Do You try to replicate songs you learn exactly or put your own interpretation?

[tommieboy]

Originally Posted by Rick Jones

FAROUT! John would approve!

Here is another verse from the original lyrics that weren't released on John's albums.

In the foothills, hiding from the clouds
Pink and purple, West Virginia farmhouse
Naked ladies, men who looked like Christ
And a dog named Pancho, nibbling on the rice

Tommy

[Silly Moustache]

In the last weekend I chatted with two friends who make good money playing in old folks homes or busking.
In these scenarios, listeners want to hear songs with which they are familiar, delevered in familiar ways.

I don't do that.

I am very very old and have developed my own singing and playing style.

I "lighty steal" well crafted songs, and apart from some older blues and hokum stuff, my choice of songs are about the storyline and for about four minutes, I make that story my own.

I'll hear it, listen again, write out the kyrics (and change as I feel appropriate) then work out the chord progression, a process I've done since i was writing in pencil while putting the needle on a record - but Ultimate Guitar takes much of the hard work out).

Then, I'm on my own. i'll choose the key, the tempo, the accents, the intro, outro, runs and fills and breaks will be totally mine.

On one of my earlier albums my strapline was "Some of the best songs you've never heard"

So I don't get any carehome gigs or busk, but I can "sell" a song.

[tommieboy]

Do any of you use computer software to store your music scores? I have years of chicken scratch "tab" notations, but it's getting unruly to keep track of and sort through.

Thanks,

Tommy

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by Andromeda

As a huge John Denver fan I love your cover of Country Roads. John did co-write the song with Bill Danoff. John wrote the second verse and the bridge.

Thank you, and thank you also for the info, I didn't know that!

Originally Posted by tommieboy

FAROUT! John would approve!

Here is another verse from the original lyrics that weren't released on John's albums.

In the foothills, hiding from the clouds
Pink and purple, West Virginia farmhouse
Naked ladies, men who looked like Christ
And a dog named Pancho, nibbling on the rice

Tommy

Ah thank you, I hope so. Haha those lyrics seem nothing like the other verses I can kind of see why they didn't make the cut... might have changed the feel of the song.

[bufflehead]

I do a country rock version of "Joy to the World" that even gets Santa's elves tapping their feet.

[tommieboy]

Originally Posted by Rick Jones

....Ah thank you, I hope so. Haha those lyrics seem nothing like the other verses I can kind of see why they didn't make the cut... might have changed the feel of the song.

Here's Bill Danoff with his explanation at the 2:30 mark.

https://youtu.be/jBN3PSNCr1Q

Tommy

[Rick Jones]

Originally Posted by tommieboy

Here's Bill Danoff with his explanation at the 2:30 mark.

https://youtu.be/jBN3PSNCr1Q

Tommy

Haha brilliant! Decade-late commune-dwelling hippies from West Virginia, sounds like a great time

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by Joe Beamish

I always prefer to hear something new happening when someone covers a song.

Richie Havens cover of “Here Comes The Sun” is a perfect example. Or Phoebe Snow’s cover of “Don’t Let Me Down.”

When people replicate the arrangement of the original, it feels like karaoke.

I think the discussion may be a little at cross purposes here. Sure, if a pro does someone else's song, we want to hear something different; otherwise, why would we not simply listen to the original? I like Ray Charles' version of Yesterday - very different from that of the Beatles.

However, when we, as hobbyists, learn instrumental parts, 'putting our own interpretation' might be done to sidestep the trickier parts of an arrangement; instead of a difficult sequence of moves, we might simplify it with some kind of shortcut. That's the kind of 'putting my own stamp' on songs that I prefer to avoid. Learning new stuff often means making our fingers go places that they don't want to go!

[lneal14513]

There was a time some years ago where I very much wanted to learn specific songs (or someone's version of a fiddle tune) note for note. I even had one of those marantz 1/2 speed tape players to help.

