Everyone is looking for their own identity as a a player. But for many, it feels elusive and it seems like all the “good originality” is taken already.
Not true. Very, not true.
Guaranteed, originality is right under your nose and you might not have noticed it this entire time.
Being original is perhaps one of the easiest things to do on any instrument. The problems arise when we begin to over think what originality really is.
To Be Original
Sometimes, originality doesn’t need to be a big splash or something trmendous or earth-shattering. Originality simply means to be doing something that is uniquely you. How it gets done or in what way does not matter as much as you might think. So long as you can showcase it confidently and own it – it’s yours to call original.
I’ll give you an example.
Something that I think makes me as a bass player unique is that I play typically with 3 fingers. I can’t really explain how that particular trait developed first with me – but it did – and there are days I take immense pride in that I can do that better than most people.
Does it make me a musically better player? Not really.
Does it make me better at theory or understanding difficult musical concepts? Nope.
But it does look cool from the audience’s perspective and it makes me stand out from most bass players (and is usually something that catches their attention as well.
Now that seemingly “meh” skill turned into an asset for me personally and as a way to talk with other bassists, exchange techniques, tips and other cool little things.
So I ask you: what’s your “meh” skill? What’s that little thing of your that you really take pride in?
Evan Brewer from the band, The Faceless had a very interesting take on originality in the context of his solo release, Alone. Brewer claimed he was never influenced by the go-to solo bassists in the process of making this album.
Rather, it was a compilation of things he heard and tried to recreate on bass.
For Brewer, bass guitar was just his crayon to draw a picture with. Because his instrument of choice was a bass, was not something that was working against him.
Check out the full, very insightful interview below.
[chimpy_lite_form]
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