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Incredibly boring songs to play


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Grey, I just read through this thread. Sending prayers for your daughter's recovery and for your and your family's comfort through all of this.

 

As for the 1-4-5 thing, I used to play in a "pickup" band that somehow got booked regularly -- we never practiced, we just sort of winged it at every show. The guitarist could play his ass off, but every song he sang was a blues shuffle in E. One night I finally asked him if he could at least try one in a different key, because I'd said all I could say in E.

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Another song that I really don't enjoy is Boogie Shoes. Provided there are no horns in the band, select a brass sound, and play two notes. That's it. I fool around with a clavinet patch with wah just to make it bearable. On the other hand I feel that if the audience digs it, then it's worth playing. And having a full dance floor can help make up for a crappy tune.

 

Been playing Boogie Shoes since the late 90s. I play the brass line with my LH - whether using a single or dual-keyboard rig. With RH (or LH, as well) I have some fun with piano, in the style of '10th Avenue Freeze Out'. If the dance floor is hopping, we'll extend the song and start swapping leads; and that can go many fun directions - from '10th Ave' riffing to Little Feat inspired stuff.

'Someday, we'll look back on these days and laugh; likely a maniacal laugh from our padded cells, but a laugh nonetheless' - Mr. Boffo.

 

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Grey, I just read through this thread. Sending prayers for your daughter's recovery and for your and your family's comfort through all of this.

 

As for the 1-4-5 thing, I used to play in a "pickup" band that somehow got booked regularly -- we never practiced, we just sort of winged it at every show. The guitarist could play his ass off, but every song he sang was a blues shuffle in E. One night I finally asked him if he could at least try one in a different key, because I'd said all I could say in E.

 

I did a gig or 3 with a guy like that. He played a lot of slide, and had several guitars on stage in different tunings. Trouble was, once he put one on he didn't want to take it off for a while, so you ended up with nearly an entire set of medium blues in G. Used to put the audience to sleep in droves, because it literally sounded like we were playing the same song for 45 minutes, which I guess would have been OK on a Dead tribute gig, but that's not what this was. My last gig I leaned in and said can we PLEASE play something in a different key, and that I literally ran out of stuff to play in G about half an hour ago. He looked at me like I had 3 heads and dove into the next 8 minute exploration of 3 chords in G. I gave my notice on the break.....

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Werewolves of London. I win.

 

Yeah, but it"s worth it for the best alliterative line maybe everâ¦

 

'Little old lady got mutilated late last night.'

 

A mash up of 'Sweet Home Alabama', 'All Summer Long' and 'Werewolves Of London' can be kind of fun.

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Werewolves of London. I win.

 

Yeah, but it"s worth it for the best alliterative line maybe everâ¦

 

'Little old lady got mutilated late last night.'

 

A mash up of 'Sweet Home Alabama', 'All Summer Long' and 'Werewolves Of London' can be kind of fun.

 

True dat!

 

"I seen a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vics, and his hair was perfect. Dit!" comes in a close second though.

 

And "You better stay away from him, he'll rip your lungs out Jim." is pretty awesome.

 

Really though, Excitable Boy is probably even worse. I used to hear it all the time on the radio in Fresno, I don't think any of the DJs ever really listened to it.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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Werewolves of London. I win.

 

A mash up of 'Sweet Home Alabama', 'All Summer Long' and 'Werewolves Of London' can be kind of fun.

 

We obviously have widely varying ideas about what "fun" is....I've done several gigs where it was thought of as a cool idea to play "Where the Werewolves Hang Out in Sweet Home Alabama All Summer Long" and after about 30 minutes of D-C-G I'm ready to whack my forehead with a ball peen hammer.....

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Werewolves of London. I win.

 

A mash up of 'Sweet Home Alabama', 'All Summer Long' and 'Werewolves Of London' can be kind of fun.

 

We obviously have widely varying ideas about what "fun" is....I've done several gigs where it was thought of as a cool idea to play "Where the Werewolves Hang Out in Sweet Home Alabama All Summer Long" and after about 30 minutes of D-C-G I'm ready to whack my forehead with a ball peen hammer.....

 

My previous band did the Sweet Home Alabama and Werewolves mash up, Agreed! THAT's boring!

 

And one more to add to the list:

 

Mustang Sally.

Stan

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We all play boring songs, but I do what I can to inspire the band to play it differently throughout -- dynamics, alternative phrasings, backbeats, counter modelodies, interesting inversions -- anything to change it up during the song.

 

You can do a lot with two chords if you plan ahead, e.g. "Feelin' Alright". Or even one chord.

Want to make your band better?  Check out "A Guide To Starting (Or Improving!) Your Own Local Band"

 

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We all play boring songs, but I do what I can to inspire the band to play it differently throughout -- dynamics, alternative phrasings, backbeats, counter modelodies, interesting inversions -- anything to change it up during the song.

 

You can do a lot with two chords if you plan ahead, e.g. "Feelin' Alright". Or even one chord.

 

I do the same thing for certain songs. Especially older songs that folks haven't heard in a while or even forgot about, that in their original form may not be considered danceable by todays standards. Taking those kinds of tunes and spicing them up is cool and people seem to dig that. But... There are songs that really need to retain their original tempo, feel, melody, etc. I'm not saying that you have to go to the extreme of copying every note and nuance of every instrument, but if you mess with it too much, you'll lose the crowd. My band used to work as a back-up group for many of the 'oldies' acts that would come through our area. I can remember several times where an artist had re-arranged one of his or her hits to make it more 'hip'. Totally bombed. The audience just sat there with blank expressions.

