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So, I know most of us here are not professional players, but have you ever thought of or attempted to develop your own sound?
Sitting here on the patio listening to various jazz, and Vince Guaraldi comes on. And he’s instantly recognizable because of his style/sound. The chords are instantly recognizable as him.
It got me to thinking, do I have a sound? I have no idea. I know I’ve never tried to develop one, I’ve always just played where the music took me. Has anyone here made an effort to develop a unique sound, or is that maybe just what happens naturally based on your influences and practices?
I know others have thought about this, I’d love to hear different perspectives.
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09-14-2024 07:11 PM
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Originally Posted by ruger9
So I’d say writing and arranging music is maybe even essential to developing a distinctive voice.
The really singular voices I can think of are also almost better known as composers and arrangers:
Monk, Shorter, Miles etc.
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You can't really get your own style deliberately, it has to sort of evolve by itself.
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Originally Posted by ragman1
EDIT: I forgot to mention the hard work on the music.Last edited by Bop Head; 09-15-2024 at 02:57 AM.
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Maybe, to varying degrees, everyone has their own unique style that encompasses the way they express themselves, their influences, preferences, character, and the note choices they make.
But, some players have a more distinctive style than others.
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Originally Posted by ragman1
I mean you’re certainly literally right, but I think you can deliberately contemplate what you like, transcribe people you want to sound like, and that sort of thing. You might not have control over what exactly you’ll sound like so I’m not wholly disagreeing, but you’ll sound like some interesting combination thereof.
So I guess …
writing music
really deliberately working on the things you like
really deliberately leaving alone the things you dont
transcribing transcribing transcribing
shaping your technical practice based on that transcribing
deliberately working that transcribing into your playing in multiple ways
and just listening a ton and I think repeatedly to things that hook you, rather than widely necessarily
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While I understand and agree with the composition part being a huge part of it, in guitar the world there are many players who play on others material, that I can instantly identify as who they are, just from a solo.
Steve Lukather is the prime example, having played on countless hits over the years. Whether it's a Michael McDonald tune, or Michael Jackson, or Box Scaggs, or Lionel Richie, etc.... Lukather didn't write the songs, but when the solo comes up, I can tell it's him. EVH is another example (altho he didn't play on other people's music very often)... but even just noodling nothing, you'd know it was Eddie. Hendrix is another. I feel like I've gotten pretty good at identifying Kenny Burrell, Ben Webster, Lester Young, T-Bone Walker... actually speaking of Ben Webster, that's what prompted me to ask this question.... a song came on Pandora and I immediately thought it was Ben Webster. It wasn't, and I've forgotten who it was, but they were obviously HEAVILY influenced by Ben Webster, as well as playing a tune I've heard Ben Webster play alot (sorry, I forget the name of the tune also... getting older starts wreaking havoc with short-term memory LOL)
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as I mentioned recently - Johnny Smith (not someone I listen to much at all) struck me as onto something when he said in an interview that people transcribe too much. he thought if they spent more time working out their own ideas they would stand a better chance of sounding like themselves rather than sounding like everyone else.
there's a language and one has to learn it as a condition of saying anything at all - but one would like occasionally to say things that other people haven't said lots of times before
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Originally Posted by ruger9
Eddie Van Halen was an exception but he was also a real innovator on the instrument (of which there have been few).
And Lukather no idea but it makes sense why he’d be an exception. Hes been on probably a thousand recordings so that’s kind of like being a part of that creation process, even if it’s for someone else.
I didn’t necessarily mean you need to be a composer, though I mentioned Shorter and Miles … just that you have to write a bit. Peter Bernstein is not known as a composer but he writes tunes that suit his voice.
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Originally Posted by pamosmusic
I've heard several pros make comments like "well, I won't do THAT because I don't want to sound like everyone else", indicating that they KNEW they had to be unique and were actively seeking their own sound/style, which would indicate it's not just happenstance.
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Originally Posted by pamosmusic
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Originally Posted by ragman1
Then again, neither will wanting to be creative.
Im in the Originality is Overrated camp anyway
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Listen a lot, practice a lot, play a lot, play what you like from the depth of your heart, play for your life, do your thing and give a damn on what others want you to do -- and you will develop your own thing.
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Originally Posted by pamosmusic
The famous early 1980's Eddie Van Halen guitar style is using a huge amount of Allan Holdsworth's ideas from the 'Believe it' album from 1975.
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Originally Posted by GuyBoden
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Originally Posted by pamosmusic
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I had no choice but to develop my own style because I wasn't dedicated enough, naturally talented enough, or serious enough at the time about learning how to think like one particular player to be able to copy someone else's style other than some pretty standard blues licks. I also found that in live, off the cuff improvisation you mostly are gonna think like yourself any ways so you need your own bag of tricks, or rather, through the course of a thousand gigs you develop your own bag of tricks. It's inevitable if you are taking it seriously.
I was doing a loud gig a couple months ago and got a text the next day from a guy I gigged with about ten years ago who was gigging in the same area that weekend: "I thought I heard your guitar down there in ________, was that you?" I felt pretty good about that, even though I still don't think much of my own playing. But I'm me, and no one else. I'm ok with that. I'm working on a record now and am finding myself writing some 16 and 17 bar blues so I must've done something right, or wrong, depending on how it comes out, but they seem to have sensible continuity and sound kinda like "me" which is a win in my little world lol.
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Originally Posted by GuyBoden
Alan Holdsworth's playing has never been my cup of tea so far (though I think he was a very nice beer brewing guy according to some interviews I have read here and there) but I was a huge Eddie fan in the late eighties/early nineties and I always heard about his Holdsworth influence.
And, because Eddie is the most underrated rhythm guitarist of all times, are you talking about solos or also about rhythm guitar?
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Originally Posted by Bop Head
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Originally Posted by pamosmusic
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Originally Posted by ragman1
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Originally Posted by Onesimus
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"it's like this – each of us has his own melody in us, somewhere, and the point of education is to crystallize it, to bring it to the surface"
Warne Marsh, quoted in John Klopotowski's "A Jazz Life
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Originally Posted by Bop Head
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Originally Posted by Bop Head
This is a very amusing book (he describes the past lives recall technique in it) -- Magick Without Tears - Amazon.com
irealpro better ?
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