Tag Archives: emulate

James Taylor

Stealing (Not Stealing) Songs

A number of years ago I wrote a blog post called “Deliberately Sounding Like Your Songwriting Hero.” In it, I advocated pretending that you were your favourite songwriter, trying to write a song that would sound to everyone else that it was written by that person. The reason was a simple one: It would focus […]

Peter Gabriel in Concert

Imitation Isn’t Just Flattery — It’s an Important Songwriting Tool

All songwriters have an instinct for being unique. Why would you purposely try to write a song that sounds like someone else wrote it? You wouldn’t normally do that, except… imitation can be a powerful songwriting tool, particularly for learning and developing good technique. And the good thing is that if you purposely try to […]