I’m a huge Pat Metheny Group fan, I’ve got most of their albums, and I’ve seen them live many times. Because of that, I’ve heard them play the same song seven or eight different times, and while I love Pat Metheny, his playing sounds like eight variations of the same solo. What always impressed me most about Lyle Mays’ playing is that all his solos are unique, almost like a different player each time. That makes his style difficult to emulate, though, so I really appreciate this excellent tutorial and the insights into Lyle’s harmonic and melodic ideas.
His composition is absolutely symphonic, with unusually long forms and the way he used a certain melodic theme and used it about five different ways in a long piece. And he was a master sound creator on synth. And then all theis really cool stuff you show us here (which I'm about to go play around with).
Thank you for diving into Lyle's sound. I love this! As his was first and foremost a composer, his improvisations always were developed like a composition. One of my favourite things about Lyle's music is that he often tried to speak to the audience in terms of music history. He would consciously quote or reference his favourite jazz musicians, classical composers and, on occasion, pop songs, but they were subtle references that he hoped the sophisticated listener would pick up on. I think it was a bit of a game for him.
The Chorinho left hand is killing indeed. Lyle actually had a bit of an advantage as he had incredibly long fingers. Also speaking of a melodic bass, listen to Slink where it goes all over the place. Great video and thanks for giving Lyle a spotlight! I feel like he's not being talked about that much.
Chorinho is a rythm from Brasil. Lyle and Pat are fans of this music. Hermeto Pascual and Egberto Gismonti are enormous musicians and composers from Brasil. Great Video!
@@NoahKellman all discography is amazing especially rhytmically. You can start with "Loro", song of Gismonti. Beatiful song. HEAR THE PIANO SOLO (My god). Saludos desde Argentina!
@@NoahKellman check out "Tico Tico no Fubá" or "Bebê". Hermeto Pascoal is a true genius, definitely must listen to him (he plays all the instruments, and even create new ones, and explores many genres). His presentation in Montreux 1979 is legendary.
Noah your musical tutorials are nothing short of musical excellence...very well explained and very well played...thank you for posting this. Lyle Mays is not the easiest jazz pianist to emulate.
Thank you so much Noah for giving this awsome tutorial! I love Lyle Mays and he has influenced my style of piano playing ang arrangement. I have been listening to his and Pat Metheny's music since the 80's. I hope you can send a part 2 for a study and sample of his songs.
Very enjoyable tutorial Noah! Really broke down his concepts very nicely. The other person I hear using those type of voicings as a string part of his personal style is Russ Ferrante.
@@gr8tbigtreehugger Awesome, both incredible recordings. Feel like my technique is already improving drastically just trying to master that Chorinho left hand.
Outstanding lesson Noah. I always thought that you sounded like Bill Evans and Lyle Mays when you Improvised. For anyone looking for more information check out the Lyle Mays Improvisation style lesson on Jazz Pianist Dave Frank's UA-cam Channel. Also in my humble opinion, some of Lyle Mays greatest playing can be heard on Stella By Starlight from the 1992 Buenos Aires concert which can be found on UA-cam. Thanks.
Hi Noah , could there be a place where Cycle or a Coltrane Change or Shadow Harmony would be possible? Shadow harmony is a technique of Mick Goorick(former reacher of Berkeley who developed both Shadow Harmony(if i remeber the name correctly? as Generoc Modality Compression, together with Tim Miller) it is cloe the 145 125 soltutions of Chick Corea and his tetratone scale's...Shadow Harmony is a technique where a part of the melody is just played at another rate so 2 or 4 bars at will could be played together with the harmony in another key...normally they choose like 4 bars...so that a melody thesis is clearly covered, and than after 4 bars make a nice modulation...if you take It could happen to You and one starts in Eb and go to Gmaj7 after for bars, using this very formular you go from D7- to Gmaj7 in stead of Ebmaj7!! is that Magickal or isn't it!!! something trivial starts to change in something special!!! What A marvelous trick if you want I could send you the changes where but of course for you this is easy to understand this simple formular...Fun is to do this with your own bass player and don't tell him when you "leave" key I once did this with blue Bossa we ended up me playing in Ebminor and he in Cminor and I modulated back every body thought I was doing a Fancy "Out" thing I wasn't!!!### ?? w.t.f. With other words I was using Shadow Harmony on the spot the nice thing is that Dominant for the transmission called transmission Dominants are Ambigious in Nature and there is where the real magick Happens....
