Play what they like, or play what you like?

Mark Dershaw · Post by **Mark Dershaw** » 31 Aug 2010 4:03 am

I’ve been a fan of alternative forms of country music for 35 years now. I’ve spent years playing what I like and for that have experienced small audiences, limited gigs and little recognition. I eventually gave in to commercial country and experienced large audiences, lots of gigs and a lot of recognition. Which type of satisfaction do you prefer?

Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 31 Aug 2010 4:10 am

The one that gets you all the girls...

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 31 Aug 2010 6:13 am

I don't think they have to be mutually exclusive. Not many people can make money in the business just playing exactly what they want. Come to think of it, not many people can make money in the business period. Just hang on to the music you love and play it when you can, but why not put on the big hat and the ****-eating grin and make a few bucks! Good for you!

Pit Lenz · Post by **Pit Lenz** » 31 Aug 2010 6:39 am

Remember, John Hughey had a "fun neck" (C6th) and a "Kroger neck" (the one that buys the groceries...)

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 31 Aug 2010 8:04 am

Play what they like: pay mortgage

Play what you like: see above

Papa Joe Pollick · Post by **Papa Joe Pollick** » 31 Aug 2010 8:25 am

Most all the slopchute gigs that I played were 5 sets.After I got my own band and could pretty much dictate what was gonna be played I came up with this and it worked real good.The first 4 sets were request.The 5th set was mine.Matter of fact it worked so well that often the drunks would come in from other bars to hear that 5th set.But it wouldn't work for a whole night.[tried it]...

Jim Pitman · Post by **Jim Pitman** » 31 Aug 2010 9:04 am

I used to be in a top 40 cover country band and indeed it was successful. I did play it like the record with a caveat. The part had to be distinct. I got sick of the state of top 40 eventually. Now I'm in a few alt country variation bands and really enjoying what I'm doing but like you say, the money isn't as good.
Notoriety? All of the newer bands I'm in have a record or two out. I've written few tunes and have alot of input on arrangements and melodic hooks etc. Even though less people think I'm famous now, a few people with good musical taste think I should be more famous.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 31 Aug 2010 9:31 am

Now that I'm back in the market, I draw the line at music that hurts my ears. Other than that, I want to be paid more for music that I don't enjoy playing very much.

Carson Leighton · Post by **Carson Leighton** » 31 Aug 2010 11:13 am

Sometimes you have to play songs that you really don't care for in order to keep on playing..The reason for that is, not everyone has the same taste in music... I've had to learn songs that I really didn't enjoy playing at all, but at the time the songs were popular..We usually don't get to pick and choose what we want to play when you are with a group that wants to play a lot of the new stuff..There is a good side to it though,,in that you are learning the new stuff, plus you probably already know most of the older classic country stuff, and I have to say that I like some of the new country, and so does my brother who plays bass and he's 65. I won't play that head banging sh@t though....but sometimes you gotta just bite the bullet and learn some of the new country, that is of course if you're playing in a country band.....Carson

Joe Miraglia · Post by **Joe Miraglia** » 31 Aug 2010 3:31 pm

Carson,That's the same with me and the band I play in. You are right on If you want,
cheek out our song list on our web site. Joe

www.willowcreekband.com

Ray Montee (RIP) · Post by **Ray Montee (RIP)** » 31 Aug 2010 7:00 pm

I was told at a very early age......

Play what the club/hall or whatever owner wants to hear as well as the audience.......

Otherwise the band will be shown to the door.

I love Hawaiian music.....but it sure wouldn't go over at any of the local country dance spots in this area.

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 31 Aug 2010 7:07 pm

I like to try and incorporate what I like into what they like.

Last week I got a great guitar player I worked with to do several Gene Autry songs, and I'm usually able to slip Harbor Lights, and a few other istrumentals in as well as "hawaiianing" up a few regular songs like "Devil Woman".

If you do it right you work all the time.

