What does it mean to develop your own style?
What does it mean when we try to define who we are?
We can say "we're human, small/tall, male/female" etc., but though not untrue, these are only relative descriptions and don't provide the kind of answer we seek for. So we can go more personal by saying e.g. "I am easily upset" or "I am very comprehensive" or "I love music" or "I like sciences" etc...
But does it really say something about who we are or does it still merely describe certain conditioned attributes of our personality? A person who has affinity with religion/music/sciences... has probably already been in contact with it through education, an important meeting or a charismatic teacher... So most aspects of what we pretend to define "us" are conditioned from outside and are not inherent to who we really are.
When it comes to the style of a musician we subsequently rely on the same thoughts; a style we develop depends greatly on a teacher or other performers/composers who inspired us.
If a violinist would stop playing the violin and would only play the piano for the rest of his life, he would eventually cease to "be" a violinist and "become" a pianist, not to mention an evolution in playing style on the same instrument.
Therefore I don't believe we can claim to be what we do. At a given point in time, we have certain unique attributes, but we don't own them. I guess finding out who we really are begins when we leave our attributes for what they are.
What does it mean when we try to define who we are?
We can say "we're human, small/tall, male/female" etc., but though not untrue, these are only relative descriptions and don't provide the kind of answer we seek for. So we can go more personal by saying e.g. "I am easily upset" or "I am very comprehensive" or "I love music" or "I like sciences" etc...
But does it really say something about who we are or does it still merely describe certain conditioned attributes of our personality? A person who has affinity with religion/music/sciences... has probably already been in contact with it through education, an important meeting or a charismatic teacher... So most aspects of what we pretend to define "us" are conditioned from outside and are not inherent to who we really are.
When it comes to the style of a musician we subsequently rely on the same thoughts; a style we develop depends greatly on a teacher or other performers/composers who inspired us.
If a violinist would stop playing the violin and would only play the piano for the rest of his life, he would eventually cease to "be" a violinist and "become" a pianist, not to mention an evolution in playing style on the same instrument.
Therefore I don't believe we can claim to be what we do. At a given point in time, we have certain unique attributes, but we don't own them. I guess finding out who we really are begins when we leave our attributes for what they are.