Do you guys think doing cover songs is a waste of time?

I was going to do a cover song I really like, but a friend of mine says it's a waste of time for me to do them.

Doesn't it make more sence to make your own songs - since that shows your creativity?

Doesn't doing cover songs really just show you can copy a song well?

Please tell me what you all think. .

If you really like a song and want to cover it i see no problem. Sure its a bit more creative to be original but theres nothing wrong with a cover or two... a constant stream of nothing BUT covers is perhaps a bit of a waste of time in my view but it's often all in fun.

Do you guys think doing cover songs is a waste of time?

I was going to do a cover song I really like, but a friend of mine says it's a waste of time for me to do them.

Doesn't it make more sence to make your own songs - since that shows your creativity?

Doesn't doing cover songs really just show you can copy a song well?

Please tell me what you all think. .

I think whatever floats your boat. Learning a cover shows you have an understanding of one of your idols works (if you nail it!). I've just finished a 11 minute epic of Pink Floyd thats taken two months but I don't feel it's been time wasted. I've spent a great afternoon drinking beer and catching up with my mate who is a great sax player and contributed...I hadn't seen him for three years so this was a great excuse. I've also had lots of discussions with other folks to get to grips with certain parts of the song so it's been a learning curve. It's not perfect but it's a good representation of my favourite song of all time in October 2006 :)

It's all good if you're playing PJ. :thumb:

Covers are definately not a waste of time. You can get better as a player and still develope your own style too. Im living proof. I learned to play guitar by doing covers. You can get creative with the covers too by incorporating your own style in it. Ive been doing covers for 27 years. It's what I want to do. I can and have written my own stuff. I find it more rewarding doing my version of other peoples tunes. It's totally up to you what you do with your guitar but whoever said its a waste of time to do covers just doesnt know what he's talking about. Of course it's just an opinion, but based on a lot of years of playing covers

I'd like throw my 2cents in here..

I don't think doing covers is a bad thing. It's taught me a lot about a lot of different players. Mostly my limits!:( Either way, if i'm feeling creative enough to do something original then i'll do it if that flash of brilliance hits me. If not, then i'll keep doing covers. As long as i keep playing i'm happy. Otherwise, i'm not going to waste my time beating my brains out trying to be original. That IMO is more of a waste of time than not playing.

covers are great for learning, and also re-arranging. you can do so much to make the piece you're doing your own.

I used to debate the whole doing covers thing myself.

I feel there are two approcahes if you are an ace and can make a carbon copy of the original then RESPECT to ya:thumb: :thumb:

If you take the cover and make it your own then AWESOME + it will never be a waste of time as it will develop you in music and as someone mentioned earlier you learn your limits through doing covers...:D

Doing covers is part of growing as a musician in anay sense I think:rock:

Some very good answers! I think covers help you learn. Kinda;"I always wanted to play that tune type deal". I'll give you a example. I always wondered how Billie Gibbons got such a great tone with his tunes. Most of them he has 2 rhythm guitars. One left channel, one Right. One of the channels has a distorted guitar and the other mildly over driven. You pick up on these things. When I was in a Joplin cover band, I thought I could never play Piece of my Heart. The guy was all over the axe. Another challenge was Tedeschi. Dereck Trucks is a monster and I had to learn alot of his stuff note for note. You learn alot of tricks that way.

Some very good answers! I think covers help you learn. Kinda;"I always wanted to play that tune type deal". I'll give you a example. I always wondered how Billie Gibbons got such a great tone with his tunes. Most of them he has 2 rhythm guitars. One left channel, one Right. One of the channels has a distorted guitar and the other mildly over driven. You pick up on these things. When I was in a Joplin cover band, I thought I could never play Piece of my Heart. The guy was all over the axe. Another challenge was Tedeschi. Dereck Trucks is a monster and I had to learn alot of his stuff note for note. You learn alot of tricks that way.

