How to develop your own style?

[Nathan Register]

I always wonder, what will make my guitar playing different from the rest. We are the point were almost everything seems like it has been done before. I have no clue how to make it unique. Is this something just happens natural, or is it a conscious effort?

 

[idssdi]

I don’t know to be honest. Personally I take a bunch of influences and throw them all together creating my own style. I think your own style is mostly in your note choice and your vibrato. Besides that which licks you play and how you play them.

 

[Richard O'connor]

I think learning from a pool of different players is key and then applying your own skill set to it. I think the problem with many guitarists nowadays is they want to sound like there favourite player, which is fair enough and something I would say everyone is or had been guilty of. I would suggest that if you want to do that then have a look into what excites them as a player. So for syn it could be gypsy jazz. But I would then go a step further and see what excited them as a player before that. Follow the family tree back as far as you can backwards.
Learn different styles of music. Jazz, country, classical. There is a good video of John 5 playing the same riff in loads of different styles of music. I think it’s important to not become a one trick pony in shredding.
Learn from these styles, apply them to your own playing, use what you like and discard what doesn’t excite you. The world doesn’t need another synyster gates or anyone else for that matter. I couldn’t think of another player that sounds like him, or Guthrie or slash. They have there own unique styles. I know that Guthrie listens to everything but one that comes to mind was he likes to listen to Indian classical music, and I think trumpet players. Syn likes gypsy jazz and I believe PG is a big country player.

 

[Nathan Register]

That is what I was wondering is that when is the line drawn to sounding someone and and sounding like yourself.

 

[Richard O'connor]

Well you will sound like someone if you just copy all that they do. But if you broaden your horizons that will help. You could go deeper and start talking about guitar tones but I think that’s a whole other topic.

 

[Noah Berends]

I try to draw certain techniques from certain players who I like how they do it. IE Syn’s alternate picking style, Steve Vai’s whammy accents, David Gilmour’s bending, etc. After enough time playing the instrument, you tend to develop your own sound based on your habits. That’s why you can completely change up the rig of a well-known guitarist and they’ll still sound very similar.

 

[Ed Seith]

I think this is harder now than it used to be, thanks in large part to the plethora of detailed tools available to the learning guitarist (YouTube stuff, mostly). There’s so much detail that budding guitarists can emulate now, without any guesswork – the guesswork is often what made someone more unique – the way they hold the pick, even. They had to figure it out on their own.
That just means that to stand out now, and have a unique sound, you still have to find and follow a path that others don’t. @richard hits on that effectively above.
You can also try to find your own unique tone, vibrato. Listen to the unique greats and you hear something, even just ONE THING, that is easily identifiable as their signature – Zakk Wylde, George Lynch, Criss Oliva, Syn, Randy Rhoads, Mark Knopfler, Slash, Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Vai, Satch, et al. It goes on and on, but think about how when you hear them, you KNOW it’s them.
The minute you hear that crazy wide vibrato, you KNOW it’s Zakk. The thin tone and crazy whammy – instant Vai. Lots of chromatic runs and odd intervals – Syn. And so on and so forth.
The more you expose yourself to, the more it influences you as you get better, and that can drive your direction. If you follow the same road as everyone else, you all get to the same destination together.
GOOD LUCK!

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Everyone copies their idols in the beginning, it’s 100% normal! The biggest way to develop your own style is to write your own stuff, because that IS your own style coming out. I have a style of writing and playing that developed from being slightly classically trained yet in to metal and blues. So a lot of my songs are very heavy on moving, rhythmic pass that include a lot of bends and lead licks. I’ve been told by two producers that it sounds like I mashed the rhythmic and lead parts together. Also because of not having a drummer or a drum program, my songs are constant work for the guitar because I had no drummer to help with dynamics.
So I think the more time you spend writing your own stuff, and dialing in your own tone for the song, the more you’ll develop your own style because it’s a good way to put all the things you’ve learned to the test.

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

Being different from others may not be the perfect way build your own style. It can definitely be a part of the journey, but not more than that. Being true to yourself is. What you like to hear, like to listen…translates into your playing. Just you have to feel what you want to play. What you need to play to express what you want to express. Finding your style can be easy and difficult at the same time. I sometimes do one thing which may sound funny but it worked. I just let my fingers loose on the fret board sometimes without even thinking what to play. No doubt I hit more wrong notes than the correct ones. But I get the basic structure of licks that come naturally to my fingers, or rather my brain. It might help you. Keep searching for your own style but also don’t over think. it’s a natural thing. It will come slowly, even unconsciously. But believe me, when it comes, you will be happy, very happy.