NOV 26th 1-2-3: You Are Already Ready
1: You Are Already Ready ( 2 minute read )
It is 1960 in Hamburg, Germany and the time is almost come for another live set.
Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis and more will be played to a rock club filled with youngsters.
For 8 hours, all the best hard rock songs from early legends were played. Every night, every week, 8 days a week.
What would eventually become one of the greatest bands of all time, John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles started by copying the current greats.
Paul would later recall that they had to start writing their own songs “as a way to avoid other bands being able to play our set.”
They did not wait to be “ready”, they already were.
So are you.
I have found that oftentimes I get in my head about the art I am creating, and yet when I get out of my head and I allow myself to make things, then I start seeing who I really am.
You don’t have to be ready to start making stuff, you just have to allow yourself to copy your heroes. Through copying your heroes, you will find that your own self starts to shine through.
This may make you feel a sense of Imposter Syndrome, that psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.
The good news is, we all feel that!
If you’re creating, you are likely feeling just that feeling.
The thing is, showing up to do your thing every day is where all the good stuff comes from.
We learn by copying.
But what about plagiarism?
As an important yet quick aside, plagiarism is trying to pass along someone else’s work as if it was your own.
Copying is more inquisitive and learning-focused that than. It is pulling apart the watch to see how it was put together so you can make your own.
So you know to copy, so look for your creative heroes and copy what they have made.
But why stop here?
Go a step deeper, and go to emulating them.
This is when you really start to have your own art shine through. This is when the thinking and approach gels with who YOU are, and then makes something new and fresh.
“There isn’t a move that’s a new move,” said Kobe Bryant. You see, he would watch all of his basketball heroes on tape and study their moves on the court.
Then he would steal those moves and use them himself, but the thing is he wasn’t them. He had a different body type, different mind, so the moves adapted and morphed into his own thing.
Emulation.
You can find this everywhere in all mediums. So copy, emulate, because you are your own person and no matter how much you try to be one of your heroes, you will always be, you.
Emulate many of your heroes, and then you are really going to shine.
You are ready, so go make something, and remember that one day, someone will copy from you.
2: Creative Prompts From Us (ex. Write a short story, a poem, a song, or draw a quick illustration of these! Let your imagination run free.)
I. Do a study of your favorite artwork, song, poem, book, movie, show, anything. See what you learn, aspire to think what the artist behind it might have thought when making it.
II. Now go research that artist, see what information you can find behind the production of that piece of art. What did you learn? How can you apply your findings from both prompts?
3: Inspirational Quotes From Others
I. “Start copying what you love. Copy copy copy copy. At the end of the copy you will find your self.” - Yohji Yamamoto, Fashion Designer
II. “I have stolen all of these moves from all these great players. I just try to do them proud, the guys who came before, because I learned so much from them. It’s all in the name of the game. It’s a lot bigger than me.” - Koby Bryant, Basketball Shooting Guard
III. “We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can’t steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that’s how you will find your voice. And that’s how you begin. And then one day someone will steal from you.” - Francis Ford Coppola, Film Director
Thank you so much for reading!