What I've learned from covers

Theory
21

Invaluable. It is a true measure of progress, skill, and where your weaknesses are.
Anybody can play what they create, or should be able too, but to learn to play other people’s music is the pinnacle challenge for many, most or all musicians.

I dont think you would find an instructor, course of lessons, or book on music that does not draw inspiration, examples of, and full songs as lessons.

Most of B2B draws from popular songs, for these very reasons.

Classical music is 99.5% covers
Even Jazz is pretty much covers, but there is a lot of room for interpretation, with freedom to change and experiment, however it seems imperative to learn from the original, or most popular versions prior to taking flight on your own within the song.

I am not surprised about learning songs for me, and for me it is also a personal goal.
What surprises me is how much more more open I have become to many songs, bands and players BECAUSE of the bass lines, that I would not bother with a 2nd listen, let alone listen all the way thru these very songs if it were not for my appreciation of the bass line.
Also
It has given me new found love for old favorites.

Loose examples are.
Metallica, I am not a Fan AT ALL, but I have learned to appreciate Cliff Burton so very much, that I have started to learn some songs. My most recent cover, I posted 2 days ago was “ For Whom the Bell Tolls”
And
Pantera - I LOVE PANTERA, always have, BUT, much of this love was from the great songs and lyrics, and INCREDIBLE guitar riffs, licks, sound, and overall playing of DimeBag. I played guitar as a kid, with him being ( still is R.I.P. Dime) my favorite axe man.
But, I have been learning Pantera bass lines, and am finding I like Rex Brown as much as I like Dimebag. His bass always seemed over shadowed, by the best metal guitar player I ever heard, but now that I am playing the bass lines, I find Rex to be incredibly talented, well versed in music, and original and creative in his own right, something that went right over my head in the past., that I still may not have realized without learning some of his lines.
I am working on a Pantera cover next, “Mouth for War” gonna take a bit to get it right, it’s not easy by any means.

And
Then are the bass players I always knew and loved for their bass playing. Geezer Butler, Les Claypool, Geddy Lee, Tim Commerford, Eric Wilson, etc…
Of course, to get good enough to play these songs flawless will be a good indicator to myself, where I am within my playing, and where I still want to go.

Plus things like Billie Jean. I have never been much of a MJ fan, but the world class musicians that he worked with, and the awesome bass that came from those songs, like BJ and Thriller to name a couple, are epic and iconic (even if created on a keyboard / bass synth) and would have largely remained under appreciated by me for the rest of my life, had I not learned bass, and had I stayed closed minded to all but a few genre, and to particular artists.

Covers are part of being a musician, they go hand in hand, IMHO, and I can’t imagine anybody that has not, or will not learn a cover song, except for some people like Johnny Dept, or Billy Bob Thornton or some totally outrageous actors that cross to music, but I still bet they have, at the very least, learned a cover or two.

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22

This is interesting, because I started on my own playing the bass when I picked it up again, so I started picking up the basics again, and then started jamming along to already completed songs - youtube, chordify, etc. I’d just play stuff I liked the sound of. So I started learning different genres and appreciating them, like @T_dub says.

Then when I got an opportunity to join a band with more skilled and experienced people, it set me off on the right foot.

However, we do not play any cover songs at all in the band. It is 100% our own music.

I might nick a few things from here and there if I think they may fit or improve whatever bassline I’ve created for the tracks, but the song remains the same overall.

So for me at least, playing along to existing songs got me up to speed and I learnt a lot doing that, and then I stumbled onto Josh’s course, which boosted it loads more.
Then the band started, and I had enough ideas to bring with me to the table to get things up and running.

So I’d definitely agree with the original list from this post - absolutely. Especially the silent part. Some of the better grooves we’ve come up with is me isolating the drummer and getting it really locked in. Then add the guitar and see what I need to change to match the melody as well as the rhythm. And then, and I think this is the most important part I’ve learnt - I need to listen to the song from a BAND point of view and not so much a BASS point of view.

Now if the guitarist shows us something, I have an idea of where it needs to go, so I sit down and work it out. It’s not really to do with me, so to speak, but what I need to do is get the bass to support the whole song in each area as best as I can. So one track might be continuous chugging from start to end. Another track will need some stop-start bass to create some pull / release to create a better groove and dynamic. Another track might need me to start off with something on my own and then everyone else joins in. Some I have to play quiet. Some loud. Some quick, some slow - the list goes on!

But yes, going back to the cover practice, that really helps because it’s half the battle when you realise what these guys and girls are doing and when you learn the line yourself, you often stop afterwards and go, “how the hell did they come up with that - it’s awesome!”. And then that spurs me on to try a similar creative method for our own music.

Christ, I could waffle about bass for years. Sorry :smiley:

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23

This is a really great thread. In addition to the points already mentioned about learning covers as effective practise and development I think it’s really good to use certain songs as targets.

I might learn a riff from some songs and incorporate them into practise, or just simply enjoy attempting to replicate them. But to then learn and be able play along to that whole song feels like a proper milestone each time!

The last cover I’ve nailed is Muscle Museum by Muse. It’s not the most complex compared to some of Chris’s basslines but its a song that I had been trying to play cleanly for a while so I’m still proper happy now that I’ve got it down!