"I always wanted to play that tune". Man if that doesnt sum up the reason I play guitar. Listening to Kiss when I was a young guy and wondering how in the heck Ace did some of that stuff. It sounded like from another planet to me. It snapped somthing in my head. I became obsessed with learning how to play. I just knew I had to learn how to do that. I used to dream about playing Randy Rhoads stuff. I dont dream about it anymore cause I learned Blizzard and Diary and practiced to them every day for years. I love the challenge of learning a new tune and then owning it! For example, I said to JPF, lets do Shot in the Dark and he said "cool lets do it" then I had to go learn it, then record it. Thats where the fun is for me though, learning the tunes! Covers for me, is where its at. :rock:

There you go! It just makes you feel good when you can do it!

Every Guitar Hero I've ever heard of, learned to play be coping licks and riffs while listening to records:rock:

100%!

Thanks for all the opinions you guys.

I really liked your answers - they made a lot of sence to me.

My friend and I have the cover song debate from time to time - and this last time he just crashed my idea by saying it's a waste of my time to do a cover song.

I think what my friend is saying is this: we both belong to Music Supervisor dot Com - a place that sells our music to industry. They only accept origional music from us - no covers. So what I think my friend is saying is that I should be writing more origionals because thats the music that will make me money.

Cover songs are a must in a band - and they make you money out there at the clubs.

Thanks again you guys.

I can see everyone is on about styles and learning new stuff etc, i agree 100% with them all:thumb:
However theres something more important then shining ego's m8, thats having fun and enjoying yourself, if you collab that can be awesome fun to:thumb:
Music isn't a compitition, its a form of expressing yourself and the love you have for the songs your doing, so no i don't think doing either originals or covers is a waste of time:thumb:

You said it perfectly!! Music is a form of expression. It's just plain fun! Colabs are very cool also. You get to mix different flavors to the tune.

I can see everyone is on about styles and learning new stuff etc, i agree 100% with them all:thumb:
However theres something more important then shining ego's m8, thats having fun and enjoying yourself, if you collab that can be awesome fun to:thumb:
Music isn't a compitition, its a form of expressing yourself and the love you have for the songs your doing, so no i don't think doing either originals or covers is a waste of time:thumb:

I know I have no ego man. I dont think of any of this as competition either. Even the guitar battles. Just fun and to keep my chops up, thats all. If I feel any pressure at all, its just cause I want only my best playing posted. Just something I put on myself. Just cause someone wins a contest or battle doesnt mean they are the best here. Im not the best, never ever will be either. Never had any aspirations of being the best either. I just dont want to be thought of as an average player. If someone says about me "That guy kicks ass on the guitar", I'm happy.:thumb:

I know I have no ego man. I dont think of any of this as competition either. Even the guitar battles. Just fun and to keep my chops up, thats all. If I feel any pressure at all, its just cause I want only my best playing posted. Just something I put on myself. Just cause someone wins a contest or battle doesnt mean they are the best here. Im not the best, never ever will be either. Never had any aspirations of being the best either. I just dont want to be thought of as an average player. If someone says about me "That guy kicks ass on the guitar", I'm happy.:thumb:

average player... definitely not you man! that's why i love battles too; it helps me improve technique, and also listening to the stuff floating around here from you, ender, edenbridge, and other guys like that really get me back to the 'shed. right now i want to get up to you guys, so i'm learning paganini's 16th caprice! everyone did covers; a lot of what bach did was taken from music that was already established! he just added his own twist. that's what a cover should do. pay homage to the people who wrote it while elevating your skill on the guitar (or any craft for that matter).:thumb:

Interesting thoughts. There are a lot of different perspectives to this one. I´ll only give my own average-weekend casual guitar player and those as a listener.
As for when I grab the guitar, well, I really think EVERYTHING is fun, might sound harsh, but that´s all the point for playing to me. Make that an original, a pseudo cover or whatever. I´d say I enjoy a bit more to try to do originals, it´s very much fun to give an attempt to build up your own song (btw, WAY more difficult than any soloing inmo). You don´t have that when you´re copying someone elses music. But as said, it´s also fun to try to emulate the songs you like, there is not any much more than copying whosever song, and your personal 'throw ins' will come in naturally, maybe even without being aware of it. Cool anyways. If you enjoy to do it why not?
As a listener, I´d say I enjoy a lot more originals than covers. A cover is a cover, it´s not yours, it´s not you. And I like to listen what do YOU play like, what twists-ideas you have, hell, that´s the joy of the web, I always have my original known band CDs and records, but to be able to listen to John Doe who might have great stuff under his playing, thats one big advantage of sites like these.

Tony came out with a great saying!

GRAB THE GUITAR!

I agree with Ukelele 110%. It's really about the fun.. Thats the most important thing. Myself and Yzerman get together with a drummer friend of ours (chris) a few times each year and most of the time spent jamming is mostly our own material. We just come up with all sorts of crap. Good and terrible. Still it's more fun when were grooving to our own vibe rather than somebody elses. When were at a loss for something to play we'll do cover tunes just so we keep playing.

I don't think anyone should just corner themselves into just trying to do nothing but originals. I say use the covers to develop your skills as a player and use originals to develop your creativity. But do whatever you feel at that moment. Like Ukelele said.. it's tougher being original than it is smacking out a 100 note per second solo.

Well i play for fun, its nice to get feedback on your work too, wheather its an original or cover.
I think its generally harder to get feedback on originals, you have to get ppl to look at something they don't know, and the only way you can do that is on your own reputation.
I mostly cover songs, and mostly do it slightly different to how ppl know it (rarely to the original in most cases), my last track "Difficult To Cure" and "Lifes Been Good" that Kenny and myself did a while back, are good examples of how i go about tracks.
I like to add something to the track if i can, make it my own in some ways, its great hearing an exact copy of a track, but for me (being raised on the masters of live improv), i like to hear a persons performence on a cover, for better or worse.
When it comes to originals, i think i've only ever posted one (not much interest),so the rest just stackup in my book of insane scribbles.
This is just my POV though.

imo learning other peoples music and at that other types and styles is a great learning tool. if all you do is cover tunes then i would agree it is a waste of time cause thats all you will be able to do and all your orginals will must likely sound like one of those million covers you did. again this is just my opinion. take all the little tricks and technics of all the styles you play and find a nice formula and add them with your creativity. just let you mind go and play from the heart and soul. everyone on this planet is different in there own way it's just amatter of discovering it. let loose let it fly.

Heck thats all I've done for 25 years is play covers. I can't write for crap so if I want to play, I have to cover others. Some guitarists are incredible song writers and I'm not one of them. Most of my original stuff sounds like nothing special at all.:lol:

I'd like throw my 2cents in here..

I don't think doing covers is a bad thing. It's taught me a lot about a lot of different players. Mostly my limits!:( Either way, if i'm feeling creative enough to do something original then i'll do it if that flash of brilliance hits me. If not, then i'll keep doing covers. As long as i keep playing i'm happy. Otherwise, i'm not going to waste my time beating my brains out trying to be original. That IMO is more of a waste of time than not playing.

cant get more well put then that:thumb:

besides what better way to practice vocals

I think it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you want to make a career as a composer and sell your music, ofcourse doing covers might seem like a waste of time.
I love covers tho, I think they're tons of fun, both to do and to listen to.
I'm from the blues school, where its not so important what you're playing, but how you play it.

I like to play the blues, no-ones played anything original since Robert Johnson ;)

I play covers as well, in bands as well as for my own amusement. I like to try and get note for note as it really annoys me if I see a covers band and they put a half hearted attempt into it - I'm sure they're convincing themselves that they are 'adding value' but unless they are great musicians they end up sounding just plain bad.

I admire people who have the tenacity, talent and most of all time to dedicate to writing original compositions. I have a day job that takes a lot of time at night too - but I think anyone who sneers at cover songs is arrogant, some of the great rock bands have played covers - most of the Stones early set, The Beatles, Led Zep - usually they'd rename them and claim them as their own ;) etc etc etc...

Just my tuppence ha'pennies worth...