Does your band play your kind of music ?

[BigRedX]

Considering that I have been the main composer for nearly all the bands I’ve played in that would be a resounding “yes”. There would be something wrong otherwise.

[Newfoundfreedom]

My band is very much an amalgamation of its parts, and nothing like the kind of stuff that I would write or play left to my own devices. I'm rock through and through, and bring a bit of that to the band. Our guitarist is more a jazz style player, but I try to discourage that at much as possible 🤭. Our singer is into Duran Duran, Genesis, The Cure, type of stuff, and our drummer likes a bit of all sorts. I don't know why or how, but it seems to work, and we have a very definite style that just sounds like "us", and it's hard to define as fitting in to any specific genre. 

[neepheid]

58 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

My band is very much an amalgamation of its parts, and nothing like the kind of stuff that I would write or play left to my own devices. I'm rock through and through, and bring a bit of that to the band. Our guitarist is more a jazz style player, but I try to discourage that at much as possible 🤭. Our singer is into Duran Duran, Genesis, The Cure, type of stuff, and our drummer likes a bit of all sorts. I don't know why or how, but it seems to work, and we have a very definite style that just sounds like "us", and it's hard to define as fitting in to any specific genre. 

 

This sounds very familiar to me

[Barking Spiders]

I've never played in a band that does my fave type of music. The most recent one I've depped for on bass, as a favour to a mate in the band, plays a mix of Britpop/rock - Kasabian, Oasis, Blur etc along with covers of The Killers, KoL, Foos. This stuff's ok enough but not what I'd choose.  I've played quite a lot of funk and disco which I enjoy playing but don't listen to much at home. My 'kind of music' is mostly electronica (from Bassment Jaxx and Groove Armada through to Aphex Twin and Amon Tobin). Not exactly easy stuff to cover!

Edited May 22, 2022 by Barking Spiders

[SteveXFR]

Yes. We play original, loud and heavy stoner metal. We all love that style of music.

Playing music I'm not really in to is unappealing.

A party/wedding covers band would probably just end with me losing the love for playing

[Nail Soup]

Yes, my (recently disfunct) punk and new wave covers band did all stuff I loved from my youth. But we did cover the stuff I loved from after that era like My Bloody Valentine or Pixies or whatever.

All the bands before that was music I was totally into (mainly originals).

[LeftyJ]

I've mostly been in bands where I really liked the music. If I don't connect with the music, it's not for me. The exception was a pop cover band I've been a part of for a couple of years. They mostly played covers of 80s and 90s hits and a few more recent songs. I didn't really connect, but I learned a lot from that experience and from playing with a phenomenal drummer and keyboardist (and a very poor guitarist) and they were great guys and gals. 

 

I don't really have a band of my own anymore, since our lead singer had 4 kids (5 now) and little time outside of her family life at the time, and our lead guitarist went abroad to Oxford to do a postdoc at Oxford University for 3 years. Having finished that, he's now in Barcelona with his Spanish girlfriend with plans to come back and work as a chemistry professor but no job yet.

That said, two and a half years ago I was asked, with the other remaining guitarist and drummer of said band, to be part of the live band of a one-man doom metal project of a friend of ours (and the drummer's brother). I wasn't really familiar with the genre, and still don't know many other bands, but I feel right at home in their slow, melancholic, incredibly heavy and low (5-string tuned down to A) music. I've become a fan! I was just listening to the latest EP in my car on my way to work to familiarize myself with the new songs, and I'm completely in love with it.

[Newfoundfreedom]

11 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Playing music I'm not really in to is unappealing.

A party/wedding covers band would probably just end with me losing the love for playing

 

This is precisely why I quit my last, and would never be in another covers band. There were some tracks we played that I absolutely hated, and constant arguements over which songs to do. 

 

Life's too short. 

[Cat Burrito]

I've been very lucky in that in 34yrs of playing, I have always managed to be in a band that plays the music of wherever my head is at the time. I've played a range of styles over the years. 

