I've played in cover bands since I was a child, and I'm proud of that. It's served me well.
First, in school, we covered Beethoven, Dvorak, Mozart, and a host of others. The music was in front of us, we read the dots on the page, and followed the conductor.
Got into a rock band in school, covering the hits of the day. With that I eventually toured the country, met a lot of pretty girls, and eventually became the opening act for major stars, while their records were in the top 10 on Billboard. Almost had a record deal ourselves, but that's another story.
Many years later, I took a day-job, to investigate what being normal was all about. To me, being normal is very overrated. It paid well, and I gigged on the weekends, but was a proletarian wage-slave during the week. That might be OK for others, but it wasn't for me.
One of those weekend gigs was in a jazz band. The leader taught jazz theory and guitar at the University of Miami, and played with Ira Sullivan at one time. Big heavyweight jazz players came to sit in every once in a great while, players that made me feel like I was faking it.
The problem was it was one day per week, Sunday afternoon. Nobody around here makes a living playing jazz. Perhaps if I lived in New York, Chicago, or some other big market.
Well, the day-job ended, and I realized, I don't want to do that anymore.
Here is the point of this thread.
If you want to play music and gig, you will have to make compromises. The compromises depend on where you live and what the music scene is there.
Compromise #1: play cover songs that are popular in your area. It could be pop, country, classic rock, folk or whatever. If a lot of people are doing it there, you can probably make a living playing covers. I know, those who want to play “art music” consider this option a sell-out.
Compromise #2: play the “art music” of your choice, but in order to make a living, get a 40-hour, 5-days per week day-job. The art music could be jazz, originals, experimental, or whatever your heart is into.
Which is the right answer? It depends on you. Which is a bigger sell out? Cover songs or being a wage-slave? To me, working 40 hours per week not doing music is the bigger sell-out. YMMV
I've done cover songs all my life. The mortgage is paid off, and I have zero debt. I don't have a lot of luxury items, and I would have made a lot more money if I stayed in electronics engineering. But I'm happy doing what I'm doing.
When I was a Cable TV engineer, I was asked to do many things I liked, and many things that I did not. Most of all, I disliked being awakened by an alarm clock, putting on the metaphoric collar and leash, and reporting to the boss. But that's just me.
Right now, I'm in about an 80% cover duo with my wife. I make my own backing tracks, and most of them are close to a famous recording. But we stylize the vocals, and leave room so we can improvise a solo in the song. Others are reimaginings of popular songs. Perhaps turn one into a Reggae beat, another Latin or funky/jazzy. These don't always work, but with experience, we've learned how to pick them better. A few other songs are ones we learned just for us. Once the audience is on your side, if you pick the right time, you can play music for yourself and they will actually like it.
Our market won't support us if we wanted to do nothing but “art music”, so our Compromise #3 is to play what I guess you could call a semi-cover act. We are not as much of a cover band as a symphony orchestra, tribute band, or all-cover band, but I don't have to take a day job to pay the bills.
Whatever your choice is, remember, there is no one right way for all of us. Whatever you choose, put your heart into it, and if you are enjoying it, don't let anyone tell you it's the wrong way to do it.
The bands I've been in have been cover bands with a few original songs thrown in but mostly covers. Success level of the band in question was mostly determined by the pop and top 40 radio stuff we either played or didn't play.
Cover bands can become quite good. One of the best bands I was in was a house band with really good musicians and singers. Lasted 2.5 years and kept the place packed every weekend.
Some of the higher paying cover bands are tribute bands that play the music note perfect and have a great stage show. Eagles, Heart, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac..... Iconic bands and replicating their shows are lucrative.
I recall seeing one band in a club..... They were booked for 5 nights in a row. 3 top 40 sets of the latest hits and done exceptionally well. The last set was a tribute band set with each night being a different tribute Kiss, Alice Cooper, Stix, Nugent..... And all well done stage productions. Alice Cooper show had a hanging and kiss had the fire eating ... They packed every show.
We did a short ZZ Top tribute in the house band.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
Hi Notes. Yet another very insightful post from your good self. You would be an exalted member of my Square Peg club. (cheap shameless soundcloud plug) Oh.. BTW.. could you bring Eddie with you please?
