The irrational fear of imitating

[pianoslav]

I came along the following passage in a book I've been reading (called Psychology for Musicians: Understanding and Acquiring the Skills by Lehmann, Sloboda, and Woody), that really caught my attention:

    "Because nuance is not fully describable, demonstration is always at the heart of musical skills. This situation is not unique to music. Almost every skill can be better learned by observing and imitating what experts do. Many classically trained musicians, however, have an irrational fear of listening to other people's performances, a fear that such activities will "contaminate" their own authentic interpretation. The data from Woody's (2003) study (described earlier in the chapter) suggest rather the reverse, namely, that a performer's own preferred interpretation may make it difficult to really take on board the differences present in another performance.
    "This fear of contamination seems very specific to the classical conservatory culture. The wider cross-cultural evidence suggests that masters of all genres generally study other people's performances intensively. In the development of popular and jazz musicians, exact imitation appears to be a universal primary stage in the learning process.
[...]
    "There is no evidence that avoiding the performances of others is a beneficial long-term strategy for a performing musician, and it is certainly not appropriate for someone not yet established as an independent professional. In the course of some recent research on young musicians, one of us was distressed to find that several young performers claimed that they had no time to listen to music and that they weren't particularly interested in doing so. We hope that students and those who teach them will generally reject such self-defeating attitudes and behaviors. Every performing curriculum must leave plenty of space for the developing performer to listen to a wide range of musical styles and performances."

What do you say, maybe it's time we dropped this irrational fear of imitating?

[ted]

I absorb whatever bits I like into my own vocabulary, if I find them useful for my own creative purpose. I have always listened broadly and deeply in that sense, and still do. Conscious emulation of other people's music, past or present, was a useful learning tool, a means to an end in my early years. However, once I had reached a certain stage, I realised that imitation carried a subtle danger of living somebody else's musical dream, and I have always found that prospect rather sad. It is more aversion than fear though. To take a specific example, as a youth I developed a strong infatuation with classical ragtime. I wrote many such pieces, and I still love the idiom as much as ever, but it has long since ceased to express more than a small fraction of what I have to say.

I suppose a succinct way of putting it would be that imitation is fine provided the ideas so gained are always subsidiary to one's own musical universe, and not the other way around. I can only comment on the creative aspect. I don't know anything about performance so I leave it to others to post on how imitation applies to that.

[j_menz]

I suppose a succinct way of putting it would be that imitation is fine provided the ideas so gained are always subsidiary to one's own musical universe, and not the other way around.

Mediocre artists copy, great artists steal, is how I've heard it put.

On the original question, there is a great deal to be learnt form what others do, in terms of options (of all sorts) and in terms of gaining a deeper understanding a piece of music. It would be foolish to not use that (extensively). But ultimately, if all you do is rote copy others you might as well be an iPod.

[faulty_damper]

Yes, it's true that many student musicians (and even some concert performers) refuse to listen to or imitate good performances of the pieces they are working on.  They believe this ruins their "individuality" and their "style".  However, this phenomenon isn't limited to music, as the article states, but in many other artistic areas. It's a cultural phenomenon.

As a classical artist, I imitate certain techniques to improve my own work.  However, non classical art students are so completely against this idea that they will battle, tooth and nail, until the very end when their product is, bluntly put, crap.  Then astonishingly, they think they've created a work of genius that comes from their "individual style".  (There are many other factors that results in this belief, such as the "modern art" era that preceded the past few decades in which crap was literally art.  As such, these students believe anything is considered art.  We are still reeling from this crappy era.)

There are other factors at play that results in this phenomenon.  As mentioned in the passage, one factor is idol worship, where one performer's name and fame is held in high esteem above all others.  This holds even when their performances are of lesser quality but is excused or ignored.  Because reputation is used as validation instead of their actual performance, few students really listen objectively. Instead, reputation is used as a proxy for quality.

Piano teachers are hugely influential in this regard.  Because they have such power, their opinions easily influence their students into aligning with those opinions.  And as such, generation after generation continues to believe these myths.  Critical listening is thus not cultivated and it is this that is most important for musical development.

[pianoman53]

I think we talk about a different thing, than what they meant in the book.

We now talk about getting inspired, as I understand it.
When I read the original text, I get the idea that they mean the "Oooh, no Horowitz does that on 4.27, so I will do that too!"-sort of copying

Getting inspired by someone, and learn from their playing, is obviously different than just blindly copy. But maybe I understand it completely wrong...

[diomedes]

Do what makes you happy. I have no shame in admitting that one particular pianist has left such a deep impression on me that I plan on perpetually striving to emulate his standards. I know it's not possible, but I am happy attempting to. I admire a couple others in particular, and gather what i can from them on occasion. And, I also have my own individual thoughts and recognize them when they come across.