How to Find Your Sound As An Artist (14 ideas that work)
You have a brand image — an artist identity — and your sound is unique. There’s a default mode to how you make music different from everyone else.
Even if you can’t always hear it, it’s there.
I’ve struggled with this concept for a while. But then I realized one day, the thing that makes me sound unique was the stuff I was trying to change.
This segued to a few more epiphanies and lightbulbs turning on. So I’m here to share with you those takeaways.
Welcome to my guide on how to find your sound as an artist.
Let’s get to it!
Table of Contents Show
Is Music Ever Really Original? (a quick chat)
“Good artists copy; great artists steal.”
Did Picasso say it? Maybe T.S. Eliot…or perhaps Steve Jobs?
Whoever said it first, a lot of artists and leaders have echoed its point: your originality has its sources in others who came before you.
But that doesn’t mean we’re all just stealing or being unoriginal. There’s still some magic we all bring to the mix. You know, that “je ne sais quoi” we all have.
Because no one else can be you quite like you.
Still, creativity gets confusing. We think we need to be 100% unique, avant garde and original, 100% of the time. Otherwise, we’re a fraud — an artistic imposter.
But lies. All lies!
The truth is, we’re always discovering, forgetting, rediscovering and testing new sounds and styles. We are always only writing the next chapter from someone else who came before us.
And in the same way, we’re also laying the groundwork for future generations to build off of. But altogether, we all further the artistic story through sound.
It’s like that old paradox about the chicken and the egg — who came first?
I don’t know, but who cares.
So I say, don’t stress too much. Because chances are, you’re already more original than you may realize.
And if not, it’s just part of the exciting journey to discovering your uniqueness.
How to Find Your Sound As An Artist (14 kick-ass tips)
Ready to find your unique artist sound? Epic.
These are my go-to moves.
1. Start With Artistic Self Awareness
Clarifying who you are now and who you want to sound like is a smart place to start.
This is artistic self awareness. It’s honesty and clarity about who you are and what your sound goals are.
This is helpful because knowing your origin makes getting to the destination easier.
So be completely honest with yourself and consider these questions to boost your musical self awareness:
What is your current style and genre?
How would you describe your current sound?
Are you happy with how you sound? What do you not like and why?
Who are your influences?
How do you want to be perceived?
How do you want to sound?
Describe your ideal musical style and sound.
Recommended: How to Find Your Artist Identity
2. Think Beyond Sound
What makes you unique isn’t always your musical sound.
The things that make us different outside of music can often add to our uniqueness as an artist.
For example, I like to travel. So capturing interesting travel noises that I find while adventuring around is one way I like to boost the uniqueness of my sound.
The trick is in figuring out how to translate the unique aspects of your life into musical components.
So what parts of your life could you turn into sounds, stories or some musical element?
You can also consider your unfair advantage (that thing that can’t be copied and makes you unique).
For example, having access to valuable resources, unique skills, a brand identity or your personal story are all examples of an artistic unfair advantage.
3. Play to Your Strengths (fix your weaknesses)
Your musical strengths help you stand out (but your weaknesses can hold you back).
So let’s give them a moment of our time.
Skill proficiency gives you competence. And competence leads to more confidence and better agility to create custom sounds by using advanced techniques.
Also, when you know what you’re doing, you can get into a creative flow state easier. This is the perfect place to discover unique ideas and experience unplanned “magic”.
So be honest with yourself — what are you strengths and where could you level up?
For example, to achieve my artistic sound goals, I needed to learn how to sing better and how to produce music.
So I had to go back to square one (in many ways) and learn new skills. It’s not always fun, but always worth it.
Playing to your strengths and addressing important bottlenecks lets you create unique sounds more easily.
4. Get Into Flow State More Often
Whenever I’m in a flow state, my songwriting is more authentic. And authenticity is an epic segue to uniqueness.
Flow state is when you’re so lost in the moment, you lose track of time and you’re creating from pure intuition.
If you want to find your sound as an artist, working from a flow state can give you a lot of clues about what comes natural for you.
Maybe it’s how you write melodies or how you play your instrument when you’re lost in the moment. Whatever the nuances are, how you perform when you’re in flow is closer to your musical truth.
Recommended: How to Find Your Creative Flow
5. Get Digital (play around in your DAW)
We can only do so much with our physical instruments and environment. Luckily, we have endless sounds and effects at our fingertips — digitally speaking.
We just need to have a DAW (digital audio workspace) and a few music production skills.
Making music digitally is an awesome way to explore super unique sounds and effects. We have a endless supply of sound libraries, digital instruments, plugins and effects to create unique sounds with.
So if you’re needing some inspiration, hop into your DAW or grab a sound library subscription (like Output by Arcade or Native Instruments). Then, start playing around.
This is an awesome way to discover new and unique sounds.
Recommended: How to Produce Music (my approach)
6. Create (at scale)
Creating stuff at scale is an awesome way to develop your sound as an artist (and boost your skills).
This is the quantity over quality principle, which argues that creating a high volume of things boosts the objective quality of at least some of those things.
This makes sense too. When you focus on volume, you don’t think about quality as much, which lessens stress and puts you in flow more easily.
