Originally Posted by Guitarhacker
<...snip...> I admire the talent in these tribute "cover bands" you see on YouTube that sound like the original bands.

I stared out in a cover band. We played Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and others. After school, I got in a rock cover band, we were terrible, but we were still kids.

Fast-forward to today. I'm in a duo with the woman who became my wife, http://www.s-cats com

We do some songs "like the record", some similar, some generic, and some totally reimagined. I use my years of on-stage experience to decide whether to cover it like the record, change the genre and everything else about it, or somewhere in between. Hopefully my intuition is right, and the crowd will love it. I've had some bad ideas, and it's back to the drawing board for those (and learn a lesson in the process). The audience will let the performer know if he/she is doing it right.

I make my own backing tracks, and if doing a "like the record" cover, I learn a lot of new things that came from the minds of other musicians. I can apply these lessons to my original work.

It also opens up my ears. I'm working on a request from a good audience member, Blood, Sweat & Tears' "I Love You More Than You Will Ever Know". Listening to the drums, bass, keyboards, guitar, organ, winds, backing vocals and everything else, one part at a time, made me hear things I never heard in the song before. It's time-consuming, but I'm having fun.

We learn by copying others, and if I live to be 200, I'll still have plenty more to learn. Then we internalize what we copied, mix it up with everything else we've learned, and what comes out is you (or in my case, me).

There is nothing wrong with copying, being in a cover band, being in a tribute band, being in an original 'art music' band or combining them.

If you are enjoying playing the music, and the people who listen to it are having a good time, you are doing it right.


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