original guitarist vs cover guitarist

[D]

this is a long debate between me and others

if im at a party or something and there is a guitar lying around im a shitty fuckin guitarist because i dont know any cover songs hardly

i have a friend and he plays all the stevie ray vaughn, hendrix, metallica etc etc etc and everyone thinks he is the greatest guitarist alive

i just sit there twiddling my thumbs cause i cant play any of that shit

i am an original guitarist thru and thru, im not an original guitarist but an orginal musician

anyone who has listened to two of my songs know that i have talent or at least i hope u think so but i cant play cover for shit

im just not interested, im sure i have the skill if i really really wanted to, but learning nothing but covers im afraid will fuck up  my originality so i dont do it

this guy that plays everyone cover known to man couldnt write a song however if his life depended on it

i mean no offense to anyone but i dont personally take cover guitarists all that seriously, to me cover guitarist are like people who play guitar as a hobby but an original musican guy is a guy with talent and genius

not that cover guitarists arent talented cause they are but cover guitarist dont impress me where as orginal ones blow me away

so do any of u have anyopinions on the subject?

[Oddy]

hhhahahaha this is where the nightrain video thread was heading, good thread D.

I agree, original guitarist through and through.

"i have a friend and he plays all the stevie ray vaughn, hendrix, metallica etc etc etc and everyone thinks he is the greatest guitarist alive"

that is so damn true! I have a friend like that, and all my other friends think he's the greatest guitarist ever. But when he improvises solos/songs they become like a piecemeal collection of all the licks stored from other songs.

I don't like that, and thus have decided to write and play original material only. I would love to post my songs (no lyrics, just instrumental stuff for now) but don't have the necessary recording equipment. Damn and i really want people to hear them.

Back on to the topic, cover guitarists won't get very far, where as original guitarists try to gain respect and recognition and after a while will get it when their material is to ever reach the mainstream. I'm taking guitar very seriously at the moment, and in the longrun being a cover guitarist is not where i want to be.

[blues_rock_axeman]

I have a friend like that, and all my other friends think he's the greatest guitarist ever. But when he improvises solos/songs they become like a piecemeal collection of all the licks stored from other songs.

Yep, I've got a mate just like that. I call it 'Guitar Xerox'.

It does have some advantages. I learn solos and songs in order to hone my style, as the more different songs you learn, the more interesting stuff you get in your style. But you can't rely on it.

The distinct lack of any emotion at all gets me about this mate of mine as well. The dude can kick my ass at technique, but I'd like to think I put more of myself into the guitar than he does. Not to knock him, but hey...

 

[matt88]

Original has way more class

[gypsy eyes]