For developing your sound as an artist, focusing on quantity over quality can have a similar effect.
Creating at scale reveals songwriting patterns, habits and tendencies that are like hints about your sound profile.
So make lots of stuff and don’t worry about making them good or even finishing them. Just see what comes out, then step away and review everything later.
7. Listen to New + Different Artists
Listening to new and different artists is a great way to find new inspiration.
As artists, we’re constantly borrowing ideas and taking inspiration from others. And like we talked about in the first section, it’s totally normal.
For me, discovering new artists is a form of active listening. And it almost always inspires new songs and ideas to try.
Also, new music can expose your innate, inner songwriter.
For example, you know when you’re listening to a song, and you can’t help but think “I would've done this part differently…”
This tends to happen more often with new tracks and artists (since the melody and style hasn’t been ingrained into my psyche yet).
These moments highlight what makes you unique.
So listen to new artists and pay attention to how they inspire you.
8. Take A Music + Social Media Detox
On the opposite end of listening to more music, we have listening to no music.
Because stepping away adds clarity and boosts creativity.
At least, it does for me.
Every time I take break from guitar or songwriting (even just a few days), I come back with a ton of fresh ideas, new energy and a creative spark that wasn’t there before.
So we can borrow this phenomenon to help pinpoint our unique sound.
Detoxing from music gives you objectivity. It’s like resetting your songwriting back to its default mode — who you are as an artist without any influence.
You know how it goes, you write a banger song idea, but eventually you get bored of it.
Then you step away and forget about. But when you return later, it feels new and exciting again.
That’s the basic idea with this idea.
Step away and enjoy some silence. Let your brain and subconscious reset itself.
Then, when you come back, see what comes out (without other artists or algorithms echoing in your head and telling you how you should sound).
9. Practice Your Musical Intuition
Songwriting is one part skill and one part intuition — well, there are some other parts too…but let’s keep it simple here.
Musical intuition is the ability to listen to your gut and instincts while writing. It requires a heightened sense of self and present awareness and practice.
As humans, we’re naturally intuitive. But it’s like a muscle that needs to be exercised. I think most artists practice intuition naturally, but adding some more intention to things helps.
Your intuition is your authenticity. So you can use it to better understand your natural sound as an artist.
Here are some ways I like to hone my musical intuition:
Write it out by journaling
Stay aware and practice more self reflection
Practice more musical mindfulness
10. Try to Be Someone Else (+ fail at it)
Something John Mayer once said in an interview has always stuck out to me (I can’t remember which interview):
“Failing at trying to be someone else is a fantastic way to discover who you are as an artist…”
It’s really hard to copy someone 100% without adding your own style into the mix.
So copying another artist (but failing at it) is an awesome way to uncover what makes you different.
For this, you can do cover songs or try recreating your favorite songs as a full production (trying to be as close as possible to the original song).
Or, you can try finishing a song you’ve never heard before. Here, you can listen to the intro and first verse, but then hit pause.
Then, finish the song in your own way.
Once you’ve finished writing your version of the song, go back and listen to the rest of the song. Compare the two versions and take note of what stands out as unique and jarringly different.
This can be a clue to your unique sound.
11. Visualize It
Visualization can be incredibly useful. There’s even research showing the power of mental practice in music.
Our mind’s ability to mentally practice music and visualize finished products can help us create better and higher quality projects.
So imagine your goals and who you want to be as a musical artist. What are you wearing? Where are you playing shows? Who are you collabing with?
And most importantly, what do you sound like?
Now create that future image.
12. Take More Creative Risks
Creativity isn’t always pretty, smooth or comfortable.
It requires vulnerability and tinkering. And epic creative works usually require a little bit of risk-taking. The confidence to go against the grain, break some rules and look awkward is a skill.
So take risks. Try new things. And get uncomfortable. You never know what you’ll discover.
You just might stumble upon that unique sound you’ve looking for.
Recommended: How to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
13. Get Outside Feedback
We don’t always see (or hear) what’s right in front of us. So outside feedback can help a lot.
Feedback can be painful, but also eye opening. It’s always surprising to hear how people perceive my own music and creative projects.
It can add a lot of clarity and inspiration for how you sound to others and what aspects you should double down on.
So share your music and ask for feedback from different people.
Of course, at the end of the day, do what you want, but fresh insights can definitely help you develop your sound profile.
14. Gamify Your Songwriting
You may have heard, but gamification works.
It’s an awesome way to build new skills, improve your creative discipline and discover new sounds.
Gamification means adding gaming elements (like challenges and rewards) to your tasks and goals.
I did a daily songwriting challenge in 2023 and it’s definitely a great way to discover what makes you unique.
For example, you can do a songwriting challenge where everyday you need to write a new song using a different sound or instrument you’ve never used before.
Or you could choose a collection of unique, unfamiliar and “difficult” sounds and challenge yourself to come up with a catchy song using them.
You could also try adding some urgency to things by using a timer. This takes away second guessing and forces you to make decisions quickly, which can reveal your natural inclinations and unique sound preferences.
Also, as Leonard Bernstein put it: “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”
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