The sus 2 that you are calling I see it as a #5. I use those as passing tones in my everyday playing. And you’re right that chord is used a lot in Gospel
Hahah indeed Ronaldinho was the best!! Btw, the pronounce is like "Shorinho". Chorinho is an amazing musical genre from early 20th century from Brazil. Check out Hamilton de Holanda on YT, he's a great contemporary master. Thanks for the great content as always, Noah. Best regards from Rio!
@@NoahKellman Nice!! Check out "Afro Choro" (the album version with saxophonist Chris Potter), or "Chorinho pra Ele" live with Hermeto Pascoal on piano (another legend in Brazil). In this one, there's a short but very cool piano intro.
Chorinho is pronounced “shur-IN-yo”. Choro, or Chorinho (“little Choro”) is like a precursor to samba, active harmonies and fast melodies. Maybe like the Brazilian equivalent of ragtime.
Fab stuff - one point though: it gives me pain to see "E/A♭" when the G♯ is right there in the E major scale (and other similar weird note spellings in the chord notations, like E♯ being called F when it's a ♯5 of A).
Hi Noah: Love your channel and certainly Lyle has been one of my very favorites for over three decades. As with any jazz great, it is virtually impossible to sum up their style in one video, as they themselves have explored various musical territory, sometimes simply because of the longevity of their career and their own diverse influences. Some of Lyle's approach has been very chorale-like harmonically, but also deceptively contrapuntal at times, which points straight to JS Bach, one of his many classical influences. Aside from that is his acoustic and electronic orchestration, which he tended to also blend together almost seamlessly. It's almost like trying to sum up Keith Jarrett, but if I were to pick out 3 pieces that best represent Lyle's approach to jazz or even music, it would be The First Circle ua-cam.com/video/J-T7HMYcIo4/v-deo.html where he employs a mixture of stride and a Bill Evans feel in his solo, Slink, which is about as sophisticated as it gets, bringing counterpoint into jazz with that consistent cinematic scope we all know and love by him ua-cam.com/video/FKZon9bVfFs/v-deo.html , and lastly September Fifteenth, which was actually dedicated to Bill Evans, where we can really hear how much Evans deeply inspired not only him, but Pat Metheny, and is in my opinion, what really exemplifies the unique chemistry we always listened for that knit him and Pat so beautifully together ua-cam.com/video/GtLQi1wbVok/v-deo.html
Hey thanks so much for this in depth comment. The writing is so incredibly melodic. I think he and Pat really created such a unique niche of music. Lyle's solo on First Solo is really interesting because of how mature it is melodically-- he really seems to hold back his technique and instead focus on developing the melodies. I love that because I also heard some recordings of him playing standards where he went off on musical "tangents" so it's interesting to hear his range. Agree- I can definitely hear the Keith influence, as well as Bach. Thank you for taking the time to comment so thoughtfully!
You know that's a very liberating position to take. It definitely makes a statement about what an introspective cat he was. I certainly completely understand the honesty and humility of such a statement. But at the end of the day he's gonna end up in the Jazz section. Also his inspired performance of Stella by Starlight says something different.
Yes, the word comes from the Portuguese noun _choro,_ crying, weeping (derived from the verb _chorar,_ to cry, to weep) in its diminutive form by adding the _-inho_ suffix. _Chorinho_ : literally, little crying, little weeping.
❤ I just discovered you and I have to say, your personality is delightful and your teaching technique is really good. Were I not already an old man I would probably subscribe and try to improve but at this point I just grab Keith Jarrett transcriptions and practice until I get them perfect. I have’t been able to do any of the Lyle transcriptions so far, they’re just too hard.
Ah dude I recently discovered metheny's bright size life and listened to like every version i could find on youtube. One version had lyle on the keys and his comping was pretty magical
Hi Noah, You mentioned other composers technique, like Aaron Copeland. Another pianist that comes to mind is Bruce Hornsby, who utilizes a lot of similar voicing...
