If you’re a musician, you want to be original.
To have your sound. To be unique. The problem with being original is that it’s a myth. We are all a product of our influences.
Those who are considered the most original are those who know how to wield seemingly incompatible influences into something unique.
We all desire this. If you’re a worship leader, you want to lead with a unique style that is honest to your personality.
If you sing, drum, play guitar, or cello, you want to discover your unique tone and style.
But how do we “find our voice”? How do we discover our uniqueness?
Don’t Limit Your Influences
We all like the things that we like. Profound, right? But if you want to find your voice and develop your sound, don’t put a cap on what you’re influenced by. Classical music? Hip hop? Southern Gospel? Country? Sure.
Don’t just listen and learn from what you naturally like. Expand your horizon of musical taste. Always be risking, experimenting, trying something new.
Then, rather than focusing on being different, you start to focus on stewarding your influences into something unique.
Of course, some influences may be harmful to your spirit, but that’s another conversation.
Mimic What You Love
As a music teacher, I encourage my students to mimic what they hear. It’s the perfect fuel for creative fire.
When you hear something you like, try and figure out how it’s done. This isn’t stealing or copying. This is learning. When you figure out what someone else has done, you grow. You internalize new ideas. This is a way to store up musical muscle memory for your future creativity and improvisation.
Why do young musicians study books and theory and concepts before they innovate and improvise? Think of it like a tool belt. With each new musical influence, idea, or concept, you’re adding another tool in your improvisational arsenal.
Find Time to Flow
I love to put my students in awkward situations. Naturally, students are nervous around their teacher. But I like to force them to innovate and create something new within their lessons. It’s a beautiful way for them to see what they’re capable of.
I believe everyone has untapped creativity inside of them. And that’s why it’s important to flow – to find time to experiment. There is a time to move beyond the mimic and into the scary realms of creativity.
This is scary because creativity isn’t about right and wrong. Right and wrong is safe, comfortable, and status quo. Creativity requires stepping out and creating something that might not work. If we’re honest, most of the time the stuff we create is total crap – to us. But in order to find gold, you must excavate through rock.
The art you enjoy most wasn’t created in a day but was created through many days of failure until the beauty surfaced.
Let’s recap. Musician, it’s a beautiful thing to find your voice – to discover your sound. But it won’t happen magically. Surround yourself with the brilliance of other musicians and learn to steward their influence on you.
Mimic them and spend time just creating. God has given us music to explore the endless possibilities of sound for His glory.
We need your sound.
Question: How have you developed your creativity and unique sound as a musician? Share your experience here in the comments. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]
Good post.
To answer your question, as a developing guitar player I would listen to different instruments typically outside of the genre that I was playing. I listened to a lot of drummers, Steve Gadd, Omar Hakim, among others, and different bass players, Will Lee, Daryl Jones, Charlie Haden, etc, to see how they developed a groove and then try to determine how I would fit into their pocket.
And then also listen to musicians from around the world. Paul Simon’s Graceland really influenced my playing for a while and then also percussionists from India informed how I would approach a song.
The thing I tell young players is to have big ears and listen in order to understand the language being spoken by the musician. But then once you have an influence, bury it deep (and then bury the shovel), e.g. don’t let it come out too much. For myself, there is a reason I don’t listen to Stevie Ray Vaughn, his style and vocabulary will naturally creep into my playing even though I don’t think I could play you one of his songs ;).
Great job and keep on keeping on.
Lod, some great stuff here. How would you encourage a musician to “bury the shovel”, so to speak? How can you utilize someone’s influence without it being so obvious? Any tips?
To incorporate without losing yourself; 1 it is important to have feedback. Have someone you trust with permission to give you constructive criticism.
2 be present when you play and listen for cliches stolen from other players and note when they show up and think about what you could do differently. Also force yourself not to fall into those habit traps (e.g. Practice like crazy)
3. be careful with your listening habits. If every song you write starts sounding like it came from Hillsong, it is time to listen to something completely different. I have found in my playing that if I listen to a particular artist then their language filters into my playing and I know it is time to go on a diet and not listen to them. I fill that space with an artist who is 180 degrees from their style.