I hear you, I started playing guitar when I was just a kid, I didn't even really listen to music but my parents sent me to music academy and there I was, had to pick two instruments and one of them was the guitar. Pretty silly cause at the time I didn't even know who Jimi Hendrix was Keep in mind that at that time Kurdt Cobain just died and peopl really got sick of rock, things went more poppy  But as I grew older I discovered all that stuff adn I wanted to play that too. The shit was that I couldn't. In an academy they teach you classic shit, think Mozart and Bach on guitar...and yes that is as awfull as it sounds! So I could play all sorts of stuff but not one song, not a chord and I hated it! I played for hours and hours on those stupid compositions while other kids in my class couldn't read a note but their older brother or sister learned them to play a good song so they were the best guitarists alive and I sucked One day I got fed up with it and I quit music, threw my guitar in a cornor and said I'd never touch it again cause I was no good anyway! Not long after that I discovered Guns and almost at the same time Aerosmith. If anyone here ever saw those bands live you know that they blow you away, their music is fucking great but the way they play! the feeling they put into it! the emotion and intensity!! I just fell in love and thought "I wanna play like that too!"  So I took my guitar again, looked up the tabs and started playing... little problem: I don't know chords! So I got a friend who knew all those songs to teach me chords and teach me the songs and for a while I was like "wow man this rocks!!!" and everyone kept telling me what a great guitarist I was... But after a while that blows over and I was sitting there playing a little, played for hours, all songs I knew and i was bored so I started hitting some chords... "Hey this sounds cool. And if you take this one and then that one..." In no time I had a song of my own. Took one of my poems and put it to music. I played it in front of my friends, really proud and all and what did they say? "Cool! I never heard that before? Who is it?" euh...I wrote it myself "Oh well emm...you know any other songs? Something by Nirvana?"  
In the beginning I was constantly worried what other might think and how it'd look but screw it! There will always be kids who only wanna hear songs they know, who don't appreciate that stuff just cause it isn't famous. When Duff went solo on one of his first performances he was playing something and someone shouted "Why don't you play something you know?" wtf? All just cause he didn't play Guns songs but his own! I don't care anymore, I play what I want and what I feel good with. But I do still use other songs too sometimes, but not that often. I think you can learn a lot from songs you know. So that's why it's always handy to know as much as possible. But the danger is that you end up writing something that sounds a lot like another song. I think original guitarists are still best but you can't lock out covers either!
What blues_rock_axeman here said also makes a lot of sense, the intensity you put in your songs are often what make them so great! I love punk, not cause the technique is so brilliant but cause bands like the new york dolls, the sex pistols, the dead boys,... just live, breath what they play, their music is who they are! When you play a cover yu can put a lot of yourself in that but it isn't you, you didn't write it so you can't put your soul in it completely, you don't live it, it isn't really you. That intensity is the most important thing to me!

[Slashly]

Original!!!
But It?s allways good to know some bunch of famous songs so if you are jamming with friends you can play something  you all know

[Miz]

I think you're all just jealous of people who have the skill and patience to learn other people's stuff.

I mean saying "I want to be totally original so i'm not gonna learn anyone else's song" is the most stupid thing I ever heard.
So what, you never learnt a chord?  Or any scale?  You can be just as creative, but probably even a lot more, if you've learnt other people's stuff.  I mean, if you know nothing, then you're quite limited in what you can do.  Learning other people's stuff gives you a new way of looking at things.  There's only 12 fucking notes, so really you want as much perspective as you can get, before you can be limited only by your imagination.

Look at EVH.  Learnt every single Clapton solo note for note.  He's probably the thrid or fourth most influential guitarist ever.  Kurt Cobain?  Segovia?  He didn't even write songs, but he's still and incredibly inventive guitarist.

I think you're all deluding yourselves.


It's like trying to write a novel without ever reading any books.

[Eduardo]

I think you're all just jealous of people who have the skill and patience to learn other people's stuff.

I mean saying "I want to be totally original so i'm not gonna learn anyone else's song" is the most stupid thing I ever heard.
So what, you never learnt a chord?  Or any scale?  You can be just as creative, but probably even a lot more, if you've learnt other people's stuff.  I mean, if you know nothing, then you're quite limited in what you can do.  Learning other people's stuff gives you a new way of looking at things.  There's only 12 fucking notes, so really you want as much perspective as you can get, before you can be limited only by your imagination.

Look at EVH.  Learnt every single Clapton solo note for note.  He's probably the thrid or fourth most influential guitarist ever.  Kurt Cobain?  Segovia?  He didn't even write songs, but he's still and incredibly inventive guitarist.

I think you're all deluding yourselves.


It's like trying to write a novel without ever reading any books.

Right on, couldnt agree more. I think by doing covers you learn a litlle bit of each guitar player and try to incorporate the influences on your playing. What comes out is a mixture of things and influences that make your sound unique.

[Oddy]

ah the battle has begun.

Miz, i've learnt chords scales techniques etc, and can be more creative than someone who has learnt a few jimi hendrix or metallica solos and thats all.

What you get from learning other guitarists licks or solos i get from experimentation, the result is no different, still creativity to add to one's guitar vocabulary.

And if i'm limited by anything its not my creativity, it's my technique letting me down, or my knowledge of which note to land on next to make that killer melody which can all be learnt.

