What is the avenue for the majority of your musical output...

[andydye]

Recent threads about how you do your covers got me wondering aout how the basschat population is made up, what proportion of us get their musical kicks from mostly playing covers or mostly playing originals or mostly in your bedroom/lounge/whatever...

I'm a mostly covers player, I do help out a few friends who gig occasionally with their singer/songriter output but it's not as often as I'd like! Neither is the covers band really but it's the most frequent thing I do...

[bremen]

'Other' as I play as much in my originals band as I do my covers.

[lowhand_mike]

cover only for me, but gigs arent as often as i would like.
dont really have the skills to write my own stuff. our guitarist does have some parts written but we never get round to doing anything with it.

[voxpop]

Originals for me. Ive tried cover bands and I end up hating the material.

There was only one cover band I enjoyed playing with because they did the material in a unique way.

[thisnameistaken]

Yeah I hate too much music to do covers, so I've done originals pretty much forever. I do busk some covers sometimes but I get to pick them.

[alyctes]

I play mostly covers. Sometimes they are not very conventionally arranged

[Musicman20]

I play in a new originals band, but its going slowly (which is fine as I'm busy).

I do have more time to brush up on learning new songs at home...which I actually really enjoy. It gives me time to get to know my equipment, and hear my technique problems....which then leads me to trying to resolve them.

[Hobbayne]

I play in two bands, one is a cheesy cabaret band playing Sinatra through to The Mavericks, whereas the other band is a hard rocking covers band from AC/DC to Lenny Kravitz. A complete opposite situation!

[Mog]

I'm at about 2:1 covers to originals gigs. Not ideal as I prefer playing our own stuff but at least the covers brings in the cash. I usually dont bother learning the covers note for note. I'll have a listen to the bassline at home and do an improvised version at the gig. Guitarists/vocalists just love messing around with keys.

[chris_b]

My objective is to play the bass in a band, to an audience and get paid for it. As long as the music is well played it can be Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep, a Stevie Wonder song or an original.

I play in 1 covers band, 1 originals band and the others are a mixture of the two. I do the occasional session, which has always been original material and i hardly ever play at home.

We don't talk about the other!!

[ezbass]

I'm in 2 covers bands. 1 is pretty stock pub chestnuts (and likely to disappear in a puff of its own apathy shortly) the other is a fairly new 80s covers band where we do some unusual numbers (Babooshka or Cornflake Girl anyone?) which I'm loving. Rehearsal tonight

[mike257]

Mine has shifted dramatically this year. I've gone from playing bass in originals bands for over a decade to playing lead guitar in a function band.

I do feel some frustration at not having an outlet for my songwriting, but on the other hand we couldn't afford to pay our childcare bills if I didn't spend most weekends busting out Mustang Sally at weddings. Luckily I enjoy music in general enough that I get a kick out of seeing people have a great time to the music we're playing and it doesn't (usually) bother me what's on the set. Glad to be playing at all, and to be contributing to people's special occasions and directly impacting on how much of a good time they're all having can be really rewarding!


Still miss big dirty riffs though.

[BassTractor]

Last 40 years (as in totally): mostly originals
Last 20 years: mostly covers
Last year: home only, so that's what i voted.

[EssentialTension]

My present band play our own songs and we play songs written by other people too. Roughly 40/60 split.

I don't really care who wrote the songs. I'm more interested in how we arrange them, does it sound like us when we play them, and does the audience respond well.

I voted 'Other'.

[Dave Vader]

I have spent the last 10-15 years doing mostly covers, and the 10 or so years before that doing originals but recently left all the covers bands, and now just play for an original artist (I'm in her backing band, does that make me a session player?) so I voted originals.
It felt nice

[JellyKnees]

Originals for me - I write/co-write the music for about 60% of our band's material. These days I see myself more as a musician whose main instrument is the bass, rather than a bass player in a band...

[Bo0tsy]

Bet I'll be the lone bloke who just plays for fun at home

[spongebob]

I'm in two bands - one originals, one covers.

I've voted for 'originals' as that's my musical output I suppose as they're all my own parts.

But the covers band is busier and we get together more....can I vote twice???

[Cat Burrito]

Originals for me and that's nearly always been the case. Played in a couple of covers bands which were great fun but given a choice I prefer working with a good songwriter in a good band (plenty of dreadful original bands out there so certainly not elitist over the subject)

[RhysP]

I don't have a "Musical Output" so I voted "Other".

[Jazzneck]

Covers band , but not in the originals way.
e.g. Wonderwall as a reggae song