Injustice

Injustice is something that denotes an unpleasant reaction for most of us. No one wants to see unjust action fall upon one another. Well, maybe they do. It’s not always intentional. Regarding guitars: if you’re going to use someone else’s work, can you do it justice?

For every catchy song playable on guitar, there are a handful of covers submitted by players all over the world. On the world stage that is the internet, there aren’t exactly cover police to upvote or downvote the millions of rehatched songs submitted to youtube every day. Average Joes aren’t the only ones attempting to do original songs justice, though.

Did Smash Mouth do justice to The Monkeys’ song “I’m a Believer”? If you ask me, sure. But who gives a damn about Smash Mouth? 

Did Vanilla Ice do justice to Queen’s “Under Pressure”? NOPE. And that’s why a lawsuit was brought upon him.

There are plenty of “rip-off“s in the music biz. This is an example of when artists bring injustice to the table; and it’s not just guitarists.

Covering a song can be fun. When you reach the point where you can recreate something you’ve heard many times, it’s hard not to have a smile to wipe from your face. Personally, I don’t feel right playing the exact same song in response. I’ll usually change a few words, or at least accompany a chorus’ reprieve so I can unnecessarily jam all over. Sometimes, covering a song is just playing it on a different medium. A decent example I can provide is the rock n’ roll version I recorded of a Bassnectar song, Encore. Being a guitar player that listens to a lot of strictly electronic music, the bridge just had to be gapped.