Perhaps because I started young, perhaps I started in school band, and perhaps because my father used so sit around and strum the uke while reading the chords from a music book as we all sang along, I never felt like a copycat.

While in school, we played classical music, note for note. The bandmaster/conductor directed, and we followed. Later on, as I heard different interpretations of the same symphonies, I realize we were playing his version, his expression, and his musicianship.

I also was in little rock bands, doing our best to cover the songs of the day. It was a great way to have fun, meet girls, and make s a little money.

After graduating I toured the country in a cover band, and little by little, taught myself how to improvise solos. It was a great way to make a living, have fun at work, and meet girls, who were by then, young women.

Now I do a mix of covers similar to the record, to covers entirely reimagined and completely different. It's a great way to have fun at work, interact with my wife/duo-partner, and make enough money to survive.

I don't think playing a cover song is any more of being a copycat than when I played my part in a great symphony when I was in school.

And I don't think of yourself as a copycat musician. Don't try to be a copycat, and don't try to not be a copycat, it'll happen by itself. Plus, it will happen gradually without you knowing it.

If you play a song enough times, your phrasing, your dynamics, and your musical ornaments will naturally come out. It just happens.

And as you learn more and more songs, what you learn will mix in your musical brain and eventually what you play will become your musical voice.

Mrs. Notes and I have been in a duo since 1985. We played cover songs for years at gigs. They gradually change by themselves. Years later, if we hear the original, sometimes we'll be surprised at how much we changed the song to make it ours.

Play any songs enough times, and it will happen to you, too.


Insights and incites by Notes ♫

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks