It's good I mostly play originals

[Dadocaster]

I have never learned covers easily and am still not good at it. I practice them but the part where you memorize the complete song such that it can be trotted out in a performnce eludes me. I need to be better at this.

Ideas?

 

[sam_in_cali]

Its been a long time since I played covers in a band setting...but I remember that I struggled to remember a whole song much less a whole setlist if I was practicing them by myself. It was a lot easier to remember my parts when playing the song with others and hearing the vocal lines to remember which part was coming up next. LIke muscle-memory or something kicked in.

 

[Dadocaster]

Its been a long time since I played covers in a band setting...but I remember that I struggled to remember a whole song much less a whole setlist if I was practicing them by myself. It was a lot easier to remember my parts when playing the song with others and hearing the vocal lines to remember which part was coming up next. LIke muscle-memory or something kicked in.

Yes. I can manage that especially if the drummer is good. I also do ok with playing my originals with the band or solo.

Right now I just need a good hour of covers to do acoustic guy who sings. It would not be life changing but I could make some cash while having fun.

 

[Murdog]

I have never learned covers easily and am still not good at it. I practice them but the part where you memorize the complete song such that it can be trotted out in a performnce eludes me. I need to be better at this.

Ideas?

I'm kinda the same way. For me it's just practice. Boring sometimes for sure.

 

[Dadocaster]

I'm kinda the same way. For me it's just practice. Boring sometimes for sure.

Dang! Was hoping for someone to have a LEARN A SET BY TUESDAY! Method.

 

[sam_in_cali]

Yes. I can manage that especially if the drummer is good. I also do ok with playing my originals with the band or solo.

Right now I just need a good hour of covers to do acoustic guy who sings. It would not be life changing but I could make some cash while having fun.

Oh..yeah...no way would I be able to do that. I need some cues to go off of, lol. Props to the one-man shows out there that can do it!

 

[Dadocaster]

Oh..yeah...no way would I be able to do that. I need some cues to go off of, lol. Props to the one-man shows out there that can do it!

I've fallen in with a rough crowd. My bass player did three solo gigs a couple weekends ago and I know someone who gigs loads and hosts open mics. I'm not scared to do it and I get good reactions from the crowds and other players but just not getting the songs done.

 

[Dadocaster]

......and I guess I am not making it easy on myself. I am working up little arrangements of the songs and doing hybrid picking and sticking in little pieces of solos and intros and stuff. Maybe that's the problem. It's more interesting and people really seem to enjoy a song that's not just strumming chords.

 

[PonyB]

I've fallen in with a rough crowd. My bass player did three solo gigs a couple weekends ago and I know someone who gigs loads and hosts open mics. I'm not scared to do it and I get good reactions from the crowds and other players but just not getting the songs done.

Maybe you need a writer's retreat.
Rent a shabby motel room in a seedy part of town and write an album, Nebraska style.

 

[sam_in_cali]

I've fallen in with a rough crowd. My bass player did three solo gigs a couple weekends ago and I know someone who gigs loads and hosts open mics. I'm not scared to do it and I get good reactions from the crowds and other players but just not getting the songs done.

I envy you being able to play originals in front of a crowd. It was a rush to play covers but in our case we quickly realized that it was a lot of commitment for no real return to play the same 30 or so songs over and over again to a lot of the same folks that showed up to support us. Sure, you get a rush of playing live music but that's a lot of prep work, lol. I do remember a highlight though, after our third show playing mostly the same stuff, we snuck an original tune of ours into the set that I had originally brought to practice and we liked like jamming on, and it fit right in seamlessly...that will probably be my biggest musical accomplishment.

 

[Dadocaster]

I envy you being able to play originals in front of a crowd. It was a rush to play covers but in our case we quickly realized that it was a lot of commitment for no real return to play the same 30 or so songs over and over again to a lot of the same folks that showed up to support us. Sure, you get a rush of playing live music but that's a lot of prep work, lol. I do remember a highlight though, after our third show playing mostly the same stuff, we snuck an original tune of ours into the set that I had originally brought to practice and we liked like jamming on, and it fit right in seamlessly...that will probably be my biggest musical accomplishment.