It isn't for everybody. I think that's why they call it "work".

EJL

Dave Hopping · Post by **Dave Hopping** » 31 Aug 2010 11:33 pm

He who pays the piper calls the tune.Me,I like being a paid piper much more than being an unpaid one.In either situation,I'm playing something somebody else wrote,and likely as not replicating a part that somebody else played on the session.If it's a commercial gig,I get to play what people I admire played,and learning that part is like having a lesson from Bruce Bouton or Russ Pahl or whoever.PLUS,once having learned the particular song,I can go play it with anyone who does commercial music.If it's an original band,I have to work just as hard to get the part,but I can't use that part with anybody else because nobody covers unknown material.They just write their OWN unknown material.

I did some work for a guy who somehow or other got Jay Dee Maness to do a solo on one of his tunes.Jay Dee sure didn't pull any punches on it,and I had a LOT of work to do to get even a semblance of what was going on.Due to unpaid-piper issues I don't work for that band anymore so although I'm delighted to have had an insight into how one of my heroes does things,that's about all I got out of the work I did.

Barry Hyman · Post by **Barry Hyman** » 2 Sep 2010 5:52 pm

99% of the time I only play what I like, and I always do it my own way, always improvising solos, intros, and fills, never copying anybody, and never playing the same thing exactly the same twice. In one of my bands we only perform stuff I've written. And I still get a lot of paying gigs -- about all I can handle, since I don't want to do more than two a week. Not much money, but I'm having way more fun than most people.

I won't work for anybody who tells me how to play -- the singer or bandleader can choose the songs, that's fine with me, but if they try to tell me what to play on my solos I'm out of there like a rifle bullet. And I (99% of the time -- see "Gig From Hell" in "Stories") only play with people who choose songs I like. I'm a gig slut, but I'm not a whore.

Elton Smith · Post by **Elton Smith** » 2 Sep 2010 6:34 pm

We did a set with our own songs once and the crowd just looked at us like a tree full of owls.I think you have to play stuff they know,so they have something to compare it to.I told a club owner that we play so much different music,your bound to not like some of it.

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 2 Sep 2010 7:18 pm

i just play what i can.

most gigs are pretty much a wing'it situation. luckily i've got some talented friends that pretty much know how to fake good music and make me look good.

Twayn Williams · Post by **Twayn Williams** » 3 Sep 2010 1:12 pm

I've always played what I want. I don't play country and I don't play covers except when playing swing or classical. I'm always open to my band mate's opinions on what I'm playing but at the end of the day I always play for myself, i.e. I play what I perceive the song needs within the limits of my abilities.

The audience is there to listen to me do my thing, not the other way around. YMMV.

Joe Miraglia · Post by **Joe Miraglia** » 3 Sep 2010 1:18 pm

Play what they want,play what you want,BUT--Watch out for your ego

. If you play only what you like because,you don't like the music, the way, a band is playing , someone asking you what to play( even though they are the ones paying you),Say--I've been doing it my way for years,and not going to change, maybe it's best you don't play in a band or just with members that have the same ego.

Shorty Smith · Post by **Shorty Smith** » 3 Sep 2010 4:33 pm

The band I 'm playing in plays request mostly. We try to keep the music within the interest of the crowd, They like us, we hold the crowd, we keep our job and get paid very well. If you play only what you like, and not what the people request, I think you lose. you are not there for yourself, you are there for the paying people.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 3 Sep 2010 11:27 pm

I have my own way of playing but I have improved as a musician by learning how to play what somebody else wants. Take a pop band for instance. I have spent years playing the exact same little parts over and over again. What that gives me a chance to do is focus on deeper levels of phrasing, articulation and tone. Now that I am freelancing around Texas I need to learn a whole new batch of tunes and licks. I find it challenging and fun. By being forced by financial necessity to learn all sorts of different types of music and styles of playing my ability to express myself with the steel has become much deeper and more enjoyable. I've got such a long way to go.

