5 Methods to Improve your Acoustic Covers

We’ve all done it. You discover a new song and instantly have the urge to give it a shot yourself. You play along a couple of times to get a feel for it before hitting pause and going it alone.

You’ve got the lyrics (mostly) down and the chord progression isn’t giving you too much trouble, but you feel like there’s something missing. Maybe it’s that punchy riff that got you hooked, the driving depth of the bassline, or those captivating 808 fills.

It can be frustrating, especially when you’re first starting out. You want to capture that certain something that grabbed you in the first place, and if it doesn’t come out as well as you’d hoped, it’s easy to feel like you’re not up to the task.

Don’t let that hold you back! With a few simple additions and adjustments, you can make immediate and effective improvements to your sound without needing a load of equipment or technical know-how.

Obviously, there is way more going on in most songs than you can replicate fully without a studio set-up, but these tips will have you performing covers that you just can’t wait to show to your family, friends, and followers.

1. VOCALISE THE RHYTHM

For me, the biggest thing I notice when attempting a new cover is what’s missing from the sound of the original track. Most often, it’s percussion. A drum kit rhythm keeps the energy up on tracks where basic strumming just doesn’t quite cut it. Adding this energy into your cover will bring it a lot closer to the sound you want.

The easiest way to do this is to first vocalise that drum beat. It may seem strange, but you can then translate the sounds you make with your mouth into different strumming motions. Here’s an example beat (bear with me):

bum tk-k tchhh bum tch bum tchhh

• Those bums are bass hits, so you’ll want to pick out a bass string on those.

• The tk-k is a softer, faster sound, so try palm muting on those beats for variation.

• The tch sounds are played on higher strings and ring out for different lengths of time.

Play around with this yourself to find what works for you, just remember that you're trying to match each drum sound to a specific strumming technique.

2. ADD SOME DEPTH

So, you've got some nice rhytmic strumming going, but there's still more you can do to really fill out that percussion element. A quick, natural progression is to start tapping on the guitar itself. You can produce a solid beat on the guitar body using the thicker part of your palm and lighter beats by tapping up against the underside, but why not try getting some other instruments involved, too?

If you're anything like me, you'll naturally have your foot tapping away as you play. Get a little crafty, and you can transform those taps with things that you have lying around at home.

Grab an solid storage box and upend it to give yourself a bassy platform, or put some coins in tupperware for a bit of rattle. Experiment with different materials and methods. If you're a standing player, you can have a different 'drum' for each foot!

Of course, you can go ahead and buy purpose-built accessories if duct-taping a maraca to your ankle isn't your idea of a good time, you'll end up with a much fuller sound either way.

3. SWITCH IT UP

Until this point, we've been pushing towards a more complete recreation of an original song, however, sometimes stepping away from a 'faithful' cover can also really make it stand out.

Whether you change up the tempo, the rhythm, or the genre entirely, it's a fun exercise that allows you to inject more of your own style into a performance. It can also open up songs for you that you wouldn't normally cover because they seem too different to your usual repetoire.

Songs like Hey Ya and Pumped Up Kicks take on a much darker atmosphere when they are slowed to a soulful ballad, but you can achieve the same effect with just about any major style change. Try Seven Nation Army with a reggae beat, or bring Mad World up to a frenetic punk-pop anthem. Anything goes!

If you're struggling to think of what to change, you can always try a cover of a cover until inspiration hits - and there's no better place to start than with Johnny Cash:

4. FIND YOUR KEY

Let's face it, we can't all have the incredible range of Mariah Carey or Prince. Knowing your limits helps you to get the most out of a song by enabling you to fully commit to those high notes without fear.

Most chord library sites have a handy function that makes tailoring to your voice super simple: the 'Transpose' button. This will shift the key of the song up or down, depending on what you need, and automatically change the chords for you.

You can also use this tool in conjunction with a capo to make playing difficult barre chords easier. Just transpose down a step for each fret (e.g. capo 4th fret, down 4 steps) to keep the key the same but change some chord shapes.

It might take some time, but if you make note of the keys that are comfortable for you it'll make a big difference to confident projection.

Remember: you should be pushing from your diaphragm for most of your singing, if you feel the muscles way up in your throat tightening a lot it's too high!

5. GIVE IT FEELING

This final tip applies to everything that's been covered so far: your rhythm, additions, style, and voice. You can be competent at all of these, which is an achievement in itself, but that next level performance only comes when you add one more thing into the mix - passion.

We see it as spectators all the time, musicians pouring themselves into a performance. Eyes closed. Body swaying. Trembling with emotion. It's a hard thing to replicate. Even with artists whose lyrics really resonate with us, it's still a second-hand experience. So, sometimes you can lose that core, staying too focused on the technical aspects of performing.

Allow yourself to get lost in your cover. It doesn't even have to be somber or dramatic, maybe you really do just think that it's a Lovely Day and you want to let the world know!

Extend that passion to your playing, too. Maybe it's the funky progression that you really engage with while the singing takes a back seat. Maybe that persistent bass drum is what carries the whole song.

Whatever it is, try to turn inwards and really connect with what you're performing. After all, that's the reason you wanted to do it in the first place!