Conference napalm::guitar

Ha!  and there is an awesome statment.

The quickest way to fun and enjoyment ?

Have Fun and Enjoy it...  Who really cares anyways?

Thank you!

    
    
    I think sometimes people lose sight of what music is about. To me music
    is about having fun, not making money or important social statements. When
    it stops being fun I'll stop playing. I already have to do to many
    unpleasant things. Good for you .0, let them fester in their creative
    juices. Play what makes you happy 8^)
    
    Brian
    
    p.s.  Before the flame throwers go on.... I'm not knocking creativity,
    	  speed playing, or weird minor chords, but if I'm happier playing 
    	  I, IV, V progressions I think I'll be more creative in my
    	  approach to it.
       

    There's a parallel which can be drawn with life at DEC. It seems like
    one of the major customer complaints about DEC is that engineering
    groups like to work on "gee whiz" types of projects, instead of simple
    tools customers want. The reason is that 'anybody' can develop simple
    tools, and they're kind of mundane. But some 'neat' project which 
    really takes talent and creativity is a LOT more fun to work on.
    Just keep in mind that the CUSTOMER in general doesn't care a hoot
    about the interesting (to you) things you know how to do.
    
    - DAve

    I think in any matter, YOU come first. What I mean is that you have to
    try to do what makes you happy. It's possible to get High-Techno-speed-
    turbo-scud missle driven music - but when you bring a listening
    audience into the picture, you have new considerations to make. You might 
    not get a wide enought listening base, or airplay, or money; whatever.
      It all depends on where your goals are, what you expect to get out
    of it, and what you want do with it; or is it even maketable... 
    It's good to get with people that you have something in common with, 
    otherwise; it makes for a more difficult time to achive what you want.
    
    J/

    You *must* define what you enjoy.
    
    For instance with me;  What I enjoy most about playin' is playin'
    LIVE...On stage ! So, I put my interest in playing metal on the shelf
    in favor of playing some easier_to_listen_to diverse stuff.
    
    I've played in bands that did metal and lets face it;  It's difficult
    (challenging?) to play, a LOT of work, and not much market on the club 
    scene.  Now, you take "Classic Rock" and Blues and such.  It's not as
    difficult, there is a GREAT market for playing it, andall that equals
    MORE fun for me.  The simpler stuff is real good because you don't have
    to focus as much on playing as you can on jumping around and posing,
    toying with the crowd and just generally havin' a ball.
    
    BTW - IMHO, there is room for diversity here.  The last band I played
    in did all blues and classic rock.  I wished that we could have thrown
    in some more up-beat pop-metal or something.  The ultimate band for 
    me would be to work up 4 sets of classic/blues stuff (ala - RnR) and
    then work on some "project" songs as if to say "Hey, we can PLAY too",
    and "We listen to the radio/MTv".  Ya know, do some Bad Co. and BB King
    then flip them out with some Jeff Beck, play more blues, then really
    freak them out by doing some Skid Row or Damn Yankees.
    
    But, the bottom line is you must define what YOU want...then form your
    band around it.  There are plenty of musicians out there who'll have
    similar ideas to yours.  The trick is to find them.  :)
    
    Good luck dude,
    
    jc

    
    
       'The trick is to find them'
    
         You said a BIG mouthful. ;-)

Consider this..

Last band I was in, did a KILLER version of "Extreems" by Billy Joel...


We did it one night, as per usual, to ourt best ability, (damn near perfect)
and what did we hear emmit from the crowd..

	"PLAY SOME SKINNARD"  no lie,,

So not to be daunted, I open up "The Breeze"...

It worked, up came the dancers,, after that we had em..

Morale of the story is,, if there's 20 songs you want to learn
make sure at least 15 of them are songs people will respond to.

(Zeplin, Aerosmith, Skinnard, ZZ-top etc.. Still lead the pack in
terms of audience response...  Sure, they'll put ya to sleep palying
em if you get into the rut deep enough,,, but, you're playing for
the club management, there open to sell drinks,,, equasion is
painfully obvious.  Steely Dan tunes don't do shit for' mom and pop 
front porch out on a friday night honey-baby' crowd.. Though a musician
would appreciate it, the usual crowd,,, would go to sleep on ya most of the
time...

    RE: .6       Amen brother.
    
