Developing your own style

Style is not something you find. It is the sum of the choices you keep making: what you play, what you leave out, how you phrase. You can speed it up by noticing your influences, borrowing deliberately, and writing a small signature phrase of your own.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

• Identify three influences and what you like about each.
• Play the same progression in three different feels.
• Write a two-bar phrase that you can reuse as your own.

A style is not something you find. It is what appears when you make the same kinds of choices again and again: what you play, what you leave out, how hard you pick, how long you hold a note.

Three habits move it along.

Know your influences exactly. "I like that player" is not enough. Ask what, precisely: the rhythm, the tone, the phrasing, the harmony, the use of space. Name it, then practise it.

Imitate, then change one thing. Learn something properly from someone you admire, then play it with a change: a different rhythm, a different chord, a different ending. Your style lives in the changes.

Repeat what works. A phrase you play once is an accident. A phrase you play a few times in a piece is a signature. Write a short phrase of your own and use it, slightly changed, in several places.

Playing across genres is a good test. The same progression can be a folk strum, a fingerstyle piece or a palm-muted rock groove. What changes is touch, rhythm and space, and the choices you make there are your style.

One progression, three feels (I V vi IV in G):

e|------------3-------|
B|---------0-----0----|
G|------0-----------0-|
D|--------------------|
A|--------------------|
E|---3----------------|
     1  2  3  4  5  6

An influence audit.

1. Write down three players or recordings you love.
2. Next to each, write one specific thing you like (for example: "the way the notes are bent late", "the quiet before the chorus", "the plain bass").
3. Pick one and practise it this week.

Three feels. Play G, D, Em, C as a folk strum, then as a rolling fingerstyle pattern, then as palm-muted eighths. Which one feels most like you? What is it about it: the touch, the spacing, the tempo?

A signature phrase. Write two bars you enjoy playing. Use them over the first verse. Use them again, slightly changed, over the last.

Do these in order. Each one is small. Tick the ones you have practised.

• 1.Influence audit

  4 min

  1. Write down three players or recordings you love.
  2. For each, note one thing you like about the sound: rhythm, tone, phrasing, harmony or space.
  3. Choose one of those things to practise this week.

  You have it when

  • You have a short list with one thing to borrow from each influence.
  I practised this one

• 2.One progression, three feels

  5 min

  1. Take I V vi IV in G: G, D, Em, C.
  2. Play it as a folk strum, then as a fingerstyle pattern, then as a palm-muted rock groove.
  3. Note which feel suits you best, and what makes it different: touch, rhythm, space.

  You have it when

  • You can play the progression in three clearly different styles.
  I practised this one

• 3.A signature phrase

  4 min

  1. Write a two-bar phrase using your favourite technique from the curriculum (a bend, a slide, an arpeggio).
  2. Play it over the progression, in a place where it fits.
  3. Use it again, slightly changed, in another place.

  You have it when

  • You have a two-bar phrase you can play from memory and place in a song.
  I practised this one

Use whatever tempo suits each feel. The point is to notice how tempo, rhythm and touch change the character of the same chords.

• Trying to sound original from the start. Imitate first. Your own voice appears in the gaps between what you copy.
• Spreading yourself across too many styles. Pick two or three things you love and go deep.
• Never repeating a good idea. A repeated phrase becomes a signature. Use it more than once.

From here, the best next step is your own repertoire: a few songs and pieces you play your way. Add one new thing to it each month, and keep recording yourself.

Short version (10 minutes)

Write your influence list and choose one thing to practise this week.

Standard version (about 30 minutes)

Do all three exercises, then record one song using your signature phrase.

• Style is the sum of repeated choices.
• Learn from influences by naming exactly what you like.
• The same chords can take many feels.
• A repeated phrase becomes a signature.

You are ready to move on when you can honestly say:

• I can name three influences and what I take from each.
• I can play one progression in three different feels.
• I have a signature phrase of my own.