Are you a "cover" or an "original" kind of player?

[merlin666]

I love singing but although I write a lot for a living have absolutely none of the poetic inspiration needed for creative songwriting. So I am sticking to making cover songs my own, as well as some noodling including fingerstyle stuff in the privacy of my home - sometimes I got as far as 10 to 15% of a potential instrumental piece.

[Glennwillow]

I do both originals and covers, though in recent years most of my time has been spent learning and playing new covers of what I consider really good songs.

It's good to tap into whatever music my brain might be making up. It seems that I have music running through my head almost all the time, much of it just made up stuff. So sometimes when I hear something really good coming out of my head, I have to stop and figure it out on the guitar. That can be a lot of fun to bring this music to life.

A lot of my music time over the last 3 years has been in service to my YouTube channel. And there originals don't get much attention. It seems that people are looking to learn stuff from my performances particularly with regard to music they know and want to learn to play. I'm good with that. If people want to learn, I'm glad to offer whatever I can that may be helpful.

- Glenn

[TBman]

I play solo instrumental stuff. I learn covers and I write my own as well. In addition to tunes that I can learn to play in a few days I'll pick out some that are a few steps ahead of me to push me to play better. Over time the little incremental increases in skill trickles down to my own composing.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by srbell

I'm not the one that wrote it, but I think the reference to "noodling" was more towards playing his own stuff, i.e., just coming up with chord progressions, licks, etc., without actually putting it all together into a song, not as reference to playing songs written by others. I didn't take it as judgemental, but I can understand how a quick read could be interpreted that way. My take on "noodling" is just coming up with progressions/licks/bits&pieces that seem to just come out and may actually be useful for a song in the future, but not spending the time to further develop it at that point.

I may have mis-read it. If so, my apologies to Mike and thanks for pointing it out. For sure, just noodling and coming up with ideas is how I come up with rhythms / chord progressions I may later record or loop to jam to. I'm sure if I wrote actual songs, it would be a key part of that creative process as well. So I surely get the idea of noodling as creative space to come up with slightly more permanent stuff, fleeting as it may be...

-Ray

[Gordon Currie]

I made the decision to go primarily original in the early Eighties.

Prior to that, I had been playing obscure covers in progressive and jazz fusion bands and less-obscure covers as a acoustic guitarist/singer. I realized that I needed to either devote myself to covers (and be unique/memorable) or devote myself to original music.

In my current duo, we have about 50 tunes in our repertoire. 3 are covers.

[Pitar]

I separate the two. They both have their challenges but the involvement with original work I find more rewarding.

Originating is engaging and challenging in support of new creativity; one that does not find its roots in any known (familiar) influences. The dynamics of music are the most engaging aspect for me. I tend to explore that on the fret board pretty much exclusively in melody making. I like to sing but I also like to illustrate it instrumentally and dynamics, akin to vocal inflection, is the method beneath it.

Covering (showcasing) is challenging when learning each piece well enough to play and sing with confidence and with the emotional involvement the song elicits. There's the benefit of a form of paint by numbers these days with the availability of tabs and scores. In the early 70's when no such references were available we trained our ears. That promoted a 2nd sense of pitch and progression that eliminated the need for the visual references, which can and do detract from the emotional flavor of a song.

One of the bigger challenges of covering lies in the singing. If you cannot do that well, or cannot escape a regional accent, drawl or brogue that isn't in the original song, it does not come off well. This is the very reason actors adapt themselves to their roles. Singing is just another form of acting. So, no matter the playing chops, vocal chops must be equally available in the cover work. I've been to many local open mics and, in my case, the southern drawl really detracts from a Paul Simon song. I ask myself why one would go the distance to play a song well but not sing it equally well. The only answer I can come up with is the person just can't go the distance to be fully outside of himself to accommodate the song.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Daniel Grenier

So what do you play when you're alone in your music room, man cave, studio?

I only play covers when in a band or duo context. When alone, all I do is make up my own stuff and let myself fly off in whatever direction the day calls for. Incredibly rewarding and liberating. And, as a bonus, some of the stuff I come up with is 1/2 decent. I just find playing covers very limiting. It has its rewards live, certainly, but can be so stifling too.

You?

I'm the same. The only time I play other people's music in private is when I'm learning a piece: usually for the purposes of playing it in the band.

Actually I do sometimes learn solo fingerstyle pieces by others, because I enjoy them whether I get to play them in public or not.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by Daniel Grenier

So what do you play when you're alone in your music room, man cave, studio?

I only play covers when in a band or duo context. When alone, all I do is make up my own stuff and let myself fly off in whatever direction the day calls for. Incredibly rewarding and liberating. And, as a bonus, some of the stuff I come up with is 1/2 decent. I just find playing covers very limiting. It has its rewards live, certainly, but can be so stifling too.

You?

I don't have a music room/man cave/ studio. I am old and poor.

I have written some numbers which I perform on occasions, mixed is with re-arranged songs by other folk that I like, but I make them my own, whilst crediting the authors.

[Mbroady]

Original type of guy….100%
Always working on a couple of tunes and try to finish at least one a month. Since my daughter was born (22 months now) I have not gigged much, but plan on finishing up a recording project soon and getting out again

[Mr. Jelly]

I rearrange and rewrite about everything in some way or other. I kind of do covers of 1920s and 1930s pop, jazz and blues songs. Maybe some younger. So, yes, I do it all at different times for different reasons. My guilty pleasure though is country rag-time blues that are stolen, reshaped, rewritten, original and pissed on.

[Bob Womack]

That's a hard question to answer simply.

I play sessions which means I play someone else's music, usually original but not mine.
I am a producer which often means arranging and playing someone else's material.
I write score cues for film and video and that means writing, arranging and usually playing as well.
At home I write and play originals. I also transcribe melodies that I Iove that were played on other instruments. Arrange them to be recorded, usually to include some improvisation. And, of course, I play them. I play other people's material because it is fun and keeps me from being a musical introvert.
On the rare occasion that I play out these days it is usually either improve or covers.

So, whatever that amounts to.

Bob

[DukeX]

I write my own songs and instrumental pieces, and that's all I play. I do, on occasion, find something else that inspires me to learn a new technique that I can use in future compositions. But once the technique is learned and borrowed, I move on.

[islandguitar]

"Almost" all original fingerstyle/instrumental approach for me! Many years ago I was in a a 'folk group" (sang and played) and did many of covers of the day......played all kinds of venues small and large. As the group matured, we also wrote and arranged our own music with some success and I think those were the roots of my present day pleasure with this style of guitar. These originals were a source of great pride for all of us at that time.

However, there are times when I want to learn a favorite cover and I find this creatively unlocks some elements which I easily carry over to my own material and I recognize the value in keeping an eye out for a favorite cover song that might bring more of my own compositions.

[s2y]

Original. I've never been able to escape the desire to write.

[jseth]

I play both original tunes and interpretations of "classic" songs... I do this, both at home and when I'm playing out somewhere...

For a good while (my late teens and early twenties), I only really played my original songs... then I became of the mindset that "I've been influenced by EVERY song/sound I've heard in my lifetime, and there are too many terrific tunes that people should never forget, even if they haven't heard them before..."!

With that in mind, I play songs that I TRULY love and enjoy, songs that I can get inside of and bring out the essence of it to folks...

Of course, where the rubber meets the road, I don't talk about any of this stuff, I just play many of my favorite songs from the past 130 years or so...

Most times, I will change up arrangements of songs so they fit me better (and only having one voice and one guitar), although there are certain songs that just "want" to be played in a certain fashion.