Surely every beginner or more experienced musician thought about his own style. The desire for individuality and originality is understandable, but is it possible to create your own “style” in music from scratch?
The question is ambiguous, because everything has already been invented in one way or another, because none of the great musicians and composers wrote music, as they say, “out of thin air”. Everything that is being done is a kind of symbiosis of the music that we once heard. Even if you imagine that you write something new and consider yourself the creator of an “original idea”, then in 99% of cases this is music that someone else has already composed before you. But it makes sense to talk about how to find your style in music.
What is needed for this?
The most basic piece of advice I can give is to just be yourself. Yes, this is as banal as possible, but everything that will happen next is not some kind of divine revelation. We must try not to lose our individuality, not to be like everyone else, focusing on the surrounding factors and standards that TV or the Internet dictates to us.
This does not mean that you need to become some marginal who denies all the modern foundations of society. It is enough just to be able to filter information, selecting for yourself only what is really necessary and important.
How to find your style in music
All this sounds as general as possible, so for more specificity, here are some practical tips:
- No need to strive to copy the style of performance of your idol. Yes, that’s why he became your idol, because you like his music, but you should always strive for individuality.
- Not always what is fashionable should be taken as a basis. Now there is already a huge amount of the same type of music, so if you do the same, then you will become only “one of”.
- Don’t be afraid to start. Make fun of friends? Write something bad on the forum? It doesn’t mean anything at all and shouldn’t worry you. The main thing is that making music brings you real pleasure, and skills will come along with practice.
- You don’t have to focus only on the music. Find time for other things too, relax, meet, draw, i.e. live an ordinary life. It is very likely that these additional sources of inspiration will help you in your music as well.
- Be inspired by the examples of great (in your opinion) musicians. Read their interviews – they often contain good advice and thoughts that will be useful to a novice musician. It’s like an exchange of experience.
- Experiment more. No one has yet learned to ride a bike by reading the article “How to learn to ride a bike?”. You just need to take the bike and start pedaling – the logic here is as simple as possible.
- Find your musical instrument. Everything is individual here, because someone likes drums, someone likes guitar, etc. A musical instrument is the base on the basis of which the style of performance that you like best will be formed.
How to find your style in music
It is impossible to invent new modes or rhythms, but the form of each musical composition can be original, from small details to the whole. The form cannot be entered into any unambiguous scheme, and the phrasing cannot be planned mathematically. It is here that all predetermined elements of music (rhythm, mode, harmony) gain freedom, becoming whole – the musical language in which the musician communicates with his listeners.
Own musical style is formed from the melodic, harmonic, rhythmic language and, of course, the ability to work with the form. Sting or the Beatles were not innovators in music either, but their sound is original and well recognizable, i.e. they really had their own style. And this is what every musician should strive for.