by DAVID LIEBMAN & RICHIE BEIRACH
How exactly does one find a unique and individual style? Is it as inexplicable as it appears? Do you either have it or not? What happens after the transcription and style stages?
The answer to those questions comes from realizing that many great artists were not prodigies but slow, methodical workers.
Surely there is some talent in great artists from the outset but most important, a burning desire to express him or herself. As the cliché goes, great works of art involve 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.
Certain individuals rise above the pack through their hard work, vision, and other characteristics. We have highlighted some of these characteristics throughout different stages of our own development which had a positive impact on us.
- Admit the possibility:
You have to imagine that you can find your voice….that you have something unique to offer and that anything is possible. This is a matter of good old-fashioned positive thinking and looking at the glass as half full rather than half empty. You can find something if you work hard enough.
- Be clinical, objective and disciplined:
Finding oneself should not become too much of an emotional challenge, although there are overtones of personality and psychology embedded in this or any deep process. Save the emotion and subjectivity for performance.
When you pursue music, treat it as a business with order and consistency. Be hard on yourself. This is not a “walk in the park.” You must be vigilant and demanding of yourself and the people with whom you play and communicate with.
- Strip away and submerge obvious influences:
This is the hard part. At first you must admit that you are playing someone else’s ideas. By concentrating while playing, trying to not letting yourself play the same familiar patterns, you create a space for new material to evolve.
We are all a product of our influences, but the best artists find ways to submerge their influences beyond recognition, except to a few experts. With nothing to replace the old material for the time being, your level of playing may appear to oneself and others to be faltering. Don’t let that throw you…it’s part of the process.
Maybe you should consider taking some time off from playing in order to leave space for the new material to take root. Imagine who you are rather than who you are through others. Surrender has traditionally been the pathway to self-knowledge.
- Transcribe yourself :
In order to discover what is different and valuable in your own playing, transcribe yourself playing something recent and listen hard. You are bound to hear something unique even if it appears inconsequential. For example one’s tone on a certain note or a particular nuance, or possibly a rhythmic element. This requires significant analytical skills but by then you are prepared to notice such fine details.
- Write exercises and compositions:
Take what you hear and have transcribed from your own playing and write ten exercises or compositional ideas that reflect what you heard in different ways. Be creative and try various permutations so that the seed that you planted will grow, one phrase at a time if need be.
- Discover what is missing:
Once you have written some music and have gained a better understanding of your particular process and proclivities, notice what is missing in terms of tension and release, opposites, balance and other important musical elements. Fill in the blanks both in your compositions and your performances.
- The instrumental trap:
A skilled musician by this time has a lot of memorized finger patterns that fit the music. But these are not necessarily of the highest musical value or useful when searching for one’s musical identity.
Don’t let a musical element borne out of the fingers replace an original musical idea. The music originates in your mind, not on your instrument. The instrument is meant to be an extension of one’s musical personality at the end of this process.
- Look outward:
For inspiration, go outside the immediate box of jazz. Listen to other types of music, observe other arts and sciences, try to “graft” principles from another field to your own. This means taking something that appears unrelated at the outset but changing it to fit one’s artistic needs. Be imaginative and take chances, but most of all be curious.
In the end, no matter what the final product even years later, this process will reveal parts of you that you may never have found otherwise. Treasure this time of musical and life exploration, using it wisely. Please don’t wait too long to do this!!
- Don’t fear being different:
Our instincts urge us to follow the pack….the proven and the popular. Following that route feels safe which is what most people do.
The artist, however, must follow their own path regardless of what anyone else thinks. This artist is creating an authentic personal vision of the world. The opinions of others matter little in terms of one’s artistic progress. S(he) must never lose their center and growing artistic identity.
- Embrace the work:
Nothing of great value comes easily. As an artist you have chosen a difficult and at times lonely path.
Finding and manifesting your artistic vision through the required virtuosity of playing your instrument requires a dedication that few possess.
This is your opportunity if you are willing to put in the time and sacrifice some of life’s side pleasures.
Your challenge is to discover those aspects of yourself which cries out for the artistic results so intensely, that the work feels like play, while the sacrifices are well worth it and not even considered as part of the process anymore.
