What makes your playing uniquely you?

[Jamie London]

One of my favorite Jimmy Page quotes is:

“I believe every guitar player inherently has something unique about their playing. They just have to identify what makes them different and develop it.”

Not only is it one of my favorite Jimmy Page quotes, but it’s one of my favorite points of musical discussion. I asked this on Twitter but I’m dying to ask it here. What makes your playing uniquely YOU? And how do you want to expand upon it? I’m not just talking about guitar either. What makes the way you play your instrument, or draw your drawings, or write your writings, or whatever your form of artistic expression may be, what makes it special and unique to you?

 

[Forgetabull]

I have a distinct inability to remember songs or solos, so thereby improv a lot *coughwnkingcough* when I'm jamming with others..

 

[Chris Johnston]

Great topic man!

It's so weird for me to even start to define this, just because I'm really aware of my influences so I always really struggle to say my style is uniquely mine with a straight face

I guess there are 3 main pillars of influence in my playing that make it what it is:
1.Rick Beato - For wide interval jumps, playing over changes, chord subs, general choices on the neck etc
2. Syn - where my heavy use of Economy picking/sweeping comes from, combining arpeggios etc
3. Tomo Fujita - where I get my phrasing and blues style ideas from and where I get my heavy use of Triads from.

I feel like the harmonic choices I make come from learning from Rick's stuff and the style of playing I try to accomplish comes largely from Syn & Tomo.

I guess that's why you could pass it off as 'unique' in a way, because Syn and Tomo and Rick have drastically different styles and ways of viewing the Guitar

I'm basically always chasing the mix of Rock/Metal (Syn) /Jazz (Rick B)/Blues (Tomo F) in my playing,

 

[Kfir Yaakovi]

The true thing that defines my playing, is how uniquely I mess up the playing

 

[Lindsey]

The true thing that defines my playing, is how uniquely I mess up the playing

Same

What makes the way you play your instrument, or draw your drawings, or write your writings, or whatever your form of artistic expression may be, what makes it special and unique to you?

I’m glad you mentioned other forms too because for guitar I have no idea, but my drawing style could often be considered scratchy or messy. Call it careless if you want. To me it makes sense that in different forms or art the way you express yourself in one style is similar as in another style.

 

[John Robinson]

The true thing that defines my playing, is how uniquely I mess up the playing

im right there with you

 

[Javier Wienarjati]

My teacher said I kinda tend to use a lot of "telolet telolet" in my licks. Means repeated hammer on pull offs or bending a lot. Well, I'm still noob, what can I say..
This YT video shows what "telolet telolet" looks like in our country.

 

[Andrew Milner]

I am able to create Metallica sounding riffs or punk-rock/pop-punk riffs on a whim, almost only by just looking at the guitar sometimes. I envision them almost. I guess that sorta counts?

 

[Ed Seith]

Coming up learning in the mid-80s, and kind of in a musical vacuum, there was so much to learn, but really no way to learn it from anyone or anything, so I had to figure a lot of techniques out on my own. As such, my style and tone are pretty unorthodox. Tonally, I favor a mid-heavy sound, instead of the usual scooped mids and boosted bass and treble.

Stylistically, I'm EXTREMELY improvisational, relying on that more than probably anything else when playing lead. I do a lot of things that don't make sense, but I've been doing them so long, they are part of my playing DNA.

 

[William B.]

All the stuff I heard before and where I gravitated. Like a pool of sound to pull from.
I don't think there's anything unique about my playing, maybe when trying to play along with songs, a lot of times playing the wrong notes but still sounds alright.

 

[owen817]

What makes my playing unique is how I hold everything wrong but can still play. I have tried playing the "proper way" but it don't work for me lol. Drives my buddies that I play with insane.

 

[Alicia Willis]

I’ve thought on this for a bit and couldn’t come up with anything that defined my playing as me.
But then it just slapped me in the face tonight as I picked up the acoustic from the chair in the corner…it’s my finger picking. I do not finger pick the “correct” way. I have tried over and over to do it the proper way, but it just doesn’t work for me…so I always just revert back to what feels comfortable and natural and I realized, that’s ME shining through. I can still pick what I’m playing and make it sound beautiful even if it’s not “correct”

 

[Cleo.Black]

I have found it really interesting reading through all of your replies. You are all so talented. I'm really looking forward to my individual sound and really hoping that it is better than my current offering after learning for 3 days ha ha.