While learning to play and sing, I always did what I could as well as I could. At any given point on my time line, I was always limited by my own imposed abilities and limitations. As I progressed, and hopefully got better, I kept some riffs and aspects but discarded others. The things I kept became my own musical cliches---for lack of a better term.

The way I put those musical cliches of mine together, pretty much, defined my own personal style.

It's strange, I think, that when I would pull out a song to perform---a song that was a part of my musical past---I would regress a bit and do it the same way I had done it when I was younger. The arrangement I knew back when I began with the music was usually, still, the best way to approach the song. Of course, I could toss in more intricate picking -- things that I'd learned later on---but those had become my own cliches too.

AND to the extent that your style DIFFERS from the styles of your mentors, teachers, and influences, that will stand out to be acknowledged by them as your OWN personal style.

Sadly, inn this way, our critics can be said to define us!

How sad is that---given that you can take all the sincerity in show biz, and stuff it into a flea's navel, and still have room left over for 3 caraway seeds and a critic's heart!!!??? ;-)

Art Thieme