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--- finding_your_own_tone [2025/07/13 21:43] – root
+++ finding_your_own_tone [2025/07/13 21:52] (current) – root
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 ====== On Chasing The Tones Of Others ======
-If you frequent guitar or gear forums, you'll often come across posts where people ask about achieving some aspect of a famous player's tone. I've read, and even made myself, plenty of these posts.
+If you frequent guitar or gear forums, you'll often come across posts where people ask about achieving some aspect of a famous player's tone. I've read lots of them, and even made plenty  myself.
-The problem, that seems to occur almost as often as the tone chase posts themselves, is the response along the lines of, "It's not possible, for x, y, z reasons". In this post I'd like to break down the most common reasons given, and why I think each one is wrong/missing the point. You'll notice a common thread that runs throughout my arguments, that tone chasing is how you become and individual.
+The problem that seems to occur, almost as frequently as the tone chase posts themselves, is a stream of responses along the lines of, "It's not possible, for x, y, z reasons". In this post, I'd like to break down the most common reasons given, and why I think each one is wrong and/or missing the point. You'll notice a common theme that runs throughout my thoughts, that //tone chasing is how you become an individual//.
 ==== "Its in their hands!" ====
-Easily the most common response to tone chasers is that the tone is in the given player's hands and fingers, and you cannot duplicate that. This point has some truth to it, but still I believe it misses the mark. Everyone's physiology affects the way that they play the guitar, and we're all different. Shaquille O'Neal is most definitely going to hold a guitar differently than you or I, and this will necessarily change how he hits the string, where he picks, etc.
+Easily the most common response to tone chasers is the claim that the tone is in the given player's hands and fingers, and since you cannot duplicate them, you can't get their tone. I will admit that this point has //some// truth to it, but still I believe it ultimately misses the mark. Everyone's physiology affects the way that they play the guitar, and we're all different. Shaquille O'Neal is most definitely going to hold a guitar differently than you or I, and this will necessarily change how he hits the string, where he picks, etc.
-To use our primary example, Jimmy Page had very long arms. This is what enabled him to wear his guitar so low on the strap. He also had rather large hands, which, like Jimi Hendrix, allowed him to wrap his fretting hand thumb over the neck to fret notes on the low E string. My hands are smaller, and so I'm not really able to fret chords exactly like they did.
+To use our primary example, Jimmy Page had very long arms. This is what enabled him to wear his guitar so low on the strap. He also had rather large hands, which, like Jimi Hendrix, allowed him to wrap his fretting hand thumb over the neck to fret notes on the low E string, freeing up the other fingers for chording. My hands are on the smaller side, and so I'm not really able to fret chords exactly the way they did.
-So case closed, I don't have Jimmy or Jimi's hands, I can't sound like them right? Not quite. By analyzing how they played physically, //we are developing our ear and brain to identify subtleties in their approaches to playing//, which I believe is the most important way of emulating a player.
+So case closed, I don't have Jimmy or Jimi's hands, I can't sound like them right? Not quite. By analyzing how they played physically,// we are developing our ear, brain, and technique to identify subtleties in their approaches to playing//, which I believe is the most important way of emulating a player.
 I recently discovered that Jimmy tends to pick very close to the bridge, which gives him a brighter tone. I believe this is natural for him because of his long arms and how he slings/holds the guitar. And despite not having his arms, I can still pick closer to the bridge and get that much closer to Jimmy tone.