Play with Attitude or Play Note for Note?????

My question for all the fellow band members out there is this:

Do you play with attitude as long as you keep the spirit of the song or do you play it "just like the record"?

I myself like to play with attitude because, 1. I'm not a "technical player" and I enjoy just ripping it up and 2. Playing "just like the record" can get boring.

I always felt if you keep the spirit of the song it will work out and the crowd will have fun. Thoughts?


Added question: How do you choose songs to play?

Steve

Hey NJ Stray Cat,
How's it goin' man?
We play songs never note for note. Obviousily we keep the hooks, riffs and such, but the fills and solos may start in the same vein as the originals but ALWAYS end up different!
I think we keep it that way so we don't get bored and the positive/enjoyment we feel on stage comes across for the punters. When I play, just ask my band members, I often go off on a tangent and according to my bass player I always play TOO LOUD! hahaha!!
What songs? How long is a piece of string?
We get asked to play stuff and we choose our favourite songs cause we'll be happy if we play them. You need to have some standards, some of your favourites and some left of field to keep it interesting.
Hope this helps, cheers Pete.
P.S. ALWAYS play with ATTITUDE...... and LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pete, I couldn't agree more!!!!!! I just didn't want to be "every other bar band" that's in my area. I've been makin suggestions and recently some Cat songs, but to no avail. I was even gonna suggest Brian's Broken Down Piece of Junk. I love the riff and the attitude! I guess I keep plugging away until I wear them down.

Thanks for the feedback!

Pete,
Just realized you're from Down Under. I was lucky enough to visit some years back. Sydney of course. Back in the day I was a flight engineer on the C-141. GREAT town. Hope all is well there!!!!!

Yes NJ, sometimes band members are like computers.... ya gotta punch some information into them!! hahah!!
What kind of stuff do you do?

Classic Rock, rock the ladies can dance to. Our original goal was to play blues based rock, but that changed after a few band members saw a band one night. They were playing a lot of pop songs that had the dance floor packed. That's when we shifted gears. Some of our songs are In the Midnight Hour, Angel of Harlem, Bad Case of Loving You, Pipeline, Don't Change, etc....I'm sure you get the picture. Need some Cat songs!

I completely agree Pete, Its about the way YOU play the song. I mean, we play a couple of Cats songs, but we know we aren't the cats, we play the songs OUR way. We mess with things sometimes I think me shouldnt though. I mean weve played a 10 min. version of Rock this Town, just because we felt like it, not to mention I cant play some of Setzer's crazy solos. So i make my own with the feel of the original. Let's face it, if the crowd wanted to hear you play note for note, they'd just play a cd, its a lot cheaper.

Hey Vinny,
Yep, yep... know where ya coming from! I think ya gotta put your own twist to it. As ya said, we ain't the Cats!
NJ, as bad as it sounds, we do Tainted Love ( listen to THE LIVING END'S version to get an idea how ya can change an old song and make it yours ) and the ladies love it! Sometimes to shit the other guys off, I put the Blister in the Sun riff in there as well as Smoke on the Water riff!! hahaha!! Stray Cat Strut has ALWAYS gone done well in every situation as it's a great song to bring down the pace a bit.
What the hell, TELL your band members you're gonna do it!!

Vinny - Thanks for the input! I'm in the Philly area (on the Jersey side), Does your band have a website with a gig schedule?

Pete - as much as I hate that song (Tainted Love), I'll check out the version you mentioned. LOL. I'm gonna keep pushing the 3 Cat songs I suggested, Rock This Town, Stray Cat Strut, and Rumble in Brighton.

Well shoot me down for this, but I think you should learn to play the whole song and the solo note for note! What harm can it do? It won't impair your creativity, in fact you'll improve no end. By all means change the arrangement and add your own stuff. Take influences from other peoples playing and 'borrow' riffs to work into your own style. That's definetly what you'll find throughout Brian Setzers guitar recordings.
However, remember this. Brian took lessons for many years and each week the teacher would give him a piece of music and say 'go learn this and come back and play it to me next week...and get it right!' Did it do him any harm?
Damn right it gets boring, but there's a lot of satisfaction in sitting down and playing a whole solo (not just the bits that you find easy!) Keep going over the parts that trip you up till your fingers ache and the neighbours are screaming.....just like it was for Brian when he was 14 and playing those Sun records over and over to learn every detail.
Sorry if I sound like an old fart....go get drunk, tattooed and build a hot rod and all that cool stuff too, but play that guitar into the ground buddy! Good luck to ya!

Hey Billy59,
You're actually right! You do learn riffs, solos etc note for note as a learning curve. THEN ya put ya twist on it!
Cheers Pete.

Thanks Pete....you put what I was trying to say into one sentence and got the message across!

Billy59 wrote:

Thanks Pete....you put what I was trying to say into one sentence and got the message across!

Yeah, I totally understand what you mean Billy, You SHOULD learn then note for note, because your right it is another great way to improve. However all im saying is that i would never play it note for note for a show, thats all.

I'll add my two cents as well. I pretty much agree with what was said before, but it really depends on the song, the setting, and the band. If you play note for note, but have no "stage presence" you probably won't connect with a general audience. On the other hand, if you play with attitude and are either out of tune or change the song to the point that it no longer resembles the original, you're liable to upset the crowd. I saw a cover band many years ago that altered Led Zeppelin's "Good Times, Bad Times". The guitarist improvised a solo that, in my opinion, wasn't very good and didn't fit the song. That immediately turned me off, but everyone's tastes' are different. The fact is, most audiences aren't musicians and could care less if a song is in a diff. key let alone played note-for-note. However, I think most musicians will appreciate the extra effort put in when playing a piece note-for-note or when adding extra improvised parts that add your own twist to a song.

