Anyone else take 'liberties' with other people's music?

[LindaW]

I have a habit of re-writing or creating chord/fingerpicking patterns for songs that I hear where there are no available tabs or for those I can't yet play. I do eventually learn to play it the way the artist does but I find myself kind of unconcerned about it, like I have every right to bugger someone else's music -- LOL!

A lot of times I'll sing the song and simultaneously work out the chords/fingerpicking to match what I'm singing. Others listening to what I've created seem not to mind, except my daughter who is stickler for exacts.

Anyone else do this? I assume that type of creativity probably flows towards the norm? Or am I 'weird' this way?

[Malcolm]

Love Willy Nelson's songs. His lyrics are just great. However his chord progression are a little too complicated for us I have to dumb them down for our band.

I've been known to dumb down a lot of things. Extensions for us never go beyond maj7's and minor chords get ignored or end up being major, most of the time.

Perhaps not right, but, I have yet to have someone from the audiance call it to our attention. They keep asking us back ........

[ljguitar]

...Anyone else do this? I assume that type of creativity probably flows towards the norm? Or am I 'weird' this way?
Hi Linda...
All the time. I have little-to-no desire to play note-for-note arrangements of other's recordings.

[Fambroski]

... Or am I 'weird' this way?
Oh you're strange alright. LOL. Hey, you're an artist and you're being creative. That's the kind of artist we (or at last I) aspire to, the ones with their own character.

Talk about taking liberties sometimes I'll trash a cover (Norwegian Wood) or sometimes I'll just let what happens happen (Witchita Lineman). I figure I'll never be better a doing Willie Nelson as Willie Nelson, but I can do a good me. I'm willing to bet that most artist are always honored to hear their songs interpreted with love and passion. I like your path.


Ps. Both of the songs above are posted on my site below if you're curious.

[lofapco]

I am better at playing things "my way" than the originals typically... that likely has more to do with my lack of music reading ability. I have pretty much always played by ear and more recently with tab. Too many tabs are just plain wrong with what my ears hear. So even with tab, I add/subtract/re-do things all the time. Matter of fact, sometimes I even go so far as to re-write my own stuff! :eek:

[hepkat63]

I've been playing for over 30 years, and when I first learned to play the older fellow who was my mentor (he was an accomplished music educator) would work up several arrangements of songs with me... everything from the Stones to Beatles, Bruce, James Taylor, etc. Very rarely did they mirror the recorded versions. A lot of key changes, chord substitutions, inversions, etc.

In most instances as I grew as a musician (majored in music-percussion) I learned to play the songs as written, but when performing I still use some of the arrangements that we worked up years ago because they are interesting. It never fails that someone in the crowd at an open mic will try to "correct" me and "show" me how the song is supposed to go.

[DaveG]

As Tommy Emmanuel said, "The only songs I play the way the author intended are the ones that I write myself." :)

[ricks]

Linda,
I think letting the music get "into" you and then letting it come out as YOU is the only way to do it. We are not the original artist who created that music. They had an idea, and that is how it came out of them.
When we learn a song or tune the idea for me is to let it come out of me as me, not trying to be a copy of someone else. That is what makes it you playing, and not just a CD playing in the background.

So for my 2 cents, your doing what you should.

[daleyfolk]

What often happens, is I'm bad at copying and what I think is a nice replication of the original unintentionally ends up being a unique version!

[yardism]

I figure I'll never be better a doing Willie Nelson as Willie Nelson, but I can do a good me. I'm willing to bet that most artist are always honored to hear their songs interpreted with love and passion.

Ps. Both of the songs above are posted on my site below if you're curious.

3 things.
1. I think you'd make a fantastic Willie Nelson. Halloween isn't that far away...just saying.
2. Grateful Dead was so impressed with a revamped cover of Friend of the Devil, that the adopted the version as their own.
3. Great website Miche... check it out folks.

Too many tabs are just plain wrong with what my ears hear. So even with tab, I add/subtract/re-do things all the time. Matter of fact, sometimes I even go so far as to re-write my own stuff! :eek:

No kidding about erroneous tab. Nature of the beast I think. Some folks are more interested in posting a tab with their name on it than they are about trying to get it correct.