We used to do a show in the middle of the night. We'd spin one of those wheels of fortune, with different band names on the sections. Whatever it landed on would determine what we played. Then we'd do a song by them, as close to the recording as our instrument's would allow. Of course, we only put names on that wheel that we could cover.
Sometimes I wonder why tribute bands make so much money. I have a long time friend, a very good guitar player, who is in an Eagles tribute band. He makes a good buck doing that. IMO, he's got it easy, he only has to sound like one particular group.
I've been in cover bands all my life, so we have to do tribute songs to Rolling Stones, Beatles, Eagles, Adele, Aretha Franklin, Zach Brown, Jimmy Buffett, Cars, Springsteen, Alan Jackson, Metallica, Santana, Ricky Martin, Bonnie Raitt, and hundreds of others. I think that is more difficult than copying one band.
And to tell the truth, I'd rather not be in a cover band. I like the variety, we can play all these popular songs and I get to improvise my own solo, instead of playing someone else's note-for-note. In that respect it's similar to a jazz gig: play the head, improvise a solo, back to the head, and out. We can also change some songs, turn a pop song into a reggae song, another into a Latin and so on, and if the timing is right, maybe do something just for us.
A small band is a business, and we give the customer what they want to the best of our ability. And I enjoy every bit of it. I might be playing Mustang Sally for the millionth time, but the dancers are on the floor, I can feel the love from them, my musician wife is up there, we are reacting off each other, and at the end of the song, we get a round of applause. In the middle of the song, I'll improvise a solo on the sax. Sure, it's not a complicated Shostakovitch symphony, but to me, it's the musical equivalent of junk food, not much nutritional value, but a heck of a lot of fun.
To quote one of the songs we cover, “Life is good today”.
If you are going to gig, my advice is to think of yourself as a business, providing a service to the person who is going to pay you.
If it's a commercial gig, chose what to play, when to play it, and how to play it, so the customers have a good enough time so that they will stay later, spend more money, and come back again.
If it's a private party, choose the same, but the object is for the guests to have such a good time that they complement the host/hostess at the end of the night.
I started in grade school playing the trumpet. In high school I was first chair trumpet in the marching band and first chair French horn in the orchestra. Of course we had to follow the dots perfectly or out we go!
In and after high school I was in a rock band. We almost got signed but our lawyer didn't like the contract so we didn't sign. Then I started a jazz band but that didn't go over very well, i.e. only a couple of places wanted jazz, thus very few gigs.
After that I started a wedding band and never looked back. I was told that I sold out but I laughed all the way to the bank! Note if I didn't have a good job that I liked I would have hit the road with some band. We were a popular wedding band and had more gigs that we could play.
After playing for all of our customers I now play want I want, when I want, with the perfect backing band, BiaB! On very rare occasions I may have a beer or two and the problem with that is if I get drunk the whole damn band gets drunk
Inflation is so bad that CEOs are now playing miniature golf!
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
The major difference between copy and tribute is the show. The optics of creating your band in your honoree's image is HUGE. When I was in the short-lived Southside Johnny tribute there wasn't much in the way of visuals other than the live horns and a singer who sounded just like Johnny. The rest of us were cardboard cutouts. The crowd banter included a lot of references to New Jersey, but all in all there wasn't much in the way of optics to do in that band. Bruce in the USA had a singer who had surgeries to look like Springsteen and made sure to always have a large black man playing sax, but other than that, I mean Max Weinberg was just an anonymous drummer.
I have seen some Aerosmith and Van Halen tribute bands. They dressed the part, had a front man doing the gymnastics that Roth did, a guitar player playing a red Frankenstrat like Eddie did, a bass player with the haircut and beard of Mike Anthony... so the visuals were there.
The Eagles for the most part stood by their mics and played and sang.
AC/DC bands wear knickers and play SGs, with the Agnus actor doing the Chuck Berry ripoff duckwalk.
The Fleetwood Mac tribs have a hot girl playing Stevie, but the downfall there if she can't edit her voice to sound like a sheep, the imagery is right but the audial part missing.