    RE: .7
    
    Yeah Ray, I think thats what I was trying to say.  If you like to play
    out you gotta play marketable stuff (Skynyrd, Zepp, Bad Co., CCR).
    I just HAVE to play something with some sting in it too.  There are a
    zillion songs you can throw in there that'll challenge the hell out of
    your abilities and still make the crowd say "Ohhhh yeahhhh, I remember
    that tune" or "Ohhhhh, thats real purrrrty".  Those real havy ballads
    are goood at the later..
    
    Examples:
    
    Beck
    Rush
    Winger
    VanHalen
    Boston
    Scorpians
    etc.

    Oh, and the trick is delievery IMHO...
    
    Ergo, don't open with one of these.  Wear 'em out on the dance floor
    with 5-6 "dancin'" tunes first, then slam 'em betwixt the eyes with 
    the 2112 Overture or something significant.

    I have this arrangment of the Stones "Satisfaction"  Actually, it's a
    medley with WAM's Queen of the Night Aria!!!  I'm NOT kidding!  So,
    when someone used to say 'Know any Stones?", we'd whip this baby out!

  <<I have this arrangment of the Stones "Satisfaction"  Actually, it's a
  <<medley with WAM's Queen of the Night Aria!!!  I'm NOT kidding!  So,
  <<when someone used to say 'Know any Stones?", we'd whip this baby out!


Now, if you had any imagination at all, you'd do Wierd Al's poka
versions...  {8^)...


Truley riotous to see Wierd all in a Switzerlin garb with
accordian,...

    > ...you'd do Wierd Al's polka versions...
    
    Only if they sachet up to the stage and yell "Play a g*d d*mn polka!"
    
    Edd

I like DEVO's version of Satisfaction...

        But what about originals?  What do people like to hear?  I've
     been to enough clubs listening to all sorts/styles of music, and
     crowds just stand there like the living dead if it's not something
     that they haven't heard before.  Granted, some of these bands had
     nothing going for them and they were lucky people were still
     hanging around to endure the set, but...C'man!

        Do we all have to play (dripping horror letters) Boston, Winger
     and Rush?  Or Blues?  No, I realise that's a broad generalization,
     but *I* don't wanna play covers!  Maybe one in a 45 minute set.
     Marketing!  What do people like to hear? (besides covers, sport.)
      

        Pete Townshend, from "The Kids are Alright": 
     "[you have to understand that 90% of your audience are rather, uh,
     thick, and really aren't that concerned with quality so much as
     watching things get broken]"


     /c

   <<Do we all have to play (dripping horror letters) Boston, Winger
   <<and Rush?  Or Blues?  No, I realise that's a broad generalization,
   <<but *I* don't wanna play covers!  Maybe one in a 45 minute set.
   <<Marketing!  


Depends on where you want to work.  Downtown Worcestor and Boston thrive with
original bands..  But get out to the bedroom communities, and you wont last 
a night,...  Sad, but true.
 

<<What do people like to hear? (besides covers, sport.)


Again, it depends on where you want to work and if you want to get paid
or not...

for example,, the Chow Mein Circuit is always pretty good work wise,
but material wise, week after week, different bands play the same material.
It's a circle that just goes round and round...  Try to offer a little
bit of imaginative cover to the music, and within a month, some
patron walks up to you and says " You play =name-the-cover-tune=  just like
=name-another-cover-band-that-plays-there=  and your ass gets frosted cuz
someone stole your idea.  I can't count the times it happened to us.




    

     DARE you leave out the Residents version of Satisfaction?
    
    True..depends on where you want to work, or if you want to work
    again.  
    
    But as the say......it is better to have worked once then to never have
    worked at all.   Covers are for beds.
    
    RB

    It's definately what you want.
    
    Personally, I could give a crapola about what kind of music (original 
    or covers, rocknroll, classics, metal)...As long as your tight as a 
    band and can get a gig.
    
    My motto is "Live to play LIVE".  I say if ya wanna work a LOT,
    (at least around here) you do classic rock, mix in some technoid
    pop metal to show you can play too, and if your so inclined, write
    an original or two (best not to exceed 2-3/set).  Keep the
    people dancin' and drinkin'.  It was the same in Greenville, SC.
    I learned a valuable lesson there with RnR.
    
    I'll put a  plug in here for local boize "Hydra" (Skip Turnbaugh,
    drummer, works for DEC).  There are two all-original acts here in
    The Springs that I know of.  Hydra is one of them and they seem to have
    the market sewn up.   I'd say that unless you are a VERY good (tight)
    band with some real main-stream original sets, you'd best leave that
    corner of the market to Skip-and-crew.
    