[piper_guitarist]

I personally never play a song the same way twice, honestly. It all depends on my mood/the setting.

[mikelhenry]

I prefer to call it "artistic license".

[mmmaak]

I usually play stuff note-for-note unless I feel that I can actually improve on the original (which is rare, due to my very limited creativity!). It isn't always a bad thing, though. Ear-training aside, it offers important insight into an artist's technique and style, especially when the only source available is an audio recording.

[DHM1951]

It depends..I have a number of songs I figured out from memory (Lady Came from Baltimore)...and got them all wrong...most, for one reason or another I have reworked closer to the original. Wth a few others (Comin' Back to Me-Jefferson Airplane is one) I actually came quite close....

Some songs have a distinctive hook, progression, etc,,,which if you dont play sounds like you really dont know the song. Alot of hook based pop is like that.

Like others have said, learning what the artist played, and how the artist played it is great mind-finger-ear exercise....one the other hand, the evolution of a tune..I hear it and play it back slightly different to some one who plays if different.... is the soul of folk music.

It really depned on where you are going with your music...if youre doing it for fun and relaxation, do whatever you will. If you are performing you need a certain level of polish...which it often obtained by following an existing arrangement.

I lke the CDs that include alternate version or alternate takes, they suggest that often the best know arrangement isnt the only one...theres a film of the Stones recording "Sympathy for the Devil"...and they must do it a dozen different ways...


Don Miller

Anchorage AK

[paul84]

Which is the 'right' version anyhow? The one on the studio CD? The one of the live CD? The one you just heard play live?

I was at a workshop recently with Dos Ross - he says he never play a song the same way twice. Some of his tabs have 'Improvise here' on them. He was pointing out that people take the version on a CD and consider that 'the definitive version' - for him it isn't and he enjoys it when folk go off the beaten track with his music.

[vac4873]

I make an effort to be faithful to the essence of a tune. Sometimes that requires me to stay pretty faithful to the original rendition. That being said, I strive to find "new" ground for tunes that I like a lot, and maybe present them in a different setting or background. Example: I do an acoustic guitar version of "Carry on My Wayward Son", incorporating most of the instrumental interludes by the various instruments, and my wife and I do a version of Toto's "Africa" on acoustic guitar and mandolin with one or two percussionists - I play the insistent rhythm hook quite percussively, and she reproduces the keyboard runs and solo on mandolin pretty accurately. The percussionist plays djembe or congas and if there's a second, shaker and vibroslap or other spicy sounds. Of course, the texture of the song changes considerably as there is no electric guitar, keyboard, or drum kit, but it still sounds very much like "Africa".

[BigRed51]

It really never occurred to me to try and play any song the same way someone else played it (even when I was playing restaurant music without vocals), or to play it the same way today that I played it yesterday. I do confess to stealing licks every chance I get. I am much more focused on improvisation than repetition.

In recent years, I have evolved almost exclusively to bluegrass and bluegrass gospel, with a little real country thrown in. I am also playing more and more in bands ... but not a single band, so the personnel changes from show to show. As a result, I am inclined to change songs to match the people in the group that day.

Many times, the original performer did not seem to realize that their song was really a bluegrass song, so they did it as a hymn, or maybe even rock and roll. I am now convinced that many songs ... Act Naturally, I'm Walkin', Walkin' the Floor Over you, He Leadeth Me, and I Saw Her Standing There just for starters ... have indeed been misplaced for many years!

[Guyute]

If I wanted to play something exactly as it was originally written, I would have become a classical musician.

FWIW, aside from classical, I don't really think there's anyone out there playing songs exactly as written (even the artists who wrote them tend to evolve their arrangements).

[Fambroski]

FWIW, aside from classical, I don't really think there's anyone out there playing songs exactly as written (even the artists who wrote them tend to evolve their arrangements).

Well there you have it. Good point.