Different strokes, right? I know a woman back where I came from, in San Antonio that plays in a Pat Benatar tribute that plays large halls and probably has more people there for one show than I get in 5 shows. Another of my old buddies from SA lives up here in Dallas and he is in a popular Grateful Dead cover band that plays a lot. But, I dig messing with writing and recording and playing my tunes with the guys in whatever little joint will have us. We are not able to play enough to get a following but we have a few people that might be called fans. They know a couple of the songs and stuff. That's a hoot.

 

[Dadocaster]

Maybe you need a writer's retreat.
Rent a shabby motel room in a seedy part of town and write an album, Nebraska style.

I am not bragging and I am not confused as to where I am musically.... I am pretty sure I could write an album given time and space and some dang help. But that's the part that's easy for me. I need to do some covers and have people give me money.

 

[Higgins1980]

All I know are covers. I’ve tried to create original material and I’ve got a couple nice original chord progressions but my attempts at lyrics always comes out terribly. For the covers I know they tend to be songs I really like I just played them over and over so many times I’ve memorized the chord changes and the lyrics. I don’t play gigs or anything only at home by myself and occasionally jamming with a couple friends.

 

[PonyB]

I am not bragging and I am not confused as to where I am musically.... I am pretty sure I could write an album given time and space and some dang help. But that's the part that's easy for me. I need to do some covers and have people give me money.

Inspiration can come from location location location.
Borley summer house:

Steinbeck's writing house.

 

[Dadocaster]

Inspiration can come from location location location.
Borley summer house:

Steinbeck's writing house

You know, that's probably true. Writing here is probably hard considering this is where a lot of my earthly cares reside. But,I have enough new junky songs for the band to do a fat EP or a series of releases and we can continue to play from time to time. But for me personally to play more and get something back from the effort, I probably need to just learn those damned covers.

 

[tanta07]

I have never learned covers easily and am still not good at it. I practice them but the part where you memorize the complete song such that it can be trotted out in a performnce eludes me. I need to be better at this.

Ideas?

I’ve found it’s easier when you go to learn songs that you’ve listened to a million times and internalized them. You instinctively know where the song is going because it’s hardwired into your brain.

It’s much harder for me to learn songs that are relatively new to me. I’ve dropped into bands on a few occasions who have asked me to learn some cover songs that were new (playing-wise) to me, and I found that pretty difficult. I end up making charts for myself (“bridge after the 2nd chorus,” “stops on the V, but only first time through,” etc.).

I guess what I’m saying is that listening to a song you’ve got to learn a million times until you know exactly every twist and turn will probably make the job easier.

 

[Dadocaster]

All I know are covers. I’ve tried to create original material and I’ve got a couple nice original chord progressions but my attempts at lyrics always comes out terribly. For the covers I know they tend to be songs I really like I just played them over and over so many times I’ve memorized the chord changes and the lyrics. I don’t play gigs or anything only at home by myself and occasionally jamming with a couple friends.

I'm getting old so I am trying to do all that stuff I was unable to do in the past. It's pretty good motivation.

 

[velvet_man]

I've learned quite a few songs over the years, and sometimes I'll randomly play one again out the blue after having not thought about it for years. I think the key is to listen to the song over and over and over again until you can hum the entire thing. Once you get that in your head, it's easy peasy to play as long as your ears can hear the key and the relative pitch differences between the chords in the progression.

At my last band rehearsal something popped into my head so I started playing it. I had to ask the other guys what I was playing because I couldn't figure it out. It was a Green Day song I had leaned about 20 years ago.

 

[Dadocaster]

I’ve found it’s easier when you go to learn songs that you’ve listened to a million times and internalized them. You instinctively know where the song is going because it’s hardwired into your brain.

It’s much harder for me to learn songs that are relatively new to me. I’ve dropped into bands on a few occasions who have asked me to learn some cover songs that were new (playing-wise) to me, and I found that pretty difficult. I end up making charts for myself (“bridge after the 2nd chorus,” “stops on the V, but only first time through,” etc.).

I guess what I’m saying is that listening to a song you’ve got to learn a million times until you know exactly every twist and turn will probably make the job easier.

This is actually a lot of what I have been thinking. The fact that the songs I am messing with are familiar, does not mean that I have listened to them enough to know structure and lyrics. I can usually pretty easily play the various parts and sing the parts I know but the whole complete thing, not so much.

The obvious thing would be for me to listen to the dang songs a lot, right???

 

[TepidPilot]

I used to be able to write quite readily but I can't anymore. Not angry enough.

TP