Musical imitation as a creative process

By imitating prominent predecessors, a musician can arrive at his own expression. To contribute to a deeper understanding of how this creative process works, harmonica player Mikael Bäckman has in his thesis methodically mapped his own approach to the legendary country artist Charlie McCoy´s so-called licks.

Historically, imitation has been a common practice in blues, country and early jazz because, unlike classical music, they have traditionally not been notated.

“It may seem like a paradox that you should find yourself by imitating others. But it works. It is often described in terms of ‘learning the other person's playing style and then magically forgetting everything.’ My thesis is about verbalising how that magic happens, making explicit some of the tacit knowledge I have internalised in my body. Through imitation, I have tried to understand who I am as a musician and perhaps also who I want to be,” explains Mikael Bäckman.

Focusing on licks

In his research project, he has chosen to imitate Charlie McCoy (born 1941), one of the world's most influential country music musicians. An important characteristic of a musician's personal expression is the so-called licks, which can be defined as a recurring phrase in a musician's improvisations.

Imitation is a form of transcription from one medium to another. The original recording of the original artist is transferred in time and space when another musician listens to it, memorises the playing style and then imitates it. Bäckman emphasises that it was neither desirable nor possible to copy Charlie McCoy exactly.

“I have played the same notes that Charlie McCoy uses in his licks. But because the shapes of our skull bases, lip muscles and so on are different, the sound is different.”

Another form of transcription that Mikael Bäckman has used is notation. The strength of notation is that it provides an easily accessible language that is common to all musicians. But notation has its limitations; it cannot describe all the nuances of the music.

Must feel it in the body

“My notation of Charlie McCoy is an analytical tool that I use to quickly identify his most common licks. But it's not enough to just listen to the recordings and write them down. To really understand them, I need to play them and feel what it feels like in my body.”

During the research, Bäckman has played a selection of Charlie McCoy's licks over and over again, almost like a mantra, until a variation that is his own expression has emerged. In addition, he has recorded his exercises on video and transcribed his own playing.

Mikael Bäckman has transcribed a total of 13 albums with Charlie McCoy. In addition, he has interviewed Charlie McCoy and harmonica players Mike Caldwell and Buddy Green, both of whom are strongly influenced by McCoy.

“Charlie McCoy was rather uninterested in discussing in detail the characteristic licks that I had identified in his playing. On the other hand, he was happy to tell me about how he had found his own style, and I have benefited greatly from this in my thesis.”

A musical distillation process

As a subproject of his thesis, he tested whether the method could be applied pedagogically. A group of students were asked to choose favorite licks from one or two solos of a harmonica player and then transcribe and repeat the lick over and over again in a musical distillation process.

“The time was too short for the students to get close to the original, which is a prerequisite for moving away from it. I also noticed that they had an overly reverent attitude towards the original. It was as if I handed them a Ming vase and asked them to smash it, which they found difficult. When I asked them about the exercise almost two years later, many either did not remember it or disliked it. But when they heard the licks they had distilled, many were quite pleased.”

His own artistic development resulted in 270 new licks. Several of these were used by Mikael Bäckman in a newly recorded album with his band John Henry.

“The album was recorded in the same studio where most of the albums I have transcribed were recorded. Charlie McCoy is a guest artist on it. It felt a bit surreal to be part of it, but at the same time McCoy was so free of ego, even though he can rightly be called a living legend, that it was a pure pleasure to play with him.”