I highly recommend the 90s Pat Metheny Quartet album. Most people dont know about it, but its so good! Lyle plays great on it, and the compositions are memorable
Couldn't agree more. As a guitarist first and pianist second, I've been massively influenced by the various incarnations of the Group over the years but Quartet is my absolute favorite among a multitude of favorites of their albums. I even use it as a reference album when I'm mixing. It is a truly compelling and largely acoustic album that was a response to the groove/loop oriented "We Live Here" (also outstanding) and was the final recording with longtime drummer Paul Wertico. The tunes were essentially quick sketches for the band to improvise on and has the quality/vibe of a soundtrack. Deep and introspective, I cannot recommend this album enough! Play it start to finish and you will be rewarded for your time and effort!
Great analysis. I saw Lyle in concert many times in the 90s and 2000s-as a guitarist I was there to hear Pat but Lyle's presence and playing always blew me away with the musicality and emotive quality of his solos and comping.
For sure, I hear that. A lot of similarities in the reharm choices / bass movement. Any specific worship music artists you would recommend checking out?
I can't really say because we in Chicago use that style in worship but also as light background music when someone is talking mainly a pastor. 2 specific keyboard players well known for ysing it in Chicago is Jason Tyson & Rodney East
Great video, Noah! Lyle was an absolute genius and unpacking the intricacies of his playing feels lke a lifetime-project to me. Funny story: my college professor who was OBSESSED with him actually had a stacks worth of transcriptions. When he finally had the chance to meet him at a gig so he could hand it over, apparently Lyle literally walked away. I had the chance to meet Metheny at college once and he talked quite a bit about how both he and Lyle (and the band) compose pieces that were always specifically written for the performers in mind and ran the risk of sounding a little corny when interpreted. Funnily enough a dude who handed him a stack of his transcriptions at the workshop I was at, kinda met with a similar fate as aforementioned 😅. I love how you get into the basic framework with which Lyle Mays works, without trying to get too granular: speaking from experience, that can be (is still is!) quite the rabbit hole! Looking forward to checking out some more videos! 🙌🏽 T.L.
Beautiful video! Thank you! I need a software that shows chords while I'm playing them, just like this one that you're using, where can I buy it please?
I’m a huge Pat Metheny Group fan, I’ve got most of their albums, and I’ve seen them live many times. Because of that, I’ve heard them play the same song seven or eight different times, and while I love Pat Metheny, his playing sounds like eight variations of the same solo. What always impressed me most about Lyle Mays’ playing is that all his solos are unique, almost like a different player each time. That makes his style difficult to emulate, though, so I really appreciate this excellent tutorial and the insights into Lyle’s harmonic and melodic ideas.
Thank you for honoring Lyle Mays musical wizardry. It’s neat that we can sound like Lyle, but no one will ever be Lyle Mays. Thank you again Noah!
His composition is absolutely symphonic, with unusually long forms and the way he used a certain melodic theme and used it about five different ways in a long piece. And he was a master sound creator on synth. And then all theis really cool stuff you show us here (which I'm about to go play around with).
Thank you for diving into Lyle's sound. I love this! As his was first and foremost a composer, his improvisations always were developed like a composition. One of my favourite things about Lyle's music is that he often tried to speak to the audience in terms of music history. He would consciously quote or reference his favourite jazz musicians, classical composers and, on occasion, pop songs, but they were subtle references that he hoped the sophisticated listener would pick up on. I think it was a bit of a game for him.
The Chorinho left hand is killing indeed. Lyle actually had a bit of an advantage as he had incredibly long fingers. Also speaking of a melodic bass, listen to Slink where it goes all over the place.
Great video and thanks for giving Lyle a spotlight! I feel like he's not being talked about that much.
Slink is a 5 note idea worked into a full multi voice counterpart.
Chorinho is a rythm from Brasil. Lyle and Pat are fans of this music. Hermeto Pascual and Egberto Gismonti are enormous musicians and composers from Brasil. Great Video!
Awesome thank you for the suggestions! Any albums or songs by them you would recommend?
@@NoahKellman all discography is amazing especially rhytmically. You can start with "Loro", song of Gismonti. Beatiful song. HEAR THE PIANO SOLO (My god). Saludos desde Argentina!
