copying

Dudes, i know i must get on your nerves with my to some degree maybe sometimes unnecassary questions, but i´ve got another one:
Does copying( i don´t mean play the stuff from another and say this is yours, but just playing a song you like on guitar) limit or damage your creativity? Or if i copy things from many different artists, is this forcing my creativity?

I think it is an important part of the learning process other wise you are re-inventing the wheel all the time. However, learning to improvise and write your own stuff is also important!

Its good for learning I agree and also as you get better at playing you can change the song/improv to help develop your own style and creativity.

Plain & simple : If you never play other people's music , you're not gonna make it to anywhere.

Definitely nothing wrong with it and if anything learning other songs will enhance your creativity. Like others have said, there is alot to learn when playing someone else's song. As long as you don't copy it note for note your fine. If your worried about your creativity suffering, try writting original stuff and learning other's stuff also. Sometimes after learning a new tune, I find it easier to write something of my own later.

If there's something you like, learn how to play it. :)

thanks guys. it was just because last time a guitarist and a drummer(tey´re together in a band a said: "hey dude, you have a good technique[actually it is 3 times better than his], but you shouldn´t play so much from other bands or musicians, because this limits your creativity, and you won´t manage to make your own riffs or solos". i replied: if i play songs and solos from several bands or musicians this will develelop my creative side too, and that when i bigin to play people then I will start to get inspirations and so on and create a solo with my licks or several licks that i´ve used before in other solos and mix them together to a solo mayve in a jam session or something. and that when you are´nt playing more songs and solos from other people your technique won´t get much better"

he didn´t believe but i thought i was right. but anyway.
Just one thing left; I feel unconfortable with not copying it note for note or at least as accurate as possible, ecause i always want to play it like the artit himself did, because then the other guitarist would say for instanse;" he can´t play it like hammet did", and so on, so what should i do about that?

My playing depends heavily on the mood I'm in, and it varies over time, so, even when I don't improvise, I don't just reproduce either, because all the expressiveness would be lost. Some heavy shred is excluded from this. Anyway, you don't really want to sound like Hammet, do you?

Dont stress playing stuff "note for note" perfectly.Adding a dash of your own style or even a complete run is much more rewarding than sounding just like "insert dude here".If another guitarist downs your playing/ability simply because you can't pull off someones sound/style exactly,kick the sh*t out of him,as he just put down every guitar player worldwide and is a retard.

Later! \m/

Originally posted by beginner
said: "hey dude, you have a good technique[actually it is 3 times better than his]

One thing's for sure , never take an odd advice from someone you're already better than him in that given field !


About the "Note For Note" playing ... Usualy you only have to do this when playing exercises to sound even and precise , but for songs , you should make your self a little more lose to lay a vibrato over here , a legato over there ,and so.

When I said "as long as you don't copy it note for note you'll be fine". I wasn't referring to learning a song, of course you should play every note exactly like the music. What I meant was when you create your own riff that you don't copy someone else's riff note for note and call it your own. Catch my drift. :) Also being creative isn't taking a group of riffs and breaking them up and putting together a new riff. That isnt building your creativity, if you want to do that go be a rap star. Puff Daddy makes a million doing that. If your want to build your creativity then make up riffs on your own from scratch. Don't be a rip off artist.

ok, than that was just a missunderstanding; i never considered about putting a few riffs together and call them mine, but when it comes to copying solos i should after i learned it exactly like the original, create my own version, right? And to the topic "i don´t cover copy anything from other guitarist" i have found a nice statement from Lukather: "If you always copy one guitarist, that´s larcency, but if you copy many guitarists, that´s science! I actually play almost only borrowed licks"!

What do you think of this statement??( I have this statement at home in german, so i don´t know if it has the 100% same meaning how i translated it)

Originally posted by beginner
ok, than that was just a missunderstanding; i never considered about putting a few riffs together and call them mine, but when it comes to copying solos i should after i learned it exactly like the original, create my own version, right?

Well after you learn a solo, and then go and try to make up a new solo on your own. A print of the solo you just learned carries over on to your solo, everyone should understand that. There's nothing wrong with that, it can be a great source for inspiration (I know for me). In the ends, even though it is similar to the solo you learned. You wrote it yourself. Copying it note for note through is piracy, you didn't create anything. You took it and called it your own.

And to the topic "i don´t cover copy anything from other guitarist" i have found a nice statement from Lukather: "If you always copy one guitarist, that´s larcency, but if you copy many guitarists, that´s science! I actually play almost only borrowed licks"!

I can't say I agree, but I also don't think he means linking other peoples stuff together to make a new song. I think he means be influenced by many guitarist instead of one (like you play exactly like malmsteen). Instead you take ideas from malmsteen, satch, and so on and put them together. To me music is not a science, it's more like nature. Like if you start a song with a few chords. As you play through those chords you know where you want to go regardless. It's in your head you just have to figure it out. That's creating music. Taking parts and throwing them together is like a roll of the dice, it's not always going to work.

Noticing the Mistake mentioned Puff Daddy earlier slating him for his lack of originality (He chronically ripped off Sting's "I'll be watching you" but I remember that when that song came out it was the only thing on the radio with a good tune to it! The arpeggios were (are) beautiful and actually I quite liked the addition of extra tragedy and sexy female voices. That said, in general such rip offs are to be frowned upon.

Yeah that song was cool, it was a tribute to Biggie and Sting did come out and sing it on the Awards Show. Covering a song is cool. I wasn't targeting Puff Daddy explicitly, just the whole deal with sampling that seems heavily apparent in the Hip-hop world. Even though I'm not a big fan, I like what the Roots and Wyclef are doing.