Guitar Gear

I’ve written articles about finding your own sound in the past. But the other day, I was reminded of the importance of this while watching the greawt documentary on Netflix called “Inside Bill’s Brain,” that documents Bill Gates’ philanthropy projects coupled with a history of his involvement in Microsoft.

So what does this have to do with finding your sound? At the end of the third episode, there was an old video clip from a speech that Mary Gates gave. In it, she said the following:

Each one of us has to start developing his or her own definition of success. And when we have these specific expectations of ourselves, we’re more likely to live up to them. Ultimately, it’s not what you get or, even what you give. It’s what you become.

That hit me like a ton of bricks! It’s so applicable to so many aspects of our lives, but my first reaction to it was with respect to music. In my musical career, you might say that how I’ve progressed has been a bit unorthodox. I’m mostly self-taught, though I did take piano lessons for almost a year when I was 12 years old. As such, I didn’t measure my progression in music in conventional ways. I learned fairly organically, and to be completely honest, my learning process bordered on the osmotic.

And with gear, I kind of took the same approach. I’ve been gigging and recording regularly for almost 40 years so the gear I’ve gotten has almost always been within the context of performance. While I love to listen to music, I’ve never been all that interested in sound like someone else, and quite frankly, didn’t want to invest the time in getting the exact same gear as my guitar idols.

But that actually helped me find my sound. I learned that I can’t sound like anyone else, and no one else can sound exactly like me. My gear’s different. My technique is different. I realized that pretty early.

What Mary Gates said simply affirmed my own belief that we are all the captains of our own destinies. That no one can define success for us. We have to define it ourselves.

It really is true. It’s not what we get or even what we give. It’s what we become that matters. And what we become is wholly determined by what we define is our measure of success.