Same tune - Different fingering. Does it matter?

BigBear
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Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:06 pm

Tony- great question and some terrific responses. I would add that we need to remember that if we didn't write the song, we are playing someone else's stuff. Therefore, regardless of how hard we try we still don't sound just like the original artist. Even Neil, as awesome as he is, doen't sound just like the original artist.

So, how you play someone else's tune is totally up to you. All the chords, fingerings, strums, everything are totally up to you. You can choose to play it as close to the original as you want or put your own spin on it.

If I play a song with a lot of verses, it's really hard for a solo player to not sound really boring. So I try to throw in barre chords, or altered fingering whereever I can just to break up the sound. Most 3 or 4 chord songs need this because the original artist probably had a bass player and maybe a drummer, keyboardist or whatever to keep the song interesting. Most of us don't have a backing band!

Sometimes I think we get too focused on trying to emulate the original artist. But if you are going to play a cover make it your own song and own sound!!

Cheers! :cheer:


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