This has nothing to do with whistles but I wanted to get some people’s opinions. My music teacher is having a big recital on Sunday, the 8th. These are the songs and who’s playing:
You Were Mine - by the Dixie Chicks
Me - fiddle/vocals
Becca - vocals
Sandy - bass guitar
Julie - guitar
? - drums
The Vega Set (Banks of Lough Gowna, Gaelic Club, Vega Mandolin, performed by Solas)
Me - whistle on first jig, fiddle on other 2
American Wake (Riverdance)
Me - fiddle
Julie - flute
Sandy - bass guitar
So everyone is saying that if we play with the CD, it’s plagiarism. If I’m not mistaken, plagiarism is covering the song and not crediting the original writer. We’re just performing the songs for fun. In the flyer, we’ll credit Bill Whelan, Dixie Chicks, and Jerry Holland. How is playing with a background CD plagiarism? There is no way that we can perform these by ourselves. We can’t find musicians in a week. For the Dixie Chicks song, we’re going to perform with the instrumental version. That is not plagiarism. Any opinions?
Good luck getting a hold of anybody. unless you want to wait 10 years. I wouldnt worry about it. who cares, well, Unless your making a ton of money off of their music. but then again isnt that what a tribute band does? its a very fine line. do it.
[ This Message was edited by: Adriel on 2002-09-03 01:42 ]
Whatever you cant perform yourself dont perform.This sort of thing is dishonest. The Britany Spears and eminems of this world have done enough damage already.You are proposing a lip-sync performance to someone elses work..please dont do it. Peace, Mike
Dance schools do recitals and use C.D.'s to dance with. This is a recital for a school and students not a concert where you are trying to claim everything as yours, more as an opportunity to show your progress.
I personally think that as long as you put credit where it is due, you are being honest.
I don’t like backup tracks, but using them hardly constitutes plagiarism. As long as you’re not claiming someone else’s work as your own it is not plagiarism.
"Plagiarize. to take (ideas,writings,etc)from (another)and pass them off as ones own- plagerizer."Websters new world dictionary.
It seems that the ITS OK SO LONG AS I GET AWAY WITH IT attitude has gained to much acceptance in our culture.Nothing can be more truthful than music.Do it your self,be your self and perform for yourself and your audience will recognize, and be moved by, the truth.There was a girl band from the 60s called the SHAGS whos music,quite frankly,sucked.The thing they had though was originality and a total lack of pretension .Frank Zappa thought them better than the beatles.Musicoligists and journalist wrote books about them and their music even orchestrated yet those three teenage girls who were the SHAGS could hardly play their instruments.They were simply honest and original who copyed no one and remain to this day un-copyable,incomparable and unique. Peace, Mike
I think using a backup track and the kind of dishonest lip-synching thing mike is talking about are two totally different things. While I don’t always like them, I don’t see anything really wrong with using them. As Sandy says, dance recitals and the like use them all the time.
After all, it’s not like you’re going to play the cd’s, and pretend you’re playing a long…you’ll actually be playing and the cds are going to act as your “back up musicians”.
On 2002-09-03 07:00, Wandering_Whistler wrote:
I think using a backup track and the kind of dishonest lip-synching thing mike is talking about are two totally different things. While I don’t always like them, I don’t see anything really wrong with using them. As Sandy says, dance recitals and the like use them all the time.
After all, it’s not like you’re going to play the cd’s, and pretend you’re playing a long…you’ll actually be playing and the cds are going to act as your “back up musicians”.
Maybe I 've missed something, but if you are using tracks straight off the cds of the artists you have mentioned, that must include the virtuoso chops of all involved.If I play along with Martin Hayes or the Dixie chicks at home to learn something and have a bit of fun,these "backing bands"can make me sound pretty darn good.If Martin Hayes performed publicly with a Dixie Chicks recording as his back-up band(the mind boggles!)without prior consent he would have some explaining to do..to a very confused Dennis Cahill.Backing cd music for dance is an entirely different thing as the performers must dance regardless.What you are doing is kareoke with instruments and more likely have less impact on your audience than you think.Peace, Mike
I don’t think I really understand
what’s going on, mechanically speaking.
But maybe this helps–if what you
are doing is widely seen as plagiarism,
or wrong, or questionable (‘everyone is
saying it’s plagiarism’), that by
itself is a reason not to do it–even
if you’re doing nothing wrong.
IT’s show biz; appearances matter.
Your supposed to be entertaining
people, not engendering a moral
discussion. Best, Jim
(shrug) I just can’t seem to see this issue as the big bugaboo you make it out to be, Mike. It’s not Kevin Burke giving a paid pubilc performance/concert using the Cheiftains Long Black Veil cd as backup. It’s a school recital. I just can’t see it being anything like the same thing at all, I’m afraid.
Now, if it was total “lip-syncing” at a recital, I’d feel a bit weird about it, but as back up, I just can’t get worked up over it.
Greg
On 2002-09-03 10:33, mike.r wrote:
Maybe I 've missed something, but if you are using tracks straight off the cds of the artists you have mentioned, that must include the virtuoso chops of all involved.If I play along with Martin Hayes or the Dixie chicks at home to learn something and have a bit of fun,these "backing bands"can make me sound pretty darn good.If Martin Hayes performed publicly with a Dixie Chicks recording as his back-up band(the mind boggles!)without prior consent he would have some explaining to do..to a very confused Dennis Cahill.Backing cd music for dance is an entirely different thing as the performers must dance regardless.What you are doing is kareoke with instruments and more likely have less impact on your audience than you think.Peace, Mike >
Thanks. The only reason we’re using CD’s is because we have no guitar player or anyone to play rhythm. Playing acoustic with a fiddle, flute, and bass just wouldn’t sound good. And btw, the recital is free.
Many music programs pay fees to ASCAP, which allows them to use copyrighted musical recordings. Presumably these fees are in turn used to compensate the artists. If your teacher pays these dues it may be alright, at least under the law. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than my self could chime in…
Fiddle, flute and bass sounds great
to me, honestly. Fiddle and flute
alone sound fine, IMHO. I’ve done
a lot of that–for money, too. Bass added
would be even more interesting.
I’d rather listen to that than
those instruments with the Dixie Chicks
in the background.
I think I mentioned once that
coming out of a train station in
India I found two boys sitting on
the sidewalk, one playing a zither,
another a small drum–they were
singing a religious chant.
It was the most beautiful
music I’ve ever heard in my life.
It’s your gig, of course–and I’ve
always been amazed at what happens
when simple instruments are played
with spirit–not to mention fiddles,
flutes, and basses!
Break a leg, in any case! Jim
[ This Message was edited by: jim stone on 2002-09-03 16:27 ]
On 2002-09-03 14:03, whistlingfiddler wrote:
Thanks. The only reason we’re using CD’s is because we have no guitar player or anyone to play rhythm. Playing acoustic with a fiddle, flute, and bass just wouldn’t sound good. And btw, the recital is free.
Fiddle and flute alone sound fantastic, if you’ve got a bass that’s just icing on the cake. I’d dump the CD not for any “legal” reasons but simply because your performance will be better without it.
You can never live up to the professional's "backing" track so why put it out there for everyone to compare your performances too?
I could go on a pretty long rant here about how recorded music (yes, all the way back to wax cylinders) destroyed music and culture because all of a sudden it wasn't enough that Johnny could play a pretty good lick on the fiddle - he had to play it exactly the same way some stranger did it on a recording. (That's the short version of the rant, I could go on for several pages.)
