MAINSTAGE
WHEN TO CHASE AFTER YOUR SOUND | David Pfaltzgraff
Have you ever seen a cover band perform, Whether or not this is a good thing also seems It’s hard to argue that this approach isn’t the
maybe at a wedding, a restaurant, farmer’s to be very much dependent upon who you ask. most manageable way to work with and get
market, etc? Every town has cover bands. Some folks I’ve played on worship teams with good results from a rotating team of volunteer
Bands whose main focus is emulating another thrive on memorizing every detail of the original musicians. If your team has a large amount
artist’s work to a high degree of accuracy and work on their instrument and pride themselves of rotation then it very well may be the most
recognizability. Where I live we have metal on executing it exactly. Others pride themselves sustainable approach.
cover bands, country cover bands, R&B cover on purposefully deviating from the original bands, and everything in between. I’ve always song whether it be the voicings, lead parts Another reason to consider sticking to the
thought it would be fun to be in a cover band, or any other element of the song that’s up to original is that this is generally a much less
to devote a large amount of time and creative interpretation. intimidating ask of less experienced musicians
energy to analyzing, understanding, and exactly
replicating the work of another artist.
who may not be comfortable enough to try
Today we’re going to talk about the struggle to compose or improvise their own approach
between making something your own and to the song. For worship keys players today
What does this have to do with the topic of honoring the source material for what it is. First, there’s often a specific sound paired with a
this article: when to chase after “your” sound? let’s talk about times when it might be best to specific musical hook that is present in a song
Well depending on who you ask many modern follow the original. and it can be really hard for those without a
church worship bands are functionally cover
bands themselves. Focused on replicating an
lot of experience to see a way around playing
WHEN TO FOLLOW THE ORIGINAL
that part. This is especially true for those who
existing musical piece as closely as possible
are using MainStage or Ableton Live keys rigs
with the goal of eliciting a similar response One of the reasons many people are proponents where the focus is so often on leveraging the
from the listener as the original. This desire to of the “play it like the original” approach is flexibility of those softwares into nailing the
replicate is often a primary motivator for those that it does reduce the practice and rehearsal exact sounds from the original.
who turn to software-based keys rigs for their process down to its simplest format. If everyone keys sounds, because it’s usually easier to attempts to learn and play their parts just like In the same way it’s a good idea to use the
approximate the sounds and textures present the original things should come together just original roadmap and stylistic choices of a song
in a given song using software. fine, right? when you have a very limited amount of time
or resources to devote to learning the song.
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December 2019
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