Lee :O

 

[el murdoque]

I subbed in a functional band on very short notice once. I was not familiar with their repertoire and they played four sets of 10 songs plus encore. A total of three songs out of that list (I shot the Sherriff, Hotel California and Venus) I could already play, the rest were songs I knew from the radio, but not ones I ever practiced or played.
We agreed on me learning the signature parts for two songs (luckily their playlist had only two with signature bass lines) and winging it for the rest, playing by the guitars chordsheets.

This went so well, they rehired me on multiple occasions.
I am not among the super talented elite, nor did I study music. As a bass player, I judge myself mediocre. I have over two decades experience in playing live and I can play, but I don't have any ambitions in becoming the next Victor Wooten. On that gig, I tried to both keep the low end together and fade into the background as much as possible. The bass was there, it was audible and sticking to the percussions, but I never played with that confidence you have when you play a well rehearsed set with musicians you know well.

This taught me that even amongst musicians, the bass plays a role that is both important and totally flying under the radar at the same time.

 

[Rib 13]

My rule of thumb has always been: know what the exact part is but change it as needed.....because bass is so integral with drums, it always sounds best when they play together ...... If im playing the correct part and the drummer isnt ( or vise versa) then we are both wrong.......

 

[pappabass]

That is a tough one, some songs i do pretty well, others I have to make it my own! In other words I can never get it right!

 

[Bass Man Dan]

As it’s not a tribute band you probably won’t need to play the parts exactly as the original but just close enough, particularly with any obvious signature bass riffs or fills. Always better to under play, I think!

This 1000%! Songs with prominent bass lines...get em down really close at least. Fills I usually do what I want. But unless it's a tribute band, don't get bogged with minutiae. We add so much all the time, I get the skeleton down and go from there.

 

[brianrost]

As soon as I find out what a 'function band' is, I'll let you know.

In the USA it would be called a GB (general business) or Casual band. Weddings, parties, etc.

 

[nilorius]

This is complicated question. Couse main song chords should be learn at home or rehearsal right away, but the score and party down the chord is absolutly on your mind and can be changed all the time by you. So there is the hard thind, because chords can also change later, like all the songs system, too. Everybody in the band should be very carefull about the song.

 

[cnltb]

How accurately should you learn songs?
It depends on the gig. Sometimes you play exactly as on a recording and sometimes you don't have to.
For fun - because I like to do these kinds of things and because it is good for the ear - , I tend o start with verbatim and then change things as appropriate.

 

[LBS-bass]

In the USA it would be called a GB (general business) or Casual band. Weddings, parties, etc.

Yep. A band that plays at functions. Wedding, conferences, parties and so forth. AKA not a bar band.

 

[sean_on_bass]

Serious question, do variety bands pulling from a 200 deep song pool usually expect everything to be memorized? I'm very surprised there are no charts for this group. Screw note for note, i'd have trouble just knowing the basic changes.

 

[Proton90]

Well, to be honest, I never really needed charts for any song except for big band compositions that featured dense walking bass lines. As for other pieces of music I tend to memorise either the steps by using the Nashville numbers system or learn the line by the Kodály method, solmisation. That way I can transpose freely into any key, a really genius method, I really recommend everyone to dwelve into it a little bit.
With my previous band we used to play weddings 8-10 hours long with 2,5-3 long stretches of playing (I'm Hungarian and wedding parties here take very long, usually ending at 4 a.m.). Mostly the same songs each weekend , and it kinda got stuck in my head after a while, so I rarely need any notation.

 

[tradernick]

You're lucky if you're doing a cruise ship gig and you don't have to do things note-for-note.

What you call function bands, I call jobbing bands. The best ones are the ones where you're not asked to be a glorified jukebox, but can make things a little more interesting.

The answer to your question, for me, is 'it depends on the song. If you're playing '24K Magic', you're going to play the part, basically note for note, because what room is there to change a part like that? If you're playing 'Take Me To The River', there are lots of way to play it and make it musical and danceable.

 

[Slevage]

For a tribute - even that changes the 'rules'. Is it a tribute faithfully recreating the original sound, or a tribute to the original band, where deviations that can sometimes improve the sound, are OK?

In the tribute band I'm in, some of the popular songs were in Eb, but actually recorded in E, and varispeeded down. This means that you need a 5 string, or a detuned bass to play them accurately. My current thinking with a function band is that it's down the the singer - the person who doesn't have access to tricks and gizmos. If they sound like the original, then the band should do the same. If they clearly are very different in style and timbre, then the band can pull a few tricks too without a major problem.

Good points.
Here’s another piece of info-
Sometimes bands tune down for other reasons.
Skynard does it when they need to go easy on the vocalist. No way would they play some of those licks in Eb or Ab without the benefits of open strings.
Who has to compensate? The horn players they hire. The band has horn charts in 2 keys, one set is 1/2 step lower than the other.

 

[DWBass]

My opinion is.........as accurate as you can. If the band then decides to mess around with the arrangement, then by all means get creative. I'm just not a fan of learning songs half@$$ed!

 

[funkmaster p]

Get a feel for what the majority of the band does, and then mimic their approach. If you learn it note-for-note and the rest of the band doesn't (or vice-versa), it can lead to frustration on all sides.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

Hi folks!

I have started rehearsing with a function band with plans to embark on a cruise gig this summer. We have to learn quite an ample number of songs (cca. 200) for the gig, and I have been making some good progress, at least in my eyes. However, every once in a while my ears are not good enough to pick up the lines exactly, so I refer to YouTube live versions or covers, and there are occasions where I see the player doing things that are certainly not there (slapping octaves instead of fingering, playing an octave lower, etc.), but it still sounds good.

So my question is: how important is it in a function band to play your part exactly like it was recorded? Can you deviate from the source if the changes still make the song sound good or do you stick to the original no matter what?

An exact example is this guy doing ABBA's Gimme Gimme:


To my ears it's like he's slapping where there is fingering, and his technique seems to differ from what I hear to be on the original (using his thumb to pluck the root notes of the octaves, etc.). It still sounds very good nonetheless!

Mind you my question is strictly for function bands.

Thanks for your answers in advance!

You have to be careful with this! I tend to learn covers note-for-note because 1) I am not better than Paul McCartney, Pino Palladino, Sting, etc. and also 2) I absolutely love it when I do a last minute fill-in gig and everyone in the band says "Man that was awesome! It's so refreshing to the basslines played correctly!"

A lot of players probably think it sounds "ok" or "good enough" to learn a song 75% or play it "their way". I've seen many many bands play covers incorrectly and I'm sorry, it just doesn't sound good.