4 Like you said, play in a bunch of different styles. Be a chameleon and when you sit down to record or play your own music, then be yourself and then all of the cool things you have learned and mastered will bubble up and you will have synthesized something completely new.
Finally, learn from different instruments. For the churches I play for, I have been learning the keyboard heads just to force my hands out of guitar centric patterns.
I have seen this attributed to Pete Townsend, he said with regard to sound that “Musicians are thieves and magpies.”
I say bury your influences deep (don’t knowingly play like them) and bury the shovel (if you can’t escape the influence make them persona non grata on your playlist).
Lod
Lod … this is awesome.
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone exercised extreme humility and were able to take criticism as a chance to learn instead of viewing it as a shot at your playing style or ability? LORD BREAK US OF OUR PRIDE!
Lod/David … How do you get yourself to listen to other things? Not only do I find myself listening to all the same artists all the time, I listening to a select few of those songs on repeat for weeks! I like what I like for a reason … it’s well put together, well played, cool toned music (Hillsong/Jesus Culture/Fred Hammond) Any suggestions on where to go to get away from that every now and then and not get bored with some of the passion-less k-love type stuff after 25 seconds?
Joe,
Excellent question re: finding new music.
I am a flipper when it comes to the radio (and tv). And my radio is programmed to a bunch of different genres and I am always looking for something new to come on. Just recently I got on a homegrown music kick and I am enjoying several local artists that get radio play on the little local independent radio stations.
In addition I read a lot about music and when I see someone getting some pretty good buzz or reviews from different sources, I will take a peek by pulling up some of their music on youtube or reverb nation etc. If their stuff is promising, then I will download the album or albums and give it all a listen. Like you, I will listen to an album for a week or so and let it all sink in but then I am off to the next thing.
Also, I was kind of brought up by my peers to consume many different types of music, so there is always something new for me to find in the different genres even if it is very old. For instance, my son is a double bass player in high school, so through him and his practice, I am getting to revisit the classical catalogue I grew up with and add to that the classical bass solo material, there is a huge treasure trove of new sounds and melodies!
I am pretty sure David listens to a ton of new music and can add a lot to the conversation.
But I hope my little bit helps. All the best.
Lod
Lod… i felt your commentary so constructive, have a unique sound is hard but seeing for this way look easy. I’ll try this!!
thx ^^
Thank you! This is just what I’ve been trying to do lately (and what my guitar teacher has been pushing. Lol). I play electric guitar at church (and I co-lead the singing part, so yeah, weird combination) and have only been playing two years but I have been bored with the sound we have. All the songs seem to sound the same. So I’ve started trying to incorporate the blues scale into songs and experimenting with that sound… Sometimes, not every song. But that’s as far as I’ve come. Obviously I have a lot to learn. So I really appreciate the advice… And anymore anyone would like to give.
I really appreciated your thoughts today.
I’ve been playing guitar and singing for many years and wasn’t aware that I even had my own style until a soundman complimented me on my style recently. I was surprised. I didn’t think I had one. But when I look back at singers from the 70’s that I really liked, yes I can see their influence on my singing. As far as my guitar playing, I’m not even sure where my influences came from. I noticed with time, that I picked up certain ways of playing that is unlike most other players I know. I don’t even listen much to other music as I love more “heady” stuff ie. theology and talk radio. But one day it dawned on me that I really should expose myself to what is out there. I do know that surrounding yourself with musicians better than you is a great gem. I wish I had that again. With the advent of Youtube, I’ve really been able to listen to other worship leaders and pick up more current styles. I am getting older and don’t want to become old fashioned or behind the times so I see my need to stay fresh by listening to others musically. Although I am not happy with the way “worship music” has gone downhill and become more shallow and performance oriented today. I refuse to let some things change me and my convictions.
Do you know of any literature that touches on this subject? It would be interesting to do some research on this topic.
Very interesting and helpful comments.
I have learned many types of music (worship, blues, rock, classical, jazz).
I view it as kind of a “musical language” that I have learned over the last 30 years.
The most beautiful music happens when I completely submit to God in worship.
He pulls parts of this “musical language” together in ways that I would never have imagined.
It has resulted in many moving experiences with the Lord.
Best
Gary L
Southern NH (U.S.)