How to Develop Your Own Style



Back when I was teaching locally, I would sometimes have students who said that they wanted to develop their own style, and that they did not want to sound like other guitar players.

The first thing that we need to clear up is a bit of honesty: We are always going to have influences from other guitar players and musicians. We are not going to create a genre of music that is completely unlike anything ever heard before - even if we create something unique, we are going to be using scales, techniques, structures and harmonies that have been used for 100s of years. The second thing that is worth thinking about is why: Why do you want to create a style that is completely your own? Is this the goal that we really want to achieve? Is there a better goal that makes more sense?

Would it make more sense to play a style that you really enjoy? Or to create a style that blends together two or three existing styles that you enjoy playing?

If you truly want to create a style that is unique, why? Is it to be different for the sake of being different, or is it because you think this is the best way to achieve a goal? In which case, is there a better path to achieving that goal?

And finally… if that is something you want to do, are you prepared to put in the time to do so? It’s not an easy task, and if you are playing guitar for 30 minutes a few days a week, then you’re probably going to find that you aren’t putting in enough time to achieve that goal.

Having said that… I think that everyone who takes the guitar seriously can bring their own voice to the instrument, and bring their own voice to the style they play in. But first, we should ask, “What makes a style a style?”

What Makes Different Styles Unique?

When thinking about this, it’s useful to think back to what the 7 elements of music are:

  • Pitch
  • Rhythm
  • Harmony
  • Ornamentation
  • Timbre
  • Texture
  • Form

You will find that every genre can be defined by certain applications and combinations of these elements. For example, traditional blues music has a very characteristic shuffle and use of “12 bar blues” (form and harmony). Iron Maiden have a rhythm characterised as a “gallop”, doubled guitar solos (melody and harmony) and more complex use of form than a 12 bar blues.

You can apply this to songs by Chaos Chaos or piano sonatas by Beethoven, and you will get a check list of what makes each genre and style unique.

Within a genre, a particular guitarist’s style is going to be more specific - for example the guitarists in Iron Maiden are playing in the same genre but each have their own style that fits within that genre.

So what goes into creating your own style?

1) Technical Mastery

You have to start at the start, and get rock-solid on the fundamentals or your instrument. This doesn’t mean that you need to be able to play virtuoso shred guitar, but you do need to know what you’re on about:

  • You have to be able to recall, find and play different notes, chords and scales. If someone says “Where are alll the C#s?” you need to know where they are, instantly, all over the neck. If someone asks where you can play an Ab minor chord, you should be able to find a handful and use them in a progression.
  • You need to understand how chords and scales work together. You need a good baseline level of music theory and that knoweldge needs to be mastered to a level where you can use it. You need to be able to recall and instantly apply different theory concepts - if you have to get out a pen and paper to work something out, you don’t know it well enough.
  • You need to be able to play in-time, precisely and accurately.

This is probably the biggest stumbling block most guitarists make, worrying about how to play in their own style before properly mastering the fundamentals of their instrument and music.

2) You Need to Know What You Like… and Why

You’re not creating a style that exists in a vacuum, you’re creating something based on what already exists. And that’s ok.

Listen to your favourite songs and start asking yourself why you like them, and then get as specific as you possibly can. Exactly what is it that you likein a particular song? If you like the vocal part, what is it about the vocal part that you like:

  • The timbre of the singers voice?
  • The gender of the singers voice?
  • The pitch range they are singing in?
  • The lyrics?
  • The rhyme scheme in the lyrics?
  • The subject matter of the lyrics?
  • The ornamentation the singer is using?
  • The melodic lines being used?
  • Something else?

Find a handful of your favourite songs and see how many of those questions you can answer… and write those answers down!

You can apply this process to other instruments, such as the guitar. Or you could get specific about what you like about your favourite songs:

  • Do you like the structure?
  • Do you like the orchestration of the instruments?
  • Do you like the harmonies and chord progressions?
  • Is what you enjoy most the engineering and production of the record?
  • Etc

See if you can come up with other questions you can ask yourself, and go through your favourite songs and work out exactly what it is you like about them .

3) You Need to Know What You Don’t Like… and Why

We can also ask ourselves what it is we don’t like about certain songs, whether that’s songs you hate or songs you like but think there is a weakness in.

For example, there are a couple of metal bands I enjoy that have some great songs… and some awful solos. If I was going through this process, I would ask myself why is it I don’t like that solo? I would think about:

  • How the solo melodically relates (or doesn’t) to the rest of the song
  • Choice of pitches
  • Rhythm used
  • Mastery in execution

and work out exactly what it is I don’t like.

4) Experiment!

Once you’ve gone through the above steps, you’re in a position to be creative.

You know what you like, what you don’t like and you’ve got the skills to execute your ideas, so start playing around.

You can take ideas, and play them over and over again, making small changes to the melody, or rhythm or some particular part of it. Knowing what you do and don’t like helps you make decisions on what to try, and having technical master allows you to do so.

Conclusion

Developing your own style often comes with time and dedication, and if you find you’re struggling to develop a style of your own, you’ll probably find that you’ve missed one of the above stages.