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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 12:46 pm
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mrpink wrote:
It's not about being elitist or thinking you're better than anyone else. It's just about having different tastes in music. I thought punk was supposed to have cleared the way for originality and new alternative music. looks like we need another punk explosion.....I'm in!



It SHOULDN'T be elitist but comes off that way when words like "lazy" are involved.

Music should be fun but so many "musicians" strip that away quite quickly.


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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 12:53 pm
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If you're not into the music they have in their repertoire at a practice,I'm sure that you'd be sorry you joined in no time if you decided to give it a go,which would leave them more than a little peeved with you if you left after a couple of gigs.It isn't fair to yourself or the others in the group if you stick with it and repeatedly play music that you don't like because you wouldn't be able to put any heart or enthusiasm into it and believe me, that really shows and readily becomes apparent to the audience and other band members. Do yourself and them a favour by telling them in the most diplomatically way possible that you really aren't into the songs that they cover and thank them for giving you the opportunity to join.They'll certainly respect you for being so honest and frank,will give you a good name and probably recommend you to other groups who maybe play music more up your alley who are looking for a guitarist.

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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 12:59 pm
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Our band plays covers. Top 40 country, classic country, classic rock, 50's rock and a few otner genres thrown in here and there. Depends on where we are playing.
Do we improvise? Yeah. We are 4 piece and no way can we match the overall sound on the originals. Usually the lead lines stay pretty close, but sometimes they take liberties. Afterall, an old classic worth doing has usually been recorded by several and they all have a different version. The melody of the song is usually correct and the songs are still easily recognized. We tend to stay closer to the originals on the newer songs.
As others have mentioned, we wouldn't get a gig if we didn't play the covers. We have a few songs we have wrote and when we do them they get an okay response, but most of the people just think it's some song they never heard before.
There are some bands in our area that play the same clubs we do and they mainly play their originals, really good bands with some pretty good songs. But they are usually full time and travel playing neighboring states as well. I know that a few clubs are struggling right now because they use some of these bands and they are not drawing the crowds. Some of the casinos in our area are starting to hire local bands again for most of their shows because of the crowd draw. A practice they use to do and they were successful with it.
Now this is how it is where I live. Could be completely different where you are located.

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Post subject: Re: Was I right to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 1:37 pm
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The best piece of advice I ever had about playing live was play covers like you wrote them and play your own songs like someone else wrote them.

Having said that, I don't believe there's anything I could do to inject new life into Wonderful Tonight or Brown Eyed Girl.

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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 1:48 pm
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I think this thread contains a few who think of themselves as Artists rather than the Troubadours or Minstrels they actually are.

If you were an Artist, you wouldn't be playing covers or those venues anyway.

Get over yourselves.

Your job is to bring the Music to the people. Nothing more.

You get paid because the Music brings people in the venue and sells alcohol.

Play what you want instead of what the people want and no one comes in, no alcohol gets sold, you lose your booking.

Simple as that !

cheers!

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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 2:38 pm
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Well said guitslinger, I'd rather quit now than 3-4 months down the line when they are ready to gig. What a waste of everyones time that would be. It's like when you're on a date with a really nice girl but you know it's never gonna workout as you just don't click together. You don't want to get serious but you don't want to hurt her feelings neither.


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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 2:44 pm
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Lightnin MN wrote:
I think this thread contains a few who think of themselves as Artists rather than the Troubadours or Minstrels they actually are.

If you were an Artist, you wouldn't be playing covers or those venues anyway.

Get over yourselves.

Your job is to bring the Music to the people. Nothing more.

You get paid because the Music brings people in the venue and sells alcohol.

Play what you want instead of what the people want and no one comes in, no alcohol gets sold, you lose your booking.

Simple as that !

cheers!


So there's no need for anyone to write any new music, we can just keep playing stuff that other people have written for us. Glad we cleared that up, no point writing songs any more, let's all get back to being tenth-rate Calpton clones in tribute bands.

I've done more than my share of cover bands and I'm never doing it again. If you're happy being a performing jukebox then that's fine, just don't ask me to ever play Wonderful Tonight again for any amount of money.

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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 3:14 pm
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GilgaFrank wrote:
So there's no need for anyone to write any new music, we can just keep playing stuff that other people have written for us. Glad we cleared that up, no point writing songs any more, let's all get back to being tenth-rate Calpton clones in tribute bands.

I've done more than my share of cover bands and I'm never doing it again. If you're happy being a performing jukebox then that's fine, just don't ask me to ever play Wonderful Tonight again for any amount of money.


Not sure that's what I said.

