Sometimes you just have to jump out of the box

[miroslav]

 

I'm going to plug myself here and link Behind Blue Eyes again. I've always liked songs turned inside out instead of a straight cover ...

 

Nice Bill...a definite departure from the original.

 

We use to do that all the time in the bands I was in.change things around.

Yeah, we would still do a few covers following the original versions, but most times we broke away from that. We were always bored with learning songs note for note...though there are some that almost beg to be done exactly as the original.

 

One has to remember that most of our guitar "gods" did exactly that...they took originals and TOTALLY improvised and changed them into songs that we all now know very well.

Just consider many of the Blues/Rock tunes that came from songs written buy the old Blues/R&R originators 20-30 years earlierbefore our guitar heroes covered them. Meanwhile...everyone today covers those better known versions as though they are the "originals"...

Just shows you that with a little imagination, a song can go many way and still sound greatstill sound interesting.

 

Another approach we used in my bands was to do obscure covers instead of the same old crowd pleasers.

There are a lot of great tunes that are not part of that typical bar/club set list that just about every Rock band does, but yet they still get a great reaction from the crowd. Like a lot of the B sides materialthe stuff that didnt get played to death when it was a hit.

They lend themselves to interpretation a lot easier, as you dont feel so obligated to do them note for note.

 

[Eric Iverson]

Re: originality. I think originality is great, but it still has to SOUND good! For example, if your cool and creative licks don't fit the chord changes, you might have to resort to variations of other people's licks until you can get your own stuff to work properly.

 

Getting out the box? Well, that's one of the reasons I play mandolin (getting better!) and flute (still very limited) as well as guitar. Play the same piece on a different instrument and you HAVE to look at it differently!

 

You can also play the same piece in a different tuning or use a different technique (fingerstyle or tapping instead of pickstyle, maybe.

 

Whatever you do creatively at home, though, onstage it has to sound good in context - you owe that to your bandmates and to the audience. And to yourself, really!

 

And it's no disgrace to play someone else's piece well!

[Hardtail]

Whatever you do creatively at home, though, onstage it has to sound good in context - you owe that to your bandmates and to the audience. And to yourself, really!

 

And it's no disgrace to play someone else's piece well!

 

[miroslav]

Re: originality. I think originality is great, but it still has to SOUND good! For example, if your cool and creative licks don't fit the chord changes, you might have to resort to variations of other people's licks until you can get your own stuff to work properly.

 

.....

 

 

Whatever you do creatively at home, though, onstage it has to sound good in context - you owe that to your bandmates and to the audience. And to yourself, really!

 

And it's no disgrace to play someone else's piece well!

 

Well of course your original licks have to fit the song.

I usually come up with original licks while working within the context of the song....it's not like I create the original licks apart and then try to fit them in later. :grin:

And you know...if it sounds good at home, why would it sound bad onstage....???

The music doesnt change just because it's performed on stage.

 

But I agree...there's no disgrace in playing someone else's licks...it's just not as creative, IMO.

The point I was making in my previous post was that can you imagine if Clapton, Page, Hendrix...etc...played some of those Blues/Rock covers they did, JUST like the originals...note for note...?

We would NEVER have heard their masterful interpretations!

Basically...those guys WERE playing outside of the box...coming up with their own licks and their own versions of some classic Blues/Rock tunes.

 

 

[Kramer Ferrington III.]

Well of course your original licks have to fit the song.

I usually come up with original licks while working within the context of the song....it's not like I create the original licks apart and then try to fit them in later. :grin:

And you know...if it sounds good at home, why would it sound bad onstage....???

The music doesnt change just because it's performed on stage.

 

[Eric Iverson]

And I agree, "if it sounds good at home, why wouldn't it sound good onstage?"

 

I'm all for creativity... in fact I'm not playing with some good friends much anymore because they still want to do the stuff we did 15 years ago, and are no longer interested in writing new songs or doing anything other than the same old arrangements. I still play with them sometimes, but it's hard to get excited about it! It's like they're in a time warp or something!

 

But for example, were I to actually buy the electric sitar I played in the Village recently, I'd sit down and figure out some kind of reasonable way to use it on one of our tunes. I wouldn't drag it out and just wail away cluelessly the day after I bought it! And if I couldn't find a way to make it fit, I'd use it in other contexts. Out of respect for everyone concerned, including myself.

 

Yes, I still love Ravi Shankar and other great Indian classical musicians.. which to me is just another form of lead guitar playing... is my age showing? But I wouldn't do a raga version of "Rock of Ages"!

 

I did play a Bach piece on the electric sitar, just for the halibut, without the drone strings of course... sounded sort of cool! Not sure how many people are hankering to hear it, though!

[Billster]

I've always liked songs turned inside out instead of a straight cover

 

I was never much into that myself. That would be like me turning up the Fender and cranking Autumn Leaves metal style on the LP.

 

To each their own.

 

Umm, be creative, not just silly. The punk version of "My Way" at the end of the movie Good Fellas is a great version, taking the lyrics in a totally different direction by virtue of the delivery.

 

I read an article yesterday comparing the various covers of Beatles tunes to covers of Dylan tunes. The gist of the article was that the Beatles music is so iconic that covers of the song tend to be too polite and end up as a relative of bad karaoke. In comparison, the Dylan tunes are still iconic, but more of a blank slate for interpretation - the covers are more varied and (in the writer's opinion anyway) more interesting.

 

Another approach we used in my bands was to do obscure covers instead of the same old crowd pleasers.

 

That's another good source for songs you can mess with, and slip something through.

[miroslav]

 

But for example, were I to actually buy the electric sitar I played in the Village recently, I'd sit down and figure out some kind of reasonable way to use it on one of our tunes. I wouldn't drag it out and just wail away cluelessly the day after I bought it!

 

I have one (an authentic one, not an electric)...and trust me, it's not easy to just sit down and wail away! :grin:

 

I spent an entire afternoon working out just a couple of simple lead lines.

It came out good in the context of the song, but in the end, I decided to leave that song out of my project. Not because of the sitar parts, but because I was not happy with the lyrics, and I already spent a lot of time reworking them...so I decided to just put the song off to the side for awhile.

I'm sure I'll get back to it eventually...with some fresh ears.

 

You knowsome people have misconceptions about writing original music. They seem to think its nothing all that seriousyou just noodle around, assemble bits of musicand call it a song!

But if you are serious about it, it actually takes quite a bit of work, as your ARE creating something new. And if you are recording the songsthen you have a LOT of parts to createits not just a strum-n-sing-along thing!

 

On the other handthere are those who seem to almost avoid writing original music, as the mystery about it implies a certain difficulty to themso they avoid it.

Its not possible to sit down for the first time and just write a bunch of good songs. You have to work at itand often your first attempts will come off rather simplistic and juvenileand some people are put off by thatso they toss their writing tablets aside and never try again.