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24

Agree completely. Exploring other genres outside your own favorites is a key part of growth I think. At least for me. Lots of amazing music out there across all genres.

That said, I still won’t practice a song I don’t like. Regardless of genre :slight_smile:

Enjoying what I am doing is another key part of growth for me in discretionary activites like playing bass. Getting rewards for doing things you don’t necessarily like is called “your day job”. That’s not what I am looking for in music.

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25

I see where you are coming from, but I don’t mind suffering thorough something I don’t like if it gives me something I do like in the long run. Like, I’m not particularly enjoying learning music theory, but I believe I will eventually be happy I took the time to learn it.

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26

Yeah, for sure, I agree, it is cool to play your own music, I just think it is an important part of learning, to be able to play other people’s music, both the way they play it, and adding your own flavor to it.
But playing your own music in a band, and not doing covers is perfectly acceptable, in fact it is necessary, otherwise, we would only hear the same handful of songs from everybody. :wink:

I agree with all points about playing and learning covers, and about playing your own music, and how to create your own music, and how drawing from what you learned in courses and covers for these creations.
I was just adding to the list of reasons why learning covers is good practice, to almost necessary practice.

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27

Yeah, if I didn’t learn and play from songs I initially do not like, then I would be very limited in what i learn and play, but when I find a song with an interesting bass line, weather I like the song initially or not, I can learn to appreciate it from the bass line point of view. Even if I still don’t like the song, getting thru it, is fun.
Likewise, some songs I love, but the bass lines are really boring, and I don’t really like to play those, due to pure boredom, even when timing on songs like that can be really difficult, and can take time to master, it still gets tedious for me.

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28

I agree completely, and I personally learn and record covers of different genres. However, there are certain genres that I despise… so much so that I can’t stand listening to them for 1 minute, let along try to learn to play it. Your target song, Hysteria falls into one of those genres (no offense).
But your point is well taken, it’s a good idea to learn songs outside of one’s comfort zone.

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29

Absolutely! I think it’s where a lot of people start which sets them off. And that’s a great thing. And it’s super useful for opening your eyes to see what different people do. I spend literally hours listening to random music on spotify and humming along to stuff, checking them out etc, replicating them as best I can etc. All great stuff.

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30

I think it would be quite rare for someone to like all music genres. I think I’m very open-minded about music genres, but some I have no interest in… Like free jazz.

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31

Country, for me its Country. I can deal with almost anything but Country

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32

As of (at least) last November, you don’t get a physical book anymore. The 50 songs on the site has replaced that.

Unless it’s included with the DVD version of the course? Not sure about that - I bought the digital version of the course, and there is no physical mailing…

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33

I dislike crappy music in all genres. It’s like saying “I like IPAs”. Hells no. I like good IPAs (I like good any beer), same goes for music. Some genres I like less music in than others, but I bet you’d find Alamo at all of them on my phone, including free jazz (most of which I despise, but Ornette Colman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come is outstanding), country (there are a few select pockets of brilliance, Patsy Cline, Darius Rucker, well that may be it) you name it. Dismissing a genre entirely is pretty difficult for me to do.

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34

Sorry, I should have said you got it when I signed up last year in January.

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35

Completely agree. Almost all genres have good songs and bad songs. However, I’ve never heard a free jazz song that I like. Granted, I’ve avoided free jazz for the most part, so there might be some gems out there I’ve simply not heard. I do like Miles, Dizzy, etc. but not in that context. I also like Swing and Gypsy Jazz and some other forms as well. I’ll openly admit I prefer strings over brass though. Feel free to message me some free jazz tunes if you think I’d like them. Always happy to give songs a shot and be enlightened.

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36

Same here, even though some genres aren’t among my favorites, there are some gems within them. Conversely, my favorite genres contains some lemons. It just happens.
The only genre I just universally despise, no matter who the artist or song, is Rap AKA hip-hop. To me, just the reciting of bad poetry, with repetitive drum licks and bass lines in the background. I have a hard time saying “rap” and “music” in the same sentence.

I agree with @John_E music and beer (and pizza, and movies, and a multitude of other things) must be done well for me to like it. If I don’t like the song, I don’t care what the genre, I just can’t get into learning it or doing a cover, which brings me back to my earlier comment about the 1st 50 songs thing that’s going on. Too many of those songs I don’t wish to bother with.

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37

My “good rap” is still from the ‘80s….Fat Boys, Run DMC, etc. There is also an amazing band that had 1 album called the Disposable Hero’s of Hiphopriscy that I absolutely love, but also is not what is known today as ‘rap’. I too am fairly disconnected from the rhymes over beats section of rap.

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38

I did Billie Jean though I loathe Michael Jackson and it completely derailed me from the B2B course

So I’m not going to repeat that

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39

… as do I, but I still use the BJ lick as a warm up. I just think Quincy Jones, Quincy Jones, Quincy Jones. I block MJ out of my mind.

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40

Rap?! There is only one type I really listen to.

https://youtu.be/sokdL-0iV9s

Warning…… explicit language :joy:

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