Knowing who you are (& what you play)

“Because sometimes it’s a little bit sad to see people who are good players, but haven’t actually gone beyond the thing of imitating. At some point you figure out what is you, and it’s not just about what you do but what you don’t do; the things you avoid.”- Bill Steer, Carcass. (MR, 2015)

There's nothing wrong with imitation. That's how many of us started learning. Through familiar tunes, we tend to gravitate towards our identity as time goes on. Perfectly fine. 

It becomes a cause for concern when all you do is imitation. I know people who can play Iron Maiden & Metallica songs like the back of their hands. Put them in a free jam situation & they'll disappear into oblivion. Dear friends, this shouldn't be the case but if your ultimate goal in life is to play cover songs & nothing else, I'll humour your indulgence. On a personal note, I've been into arguments with such individuals. We agreed to play but they insisted on doing covers exclusively. I'm not about doing covers exclusively or otherwise. I'm just more me playing my ideas. Yes, sometimes I do cover tunes to explore ideas- Sesame Street, James Bond, Mission Impossible theme song, X-men animated theme song, etc. but these get mutated into my own manifestations. Others aren't comfortable doing covers as such. They have a purist perspective when it comes to this. This is the reason I don't play much with them.

If you are a music proponent, you'd make it a point to manifest your ideas. Chances are, these transcend beyond your comfort zone & across genres. When you struggle to figure things out, that's the true meaning of education, the true meaning of music rigour. If you are content playing hit tunes, songs of the moment, landmark anthems- you're hype & most probably will be exposed of much inadequacies.