But the other side of the coin Herb is when you DO play with schooled players who know their theory!! I played in a Motown band for 3 years that was nothing BUT formally trained musicians and that made it just a joy to go to work. One particular night it was 1:50 and we had no more desire to play another song, so I started playing some nonsense on the keyboard and the guitar player kicked in with it, then the bass player, etc. Just by holding up fingers, we came up with a progression. They knew that 2 or 6 meant it would be a minor, and by the second pass through they had the basic progression. Then the guitarist started substituting more elaborate chords, adding suspensions and things like rather than a straight Dm playing a Dm7 add 9, stuff like that. The 3rd time through the sax player took a solo. And on the 4th time I ad libbed some lyrics, put in some other solos.... We filled the last 10 minutes with that non-song, and the next week (we were a Sunday night house band) people ASKED for "that new song you closed with last week".

And we couldn't do it because even then I had no memory! LOL!!

Point being, I couldn't have done that with people who can only play "what's on the reeeecorrrrrd".... As I typed this in I thought about it and it has been over 2 years since I went out to see a copy band. No interest at all in people playing music that is on CDs I own. I buy CDs of the original bands when I see them play. There is one really good room within 5 minutes from my house that solicits original music bands and requests that 75% of their set be original. What I personally find particularly annoying is when people turn out CDs of their originals and then refuse to play them live. Isn't the idea of a songwriter playing live to give the crowd a sample of what they will get of they spend $12 and buy a CD?

And there we end up back at the "levels of listening" topic so I'll stop.

Last edited by eddie1261; 01/29/18 09:12 AM.
I am using the new 1040XTRAEZ form this year. It has just 2 lines.

1. How much did you make in 2023?
2. Send it to us.