It takes time for people to like a song. Maybe with well known acts it happens quickly - like the new Taylor Swift tracks. But having recently heard a local singer songwriter trying to play to a local audience they just didn't connect even though I know they have a good following elsewhere. So when Notes plays Mustang Sally he's cashing in on years of airplay and the audience hear the song they know they like. I played in a 60s cover band for years and we knew the audience liked the songs we were playing. And we liked them too so it was no hardship- we had fun. Playing covers gives you a headstart in pleasing the audience. And don't forget the Beatles started out playing covers.
In all the years I've been in the biz, I learned a lot about how to survive and not take a day job.
I found I need covers, popular songs for the age group in front of me.
Reading the audience in a new venue is important. What are they wearing, shoes, fashions, hairstyles, etc. This gives you an idea of what they are into. Play something safe first, and make friends. This is very essential, then judge the response for every song after, and that helps you decided what to play next. I don't do set lists, because I'm not clairvoyant and don't know what they will want in 10 minutes from now.
And something safe is usually a cover.
Don't let anyone tell you that you are selling out. You're playing music and getting paid for it.
In school, I was first tenor in the all-state band, every year that I was eligible, and was given section leader, which is typically given to the first alto by default. When I graduated, I tried to join the Air Force Band, figuring I could pass the audition, but when I went for my scheduled physical, I just got over a bronchitis attack, and they gave me a 4F rating.
That's when I went on the road with a rock band. It was a good time. Playing singles bars, before DJs took that away, hitting on the females (I was 18 and well, you know), seeing this great country and getting paid for it.
We did covers, and if that was selling out, selling out is a good thing.
At one time during my career, I wished I was in a jazz band, but I know and knew I couldn't pay the rent that way. So I did covers.
If you ask me what kind of band I want to be in today? It wouldn't be a jazz band, it wouldn't be a tribute band either. I would miss the variety.
I'm in a duo that does big band swing, rock from 50s to 90s, country, Caribbean, more modern pop, a bit of jazz, occasionally a swing band song, some Latin American, and so on. Putting on the different hats and trying my best to be authentic in each different genre is fun for me. Our songlist https://www.nortonmusic.com/cats/songlist.html
I want to be in a variety band.
Many years ago, when I got out of the singles bars and started playing more adult venues, another musician gave me some great advice. He said “If you want to stay working in this business, you have to be a chameleon.” That served me well, I've played in a few different genre bands, and was never out of work until the COVID lockdown.
So for those who want to stay working, I'm passing that advice on to you. Be a chameleon, and have fun. Those who call you a sell-out probably aren't getting steady work.
GUITARHACKER: "Some of the higher paying cover bands are tribute bands that play the music note perfect and have a great stage show. Eagles, Heart, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac..... Iconic bands and replicating their shows are lucrative. "
That's true. I worked as the Sound Engineer for an Eagle's Tribute band that had a guy that looked like Don Henley from a distance and sounded like him from anywhere. The band's music was nearly note perfect. The show, while not great optics, had a big, high level sound stage and light set that was a fairly elaborate set up overall. The 'show' as Herb said, was quite lucrative. All of the musicians and staff had day jobs and did the show targeting festivals and colleges. The show income wasn't intended to be their livelihood.
Bob Notes Norton: "If you are going to gig, my advice is to think of yourself as a business, providing a service to the person who is going to pay you. "
Exactly.
I've been in bands that catered to ourselves..... we had a good time playing the music that we loved, and we did it exceptionally well, but getting rebooked at the clubs was nearly impossible when the large crowd that started the night was leaving at the end of the first set telling the manager they couldn't dance to that music.....
And on the other side... I've been in bands that were OK musically, noting to brag on, but knew what the audience wanted and played the music that kept them on the dance floor and drinking all night long. Those bands never lacked for work.
You wouldn't open a restaurant business and only sell super spicy food just because you personally love super spicy food. So why do that musically? Play what the people want if you are a cover band. Your job is to sell drinks for the club and keep the people happy. Nothing more, nothing less.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
<…snip…> Your job is to sell drinks for the club and keep the people happy. Nothing more, nothing less.
Most definitely.
The only reason to be in business is to make money.
The commercial establishment that hires the band is a business. It is there to make money.
