Imitate And Then Innovate

A Great Way To Begin Learning A Craft

I haven’t been writing blog posts for very long.  I just felt that I had some things to say and share.  And with the internet, I figured I might as well write publicly in a blog format and perhaps help somebody else along the way.  But I don’t consider myself a fabulous writer.  I’m just figuring this out.  However I plan to dial the craft and get very good.

On the flip side, I’ve been playing the guitar for twenty three years.  In that time I’ve developed my own style and mastery.  My own voice.  My own tone.  I’ve even built my own amplifiers and tools of the trade.

These days I can just pick up the instrument and play.  And what comes out is authentically me and sounds great.

But I wasn’t always able to do this.  In fact, it took a long time to get to that point.  And I’m still developing.

When I first started, instead of playing what was in my head I played other peoples’ songs that I loved to listen to.  I wanted to play like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, John Frusciante, David Gilmour, and many others.  So I learned their songs.  I learned popular songs from rock bands of my era like Pearl Jam, The Black Crowes, and Stone Temple Pilots.  And classic rock songs by Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers, etc.

For several years I learned songs.  Both the chords and the solos.  And I’d play them over and over and over with the albums as my backing tracks.  Until it sounded just like I was playing on the album.

I also learned the pentatonic scale patterns and practiced them until they were locked in my brain and the muscle memory of my fingers.  And I started practicing them over songs on the radio.  It was a great lesson in learning to find the key of a song and then playing over the chord changes by ear.

I digress, but after countless hours of locking myself in my room and playing other peoples’ songs and learning scales, my hands could pull off some pretty impressive feats of guitar playing.  I got to a point where I could unequivocally state that I was a guitar player.

My First Band

I then realized it was time to join a band.  This was the 90’s and craigslist wasn’t a thing yet.  So I wrote up a handmade wanted ad for musicians, made a couple dozen copies, and stapled them on telephone poles all over West Philly.

I got several responses and started going to some jam sessions to see if I might find some good players.

I finally hooked up with a rag tag crew of odd balls, and we jammed in the drummer’s apartment on the third floor of a row house.  Unbelievably, we meshed instantly and made up a fifteen minute improvised funk-based jam right on the spot.  It was really kind of magical and I ended up playing in a band with those guys for a few years.  But that’s a whole other post.

The main thing I realized after that jam session was that I was able to pull ideas from things I learned playing other peoples’ songs and piece them together into something that was my own.  A little of this, a little of that.  And then a few pentatonic licks to spice things up.

As the band started playing together more, we started writing original songs.  Someone would bring an idea from home and we’d work with it until it took form.

Whether I was bringing in an idea I wrote, or creating a part to accompany something somebody else wrote, I continued to see how other guitarists had influenced my now developing personal style.  Both from the standpoint of writing rhythm guitar parts and improvised solos.

And that was close to twenty years ago.  My style has naturally developed even further in the meantime, playing in other bands and practicing at home.  Not only has my style developed with regards to musical notes on paper, but more nuanced aspects of my playing have evolved.  For instance, everyone develops their own touch on the strings and this has a huge impact on one’s sound.

My Approach Now

These days I basically never play other people’s songs when I’m practicing.  And when I pick up the guitar for the sake of playing the guitar I truly just play whatever comes to mind.  I’ve found my voice.  And I hardly remember how to play most of those songs I learned decades ago.  But that doesn’t mean they’re fully lost.  They’re part of the gumbo of influences that has become my guitar playing.

I first imitated my guitar heroes, and after that phase of my learning had run its course I was then able to start innovating.

Back To Writing

So I’m now learning a new craft.  Writing blogs.  I’ve written lots of papers for school, emails, etc.  It’s not as if I haven’t communicated via written word countless times.

But the blog is an art form all its own.  So I’ll have to develop my style.

So far I’ve simply focused on sharing information, or getting something off my chest.  But each time I post an article it gets a little easier to write in a way that feels fluid.  It may not come across that way to a reader, but at least it feels that way when I’m writing.

And I’m working on the unique form and cadence a blog can take on.

So I’ve been reading blogs I really like and paying attention to the things I like about them.  The layout, the organization, the attitude, etc.  And then I try to use some of those things in my own posts as I write about topics that come to mind.  I also take note of things I don’t like about some other blogs so I know what to avoid.  It’s a bit like realizing I want to learn Hendrix and not Nickelback, and then focusing on playing Hendrix songs and avoiding Nickelback altogether.

It would be inaccurate to say I’m imitating other blogs in exactly the same way I imitated other guitar players.  When it comes to writing that’s called plagiarism.  But I’m definitely looking for influences.  And who knows, maybe it would be an interesting exercise to re-write someone else’s post word for word just to get a bit deeper into their style (and not post it obviously)?

I hope to get to the next level soon where my writing style really starts to develop.  Where a multitude of influences turn into something new and different.  And as with a guitarist’s touch on the strings, someone who writes regularly probably starts to sense the way the sounds of words flow together and other nuanced aspects of their art.  But at first it’s always helpful to look to those with experience in a certain craft.

One thing I know for sure from the guitar is that it simply takes time.  And if I don’t give up I’m sure to succeed.

So you can bet I won’t ever give up.