Iâve been watching a lot of electric guitar performances on YouTube lately, and I keep running into the same problem:
Many players use a backing track, but I canât tell if theyâre:
Playing a well-known song or solo (that I just havenât heard before)
Improvising over the backing track
Or mixing in parts of known songs with their own ideas
Since I havenât heard a huge number of songs, itâs hard for me to know whatâs original and whatâs a cover. Improvisation seems very common with electric guitar, but sometimes it sounds so polished that I wonder if itâs actually a song I just donât know.
Are there reliable ways to figure this out when watching a video? Any tips for spotting the difference between a rehearsed piece and a live improvisation?
One possible way would be to try one of those apps that can âlistenâ to a song and tell you what it is. If it doesnât recognise it then youâre probably hearing the musician soloing over a backing track. Not 100% reliable though, as they can often detect exact covers but might not recognise a cover that is a significant departure from the original.
Another way could be to check the YouTubers channel. If they appear to be monetised, then the songs they play probably arenât direct covers. YouTube is rather good at detecting copyrighted content and flagging it, meaning any income would likely end up going to the rights holder instead of the channel owner. (Or at worst, the channel being copyright striked.)
Last but not least⌠check the video description. I just did, and the part of the video where that guy is playing is clearly labelled as âBacking track jamâ. Sometimes the solution is that obviousâŚ
Thereâs a big difference between âoriginalâ and âimprovisedâ.
If you actually mean âoriginalâ then a lot of the YouTubers will be playing original pieces.
If you actually mean âimprovisedâ as in âmade up on the spotâ then I would say almost none of the performances you see on YouTube are.
Most of these YouTubers will create their own solos as original pieces, but then they will practice for ages to nail them, and then do multiple takes to get the perfect performance for YouTube. Most of them are open about this.
If they are performing a version of a commercially released song, they will usually credit it. But even if they donât the YouTube Content Id system will work out what it is and put a copyright notice on the video.
Note, here Iâm talking about commercially released songs.
There has been a recent, fairly famous, case where a content creator Giacomo Turra, was not only caught miming playing over tracks, but was also using other content creatorâs songs without credit, and was selling the tabs as his own.
He built quite a reputation and landed some high profile gigs and collaborations until he was found out and exposed.
Because of ai, these days i am very skeptical about what iâm seeing in any video.
Luckily, there are people out there who do the research and let us know when thereâs a fake doing the rounds.
Regardless of what various youtube guitarists are doing (and I have zero interest in social media guitarists, to be honest), I do think that improvisation in the hands of an accomplished guitarist can sound very polished indeed. For example, I have no idea if the guy in the vid you posted is improvising, but that kind of playing certainly could be improvised by a good player.
And R. J. is a great player. But he will plan and rehearse his playing for his videos, do multiple takes, and edit the videos, just like everyone else.
Social Media (YouTube, IG, etc.) videos are sort of the equivalent of a studio recording. Thereâs nothing wrong with it.
When you see a video, know that a lot of it is rehearsed and pre-recorded.
There are some frauds out there but you can tell that most players will throw something online that they can play. It often stated as some improv but it went through their usual workflow and modus operandi. We all use âfavoruiteâ methods to make songs âour ownâ. for me thatâs certain rhytmic and melodic embellisments of certain chord shapes while fingerpicking
Just like instagram stories, the real life doesnât consist of picture perfect sceneries, so know that such a production is a montage of different takes.
Still, in most cases the musician is musically and technically ABLE to produce and play that.
We became quite accustomed to this practice but it makes us feel like we suck sometimes if we compare ourselves to these 'ideal videoâs".
There is stuff to learn though;
reach out, ask them, they might answer and if they do, theyâll love to tell you what it is all about.
discover yourself; by watching videos of the same artist, you will begin to discover what his/her favourite things to do are. soon enough, the signare moves will become apparent
experiment for yourself. Donât focus on reproduction of the original but see the layers. The underlying chord structure is quite crucial to keep it recognizable but how would YOU approach it? maybe less impressive but it will be YOU, something you can build on as you progress.
nothing wrong with rehearsing a set sequence of notes. these youtube heroes often do that themselves! As soon as it goes towards a recording, there is little wiggle room
Oh, I hope I didnât imply that he wasnât great or that thereâs anything wrong with playing a rehearsed part, doing multiple-takes, editing, etc. Most all our favorite music is produced that way, as you noted. I was just trying to tell the OP that improvisation can sound very polished.
Also, nothing wrong with listening to music on Social Media, of course. But itâs not my thing, Iâm more of a Spotify person, where I tend to listen to full albums.
âImprovisingâ can be one of those terms that is applied differently by different people. I would define it as anything that is played without conscious, focused rehearsal. Many on Youtube may do 4-5 takes, then pick the best one. Nothing wrong with that.
If youâre looking for true, in the moment 100% improv, look up some masters like Matteo Mancuso and Julian Lage.
I would tend to assume something is practiced and not improvised unless there is evidence that points to otherwise.
To start with, recorded live performances of styles known for including improv (blues, jazz, bluegrass) are something where Iâd believe might include improvisation.
Iâm more likely to believe something is improv if there are subtle mistakes in the recording. There is this âidealâ of the perfect piece that has somehow come into existence. And I think this has pushed a lot of the social media musicians into doing as many takes as it requires to get a song perfect. Because if they donât, then the peanut gallery will rip into them over it.
Anything with a polished studio look/sound is likely not truly improvised, but there might be little bits of improvisation mixed into a more practiced song. I donât think limiting the options to an either/or dichotomy is all that helpful.
I have and try to use Shazam to (try to) identify songs with some frequency. TBH, itâs actually rare that the app makes a match even when I KNOW that a song is a cover. It might make a match if itâs an album being played or the song is streamed. In a noisy bar, it can be the original studio performance and it might not make a match because of the messy soundscape (sounds a lot like how my own brain works). But if weâre talking about a live performance or a recorded performance thatâs not the studio performance, then itâs really rare for it to make a match.