You're bringing up an entirely different and new subject, but seem to be implying that I did.

cheers! :D

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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 3:40 pm
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ok lol soz m8

it's easy to misconstrue things that are written down rather than spoken

90% of communication is non-verbal, wrong end of stick, all that stuff

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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 4:05 pm
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A lot of apples to oranges comparisons going on here with a few rutabagas and kumquats thrown in. Whether covers are the right thing depends a lot on the venue, genre, audience and of course the band members.

For instance, most wedding gigs require covers unless you happen to be the bride's favorite group, then it doesn't even matter if the groom likes you or not--you're in or he's out!

Now, if you play punk rock, like I have for the past 32 years, then covers don't usually go over that well. You might throw a few into the set to break things up, but mostly, thee crowd expects originals. "Wonderful Tonight" simply wouldn't go over well unless you play it at 78 RPM and through in a few cuss words about the woman in question (WIQ).

Now playing the bar circuit, a lot of people expect covers. And that's fine if that's what you want to do and/or need the $$$.

So in addition to venue, genre and audience, it also comes down to what you want to do, the amount of work you're willing to put into it, and the risks you're willing to take.

If nobody's ever heard of you, it's easier to get gigs playing covers in the local bar circuit than playing an all original set, and the chicks do love to dance to covers, which has its own rewards.

But if you want to strike out on your own with your own material, you're going to need to build up a following, hash out the arrangements with your band members, and start at the bottom opening for other bands early on in the night when only a fraction of the audience is even at the venue. This is a much harder road to hoe and also requires a good amount of marketing on someone's part. And you might never go anywhere at all.

At the end of the day though, if you're not happy doing what you're doing, why do it?

Life's too short to play music you hate, and since music is all about feeling, your enthusiasm (or lack thereof) will definitely come through, so it's best to do what you want and rock the house.

Jam on!


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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 6:10 pm
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I've been playing in a classic rock / southern rock band we do play covers some well over done and some not so, it's a nice mix and works very well. The bars we play in like what we play as do the patrons and ourselves. Those favs like mustang Sally and wonderful tonight we do play when asked to but we have enough songs that we don't have to play the same every night. The obscure songs go over good enough because there's usually someone there who recognizes them. But bars are there to make money and they are using you to help with that. If you don't draw a crowd you won't be back. As musicians you should always be challenging yourself by adding new material and changing out old stuff that don't work so well. As far as I'm concerned no matter how well we played if the audience didn't enjoy it we failed. When the owner comes up and asks when you can be back you've succeeded.


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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 6:16 pm
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Highline wrote:
Life's too short to play music you hate


Can we get this printed on t-shirts please?

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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 6:45 pm
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I have done things differently...
I started playing originals from the beginning.
We have had a showcase gig going through the bars here.
It goes through all the major bars and ends up in major venues every year.
Its called Club Wars and its a contest for prizes.
You play about twice a month you get tickets to sell and 4 bands play before the judges.
The audience votes and one or two bands advance to the finals.
We get to open for major acts and play stages we would never have played.
I have been on that circuit since 1989, Im 49 now.
Im well known and I get asked to join bigger bands and go to Nashville etc.
I make to much money to drop my day job now though so I always say no.
Well playing originals has been fun...
But man I always wanted to try covers.
I like the tribute scene it looks like so much fun.
So we are doing a Ted Nugent set 70s stuff, ten songs worth.
And a 70s covers set like KISS Sabbath Zeppelin Aerosmith etc., Rock n Roll.
I want to get a chance to play smoke on the water and war pigs and heartbreaker.
So I hope people enjoy it as much as we will.
And we always have new originals coming.

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Last edited by donnycraven on Mon Nov 11, 2013 6:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 6:46 pm
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I booked a show at a bar in the 90's, and they had one condition for all the cover bands that wanted to play: NO "COME AS YOU ARE" :lol: They should have put up a sign above the bar.

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Post subject: Re: Was I rihght to leave my band?
Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2013 6:49 pm
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One thing not discussed in all of this is geography.

Me, I'm in central WI, there's really only about 4 bars around here that hire live music. So on a given night we'll have a crowd ranging from 21-61. So some of those standards are necessary to keep the crowd. You can vary off that path as long as you can keep some interest in the dance floor, if the ladies don't want to dance, then they don't want to stay and the bar sells no drinks, no return gigs. That's how it works.

If you get up there and play an hour full of obscure Jethro Tull and originals because you like them I can guarantee you won't get rehired.

Now when I'm down by Milwaukee visiting my cousin and we go out, we can go to 5 different bars and see a wide variety of bands. There's a lot more places to play, and with some colleges around there's more desire for the variety.

Oh well, just a thought. I'm having fun so no worries either way.


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