PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic A note to Eddie about cover songs.

I don't go to listen to the local cover band unless I know the musicians - then I go to hear them. It's not my cup of tea either. That's just a matter of taste.

I am in the minority of sax players who don't like John Coltrane. I can appreciate his genius, but his sax playing just doesn't speak to me. I prefer the Lester Young, Stan Getz lyrical style of playing.

But I listen with my personal musician's ears and I play for people with audience ears. I love my audience, we have fun together.

When I go to a concert, it's a high-class cover band, the last one I went to was the Cleveland Orchestra, before that the Czech Philharmonic, and the one before that was the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

I've never gone to a tribute band concert either, but understand why others do.

You do have the right for your personal tastes, we all do.

But when typing on a forum, it's sometimes difficult to express your personal tastes without unintentionally hurting someone else's feelings. I've done that myself.

Saying a cover band musician is not a complete musician is hurtful. Saying "I don't like to see cover bands" is not.

Personally, when I listen to a musician or a band, I don't care if they are playing cover tunes, original tunes, jazz, or classical. If I like what they are playing and the way they are playing it, that's all that matters to me.

We had 3 New Years parties, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We had a great time doing it too. We played cover songs, some 'like the record' (or fairly close) some similar to the record, and some our own very different arrangement of the song (I may not be a good songwriter but I'm a very good arranger - that's what formal music education did for me). We played Auld Lang Syne three times, gave Leilani a kiss when it was finished, had well wishes from the audience members, many of them who came up and thanked us for a wonderful evening, and went home with money in my pocket. (BTW the mortgage is all paid - we own it free and clear).

Life is good.

BTW I didn't play "Brown Eyed Girl" but I did have a great time singing and improvising what I think is a nice R&B solo in "Mustang Sally".

Tonight a regular gig, Saturday a pool party (we'll get to play some Calypso, Soca and Reggae music along with the others).

I was also a first call sax player at a local studio (until the owner had a stroke and closed it). They called me one-take-Jake, but that was because I only accepted the gigs that I thought I could handle (country, rock, blues, pop, and 'inside' jazz).

There is room for more than one kind of musician, and I'm glad that you can also write songs and are happy with your music.

There are many different skills to being a musician, including writing, improvising, sight-reading, arranging, expressive playing, phrasing, technical ability, transposition, interacting with the band, pacing the audience, etc., etc. I've known very few people who could do them all at a world class level, but I've known many who have had many of those skills at a world class level.

I have a lot of respect for any musician who is reaching out to an audience, whether he/she is playing covers, originals, or whatever. If the audience is digging it, or if the public is buying the recordings, life is good for him/her too.

But that's only this person's opinion.

Insights and incites by Notes