Yesterday, I watched an interview with Josh Smith on the Music Is Win channel on YouTube. Towards the end of the interview, Josh talked about the day he decided to stop trying to sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan.
You wouldn't know it by listening to him now, but Josh was doing the whole SRV copycat thing when he was a kid, wearing the hat and the whole 9 yards.
That all changed when he was 13 years old. After finishing his set full of SRV covers at a blues festival, he watched the next band take the stage and saw a much older guitar player playing a Strat, wearing a hat, and playing SRV covers.
The sight of an older player trying to look and sound like SRV was jarring, and it made him think, "Maybe I don't want to be doing that when I'm 40".
I love this story so much.
You might wonder why someone who's dedicated a huge part of their life to teaching SRV's style would love this story, so here's why.
A lot of self-righteous guitar players who desire to be seen as "original" talk a lot of **** about players who try to sound like their heroes.
I think they're high on their own supply. I think people should do whatever they want, even if what they want to do is sound exactly like another guitar player.
If it makes them happy, I'm for it.
I don't look down on any guitar player for wanting to sound like another guitar player OR wanting to sound original if that's what truly makes them happy.
I just don't believe that originality is that important for guitar players who are just playing as a hobby, trying to find an outlet from the horrors of the real world for an hour each day.
I think it's MUCH more important for most players to do what makes them happy. If trying to be original truly makes you happy, do that. If trying to sound like your heroes makes you happy, never apologize for trying.
HOWEVER, originality DOES have some practical benefits when it comes to a career in music. And that's why I love Josh's story.
Any player trying to make a career out of playing guitar has to decide how they want to be perceived by audiences.
If you are perceived as a copycat, you'll book plenty of shows, have plenty of fans, and you'll make a lot of people happy. But your fans will love you because your playing reminds them of someone else. And you'll have to live with the "sounds like ____" reputation.
And if that's ok with you, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that in my opinion.
But the higher you go in the music industry, the less room there is for guitarists who sound too much like another guitarist.
"We've already got one of those".
Kenny Wayne Shepherd (who I am a huge fan of) has written a bunch of songs covering a range of styles, but his guitar playing has always sounded a lot like SRV.
For all intents and purposes, he has filled the "sounds like SRV" slot at the top of the blues world, and there's not much room for another guitar player with a similar style at that level.
So any guitarist who wants to make it to his level has to find a way to distinguish themselves, otherwise the path to success gets narrower and narrower the closer to the top you get.
My point is this.
Learning to play like your guitar heroes can be tremendously satisfying on a personal level. At the local or regional level, it can actually help you book shows. There are plenty of fans out there who love to watch a guitar player who sounds like SRV, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, or Albert King.
But if your goals are set higher (national or international), having a more original sound on guitar can open doors that a more derivative style cannot, especially if there's already a prominent guitar player who sounds like ______.
In Conclusion
There's nothing wrong with trying to sound like your heroes if that's what makes you happy. I've got courses that can help you sound like Albert King, Freddie King, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Jonny Winter, not to mention the world's largest collection of SRV courses.
But if your aim is a successful music career, there are definitely some advantages to having an original style. I'll write more about how to develop an original style in my next email.
Is originality important to you, or are you happy to sound like one of your heroes? I'd love to know.