Have you found your own voice on guitar?

[jackaroo]

Pretty high bar!

I doubt I’ve got my own thing going on...more my blend of other peoples voices.

I think my work as a studio guy for years put me in the position of needing to be able to make the average listener think I was a seasoned veteran of a style even though I only had a superficial understanding of it. There’s an art and a need to being versatile. But it’s not usually a path that leads to individuality..

 

[MrTwiddle]

I’m repeating what many have already said but I’m waiting for the kettle to boil so here’s my tuppence worth. Been playing 47 years and like others spent years emulating the biggies. Been in covers bands since 1976 and when I listen to recordings I notice over the years I sound less & less like the originals. I sound enough like them to do the job - and in my view punters in pubs don’t come for a tribute act, they want a good live sound to dance to - but in my own way. I put it down to muscle memory, laziness and sticking to the same vibrato style. Which I obviously lifted from Clapton!!

 

[amstrtatnut]

If by found my voice you mean, endlessly repeating myself, yes.

 

[MrTwiddle]

If by found my voice you mean, endlessly repeating myself, yes.

Hah! Like playing Long Train Running ‘til your fingers bleed. You make it yours! I started chucking a wah pedal in and nobody complained.

 

[Tony Done]

I think that the great majority of us have a distinctive style and/or sound, but it's all shades of grey, from very different to indistinguishable from someone else you know, and IMO everyone builds on what has gone before in all aspects of human endeavour. Mine has a lot of influences, but it isn't a deliberate copy of anyone or any style in particular, and I recognise that I still have a long way to go in some of the things that interest me.

 

[Rabbitears]

This thread has me thinking about Frank Zappa and his immediatly recognisable voice. He also had a very strange technique. Does anyone know if he had a teacher?
Where I'm going with this is the question, would you have a more unique way of expressing yourself if you are never tought the 'correct' way to play?

 

[SirJuxtable]

This thread has me thinking about Frank Zappa and his immediatly recognisable voice. He also had a very strange technique. Does anyone know if he had a teacher?
Where I'm going with this is the question, would you have a more unique way of expressing yourself if you are never tought the 'correct' way to play?

This is an interesting question. I think styles are built on foundations - and if you started playing your guitar upside down, or fingerstyle, or whatever, that that then informs many other decisions down the road. But in the abstract, being taught technique could theoretically just give you a wider palette with which to express yourself. In practice though, I bet those eccentricities early on make a bigger difference than the "schooled technique" folks might suggest.

 

[Teal_66]

I think I have found my voice. Whenever I play a demo to friends, I'll always hear, "That's definitely you."
I've always used the same setup pretty much, so that's my sound and style. I never tried to emulate anyone's playing style, but I did somehow gravitate to the tonal palette of Reine Fiske, but of course, with my own thing.

 

[cram]

More and more every day.
for myself that's the only answer.
You've found your voice voice, right? You have your own communication mannerisms, no? How'd that happen then?

If you honestly and openly think through that for yourself; not someone else and you come to the conclusion that you're not special, then perhaps you've found your true voice-voice is having low expectations.

Said differnetly; the question is not whether you've found your own musical voice, but whether you've found your musical voice without worry about comparison to others.

 

[phillybri]

I don't think so. I've never written anything myself, so I only play other people's licks and songs. It is what it is, I guess.

I'm always learning new tunes and techniques, but that's not really developing my own voice...

 

[GovernorSilver]

This thread has me thinking about Frank Zappa and his immediatly recognisable voice. He also had a very strange technique. Does anyone know if he had a teacher?
Where I'm going with this is the question, would you have a more unique way of expressing yourself if you are never tought the 'correct' way to play?

From what I can gather, he didn't have a guitar teacher.

He did however study classical percussion and played drums. He learned how to read and write music. He started a record collection at a young age, so got in the habit of listening to all kinds of music, from blues to doowop to classical and whatever.

So by the time he got a guitar, he already knew how to read and write music, had already listened to a lot of blues and other music, and I think even composed his own music already.

It seems self-taught guitarists like FZ have trouble passing on how they learned to play to somebody else. I think that's why he asked Steve Vai to teach his then-12 year old son Dweezil.

Dweezil Zappa & Steve Vai Share ‘The Guitar Lessons’ Video

Watch Dweezil Zappa examine the notebook of guitar lessons provided to him in 1982 by Steve Vai.

www.jambase.com