This brought back a memory for me. Back before I played Guitar I was in the Junior High Band, I played French horn at the time.

We were preparing for Solo and Ensemble, a school competition.

My Band Instructor told me this and I still aplly it to this day.

Setting:

Working on a classical peice--mozart, bach something of that type.

Scene:

My playing was very mechanical since you are taught to read music from the very get go.

He picked up the sheet music and rattled it in my face.

He said-- that I know what the notes mean, how they are played and the timing. A quarter is a quarter and a 16th is a 16th. STOP playing what is written. (sounds funny) I looked at him weird also.

He followed up with this-- The sheet music is a guideline. The notes etc. are just a map of what the composer/writer was trying to say. How ---DO YOU-- interpret the song. Use the guidelines but make your own path.

Regardless of what we play --considering covers-- we are not the original artists. No way are we ever going to sound exactly like a recording or a performance. We/our band is an individual and we are not taking the song to make our own.

Rather we take the song and give it back the way we feel/see it.

I'll get off my soap box.