Behold Guitar Cover by Born of Osiris

Behold guitar cover
Behold Guitar Cover - Watch Joshua Voiles, a progressive metal guitarist jam over to "Behold" by Born of Osiris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxlPzATIB6g
In many cases, when crossing the edge from "beginning guitarist" to - "guitar player" - it's natural to glance at the "creative" juices start to flow. You take a moment doodling with your guitar, and suddenly an excellent chord progression glides off your fingers, a melody sets out to surface, you jot down some lyrics with a tattered legal pad, and invariably, a song is born.
Maybe you decide that you're going to write your own personal songs, express yourself and your inner feelings, and only play original material. That's great! It is a worthy goal, so write on!
When it comes to self expression, guitarists (and musicians generally) often fall into one of many different categories:
Original Music "Purists"
I know musicians that are so adamant about exclusively playing their very own songs that they wouldn't get caught dead on stage with a "cover" song within their portfolio.
Cover Song Musicians
I have other friends that play in bands that play only "cover" tunes. They enjoy bringing familiar songs one's for a live crowd, plus some get paid well because of it.
"A Little Bit of Both" Musicians
Given that I no longer do international calls touring, I write a great deal of original songs to pitch to publishers and artists, but in addition play with various local and regional bands that predominately play cover songs. Most musicians I am aware fall into this "little little bit of both" category.
Although it is really an admirable goal to pursue strictly original material, there are a variety of benefits to learning cover songs that ought to not be neglected.
As we, as humans, are a "sum of our experiences", then we, as musicians, are a sum of our "musical experiences". Precisely what we have ever played, everything that we have ever heard, all the little bits and pieces, and all sorts of full length scores - are rolled up together into what makes us each unique as individual musicians.

Jason Richardson guitar cover

You are able to then conclude that, in order to become a better songwriter and broader musician, you ought to "learn more cover songs".
https://www.youtube.com/JoshuaVoilesMusic
Although that theory could possibly be contrary to a songwriting "purist", it seems logical that even the staunchest supporter in the "original material only" path had, at the outset of their journey, heard and emulated artists that inspired them in the past.
And probably without even realizing it, those "cover" songs have at least had a subconscious influence on their own original music.
Learning cover songs is an excellent exercise in expanding your musical vocabulary. Exactly what you learn from cover songs have a way of filtering through and achieving part of your own personal style.
The things you learn from cover songs will not only help you as a songwriter, it will also have an impact on your guitar playing.
My conception of learning to play lead guitar were spent hoovering on the turntable while, "stealing licks" from Jimi Hendrix, Santana, Jeff Beck, Robin Trower, Jimmy Page and Clapton. Those early influences continue to have a big impact on my style of, even decades later.
There are many neat things that could happen while learning and dissecting cover songs. The expertise of finally nailing an arduous lick, the satisfaction of figuring out an inconspicuous chord, the discovery of a new chord progression that you had not considered before - there are lots of "aha" moments when learning cover songs that would have been missed otherwise.
And those moments produce a conscious, or unconscious, contribution to who you are and what you will become musically.
Sometimes, new guitar players avoid attempting to learn cover songs. There is the thought that songs over a recording are somehow beyond their reach, somehow "un-learnable".
But the truth is that, for the guitarist that has the basic principles under their belt, many of the songs in popular music that they aspire to learn are actually comprised of chord progressions and patterns they already know, or are aware of. Many are surprised to find that it's really not all that difficult to learn them.
It is through this discovery method that a new guitar player may start to truly expand their horizons and initiate to progress as musicians by beginning the operation of figuring out how to play cover songs.
So no matter which path you finally end up taking, be it the pure original songwriting route, the duvet song route, or a combination thereof - understand that spending the time and effort to understand cover songs is often a healthy habit to buy and that the effort can pay off in dividends to you musically for as long as you play guitar.