To sum up what I've said let me paraphrase one of Capt. Sparrow's lines:

"The only rules that really matter, are what a guitarist can play and what he can't."

hi all,

it depends on the song. i always try to play with attitude but not to destroy the song.
so from time to time i`m able to create something new.
BUT!!!!!(snairedrum):
some songs are so connected with the original artist and his individual playing, if you not able to play like him, you lose.
for example: most of all Hendrix and SRV songs, like "Voodoo Chile",

a lot of Brian Setzer Songs like "Stray Cat Strut"
You have to play the strut with all his little parts.

for some songs i would say, "no..sorry guys, im not able to play it good. better not"

by the way: Mr. Jones, (or should i say captain)
i`m really impressed about your knowledge for BS Songs.
Any chance, you know the chords of "As long as I´m singing" also?



good night...

brett wrote:

by the way: Mr. Jones, (or should i say captain)
i`m really impressed about your knowledge for BS Songs.
Any chance, you know the chords of "As long as I´m singing" also?

Yes, I do know the chords for that one, although I'm not sure about the B-section. I'll post a full chart in another post. To get you started though, the song's in Bb, has an AABA form (jazz changes lingo), and features Freddie Green type voicings.

All,
Thanks for the input! I still like to keep the spirit of the song (playing the correct chords etc...), but like the idea of pushing it. I don't want to play in band that looks like a group of stiffd on stage. I can't play lead, but am trying to learn. My work/family schedule isn't very conducive to sitting down for any length of time to learn. Again, thanks!

Hey Davy Jones,
How's it goin'? I think maybe we should change the word attitude to spirit. I think you're right that some songs need to be played fairly straight off the record because of the mood they establish. And I gotta admit we've all seen players cut'n'shut a song to buggery so ya thought to yourself what's the point! Maybe that's why we should play in the spirit of the song rather than butchering it to all hell. All those riffs and idiosincrecies make a song, you need them so as to create the mood that was originally intended.
Cheers Pete.
P.S. Great help with the transciptions, thanks!

Pete, you're absolutely right, the word should've have been "spirit".

The only time you should be doing the note-for-note thing live is if you're in a tribute band - even Brian never plays the solos the same twice - certainly not on all the live stuff etc that I've got anyway. Obviously the basic framework etc is the same but surely thats enough!

Pete, your welcome. I appreciate the thanks from everyone for the transcriptions. I figure it's worth it to post them if it helps just one person figure out their favorite tune, and stick with the instrument. I also remember what it felt like when I was trying to learn some of these songs, and I wished there was some resource out there that could point me in the right direction.

You're absolutely right about spirit. Again, let me say there's not a hard and fast rule on playing either way, as long as it works go for it, after all playing is about having fun. Playing diff. solos is fine and can add some depth to a song. I think the key is to trudge that fine line between a cool rework and going overboard, and that's different for everyone and every tune. Probably one of the hardest lessons for players to learn is that sometimes less is more in playing guitar solos. Technical virtuosity is a wonderful goal, and by all means pursue it, but in the end it's all for naught if it comes at the expense of the spirit of the song.

Davy Jones wrote:

Probably one of the hardest lessons for players to learn is that sometimes less is more in playing guitar solos. Technical virtuosity is a wonderful goal, and by all means pursue it, but in the end it's all for naught if it comes at the expense of the spirit of the song.

I totaly agree...just didn`t find the right words in english.
imho most people in the audience are not interested if the player is a technical genius.
they want entertainment, good times...Rock`n Roll.

the best technical playing is useless if we don`t have any emotions in it.
that`s why i love the music of Mr. Setzer so much.
There is all in.


Hope it`s clear what i wanna to say...(my english gramma is lousy, i know... )
technic is important, practice is necessary, but music is an emotional thing.

Hey Davy Jones and brett,
Here, here. When I play it's either for myself or others. For myself I can do whatever, however I like. For others, I go with the fact that they wan't entertainment and they don't necessarily wan't technicality, they wan't to hear the song as THEY remember it.
And I gotta admit Davy and brett, I'm not really into hearing a million notes for the sake of puttin' them in there if they don't build up to or into something. I once read somewhere that the hardest thing to learn in music is the notes that you shouldn't play! And it IS a hard lesson to learn!
Rock it, Pete.

scatcatcnut wrote:

The only time you should be doing the note-for-note thing live is if you're in a tribute band - even Brian never plays the solos the same twice - certainly not on all the live stuff etc that I've got anyway. Obviously the basic framework etc is the same but surely thats enough!

Yeah! When i was naive and growing up listening to the Stray Cats, i used to think Brian was an improvising genius. But, as a realist and with time, I got to learn that he is an amazing guitarist, but he palns a lot of the stuff he plays. Nothing wrong with that. I do remember one thing he said early on in his career and you can spot it when you listen to certain gigs. He said, "if i hit a bum note, i'll play it again, that way, it sounds like it was supposed to be there".

Best song live for me was Rev It Up & Go at Massey Hall in'83. Lee follows Brian around with the bass while Brian is playing some blistering guitar....with attitude!

Which gig was it where Runaway Boys was out of tune and cut from the video??? Help me here, I really don't wanna go through fifty live Stray Cats videos to find it... lol!

Mikey I digress abilly