@@NoahKellman check out "Tico Tico no Fubá" or "Bebê". Hermeto Pascoal is a true genius, definitely must listen to him (he plays all the instruments, and even create new ones, and explores many genres). His presentation in Montreux 1979 is legendary.
@@franciscopereira2688 awesome thank you for the recommendations!!
My intro to Lyle Mays was the Pat Metheny Group LP "Off Ramp." I was hooked.
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I know some day I'll return to piano playing and when I do I'll watch your instructions, you are a great teacher.
Thanks for doing this. RIP LM.
Noah your musical tutorials are nothing short of musical excellence...very well explained and very well played...thank you for posting this. Lyle Mays is not the easiest jazz pianist to emulate.
My pleasure! I appreciate the kind words 🙏
Thank you so much Noah for giving this awsome tutorial! I love Lyle Mays and he has influenced my style of piano playing ang arrangement. I have been listening to his and Pat Metheny's music since the 80's. I hope you can send a part 2 for a study and sample of his songs.
Thank you very much again Noah for this wonderful vidéo,, great sounds, very beautiful voicings, harmonic walk , fine ,,Fred/Nice/France
Thanks, Fred! Glad the video was helpful.
RIP Lyle Mays. I miss him
Incredible musician. RIP
That chord change @ 4:44 is nice!
Very enjoyable tutorial Noah! Really broke down his concepts very nicely. The other person I hear using those type of voicings as a string part of his personal style is Russ Ferrante.
10:08 Soccer fan? 🇦🇷🔥Great lesson!
Many thanks for this insightful video!
Sure thing my pleasure! Were you a big Lyle fan?
@@NoahKellman I'm a huge Lyle fan! Very cool to see and hear your analysis! On my list to transcribe is Close to Home and Chorinho!
@@gr8tbigtreehugger Awesome, both incredible recordings. Feel like my technique is already improving drastically just trying to master that Chorinho left hand.
Thank you Noah! Great video as usual 😊 greetings from Peru 🇵🇪 😃 🙌🏼
Hey thanks Leo! Hope all is well in Peru. Appreciate the comment
Thanks a lot, you are doing a great job. Beat Escher
Thank you 🙏
such a Great Video
Thanks glad you liked it!
always always the best
Danke!
Outstanding lesson Noah. I always thought that you sounded like Bill Evans and Lyle Mays when you Improvised. For anyone looking for more information check out the Lyle Mays Improvisation style lesson on Jazz Pianist Dave Frank's UA-cam Channel. Also in my humble opinion, some of Lyle Mays greatest playing can be heard on Stella By Starlight from the 1992 Buenos Aires concert which can be found on UA-cam. Thanks.
Yes!!!
!!
You made me smash the like button twice...
You know what happened..
Lyle Mays the unknown Master R.I.P For those of you that have not heard of him and his music please check him out
Hey James do you have any album or song recommendations?
Hi Noah , could there be a place where Cycle or a Coltrane Change or Shadow Harmony would be possible? Shadow harmony is a technique of Mick Goorick(former reacher of Berkeley who developed both Shadow Harmony(if i remeber the name correctly? as Generoc Modality Compression, together with Tim Miller) it is cloe the 145 125 soltutions of Chick Corea and his tetratone scale's...Shadow Harmony is a technique where a part of the melody is just played at another rate so 2 or 4 bars at will could be played together with the harmony in another key...normally they choose like 4 bars...so that a melody thesis is clearly covered, and than after 4 bars make a nice modulation...if you take It could happen to You and one starts in Eb and go to Gmaj7 after for bars, using this very formular you go from D7- to Gmaj7 in stead of Ebmaj7!! is that Magickal or isn't it!!! something trivial starts to change in something special!!! What A marvelous trick if you want I could send you the changes where but of course for you this is easy to understand this simple formular...Fun is to do this with your own bass player and don't tell him when you "leave" key I once did this with blue Bossa we ended up me playing in Ebminor and he in Cminor and I modulated back every body thought I was doing a Fancy "Out" thing I wasn't!!!### ?? w.t.f. With other words I was using Shadow Harmony on the spot the nice thing is that Dominant for the transmission called transmission Dominants are Ambigious in Nature and there is where the real magick Happens....
