When it comes time to play your favorite song or songs from the artists you love how do you approach it? Do you hammer away trying to hit every bend and squeal perfectly in the pursuit of the exact copy of your favorite? Do you try and use the same gear to get your master's tone? Or do you perform the song your own way and maybe use a different arrangement or try different tones and effects when paying homage to the guitar gods? Both styles amaze me. I've seen videos and live performances where you'd swear that a CD was playing instead of a real person and others where someone has come up with an original version of a classic song and rocked it and made it their own. How do you pay your respects to the songs and artists that inspire you?

hope this doesn't come off hokey. but I try to write better songs, inspiration from other artists helps.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I used to do that, trying to make it sound perfect but then I realized I was spending more time practicing the licks than actually playing the song. These days I just play the song and don't worry about it being spot on. It's alot more fun and less fustrating.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

+1

I pay tribute by using influence in my own songs. But seeing as you asked about straight covers and the like.....I learn it the same and then let my own style take over.

At the minute though between recording I'm tryin to emulate this cover perfectly cos the tone is just #$@*&!% unbelievable. Seriously floatin my boat today and I cant stop listening to it and playing it!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF51D6bTI2Y

CC

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I try to make the song my own, with my own flavor, but on certain songs, I try to keep/mix the riffs in, that made that song. Example; the doobie bros. long train running, for the harp solo, I play lead using a wha pedal, to sound similar to that solo. SRV songs, I'll play what ever comes to mind, similar feel on leads not exact riffs, added another verse to mary had a little lamb. I don't want to hack their songs, just play tribute to them, with my own flavor/sound and tone.

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2012 American Vintage Telecaster 1958
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2010 Guild Gad-F40e

Well it is cool to see that people share some of my thoughts as well. I got thinking about this because I'm not a very accomplished player yet and I can't go note for note even if I wanted to. When jamming for the first time last week the boys put me on the spot and told me to show them what I got so I played some bits of songs that I had been working on and practicing since I started and some little blues riffs and shuffles that I had been playing around with. When I was done the drummer commented on my versions of the songs and said that I had come up with some cool parts or arrangements. I explained that this wasn't something I had consciously decided to do but more of a way to be able to play the songs I like while still not being really good enough to play them properly. His comment was "Don't think of it as you're not good enough to play them properly. Think of it as your tribute to the songs you love. We all know where you're at as a player and that's cool so enjoy what you've done as you continue to work on learning and perfecting the parts of the songs that you haven't mastered yet." This really gave me a big boost and it was nice of him to say and it got me thinking about live versions of songs where the artist will rearrange their own songs and play with it. I don't want to use this as a crutch to excuse not playing a song properly but I can't wait until I get to the point where I can learn and entire song and then try and use that song as a framework for a version where I can add my own flavor and have fun with it.

We used to do a lot of Hendrix and Beatle covers .The Beatle covers I'd try to play true to the way the record was but with Jimi,I'd put my own spin on it.One exception with the Beatles was While My Guitar Gently Weeps ,we'd do it like the Jeff Healey cover.Most songs I play lead on now I do my own way except for Beatles it seems that people want to hear Beatles songs as close as possible to the original.

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I'm not very experienced, but when I'm learning a song because I like the way it makes me feel, I try to learn it as close to the original as I can. Once I can do that I try to play with it and see what else makes me feel good.

Not to be confused with this from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_News#Quotations:
I could play "Stairway to Heaven" when I was twelve. Jimmy Page didn't actually write it until he was twenty-two. I think that says quite a lot.

Well im just gettin started playin, but I try to play like Slash, I wanna do & have evrything Slash has or Joe Perry...but I like to play my fav songs, just recently I learned some of sweet child o mine, so I wuz mega happy!
But also I think its important to play to your own ear & style, if it sounds good to u, great! & I like to write my own songs, but playin yur favs & doin your own thing is good

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"being a rock star is the intersection of who you are, and who you want to be." -Slash

I’m basically not too impressed by folks that do “dead on” versions of other’s songs. Sure it takes dedication and lots of practice but, it bores me. Very few artist themselves make their own songs song dead on.

When I play songs by other artist, I get a kick out of doing it differently; change the tempo, key, style, etc.. I also get much more enjoyment playing my own songs, many times playing them a bit different each time.

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When i first started playing gis we used to agonize over doing perfect covers. as I got better i started playing a bit differently. i would make a point of always playing, and hitting key phrases, like when you play something like 'You Shook Me All Night Long' there's certain phrases in the solo you absolutely must hit. but for the majority of it i would just try capture the feel.
After all, out of the 10 or so times I have seen ACDC Angus has never played the solo note perfect.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

I used to think I had to sound just like the record. I come from a classical flute background, believe it or not, and we had to learn every note exactly like it was written. So a year ago at this time, I was learning every note of every lick in Texas Flood (the song). I could play it through note for note with the CD. Except when I showed up to practice with the band, I realized there was no way I could remember it all so I was forced to improvise. That was sort of a reality check, and I haven't tried copying anything perfectly (as far as a full song goes) since. Last week I had to play Pride and Joy for the first time in public. Even though I know the song extremely well, I don't know it note for note so I really just tried to go for the vibe. It sounded about as good as you could expect a 17 year old to sound, with some horribly wrong notes but overall it worked out better than I thought it would.

Don't use the "I play my own style" thing as a cop out and excuse for not playing more difficult things. Always strive to be better, and one of the best ways to improve your playing is to copy songs you like note for note and eventually it will work it's way into a style of your own.

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+1 Excellent Texas

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I compromize a little, but i mainly play the original version.

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riley