DONT COPY WALK THE CHANGES

Don’t just copy, Walk the changes
Its easy to think its all too easy. In fact maybe thats why most avoid it, they think "copying" is too simple.
Nothing could be further from the truth. On a visit to the Louvre I watched an artist brilliantly copying an Ingres painting, well it looked good to me but the grunts and sighs told me he wasnt happy with how it was coming up.
Lesson learned: copying heightens the visual senses.
A musical example. When Jaco Pastorius exploded onto the Bass playing world in the 70s he was so far ahead of the pack that no-one could understand him . Its alleged when record producers first heard Pastorius they could not believe their ears. He said he was going to play Donna Lee ( a really fast jazz bop tune for trumpet) on bass. Really well this is laughable.” When he had finished I nearly fell of my chair” said one producer,” Id never heard anything like it.”
eg Heres Marcus Miller a great bassist in his own right:
"I was around 15 years old and a drummer friend of mine told me I had to check this record out. It was Jaco's first album. The first thing I heard was "Donna Lee". I have to admit, I didn't quite get it. It just sounded like some cat playing whatever notes he felt like. I was just learning about jazz and hadn't progressed in my own development to where I could even begin to comprehend what Jaco was doing. But this guy was obviously good so I got the record for myself and began to really listen to it.
It stayed on my turntable for around two years.
I slowly began to appreciate what Jaco was doing. I was studying music pretty intensely then and it seemed like each step I took in my development allowed me to appreciate that Jaco album more. I'll never forget when, just for kicks, I decided to walk the changes to "Donna Lee" on my bass while Jaco's version was playing. This was probably a year into listening to Jaco's album and I had finally learned "Donna Lee" at school. I was still assuming that, once Jaco stated Charlie Parker's melody, he pretty much was playing any ole' thing that he wanted and that it had nothing to do with the changes. Well I'm walking the changes under Jaco's melody and continue the changes under Jaco's 'crazy solo' and of course realize that it's not crazy at all! I realize that he's playing the changes -- and not just playing them. He was creating harmonies and lines that were so amazing it was sick!"
It was only when Miller referenced that he realised what was going on and that most of his assumptions were wrong.
Assumptions about fashion pictures can be just as wrong to until you walk the changes with them.
But how did Jaco get so good and out in front of his contemporaries. Rather than locking himself away and concentrating on just one thing in his pursuit of genius, this is what he did:
"I was never in a school band but lots of high school bands with friends, just R&B bands and dance bands. We'd play at parties and night clubs. I started playing at night clubs on bass just before I turned 16. I kept doing that until almost joining Weather Report.”
"I did all my learning in the clubs. Playing eight sets a night. It was real killer stuff; going in at 9pm and leaving at 6:30 in the morning without days off. I've done lots of gigs. , I played with: Temptations, Nancy Wilson, Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, anybody, comedians, show gigs. That's where I learned all my reading, in show gigs. I just went out on all gigs."
Maybe this lead to Jaco thinking differently than the others: He was asked wether Bird was his main influence
"I wouldn't say he's my main influence but he's definitely a big influence on me; he definitely can play some great lines. I really like the way Charlie Parker plays. Herbie (Hancock) is a big influence on me, James Brown, people like that. The people I said before; the Beatles, Sinatra.
Sinatra is a killer. He was a real big influence on me, because that tone of his voice is in the same range I play in.
So Jaco simply played everything when he was starting out so his musical sample was big,the influences were wide ranging and when the sample got big enough and the time was right he distilled it down to his style.
He had walked the changes with so many different things that he knew what he did and didnt want to do
Its a great lesson when starting out.
Walk the changes with shooters that catch your eye fashion non-fashion anything anybody and go for a big sample before going for one style
It helps find the style you want by virtue of circumstance and real practice.
I think its called paying your dues.