 

When my Dad was pro in the 60s, he earned more money (relatively speaking) but played a lot of stuff he hated. He gave up before the decade was out.

[Sardonicus]

Over the years I have played bass and sang in Rock and Metal covers bands playing songs by the likes of Judas Priest, Metallica, Rose Tattoo, UFO, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Alice In Chains, Kiss, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, ZZ Top, Michael Schenker Group etc and loved every second, then I briefly played in a covers band that played Rolling Stones, Free, Tom Petty, Jerry Lewis and hated every second LOL.

 

I now solely play in my church's Worship Team and I switch between bass, acoustic guitar and singing.  Playing in a worship team has pushed me more than being in covers bands ever did, I love it 100%. 

[Buddster]

8 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

 

This is precisely why I quit my last, and would never be in another covers band. There were some tracks we played that I absolutely hated, and constant arguements over which songs to do. 

 

Life's too short. 

Genuine question. 

For wedding covers band and the like, I'm assuming there are standard songs that expected to be played? Hence comments about hating playing these  ie. You have even though you don't want to. 

Our covers band play songs that people know and can dance to, but we've stayed away from cliches and big bands (Queen etc). 

Is having your own 'style' frowned upon in these situations? 

[dmccombe7]

Thread  is more about whether your band is playing songs that you would normally listen to or is your favourite style of music.

Dave

[neepheid]

52 minutes ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

 

This is precisely why I quit my last, and would never be in another covers band. There were some tracks we played that I absolutely hated, and constant arguements over which songs to do. 

 

Life's too short. 

 

In my covers band there are some songs I dislike, but the crowd love 'em.  You have to derive some satisfaction from getting people to dance/sing along to mitigate another tiny piece of your soul escaping

 

As for the arguments - sounds more like you were in a band with the wrong people, rather than it being a generic feature of being in a covers band.  Our singer put forward a list of songs recently and between us we vetoed 3 of them.  No problem.  No diva strops.  I would say between us we use the veto sparingly - either there's a good technical reason (it's in drop C, and I CBA with a 5 string/stringing one of my basses BEAD/retooling the song to fit EADG) or we actually try the song in rehearsal and it just doesn't feel like it's happening for us.  Songs also get ditched if we feel they aren't doing well with the punters.

 

It can work!

[BigRedX]

For me playing in a Classic Rock covers band absolutely and utterly killed my enthusiasm for some of the songs we played, even though previously I had enjoyed listening to them. I think having to dissect the songs to work out how to play them was mostly responsible.

[dmccombe7]

Just now, BigRedX said:

For me playing in a Classic Rock covers band absolutely and utterly killed my enthusiasm for some of the songs we played, even though previously I had enjoyed listening to them. I think having to dissect the songs to work out how to play them was mostly responsible.

That's an odd one. When i did the "Friends of Deep Purple" tribute band i absolutely loved playing the songs and still enjoy listening to those same songs. Prog and Classic Rock are my fav music styles.

Dave

[dclaassen]

I really enjoy the songs we play in our pub band. We are doing mostly classic rock covers. As a Yank, I don't always get the appeal of certain songs (2468 Motorway, for example), but enjoy them if the crowd does as well, which they seem to. My favorite music to play would be Southern Rock, Big Band Swing, or hardcore Country Swing (Bob Wills-ish), but that's not too popular here.

 

I guess, for me, it's more about making music with good people and finding the right sound for the song you are playing. That is fun for me no matter what. 

[Grahambythesea]

I pretty much only listen to jazz, but don’t play it. I play in a covers band mainly 50’s to 80’s stuff, some of which I probably had never listened to until I joined.

[zbd1960]

Well, my preferred genres are renaissance and baroque (although others are OK). I have sung quite a lot of both. I like to play renaissance consort music on viol, but there's absolutely no one round here to play that with. I get to play some baroque on cello. 

 

The orchestras/bands I've played cello and sax in over the years tend to a lot of film music and musical theatre medleys, with the odd symphony by Beethoven, Haydn, Dvorak, Sibelius etc thrown in.

 

I don't yet play bass in a group