The sus 2 that you are calling I see it as a #5. I use those as passing tones in my everyday playing. And you’re right that chord is used a lot in Gospel
Hahah indeed Ronaldinho was the best!! Btw, the pronounce is like "Shorinho". Chorinho is an amazing musical genre from early 20th century from Brazil. Check out Hamilton de Holanda on YT, he's a great contemporary master.
Thanks for the great content as always, Noah.
Best regards from Rio!
Thank you Francisco! This is really helpful to know. Wow, Hamilton de Holanda is spectacular. Really enjoying this. Thanks for the tip.
Any specific videos of his you'd recommend?
@@NoahKellman Nice!! Check out "Afro Choro" (the album version with saxophonist Chris Potter), or "Chorinho pra Ele" live with Hermeto Pascoal on piano (another legend in Brazil). In this one, there's a short but very cool piano intro.
Chorinho is pronounced “shur-IN-yo”. Choro, or Chorinho (“little Choro”) is like a precursor to samba, active harmonies and fast melodies. Maybe like the Brazilian equivalent of ragtime.
Oh nice thank you for clarifying!
When you started on the triadic harmony examples, that's when it began to sound more familiar, as Lyle Mays, that is.
Fab stuff - one point though: it gives me pain to see "E/A♭" when the G♯ is right there in the E major scale (and other similar weird note spellings in the chord notations, like E♯ being called F when it's a ♯5 of A).
What about the great Reiner Brunninghaus (not 100% sure of spelling... ) Similar to Lyle I always felt....
I always thought that Lyle’s progressions are what you hear today in Contemporary Gospel.
Hi Noah: Love your channel and certainly Lyle has been one of my very favorites for over three decades. As with any jazz great, it is virtually impossible to sum up their style in one video, as they themselves have explored various musical territory, sometimes simply because of the longevity of their career and their own diverse influences. Some of Lyle's approach has been very chorale-like harmonically, but also deceptively contrapuntal at times, which points straight to JS Bach, one of his many classical influences. Aside from that is his acoustic and electronic orchestration, which he tended to also blend together almost seamlessly. It's almost like trying to sum up Keith Jarrett, but if I were to pick out 3 pieces that best represent Lyle's approach to jazz or even music, it would be The First Circle ua-cam.com/video/J-T7HMYcIo4/v-deo.html where he employs a mixture of stride and a Bill Evans feel in his solo, Slink, which is about as sophisticated as it gets, bringing counterpoint into jazz with that consistent cinematic scope we all know and love by him ua-cam.com/video/FKZon9bVfFs/v-deo.html , and lastly September Fifteenth, which was actually dedicated to Bill Evans, where we can really hear how much Evans deeply inspired not only him, but Pat Metheny, and is in my opinion, what really exemplifies the unique chemistry we always listened for that knit him and Pat so beautifully together ua-cam.com/video/GtLQi1wbVok/v-deo.html
Hey thanks so much for this in depth comment. The writing is so incredibly melodic. I think he and Pat really created such a unique niche of music. Lyle's solo on First Solo is really interesting because of how mature it is melodically-- he really seems to hold back his technique and instead focus on developing the melodies. I love that because I also heard some recordings of him playing standards where he went off on musical "tangents" so it's interesting to hear his range. Agree- I can definitely hear the Keith influence, as well as Bach. Thank you for taking the time to comment so thoughtfully!
It is football, not soccer. Just kidding 😂. Great video as always Mr Kellman. Thank you 😊
About that stretch, consider that you're playing standing up, which is probably stressing your wrist a bit.
Smaller hands cant play tenths😢
Step 1 to Sounding like Lyle Mays: Be Lyle Mays
****** Disclaimer: If you’re not Lyle Mays, don’t try to sound like Lyle Mays
Drummers call grace notes flam.
Check out mdecks - James- Pat matheny & Lyle Mayes written
In an interview, Lyle stated that he never considered himself to be a jazz musician. He called himself an improviser and composer.
You know that's a very liberating position to take. It definitely makes a statement about what an introspective cat he was. I certainly completely understand the honesty and humility of such a statement. But at the end of the day he's gonna end up in the Jazz section. Also his inspired performance of Stella by Starlight says something different.
