Developing an Individual Style

[rpjazzguitar]

I'm not sure which subforum this belongs in.

I've been thinking about individual style. The old question was, "can your mother recognize your playing on the radio?".

I think like a lot of players, I spent a lot of time chasing the sounds that I liked on records. This refers to everything, tone, note choice, feel, etc.

I have, several times, purchased equipment to try to get the sound of a favored player, always unsuccessfully.

There are sounds in improvisation that a lot of people seem to get, but I couldn't, no matter how much I tried, given a certain variability in attention span.

After many decades of this, I found myself with worsening arthritis and felt like I had limited time as a player. (It later got a lot better and I can still play most things I could play before but it doesn't go away).

At that point, I decided to devote myself, not to my previous goals of improving as a player either in a general sense or by imitating somebody specific, but, rather, to trying to figure out if I could develop an individual style.

The first concrete thing I did was spend an afternoon fiddling with my ME50 (back then) pedalboard, to find a tone that would work. I found four (one clean, one octave-down added, drive, and "wet". I programmed them in to the ME50 and that became my palette.

Then it was trying to figure out how I wanted my solos to sound. I wanted solos to generally build and I wanted my quiet sections to be really quiet (requires a cooperative band). I'm able to move between octaves pretty well, so that became part of the style. I can't play very fast, so I had to find other ways to build interest -- tone, rhythm, melody, palm muting, sudden stinging high notes (stolen from BB King) and whatever else I could think of. I noticed that I could scat sing a better solo than I was likely to play, so I focused on mental scatting and trying to play that. I noticed that I tended to hear and scat fairly straightforward harmony -- I still work to expand that, but I stopped fighting it.

I don't think I ever came up with anything great, but I figured out a few things that struck me as personal and that I liked doing. I'm not there yet on comping and, frankly, am not all that hopeful.

After a year or two of this focus, either by design or by coincidence, the phone started ringing more.

So, the moral of this story is to consider spending some time thinking strategically about developing an individual style, however you need to do that.

[Jimmy blue note]

What are you saying? That's the big question that iconic and individual players ask themselves every time they play a note that becomes a solo.
I don't want to distract you from your own search for your style, but have you considered that style is not a by-product of effects or derivative notes, but rather something that comes to you out of your undeniable love for playing?
How do you define style? How fluent are you in the language of the music so it's a joy to pick up your instrument and play anything... anything, and play it in a way that reflects your own propensities, the style with which you talk, think or act?

I guess what I'm asking is, doesn't the style everyone hears come from your own decisions about what choices you've made about what they DON'T hear? Style is merely the face of the person beneath. If you use space, phrasing, note choice and dynamics with the same integrity that you make your way through every day life, THAT's style.

When you play, how much attention do you pay to how you start your phrases? The relationship with the piece as the composer intended it? Your choice of dynamics to accent the notes that are purposeful and important to you? Are you playing "by the book" or is your own inside voice shaping the stream of sound coming from your instrument?
What are you saying and how much of yourself is actually helping that statement become a sound?

[rpjazzguitar]

What are you saying? That's the big question that iconic and individual players ask themselves every time they play a note that becomes a solo.
I don't want to distract you from your own search for your style, but have you considered that style is not a by-product of effects or derivative notes, but rather something that comes to you out of your undeniable love for playing?
How do you define style? How fluent are you in the language of the music so it's a joy to pick up your instrument and play anything... anything, and play it in a way that reflects your own propensities, the style with which you talk, think or act?

I guess what I'm asking is, doesn't the style everyone hears come from your own decisions about what choices you've made about what they DON'T hear? Style is merely the face of the person beneath. If you use space, phrasing, note choice and dynamics with the same integrity that you make your way through every day life, THAT's style.

When you play, how much attention do you pay to how you start your phrases? The relationship with the piece as the composer intended it? Your choice of dynamics to accent the notes that are purposeful and important to you? Are you playing "by the book" or is your own inside voice shaping the stream of sound coming from your instrument?
What are you saying and how much of yourself is actually helping that statement become a sound?

All great questions. What I'm saying is that years of pursuing the external distracted me from developing the internal. And, it was only when I thought I didn't have much time left that I started thinking differently.

We spend so much time thinking about what others have done that we love, it can distract from discovering something within, and making music with that.

I think you're saying that style comes from the inside voice -- which is what I'm trying to say too.

Maybe this is too abstract, but I haven't figured out how to explain it any better.

[mr. beaumont]

The anxiety of influence. You can never actually be you until you acknowledge your influences.

I'll let you know when I get there.

[pamosmusic]

I sometimes think of it in this extremely utilitarian way (I am left-brained to the extent that's a real thing).

You choose a tune you like. Not everyone will choose the same one you do.
You choose a certain passage that compels you. Not everyone will choose the same one you do.
You interpret that passage in an idiosyncratic way––maybe as a set of intervals or as a particular embellishment of an arpeggio. Not everyone will interpret it the same way you do.
You practice that idea in your own way. Not everyone will practice it the same way you do.
You practice it until you feel you need to move on. Others may practice it more or less than you do.
You choose another tune you like ... and find yourself among a different group of listeners.
You choose a certain passage that compels you ... etc.
And repeat.

I feel like the question isn't how can you go about establishing an individual style-- a better question is, if you're practicing and chasing what you like, how could you not?

[Jimmy Smith]

Individual style is important. To develop it you have to balance assimilating your influences with cultivating your inner values. Then practice hard to play well so your style can be realized. And the last element is it takes time for your style to grow.

As Dale Turner says: "You don't just pick a style off a tree one day. The tree is inside you growing naturally."