i'm learning, i think...

so i'm sitting here in the apt writing my last paper ever and i feel like i've just had somewhat of an epiphany. i'm gonna write it down here real quick and come back to it later when i have some time to ponder it a little more.

so here it is:

as musicians we're taught to imitate the sounds we hear. when we first learn to do this, it is my opinion that we imitate the process and when we do so correctly we get the result (a good sound). for example, we see a trombone player take a big breath while standing up straight and we hear a nice big sound, so we stand up straight, breathe deep, and achieve a similar result. somewhere along the way, however, we become obsessed, or maybe even taught, to exactly imitate someone else's sound - spending years trying to sound just like someone else, and failing miserably because the only person we can truly be is ourselves. i wonder what would happen if we were to imitate the process in which someone "arrived" at their sound rather than trying to copy the sound itself. would we arrive at a sound that is beautiful, yet unique to us?

ok, back to paper writing.

love,
james