 

So back to my original statement- People love some of the most boring songs. And they expect them to sound like the recording. It's fine to state that you can add your own special touches in the way of alternate chords, feel, etc. but then you are not really playing the song that people ask for.

Wm. David McMahan

I Play, Therefore I Am

 

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Problem with Sweet Home Alabama is it's really a hard solo to play if you don't know the style. Billy Powell was incredibly talented and started out as a roadie before the band knew he was classically trained on piano.

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Problem with Sweet Home Alabama is it's really a hard solo to play if you don't know the style. Billy Powell was incredibly talented and started out as a roadie before the band knew he was classically trained on piano.

 

Yeah, and you can't buy a book to learn the Billy Powell technique. Classical training helps but you need to use your ears to pick up the intricacies in his technique.

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Problem with Sweet Home Alabama is it's really a hard solo to play if you don't know the style. Billy Powell was incredibly talented and started out as a roadie before the band knew he was classically trained on piano.

 

Yeah, and you can't buy a book to learn the Billy Powell technique. Classical training helps but you need to use your ears to pick up the intricacies in his technique.

...which often involves using two hands to play the lead in a piano solo. Fortunately, none of my bands play any Skynyrd, as some of those solos would give me fits. Very unique style, and plays to the music so well.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

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Problem with Sweet Home Alabama is it's really a hard solo to play if you don't know the style. Billy Powell was incredibly talented and started out as a roadie before the band knew he was classically trained on piano.

 

Yeah, and you can't buy a book to learn the Billy Powell technique. Classical training helps but you need to use your ears to pick up the intricacies in his technique.

 

Hal Leonard has a note-for-note keyboard transcription of SWA, good place to start.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Any pop/rock/bubblegum/soul/funk cover attempting to recreate the original recording. Pure dogsh*t played by and for mental defectives.

 

If it pays, and pays well, fine. That's an exception to the rule. It's still trash, but money is money.

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I think keyboard players tend to do better than most other pop/rock musicians when it comes to volume of boring parts.

 

I remember in particular a horn player complaining incessantly about how boring his part was in the 90s Top 40 "gem" -- "How Bizarre". Every 30 seconds or so, he would play an octave. That was it. Drove him crazy.

 

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Serious answer: I love dancing to Uptown Funk, but not playing it.

 

Wow, and this is one of my most fun tunes to play. But I do A LOT in it, I play trumpet with right hand, chords in left hand. I do the big dumb synth splats, I augment the bass line with synth bass, and I sometimes play fake clap samples. It's a fun workout! There's a lot you can do with that song to make it fun to play. Don't forget the hero moment of that synth sweep just before the chorus!

 

I know this might be heresy, but Purple Rain is an absolute slog, or similarly the first half of Freebird. At least Freebird has a payoff at the end, but Purple Rain just goes on and on. Even when I'm doing the orchestral parts, it's just monotony.

Puck Funk! :)

 

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[i do A LOT in it, I play trumpet with right hand, chords in left hand. I do the big dumb synth splats, I augment the bass line with synth bass, and I sometimes play fake clap samples. [...]Don't forget the hero moment of that synth sweep just before the chorus!
Yeah, I do that. Brass, synth chords, the sampled-vocal bass line, claps, even Julio's whistle. I just find it puts me in the mindset of triggering samples, not actually playing music.

 

I'm glad you enjoy it!

 

Cheers, Mike.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Wicked Game: Chris Isaak. Same 3 chords, same order, entire song. I do like 3 or 4 patch changes just to give each verse a slightly different flavor.

 

Covered in Rain: John Mayer...or actually most of John Mayer's catalog. Bore's the livin crap out of me.

You want me to start this song too slow or too fast?

 

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Wicked Game: Chris Isaak. Same 3 chords, same order, entire song. I do like 3 or 4 patch changes just to give each verse a slightly different flavor.

 

Covered in Rain: John Mayer...or actually most of John Mayer's catalog. Bore's the livin crap out of me.

 

 

We do some rocked up cover version of Wicked Game, so not only is it still boring to play it takes away the original feel and replaces it with sludge. Ugh. This one was added while I was out during covid so I "inherited" it....

 

I do the same thing, just find cool patches on my Summit and change it up throughout the song.

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Lean on Me

Cocaine

Closing Time

At least I get a massive solo for as many bars as I can keep the BL's attention in Cocaine. He does kind of a psychedelic guitar solo so I do an Organ through a whah pedal kinda thing that you can only get away with in this kind of song. The chord structure is so simple you can get away with a whole lot of interesting notes soloing over it.

 

I can't even stand listening to Closing Time, let alone playing it.

You want me to start this song too slow or too fast?

 

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I find Bowie"s Heroes a dull plod to play, but crowd loves to sing along to it.

 

 

You just reminded me of the #1 contender in my book. It "wins" on multiple counts: boring to play....I can't stand the song to listen to....and I strongly dislike playing horn parts on keyboards and get out of it any chance I can.

 

Sweet Caroline.

 

But there's no doubt people go apey over it, especially if there's a lot of New Englanders there. :)

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You can do a lot with two chords if you plan ahead, e.g. "Feelin' Alright". Or even one chord.
Favorite 1-chord songs. I'll start:

Chain Of Fools - Aretha Franklin

Wang Dang Doodle - Koko Taylor was the hit version

others?

 

And 2-chord songs:

I'd Rather Go Blind - Etta James

others?

These are only my opinions, not supported by any actual knowledge, experience, or expertise.
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Whole Lotta Love is one chord until the very last one, unless the main riff counts as two.

 

Electric Avenue is one chord.

 

This one is a two chorder, one we sometimes play: Use Me.

I can't think of two many others that I have played, usually there's some bridge or variation in there somewhere that disqualifies it!

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