On the GA Forum Ian mentioned mentioned:

"It's not just arranger playing...I work hard at giving myself at least a tiny bit of individuality with an arranger by assembling my own styles and writing my own arrangements, but I just don't feel that satisfaction I used to feel when playing at my restaurant gig. I don't want to do these gigs anymore as it stands now."

This got me thinking about as what may(?) be the cause. Apart from Beakybird and Beachbum(?) and perhaps a few others, most contributing members play covers of songs written by others. So even if we interpret songs OUR way, we're basically still playing other people's creations. Could it be that the loss of interest may be the result of knowing that we're merely reproducing someone other's work and not our own? After all, playing a cover means that there are many others doing exactly the same song and people usually want to hear it played the way they're used to hearing it on CD/radio/TV. Sure, we can give it our own special touch but, once again, people are creatures of habit and don't always welcome something they're used to, is presented in a different manner.

Now those that write their own material, their creavity is several notches above that of the cover players and by playing their own material have far greater control over how they perceive how it should sound. After all, they wrote the song themselves.

So perhaps the creative types, those that write their own songs, are less prone to feel the way Ian's feeling now. In a way they're playing from the inside out and the cover players from the outside in (does that make sense? it does to me.) I believe that the former is like a lamp that keeps on shedding light while the latter is like a candle. Playing one's own material, and having an audience that likes your songs might help keep one from burning out. After all, how many musicians/singers retire after a hit, a couple of hits or many hits? Usually they keep going on and on and on. While they may no longer be in the limelight, they still have the edge over the cover players, don't you think?

Then again, this may be totally unrelated to what Ian's going through but it's how I think of it.

Regards

Taike

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Bo pen nyang.

[This message has been edited by Taike (edited 12-31-2009).]

Most of us have been playing covers for many years. Speaking for myself, I've never tired of doing that, and I suspect the same might be said for many others. The key is in keeping what you play fresh, learning new songs, playing familiar ones in a different key or arranging them differently.

I have written my own material, and have been published, recorded and released. I don't write nearly as much as I once did, but I still enjoy that aspect.

Cover players and writers alike all go through periods of jadedness or writer's block, it's normal. And I'm guessing that Ian is in one of those periods at the moment.

On "having an edge over the cover players," the only advantage I see there is that by writing one's own songs there isn't any expectation by the aduience for it to sound any other way, so you are freed up from having to make it sound as close as possible to the original. Of course, the flipside to that is if your original has been orchestrated and produced and become known as sounding in a certain way, then you have the task of 'chasing your own tail,' so to speak, in producing the same sound in a live situation. However, audiences seem to appreciate a different 'take' or, as is now commonly termed, 'unplugged' version, provided, of course, that it is your own song.

I think at times many of us wilt a tad on the energy or enthusiasm scale. Its funny, but there are days when loading the car, driving, pulling out the equipment, etc. doesn't seem very appealing to me. But more often than not, once I start playing, its all good. Some of my best shows have been on the days when I felt least like playing. Go figure.

I don't agree those that write their own material are more creative than those who play covers. There's a lot of "writers" who mimic their preferred style of music with very little originality or creativity involved. For every one real creative artist on popular radio, there's 20 who basically mimic a style. Almost to the point of parody sometimes...


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Bill in Dayton