Finding your own voice....

TA22GT

I've been playing guitar for a long time now but I'm not a great player.

 I do however, enjoy everything about playing and making music and I genuinely get great pleasure from "all things guitar" and reading about it on Forums let's me see other peoples approach to it and have a glimpse in to their own musical journey.

I always learn something and it adds to the fun. 

I played in cover bands for years and loved trying to play or sound like Paul Kossoff, Andy Summers or Tom Petty and having a great gig was always something to treasure and keep in the memory banks.

After many, many years I eventually gave up playing in bands and after a couple of years in a musical wilderness I started doing my own stuff. I recognized certain traits that I had absorbed from the guitar players I had been copying, for instance the mellower side of Peter Green and the partial chords of Andy Summers and many others.However, I played them my way.

I was always intimidated by trying things out in a music shop. If I was using a Fender amp at home and I tried a Marshall in the shop it sounded alien to me and I struggled to get the quintessential Marshall tone! I was like a rabbit in the headlights.

I have a Matamp that I have owned from new for over 12 years now and I love the sound of it. I have bought, borrowed and tried many, many other amps but none replaced my amp. I guess I just feel comfortable with it.

Still, as guitar players we are always susceptible to GAS and I am no exception!
I read a review of the Session Bluesbaby and it festered until I bought one. I plugged it in and started to enjoy the journey of getting to know the amp.
I plugged it in to my two Matamp cabs and the sound was huge and it transformed it from the boxy 1x12 in the little combo.

I plugged in my pedalboard  and started to craft sounds. It was a fun journey.

The Epiphany.....

I was twiddling knobs one day and thought  " they've done a great job on this solid state amp because it's voiced pretty much like my Matamp "   

Then the penny dropped. Heavily.

It wasn't that the amp sounded anything like my Matamp it was that I was trying to sound like Me! I was trying to make the amp sound like I wanted Me to sound. Quite a revelation and I have never looked back.

We've all heard the expression that Robben Ford sounds like Robben Ford no matter what he plays through. Why Jeff beck sounds like Jeff Beck when he's playing through a Pro Junior, a JTM45 or a DSL50. I'm sure they both have good and bad tone nights but they essentially sound like themselves.

I'm not famous. I am however Me and I have dared to believe that I can sound like Me. I have found my own voice on the guitar and I know what I sound like and what I want to hear from a piece of gear. I can now plug in to any amp and twiddle until I get my sound even though the knobs maybe totally alien to how most people would set them.
 
I can try a pedal and know within minutes if it will help me sound like me or if it is the wrong direction.

I no longer feel intimidated trying new things out in a store because I know what I am looking for and my confidence has grown. It has enhanced all things guitar and I feel I am the journey and not an outsider looking in.

I've always tried to encourage people and this post isn't about me, it's just a way of saying to look out for the signs of you finding your own way on the guitar. Of course, some people find their voice in the first chord they learn to play but for me it took a lot of years of thinking  " that's for others to do"  and me thinking I was excluded from that circle.

It's funny how my Esquire or my 335 sound like me playing them.........!!

Have fun and enjoy the journey no matter what level you are at. 
 

  

Strangefan

Brilliant post,  

merlin

Excellent. All the people that others try and emulate are people who have found their own voice. Go for it, be creative, be original but more importantly....be you. 

tone1

Really great post... I bought a Carr Skylark, which is a fantastic amp but I found myself thinking that I sound very similar through a Blackstar HT1R head and 1x12” Cab...

John_A

Have a Wisdom.  I'm much the same as I'm sure a lot of others are, but there are also a good few people who spend all their time trying to sound like someone else.

I joined my first originals band about 3 months after I first got a guitar, and always sounded like 'me'  it's only in later life that I'm now playing covers and did go through a phase of 'I need to sound like Van Halen' or whoever,but soon realised it's often better to just approach the songs as you would if they were your own.  Dont get me wrong, there is always something you can learn from other players, and I've certainly improved as a player by learning to play covers, but being happy with who you are and what you do musically/personally/professionally is a good place to be.

richardhomer

Wisdom awarded!

impmann

Tru dat.

57Deluxe

I tackle the psychology of all things playing guitar with my students and in particular in 'finding their voice'.

We listen to their icons and seek out those constant recurring motifs that they drop in and out of on nearly all their solos and then focus in on those. This way the student instantly sees that even those that they revere so highly were/are just a guy sitting in a room with a guitar, noodling and incessantly repeating same old same old - just like them!

 

Handsome_Chris

A little saying that I came up with is that it's all in the fingers. 

thecolourbox

A lot of truth in this and understand it must be a great feeling to find your voice and relish in it and the freedom you can then pursue through it.

I do, however get the "trying to sound like somebody else"  angle, I'm very much in this camp for a few reasons:

1. Listening to White Stripes, Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs was what got me into guitar in the first place, so understandable that I want to sound like that rather than like other bands (80s rock, modern hard rock, Clapton), they are the reference points.

2. And this one is more important, and it relates to singing or writing just as much. You have to either like your voice once you've found it, or learn to like/put up with it. The stuff I naturally play without influence would be boring chordy jazzy type stuff, the kind you might ignore in a coffee shop as background music, which I don't like or enjoy. Likewise, I have a very dull monotone singing voice which suits chilled out music, or maybe sort of reserved downbeat depressing minimal music. But I don't like or listen to that, and my voice does not suit the garagey indie rock or the blues I enjoy listening to or playing singing. I like fuzzy garage rock with screaming solos and "approximate" vocals, so I play that instead and try to get the sounds right for that instead.