The band is a business, so it has to make money. And the band makes money by helping the person who hires them make money.
Whatever they sell, booze, food, memberships, or other, you are selling indirectly by playing there.
It could be covers, originals, reggae, folk, or anything else, but it has to bring in and bring in again, the type of people the club that hired you wants.
By doing this, the last day job, working for someone else, I've had was in the 1970s.
We never played many true covers. Some covers yes but very different from the original. We never had any more difficulty selling originals than covers. I think that was because of the really exceptional musicians I got to play with and the fact we were serious about entertaining. I ran the band like the business it was, developed a product that we could sell and made better money that most. That always worked until it did not. You know, band dramma, sex, drugs, and rock in roll. I never depended on any one thing to provide income.
I have not often been put off by my many "day jobs". There are several things I like as well as playing music. Flying aircraft for one thing, not that the pay was very consistant plus some of the flying should have gotton me killed. Running small ships which was great fun and paid well enough.
Nothing I ever did paid well enough until I stopped working for other people and started having other people work for me. Making money has never been easy for me at least but it has almost always been super fun. Even today I can hardly sit still for daylight to get up and go do some sort of work, what ever that work may be. Is some of it a PITB? Well yes, at times but that is also true of playing music. Nothing that can be done does not have some sort of down side along the way. As soon as I left home at a very early age I decided I would never be poor again and I never have. I have been broke a time or two but never poor again.
I think most anyone can do most anything they want to in music or anything else for that matter if they are willing to work really hard. People with money are willing to do things that people without money are not willing to do.
There are things that one needs to understand about making money. Music does not pay as well as some other things even if you are Taylor Swift. Opportunitys to advance in the music world do not exist on every street corner and you have to make your own "luck" Many people who have become well known and made real money in the music business have had to do things most of us would never agree to do. Such a sleep on other peoples couch for years.
Go do what ever you really want to do and don't let anyone tell you that you can not and do not be discourged by the thousands of hours it takes to get where you want to go.
Billy
New location, new environment, new music coming soon
Seize the moo-ment If you feel like you’ve herd all these cow puns before, you probably have deja-moo
<…snip…> Music does not pay as well as some other things even if you are Taylor Swift. <…>
Not sure about Ms. Swift, she seems to be doing all right.
Very few musicians make the 'big time', but then very few of any business make 'the big time'.
I was a Cable TV Field Engineer for a few years, and it paid much better than music. But I wasn't as happy as I am being a musician.
By analyzing what the market in my area desires, and fulfilling that need, I have never been rich, but I've never been poor either. My house, in a nice section of town, is paid off. I did that in 10 years. I don't have luxury items, but I also have zero debt. My small, music business, pays the bills.
Life is way too short, and at an early age, I decided to get the most joy and happiness I can, and the least amount of stress and irritation. Other than 2 different day-jobs while testing what it is to be normal, I have, and continue to make my living doing what I would do for free — making music. I'm having a very happy life, so I call that a success story, even though I never made 'the big time'.
Each of us has our own tastes and desires, so my life might choices might not fit anyone else.
Originally Posted by Planobilly
<…snip…>We never played many true covers. Some covers yes but very different from the original. We never had any more difficulty selling originals than covers. I think that was because of the really exceptional musicians I got to play with and the fact we were serious about entertaining. <…>
Good for you.
I've played with some incredible musicians that were entertaining, but worked one gig per week. Perhaps because I'm in a small market area, nobody is hiring originality.
Analyze your local market, see where the demands are, then supply it. In my area, the gigs that offer steady work are hiphop, country, or pop/rock — all cover song gigs. There is a one day per week jazz venue, and a few that cater to Caribbean or Latin American music. But the gigs are not steady, and there are many more musicians trying for those gigs than there is a demand for them.
I play pop/rock, probably 80% covers, done our way, sometimes close, sometimes not. We also mix in country, Caribbean, Latin American, blues, jazz, and a few other genres. Variety seems to work for us, and with over 650 songs, we can adapt our music to the audience of the day (or night).
There is more than one way to make money doing music, what works for one person might not work for another and what works for one area might not work for another. What is the supply and demand where you want to gig?
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