Cover Tunes.

This one is for the musicians...

How many bands have you been in whose play lists were almost entirely cover songs?

When I played out (-- which now seems like forever ago) with some of the bands I was in there was an unwritten rule that you HAD to play covers, at the time I enjoyed it but I didn't take this aspect as seriously as I do now... Now I realize that the closer to the actual cover you can get the better you will be able to communicate your OWN ideas on your instrument.

Usually I would get pretty close to the original but there are always differences that come up-- it tedious to try and get things exact... especially solos. Solos are where you should pay more attention to details and try and learn some of the classics so you increase your own vocabulary and don't ALWAYS go on autopilot with the sane licks you learned years back -- that is what can keep your playing in a rut and holds you back from where you want to go.



Of course these days I ;like to try and mix some songs up a bit and so I approach SOME songs as if I were writing it, but I try to at least LEARN things the way they were originally written.

Lately I have been going back over my old Hendrix collection song by song and taking things as if I just heard them and am learning them all again. Its amazing how many things get changed over the years through trial and error, when I sat down and started working my way through 'Purple Haze' (one of the tried and true standards) it really surprised me how much I had changed things up. Not the song structure so much (although I did do that slightly too) but the guitar parts were pretty different - not so much that the average drunk listener would notice but comparing them side by side its obvious.

So when you are in your next band playing almost all covers use it as an opportunity to focus & make your playing as good as it can be so you can use those chops for YOUR tunes.