…Everyone else is already taken.” (Oscar Wilde)
It sounds so obvious, doesn’t it? But it’s much deeper and harder than you might think. Let’s dig in…
Copying
As a young wannabe musician a lot of my sentences started with “I wanna play like…” or “I want to sing like…” or “I want to write a song like…”. It’s important to have idols, people to look up to, to learn and “steal” from. But I want to point out one thing: don’t just copy them! No matter how good you are doing that, even if you think you’re better than them (big ego, ha?!), you’ll never be as good as the original! Why! Well, you’re just not THE original…
Now, don’t get me wrong here! Take a part or a whole song of your favourite artist and try to play it, find out the chords, learn the solos, sing it, etc. You should by all means do that! That helps you learning the craft, teaches you how it’s done. But don’t be disappointed – I’m pretty sure that you won’t sound anything like the original and that’s OK! You should sound like YOU! If Eddie Van Halen would play Jimi Hendrix’ guitar, he’d still sound like Eddie! And when The Beatles sang Little Richard’s songs, they still sounded like The Beatles…
I’m pretty sure that you’ve seen or heard at least one of these quotes:
“Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.”
or
“To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.”
or
“If you’re going to steal, steal from the best.”
What this means is you should learn as much as you can from your role models but in the end you don’t want to sound exactly like them. You want to try to see/hear the music like them! Let’s say you want to learn one melody or a solo. If you just copy it note by note without thinking, you just know how to play that one part. Well, if you’re playing in a cover or a tribute band and that’s the end of the road of your musical ambition – then this is it, well done! But if you want to do more, try to understand why that particular artist played that or wrote that song that way, who and what inspired him and where he got his ideas from. The thinking behind the music. Then you can implement that in your own music every time you need it. If you want to express yourself musically on your instrument or voice or by writing original music, then it’s good to have a bag of knowledge like that where you can pull your ideas from. It’s “getting the fish” vs. “learning how to fish” kind of thing…
Pretending
Nowadays I see and particularly hear a lot of artists (singers and players) where I immediately know who their heros are. Whether it’s their singing technique, the (not their natural) voice color, guitar sound and playing style, etc. – you know it right away! A lot of them even nail it perfectly! The problem here is that as soon as you hear them, you don’t think about them, their name. You think: “…hey, that sounds like XYZ (the artist they try to emulate)…” and that’s the problem. The XYZ already exists, people don’t need another one! But maybe they would be interested in the “real you”? To find that out you shouldn’t pretend to be someone else – just be you! Come as you are, with all the good stuff and also all the imperfections. People love that, that hard edges. It feels a bit tough at the beginning but it gets easier pretty fast. It’s much harder to pretend 24/7 to be somebody who you’re not because sooner or later, one day when you’re not careful, the “true you” will come through and people may not like it. It happened before…
Don’t polish it (too much)
I don’t know about you but I’m not a big fan of today’s music, especially pop music. Of course there are some really good talented artists out there and I love to listen to their work when I find them but the majority is like fast food to me – everything tastes the same, the “nutritional content” is very low and after 15 minutes you’re hungry again and want something “real” to eat… But hey, that’s just me!
On the other side I have to say that the end-production of today’s music is pretty good but (IMHO) there is one thing that is starting to get completely out of control:
Over-polishing or over-producing
Don’t get me wrong! I’m all for correcting a note or two to save a perfect take. In my eyes this is what this technology was made for! But this? Everybody “sings” 100% correct, backing vocals are 100% in tune, all instruments are perfectly in tune, drums are 100% on the grid 100% of the time! How the f*$% is that possible?!? Which robots are playing/singing that?! Well, we are already so used to that, we don’t even ask ourselves these questions anymore! But we should. It’s not normal. It’s not humanly possible. But we tolerate that. Why? I don’t know. I just know that usually we gravitate more towards music made by real people and left a bit unpolished. That’s why we so often go back and listen to the classics. Then it was “What You Hear Is What You Get”! We just feel and love that! But we still have that kind of artists today. They are rare but they are there! Remember Adele? A lot of those songs from the first albums were demos! She sat in studio with the keyboard or a guitar player, sang the song and they recorded that. That was it! It was raw, not perfect, but from the heart, authentic. It caught the moment. It had it all! Foo Fighters?! Same thing! Do you hear AutoTune on their songs? They still record to tape! Chris Stapleton? Comes to the stage only with his acoustic guitar, opens his mouth and… blows your brain out! That’s what I’m talking about! I don’t care how good your studio recording is – if you have to lip-sync it at your “live” concert, I want my money back!
The conclusion
I understand each and everyone of you who wants to be like his/her hero. I was one of you. But I also know that all our heroes worked their butts off to become who they are. Now, I know the hardest thing is to do the hard work but without it your chances are pretty slim. You have to know what you’re doing and you have to be good. Really good! Especially today. And you have to be passionate about it and not doing it for the fame and fortune (If you just want money – try tech!). But even if you’re good there are thousands and thousands of young artists out there who are at least as good as you if not better. That’s why THE ONLY THING that separates you from them is – YOU! Nobody plays like you, nobody sounds like you. You’re maybe not the best but you are unique! There’s only one like you so use that! Is Bob Dylan the greatest singer? God, no! Does he sing anyway? Yes! Do you recognise his voice among thousands of other singers? Hell, yeah!
See? That’s the power of you! So, show it to me, to all of us. Let me hear your real voice. Let me hear your feelings going through your fingers and mouth into your instrument and play/sing that notes. Tell me YOUR story. Let me get to know YOU. And if I recognise the real YOU in your music, trust me – I WILL listen…
