Stealing Is Allowed

If you’ve ever been encouraged to steal, now is the time.  Now before you rush out and start lifting a bunch of stuff, pause just a minute and read this.

We start with a quote from Pablo Picasso.

In whatever area your skill may lie, you can steal – ideas, patterns, style and form.

I was amazed when I recently watched a YouTube clip of Joe Morello, Dave Brubeck’s drummer of years ago, playing Take Five.  It became very clear to me how much I had emulated Joe’s style in my younger years.  I was guilty of stealing his drumming ideas.

I have several writers whom I admire and I confess I try my best to write in their style from time to time.  

Some of my poem ideas in A Time for Rhyme are borrowed from Shel Silverstein.  I read his stuff and am amazed at his gift and wit.  The words are surely mine, but the style is his.  

I am guilty of stealing.  I have borrowed musical styles, singing tricks, conducting tricks, drumming licks, writing flow, even actual words and phrases from others greater than myself. 

And you can steal too. 

Take time to study people who are greats in your field and whose style and gifts you greatly admire, and borrow a way of holding a club, a particular management style, or a musical motif.  I’ve even stolen from my brothers, whom I greatly admired as a young boy. 

The gist of our thought is this – borrow, learn, get better and then perfect your skill so well that you make it your own.

Class dismissed.

Michael Biggs

Steps and Skips

Tips for the Developing Student