Quote (Rewriting @ Fri, Sep 5 2008, 11:09am)
Yeah, same here. I dont like to play stuff that other band writes.
While sticking to original stuff and avoiding the covers that everyone else plays may seem admirable, especially if you look at some other musicians in a "this person plays songs they find on guitar hero" kind of way.
It's still pretty beneficial to at least transcribe and see what other musicians are doing in their music, that's how you begin to single out your particular style or styles of playing and add some flavour to your music.
I dunno, i reccommend at least transcribing/working out what other musicians are doing in the songs that interest you if you really really don't want to learn/play their songs.
Especially solo breaks and melodies, techniques and rhythmic ideas etc.
You'll probably find a whole lot more ideas formulating, and more material to work with (and i'm not saying rip off other songs and throw them in the middle of your improv, you'll just have a wider spread of influences) when you go to do the improvising/playing round with your own stuff, which i will admit is one of my favourite things to do when jamming.