Then in the mi 90's I purchased "Winfield Winners" the flatpicking version. I made the commitment to learn several of the arrangements, note for note, at the tempo on the accompanying CD. It took over a year but I did accomplish it on several of the cuts, and it certainly did improve my flatpicking skill. It also "cured" me of ever wanting to undertake something like that again, or go to the effort of deciphering someone else's work.

I still do it from time to time if a passage of music intrigues me, but it's usually no more than 4-8 bars, and I'll usually try to manipulate it (playing backwards, inverting the melody, playing the inversion backwards or messing with the time).

If I stumble across something that's a keeper I'll toss it in the bag of tricks and try to turn it into something else later.

[cedartop52]

I greatly enjoy building arrangements (or derangements? ha) of songs I love. I change lots of elements within the song and no one has ever complained because I only play by myself in my 'music room'. I typically don't mess with the lyrics but everything else is up for grabs!

[sinistral]

Originally Posted by Rick Jones

Maybe sacrilegious, but I love Bob Dylan songs best of all when they aren't done by Dylan! Truly great songwriter, not my taste as a singer.

Imagine if his covering artists tried to do it just like him? I'm glad they don't because they allow me to properly appreciate what I perceive to be Dylan's talent.

Then there's the whole interpretive thing. I try to do songs that mean something to me, and whilst the incredible John Denver's 'Country Road' (I know he didn't write it, btw) is a joyful homecoming song, to me it evokes the feeling of not living where I come from anymore... hence:



I tried to change the 'feel' to match my own sentiment. I do that a fair bit.

I really loved your cover of Dylan’s You Gotta Serve Somebody (reposted from another thread):

Originally Posted by Rick Jones

If I go up there on either style of guitar, my thumb comes around the front and I can sometimes use it to fret then, too. If I’m stood, using a strap, then the down-pressure needed to make the notes ring clear can be gotten by pushing the guitar back against my body in these positions, which obviously you can’t on the neck.

Here’s a 12 year-old video of my silly arrangement of Dylan’s ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’ where at some point I use every part of the fretboard whilst sitting down.

Someone else whose songs sound better in covers than the original is Leonard Cohen. I find his own rendition of Dance Me to the End of Love hard to listen to. My favorite cover is by Madeleine Peyroux.

[ghostnote]

I never listen to a recording I want to learn - I play them how I remember them sounding. I do make sure I get the correct chords and lyrics from some source, but after that I just go for it. Occasionally I’ll hear the original version of one of my covers on the radio, and it’s weird: sometimes my version is way different, but sometimes it’s very close. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern there - not sure what that means, but it’s all fun.

[srbell]

Originally Posted by Rick Jones

Maybe sacrilegious, but I love Bob Dylan songs best of all when they aren't done by Dylan! Truly great songwriter, not my taste as a singer.

Imagine if his covering artists tried to do it just like him? I'm glad they don't because they allow me to properly appreciate what I perceive to be Dylan's talent.

Then there's the whole interpretive thing. I try to do songs that mean something to me, and whilst the incredible John Denver's 'Country Road' (I know he didn't write it, btw) is a joyful homecoming song, to me it evokes the feeling of not living where I come from anymore... hence:



I tried to change the 'feel' to match my own sentiment. I do that a fair bit.

As a WV boy myself (still live there) this has to be the best version of this song I've ever heard. I think I prefer it over Denver's!

[J Patrick]

I’ve been faking it for almost 60 years…why would I change now?

[tbirdman]

I take weekly singing lessons along with piano and guitar lessons. I run most of new songs past my singing instructor. Sometimes she says you did a lovely rendition of that song, the pitches you sang corresponded with the chords you played, but it's different than the original. Do you want to learn the original?

So we will go over the song correcting my inaccurate pitches. It's not so much to sing it like the original, but to develop my singing skills. The toughest thing when trying to sing it like the original score, is when your version is stuck in your brain.