Covers? Do they sound foolish to do? Is it for someone who wants to write their own songs one day?
Singers should definitely do covers. Covering other songs allows them to gain skills by learning different techniques from different genres making them a well-rounded singer. This is extremely helpful because singers will rely on these skills when they sing their own songs.
There is a lot to unpack here starting from how it actually helps to the end goal of learning music – composing your own songs. Let’s begin!
How Does It help?
Singing covers allows you to hear songs that have been through the fires of brutal purification. It allows you to absorb music in a way that you get the final result and everything that is packed inside of it is for you to understand.
From the way the drums play the cymbals and how the bass drum locks with the bass guitar and how beautiful words and phrasing were thought out to make it come all together. Or in a much easier way, the arrangement.
Every band does it so differently and they don’t even have complex genres that do this. Everyone does.
Then there is the thing where your ear is picking the wealth of timbre possibilities. The way everything can sound so good in so many variations. From mixes being muddy to give preference to a certain mood or by mixing the way something that shouldn’t compliment the mood at all. It goes all ways, all the time.
That is just the beginning of how cover songs help.
Composing
Covering songs allows you to compose better as I stated above, everything has been through hell to reach the final song. The band got together and made the song, it got approved by their producer and someone sat and did the whole mixing of it and now you get the final product.
Your ear reaps the benefits of understanding how complex structures of melody can fit together. It’s like learning how to use a word in a sentence and then now you can use this word in the sentence your construct.
A vocabulary that you’ve learned from others using and now you’re going to add those same words in your own way of speaking to construct sentences in a way you haven’t done before.
Helps You Master Different Genres
Think about it. YouTube or anywhere else has at least one version of the cover you want to do and you can start learning in less than a minute.
You should really take this as far as you can and try to learn different genres. It allows you to develop different ways a melody can be formed within genres. The more possibilities of musical ideas your mind and ear are exposed to the better it is for you as a musician.
Any original idea is the combination of two already existing ideas or more. I have found this to be true for myself as well. I end up writing like the bands that I listen to but I end up doing my bass parts how I feel they ought to be written.
But all works out in the end. That’s how you find your ‘voice’ in music as well. A lot of it is instincts leading you to try something that you haven’t before.
Covering songs from different genres does exactly that. Sticking to one means that you’re essentially a singer who can sing one style. Which shouldn’t be the thing you do.
As a student of music, you must try to develop perfect singing techniques and you can get that by studying other genres. Different genres exist because they sound different. If you can start mimicking their sound and are able to reproduce them perfectly, they are just another skill in your arsenal to use when the time comes for you to use them in another context for yourself or for your band.
Instant Social Media Presence
It’s hard to deny this but making covers on social media, either YouTube or Instagram is going to allow you to get reach really fast. When you’ve done this you can start sliding in your originals as well.
Whatever is trending or whatever you want to cover can not just be something you learned but something you can even make money out of. Of course, there is a different route (when you release music) to take with that but it’s possible.
Many YouTubers do that. But only the ones who have quality in their videos are the ones who rise to the top. Not just one time but who show consistent quality time and time again.
If you haven’t already guessed it, social media is the currency by which artists are surviving these days. It’s the most effective to get the word out about what you’re up to and where people can hear the latest songs you’re covering or where you’re about to perform next.
To not use this is imminent death, if you plan to remain a hobbyist that’s fine too but getting in the habit of doing something on a regular basis and establishing discipline in your life, always pays off.
Learn to Sing Better
The only time someone is going to become a loyal and dedicated follower of yours is when you show that you can sing well consistently. Though singing covers will help you improve your singing they won’t directly tell you how to perform a certain technique to sound like the singer on the record does.
Thankfully, I have a solution for this. You need an online course to teach you how to do it effectively. You can read it here on why I believe that you should an online course for singing.
I personally own the digital copy of ‘The Four Pillars of Singing‘, this is an affiliate link. (Book included with the digital course).
I have also curated a bunch of courses that may satisfy all your singing needs and you can check them out here.
Whatever you end up deciding on, I hope you keep on making the covers and you become a better singer every day!
All the best on your singing journey!