And also you don't have to learn other people's songs/solos to be influenced by them at all. Guitarists are constantly listening to music, particularly those of their idols. Hearing a certain lick, its probably been put in your brain. And sooner or later a similar lick will probably come out in your playing without you even noticing. I've probably been influenced by Angus Young and Slash and BB King simply because i listen to a lot of their songs, never really learnt any of them, but still anyone else could probably hear the influence in my playing.

All im saying is guitarists can never ever be true original guitarists (devoid of any influence at all), they are influenced by everything they hear, and guitarists usually hear alot.

PS: and im certainly not jealous of cover guitarists, i mean when i look at slash, im not jealous of his ability to play mama kin, im probably jealous of his ability to create killer melodies solos riffs etc whether influenced by joe perry or whateva.

Yeah and the other side is cover guitarists being jealous of original guitarists who have the skill and patience to practice practice practice and invent and write their own songs/riffs. It's a never ending battle where one will argue which takes more skill etc so im guessing we should just stop now.

[D]

there are exceptions

there are people who can play the shit out of cover and can also write cool shit as well

im basically referring to the people who can play any cover song but cant write even the simplest of 3 chord songs

u can be influenced by someone and incorporate certain styles by just listening not learning note for note

i use a slash guitar technique that he uses on estranged in my "welcome to reality" song, the turning the volume knob down and strikin a note then turnin the volume up, thats cool

i just dont see the point in taking hours and hours to learn someone elses songs when thats hours and hours u could be workin on your own song

ive learned some cover songs ive wrote my own and i feel 1000 times better after completing an original song then learning some tab out of a book

im more than skilled to play any cover songs they just dont hold myinterest enough to learn them

all i know is what ive seen

i had two friends who were excellent song writers, they started doing nothing but playing cover in other bands and on their own to look "cool" or what have u

pretty soon every song they wrote sounded just like one of those plethora of cover songs they were practicing and practicing

im not knocking cover guitarists by any means, and those who can do both i applaud

i just dont play cover with the exception of a few songs that i just really love

cover songs i play alot of are

patience
runaway train
black
elderly woman behind the counter in a small town
knockin on heavens door

thats bout it, i know like one last breath by creed and a few others but i just dont learn em

i was in a cover band one time and those songs are shit easy to learn but i cannot fuck up my originality thats why i dont do cover

it doesnt work for me, it may work for some but not for me

[Eduardo]

i use a slash guitar technique that he uses on estranged in my "welcome to reality" song, the turning the volume knob down and strikin a note then turnin the volume up, thats cool

And Slash learned that from Jimi Hendrix  

[D]

kick ass!

i didnt know that! but its an awesome technique!

[Slashly]

Well, when I said origial guitarrist I didn?t meant people that  say they are original because they dont play any song that isn?t  he?s.
I?ll take myself as an example:
When I first started obiously I wanted to play oher people?s stuff.And so I did.But  then after playing a lot of songs  I kind of developed my own style.And then I started writing songs  and instrumental.
So actually right now I?m in the midle :
I have plenty of original songs(wich I wish to show thwm to you in some time) but I also can play a lot of covers and tunes from diferent bands.
And that, in my opinion, is the best way.Having the posibility to create original songs with your own style, but also be able to play other people stuff.
Play tunes that aren?t yors doesnt mean you are a cover guitarrist

[D]

yeah i want to clear up some misunderstandings

im talkin cover guitarist as people who play only cover

its cool to play cover and original both, im not sayin u cant do both


i just said i choose not to cause it doesnt hold my interest

but im talkin bout the guitarist who walk around like they are the greatest to ever pick up a guitar just cause they can play the entire metallica catalog but cant write anything

to me that isnt impressive

the tab guys

people who just learn tab after tab and cant write anything

its cool but dont walk around like u are the king shit just cause u practice practice practice and can play cover

i could pick the guitar up and play some of my songs

but seriously if someone is playin metallica how can i compete with something that is worldwide famous and known? i dont care how good my shit is its not gonna be able to follow something familiar