Learning and playing cover tunes is an effective tool for the new musician because it gives you the chance to learn techniques, chord progressions, forms, and songs you can actually play for a crowd, for friends or just for yourself.

I was chatting away at a message board the other night and had an epiphany of sorts about why beginning musicians play cover tunes. In the brief discussion that followed, several points came out, and I would like to elaborate on them here.

One reason to play cover tunes is to pay tribute to a respected artist. I know this is one of my motivations. If I really admire the work somebody has done, I will cover it. I did a cover once of a “B” side track because I liked the way it was arranged. The name of the song actually escapes me now (as does the artist) but it was something that struck a nerve with me, and I wanted it in my repertoire. When I do covers of artists, even if I do the obscure “B” side, I find that people tend to like the pieces but had never heard them. It's not hard to believe since radio stations will only play what they think will be most profitable. I will cover these pieces even if they're not popular because I want to expose others to the artist's work.

Another reason to cover existing work is to have a repertoire of popular songs to play that people will recognize. “Name That Tune”, a fun drinking game, will get a lot of people involved in what you are playing. If you are fortunate enough to get a band playing in the local bars, how you handle cover tunes can go a long way to helping you become locally famous and can affect how much money you make a night, as some venues will pay based on the door.

Lesser known bands will not draw as much of a crowd, while better known local bands will have an established following. Many bands will take advantage of this status and start mixing original music into their sets to get the crowd’s reaction to their original songs. This is a good practice as it lets people know what you can do outside of the realm of what they expect.

I personally use cover tunes to learn new techniques or chord progressions. This is useful for learning different chords as well. Techniques like sweep picking are boring to practice without having something they are used in as an example. Playing work that has the technique in it can be the best way to learn. Another good function is the use of rare or rarely used chords. I can not even begin to estimate the number of chords that are possible on the guitar, but there are a lot of them. In jamming with other musicians, I have picked up great uses for chords that I had learned but never found a place to use.

Learning and playing cover tunes is an effective tool for the new musician because it gives you the chance to learn techniques, chord progressions, forms, and songs you can actually play for a crowd, for friends or just for yourself. I would not want to spend my life only doing cover tunes, but by and large, they are useful to a new musician and for musicians that are playing the club circuit wherever they may live.