[ewalling]

I tend to have the same approach as Mmmaak in that first I learn a piece note for note how the transcription goes. One reason I do this is that when I play a note-for-note version, it makes me play positions that I wouldn't otherwise have played or which feel physically unnatural to me. Doing this, I think, extends my range. However, I've noticed that later on I might make small changes to suit my own taste. But I wouldn't feel guilty about changing anything you want to change. Consider that most pieces that have been "written" are rehashed versions of someone else's stuff anyway.

[lpa53]

I've always been a huge James Taylor fan and over the years I've taught myself many of his songs by ear, gradually getting to recognize familiar chord patterns from song to song. I was very concerned to get it as "right" as I coudl, but later, when I was able to see him on dvds or now, Youtube, I saw that although I was close there were always slight differences with what I was doing. This used to get me frustrated but I've now learned that what I'm comfortable with is OK. If I do later "hear" a more complex chord in some certain spot, I'll adopt it though, because that's what makes his songs so great. JT himself, in the covers he did, took liberties with the originals and, in my mind, usually improved on them vastly. If he can do it, so can you.

Lately I've viewed videos of Paul Simon's American Tune and Stookey's Wedding Song and noticed that what all these years I thought was right on (hadn't listened to the originals in a long time) they were playing quite differently - different chords perhaps, and different tempos. But after thinking about it, I decided I liked mine just as much!

If you can find the essence of the song that the author created, then there are all sorts of things you can do to make it your own. If you're playing solo and the original piece was for a full band, you have to be even more inventive anyway. And I'll bet the people you play for won't even notice any differences either.

[lpa53]

Well there you have it. Good point.+1 on the good point. I've always thought that Paul Simon evolved on many of his songs from playing a Travis picking pattern to a smoother T1T2 alternating bass pattern.

[FutureFolkie]

I personally never play a song the same way twice, honestly. It all depends on my mood/the setting.

I do this as well, even with my own songs.

[pixieflyingfree]

I personally like it when liberties are taken with others' music. For instance, one of my favorite musicians, Eva Cassidy, did a couple of covers (Somwhere over the Rainbow, Fields of Gold, and Autumn Leaves, etc...) where she changed a few underlying chords and even played with the melody a bit. As I listened to them, I found that my interpretation of the songs changed in response to the changes she made.

I change things all the time as I see fit - sometimes because of skill (or lack thereof!) and sometimes for artistic reasons. So, no, I don't think you're weird. Enjoy playing!

[Neal]

I think I'm with everyone on this thing. I really don't like doing covers, except blues and what the heck, even blues guys don't play those the same way.

I've always figured the Beatles do their songs a whole lot better than I could, and barring being in a tribute band for the money, if a Beatles song is in the mix that particular night, it's most definitely going to be done differently.

My buddy wrote a song that I've stolen from him. I do it differently, even changed a small verse ending. He's ok with that, and pleased that I do it. He, of course, plays it his way.

Keeping in mind, unlike a lot of you, I'm just an amateur "get together every Thursday night" kinda guy, maybe an open mic now and then, and some youtubes, so there's no one policing..

[Guyute]

FWIW, the only thing more flattering than getting good feedback on an original tune is having someone tell you that they like your version of a cover better than the original :)

[kerrinsdad]

If I wanted to play something exactly the way the original artist had played it, I'd put on the CD!! Could safe a lot of time frustration, money, etc. But, ain't the artistic license the whole point?!

[RustyAxe]

I do it all the time. If I want to hear the recording I play the recording. Most of the time I try to keep the essence of the piece and make it my own. I have no interest in being a human juke box ... ;)

[BlackHeart]

I do "Ain't talking bout luv" (Van Halen) on classical guitar. Actually, if my 'new' Yairi works, Im gonna record it and put it up on metube. Please please please no cracks, no crushed soundboard, no warped neck...

I thought I could 'rewrite' some Renaissance guitar music I had, but when I started playing it by tab, I saw miracoulus compositions, with expertly placed counter point, and am angry I can't find out how to do basic composition for baroque guitar or something.

[LindaW]

PHEW! I'm normal in this regard. LOL!! Thanks for the responses guys. Now I just have to figure out how to get out of my RUT!! Practice, practice, practice...