    Disclaimer:
    
    I'm sure there are some alternative bands locally that turn out some
    good originals; I just don't follow alt. rock. in the Springs.
    
    Bottom line though...If you wanna play out, ya gotta play what the
    crowd wants or your HISTORY!  
    
    jc (with his $.02)

    
    
    
    	Wow, Coop, amazing.. I was just spouting off to my music teacher
    about how (I'm still trying to put a band together.. slowly, slowly) my
    vocalist thought that we should learn Proud Mary and Grapevine and
    Mustang Sally and how I was going to play covers of Albert King or
    nothing and he let me have it bigtime.. same message you just gave..
    except a little more "who do you think you are anyways" mixed in.. It
    was humbling.. but helpful...  And, if I'm honest with myself (and the
    rest of the planet) I'm afraid of that classic rock and roll stuff cos
    I can't play fast enough or good enough to cover it...  Guess I'm not
    going to find a place that will let me play slow blues all night (cept
    maybe my basement.. ) <sigh>
    
    Gree Vee King

    Yo Stevie my pal,
    
    I don't mean to dicourage you from doing what you love man!
    I mean I LOVE playin' metal.  LOUD METAL.  Metallica, MegaDeth,
    all that stuff.  I just had to realize a couple of things:
    
    -Limited market
    -Limited talent (on my part that is)...
    
    See, I love playin' metal, but I'm not real good at it.  Doesn't mean
    that I'm gonna stop tryin' !  And because there is a small audience
    (comparatively) doesn't mean I won't play one if someone sez:
    "MetalChurch DUDE !" ...thats if my bandmates will follow along.
    
    Get together with someone who is better than you.  They can play the
    fast/hardstuff stuff, and you contribute the bluesey lines.
    I learn a WHOLE hell of a lot from Dandrea with RnR...I was straight
    out of metal-school.  Didn't know squat about "feeling" and phrasing
    and stuff... (still don't  ;)
    
    Anyhow, keep the faith, oh brother_of_the_sacred_tone...
    
    ;)

      I can relate to what Coop is saying here. If my old band, Chemistry,
    didn't play to the crowd we wouldn't have been booked so steady, been
    able to raise our band pay, and I wouldn't have been so well liked
    by my local music stores and LP Music. BUT - We were strictly a
    cover band. I'm not gonna say I'm sorry for that, I made a LOT
    of money. We gauged what was going over with the clubs and consequently
    got a lot of repeat business.
      This time around with the new band, Glyfix, we are gonna do some
    originals. Sure they'll be limited to say four to six of them a night
    but that's enough to satisfy our creative inclinations without
    sacrificing our chances of being booked on a steady basis and being
    a financially sound venture. Besides, it's a blast!
    
    						-B()()M- 

    It seems like there's 2 "schools" here:  The creative/original side,
    and the performance/cover side.  The schools have similarities and 
    differences when compared, as explained by you all.  Cost and benefits 
    differ too.  Cover oriented music has boundaries but (most) people
    like it.  Labels sign original music groups (though few of them really 
    make money or succeed).  It takes less work for cover groups to get
    gigs, make $;  original music is a shot in the dark (it cost you).  To
    me it's like the difference between a skilled painter and an artist,
    one does the job as instructed,  the other defines the job (and
    does it).
    
    Back to simplicity / complexity thing.  Simple songs are more easily
    remembered by listeners,  they leave more room for musicians to
    re-interpet & improvise,  and are easier to learn.  Complex songs
    are awkward to learn, play and listen to.  Pop music is simple.
    
    I prefer creating simple tunes,  focusing on hooks, and the sound
    of the instruments (& dynamics) to make things interesting.  Playing
    them with a band,  then to an audience,  that's a different story, 
    (scary);  but worth the work and lack of pay.  Somethings mean more
    than $ and exposure to me.
    
    SHOOT AWAY - - - - /sb  
    interesting   

    re:-.1
    
    I think you hit the nail on the head, especially playing live where
    many people are hearing the tunes most likely for the first and
    possibly the last time (worlds longest sentence?).  If they're too
    complex it is harder for the run-o-the-mill club goer to get into the
    music.  For club commercial success, you kind of have to write to the
    lowest common denominator.  Kind of like prime time T.V.
    
    Regards,