Nobody listens to me playing and the world is not missing out by my shelving of what I'm naturally better at, so I'm fairly happy to be an honest imitator rather than somebody playing something I've no interest or belief in

Marshall_stax

Great post! Have a wisdom from me too. 

My personal revelation came a few years back when I realised I could back the gain off and still rip peoples faces off when needed. It didn't need to be cranked to 11 the whole time. 

I guess it's inevitable that we all end up with our own sound no matter how much we chase a tone. Interesting to think about how your own sound will change yet remain distinctly yours as your taste changes throughout the years.    

Freebird

You've got me thinking about my own compositions, instead of doing all of the overdubs myself, would I benefit from using other guitarists who don't sound like me?

Regarding the actual amp/fx tone, I find a reamp box very useful for sound design, especially with multiple guitar parts and synths, etc.

AlexC

Great post. I was thinking something very similar the other day and was considering posting it, but you’ve beat me to it and probably more succinctly too.
I was trying to come up with the ‘stages’ of guitar playing..
1) Hearing other players and - hey - wanting to learn the guitar.
2) Practice, practice, practice.
3) Trying to sound like other players.
4) You can play now. Working on sound/tone.
5) Sounding like yourself. Playing like yourself. Writing your own stuff. Knowing what gear is right for you.
I rarely learn or try and work out existing songs anymore. Last few years of gigging for me have been originals with maybe a couple of covers thrown in... done in our way. I personally find it much more satisfying and I’ve come to the conclusion that I’d rather ‘fail’ on my own terms than ‘nail that solo’ from (insert Soft Rock hit here.)

joetele

Cracking post. I don't remember a great deal about the early years of learning, but I remember how hard it was and how frustrating it was having limited ability and wanting to copy other players initially. However, because I'm largely self-taught and often played by ear, I just sort of naturally found my own sound and style.

I'm by no means a technically accomplished guitarist, but I found more and more bands I liked which didn't sound like everyone else, and a lot of them instrumental or with a large volume of instrumental content. Bands like Sonic Youth and Fugazi always appealed, and then later bands like The Appleseed Cast and Mogwai. I came to appreciate that music wasn't always about technique, but also about mood, space, noise and lots of other factors. 

About 15 or so years ago, my 'sound' really did start to come into its own thing - I enjoyed using the delay pedals and other effects to help colour the sound and create washes, and this has evolved over the years whereby I've recorded a lot of instrumental music with that really ethereal nature. And of course as time has gone on, my gear has improved and multiplied. After selling a lot of stuff recently I've been able to really upgrade the pedal board too, and I'm really happy with the results. 

My band at the moment is a huge source of enjoyment - it's just me, the drummer, and a lot of pedals. We only really meet about once a month for geographical and time reasons, but the practice studio records every session so we can listen to it, dissect it, and really live in the songs for a while. 

So I guess in a sense I managed to find my sound/voice on the guitar after a first 5-8 years of playing in the styles of others, or first stabs at songwriting which weren't great, and sort of naturally developed the way I love to play. Lots of delay and reverb, neck pickups, nice looping melodies, noise, ethereal bits, experimentation...

And, like you, give me any amp and some similar pedals, and it wouldn't take me long to find that right sound which suits me, especially if I start playing my kind of stuff. Which is why I can struggle in music shops when demoing equipment - I don't have all my pedals there! I know people may balk at the idea of a guitarist using pedals as such a large part of their sound rather than relying primarily upon technique and ability, but I'm happy so I'm not fussed. 

TA22GT

Some really great and kind feedback in here! Thank you very much.

I think it is whatever is right for you. There is no right or wrong so if anyone is happy really nailing their favourite guitarists playing and sound then I admire them totally! My ability stopped me from being able to play a lot of Van Halen stuff so I shied away from that and played the songs I could do justice to.

I kind of know my limits but that doesn't mean I give up easily! The whole journey for me has been a difficult one as I am not a natural musician but somehow I have managed to keep on keeping on and reached a stage where I am happy enough.

I just need a really good teacher who will not only remove my inner blockages but give me a good kick up the arse!  

57Deluxe

/\ sounds more like you need an enema!

jeztone2

I suppose it also about how we learned to play the guitar. I’m of the age where people copied stuff off records and found their own way. I was never able to imitate 100%. So those inaccuracies and flaws became my idiosyncracies. 

I was also lucky that despite my love of rock music. Back in my twenties I once depped with an Asian Bhangra group. So it forced me to play different styles. When Jeff Beck goes on about using the whammy bar to imitate Hindi singers, I know exactly what he means. But that experience of locking in with two drummers & playing more rythmically helped me no end. 

skunkwerx

Im just a home player but I can relate! 

My sound is basically what I’ve come to love and use through a few cheap solid state amps.. to others it no doubt sounds solid state and shite, too much gain etc etc. But I like it! 

I’ve always wondered in a band context or playing louder through valves what I’d then like and become my ‘me’ sound! 

Anacharsis

This is a great lesson to learn. The range of guitars and amps out there, the compelling-sounding ads, and the culture of gear debate (while fun in their own ways, in measure) can obscure the realities revealed the Wisdom-earning post above.

TA22GT

Anacharsis said:

This is a great lesson to learn. The range of guitars and amps out there, the compelling-sounding ads, and the culture of gear debate (while fun in their own ways, in measure) can obscure the realities revealed the Wisdom-earning post above.

I quoted you because you added a dimension that I had forgot to add. 

The more I am happy with My sound the less I need to get it. I kind of understand why some of the players I admire always play the same guitar. They have others of course but they don't need 20 guitars to be complete. Whatever they have in their hands at the time is enough.

Then again that kills Gas and that will never do!