Mark Dershaw · Post by **Mark Dershaw** » 4 Sep 2010 3:50 am

I quit playing out about a year ago for personal reasons. I'm starting to get the itch again and the band that I quit wants me to "re-join". They're a good band but all top 40 country. You guys are starting to convince me to pull the trigger...

Franklin · Post by **Franklin** » 4 Sep 2010 3:53 am

The trick is playing what you want within what they want to hear.

Paul

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 4 Sep 2010 5:38 am

Franklin wrote:The trick is playing what you want within what they want to hear.

Paul

HA !

And the bigger trick is booking gigs because you are playing what they want to hear and THEN mixing in what you like to play which turns into more stuff that THEY want to hear on a regular basis...and so on and so on and so on...

t

Barry Hyman · Post by **Barry Hyman** » 4 Sep 2010 5:01 pm

Joe Miraglia -- it is not about ego, at least not for me. I truly believe that improvisation is the whole point of music. For me it is more of a spiritual thing -- I exist to create music, not to copy it. When you improvise your parts (whether to a well-known song, an original, or to any other chord change) you have to dig deeper, and try harder, and think faster. You take more chances, and more can go wrong, but when it works you have truly done something meaningful.

When you play something more or less the same way you have played it before, or the same way someone else has played it before, you can have fun, and learn something (Bob Hoffnar is right about that), and entertain an audience, and get paid. I don't dispute any of that. But people who only do that miss what I think is the best part of playing music -- the magic of music -- the "supernatural" aspect -- is when you reach and stretch and strain and sweat to pull something new out of thin air.

I play in an eight-piece band that has fiddle, banjo, mandolin, dobro, accordion, sax, pedal steel, and guitar solos. (Some of us double up.) Many of the songs we play don't have pedal steel solos on the record, or don't have sax, or don't have accordion. What are we supposed to do -- not play on that song? How silly! No, of course not -- we improvise! And do audiences like it? You bet! Does anybody ever complain? Never! Do we have any trouble getting paid gigs? Not at all. Just played for about 8,000 people today at the Garlic Festival in Bennington, VT. All the solos by all the instruments were improvised, in a ninety minute set. The audience loved it. The people who hired us loved it. They want us back next year, no problem.

You guys who think that you have to duplicate the recording note-for-note in order to get work either play in the wrong band, or you play at the wrong venues, or you live in the wrong part of the country or something. I played three different gigs today -- one solo and the others with two different bands. Made $222.50 (which is nowhere near what some of you guys get paid, but is definitely greater than zero). Got a lot of love, compliments, smiles, cheers, and contacts for future work. And improvised every note...

This particular eight-piece band I play in (the Hill Hollow Band) plays all cover tunes, no originals. We play the songs that our audiences know and love. But do we play them exactly like the record? Never. No one wants us to, no one expects us to, and we have all the work we can handle. (We play what we want within what they want to hear -- thanks for that great phrase, Paul.) And when I'm done with my weekend gigs I have 35 private students who are eager to pay to learn how to do what we do.

So I think some of you guys have been shortchanged. You've been sold a false piece of information! You are missing out on the true pleasures of playing music -- it is supposed to be a creative process! If you have been reduced to being a human jukebox, just reproducing the tunes when somebody puts in a quarter, then I feel sorry for you. I don't want to be combative, but I'm preaching from the heart here -- being a copycat is not the same as being a Musician.

Dave Hopping · Post by **Dave Hopping** » 4 Sep 2010 5:42 pm

Symphony Orchestra = The ultimate copy band.Those folks are required to not just sound like the original,they DO the original-closer than any cover band ever will.Even in that milieu,there's room for creativity,and names like Toscanini,Fiedler,and Van Cliburn get recognized.

The Steel Guitar Forum

Play what they like, or play what you like?

Play what they like, or play what you like?

It was fairly simple.................