Lyle Mays was a great influence for me. A lot of beautiful sounds with Pat Matteny.
This video is Lyle-Mays-ing!
re: the Chorinho voicing; the look of Lyle's hands were pretty massive palm to fingertip (looking at some live performances) :D crazy
Thanks for this. Chorinho (“shore-een-yo”) is a an older style of Brazilian music with intricate melodies and improvisation.
Yes, the word comes from the Portuguese noun _choro,_ crying, weeping (derived from the verb _chorar,_ to cry, to weep) in its diminutive form by adding the _-inho_ suffix. _Chorinho_ : literally, little crying, little weeping.
❤ I just discovered you and I have to say, your personality is delightful and your teaching technique is really good. Were I not already an old man I would probably subscribe and try to improve but at this point I just grab Keith Jarrett transcriptions and practice until I get them perfect. I have’t been able to do any of the Lyle transcriptions so far, they’re just too hard.
Ah dude I recently discovered metheny's bright size life and listened to like every version i could find on youtube. One version had lyle on the keys and his comping was pretty magical
Hi Noah, You mentioned other composers technique, like Aaron Copeland. Another pianist that
comes to mind is Bruce Hornsby, who utilizes a lot of similar voicing...
Thank you for making me discover this amazing song. Your lessons ... most valuable.
Thanks a lot...a lot...a lot. Make remember Lyle.
Lyle was/is my piano and composer hero. You present good explanations that def. increase my understanding of his approach. Many thanks.
Dude !🔥🔥
I highly recommend the 90s Pat Metheny Quartet album. Most people dont know about it, but its so good! Lyle plays great on it, and the compositions are memorable
Amazing, thanks Jonathan. Looking forward to checking this out.
Couldn't agree more. As a guitarist first and pianist second, I've been massively influenced by the various incarnations of the Group over the years but Quartet is my absolute favorite among a multitude of favorites of their albums. I even use it as a reference album when I'm mixing.
It is a truly compelling and largely acoustic album that was a response to the groove/loop oriented "We Live Here" (also outstanding) and was the final recording with longtime drummer Paul Wertico.
The tunes were essentially quick sketches for the band to improvise on and has the quality/vibe of a soundtrack. Deep and introspective, I cannot recommend this album enough! Play it start to finish and you will be rewarded for your time and effort!
Great analysis. I saw Lyle in concert many times in the 90s and 2000s-as a guitarist I was there to hear Pat but Lyle's presence and playing always blew me away with the musicality and emotive quality of his solos and comping.
That was amazing, really enjoyed that. Thanks
incredible player and youtuber
some harmonies remind me of Philippe Saisse
Thank you, Antoine! Can you tell me more about Philippe Saisse?
Such a good video. Love these chords.
close to home ...please, tutorial reharms?
btw good channel!
Genius!!!
Sounds like praise and worship music in church now a days
For sure, I hear that. A lot of similarities in the reharm choices / bass movement. Any specific worship music artists you would recommend checking out?
I can't really say because we in Chicago use that style in worship but also as light background music when someone is talking mainly a pastor. 2 specific keyboard players well known for ysing it in Chicago is Jason Tyson & Rodney East
Great video, Noah! Lyle was an absolute genius and unpacking the intricacies of his playing feels lke a lifetime-project to me. Funny story: my college professor who was OBSESSED with him actually had a stacks worth of transcriptions. When he finally had the chance to meet him at a gig so he could hand it over, apparently Lyle literally walked away. I had the chance to meet Metheny at college once and he talked quite a bit about how both he and Lyle (and the band) compose pieces that were always specifically written for the performers in mind and ran the risk of sounding a little corny when interpreted. Funnily enough a dude who handed him a stack of his transcriptions at the workshop I was at, kinda met with a similar fate as aforementioned 😅. I love how you get into the basic framework with which Lyle Mays works, without trying to get too granular: speaking from experience, that can be (is still is!) quite the rabbit hole! Looking forward to checking out some more videos! 🙌🏽 T.L.
Excelente acabo descubrir tu canal ! Será posible un PDF ? Gracias , saludos desde Uruguay.
Very 70s sound. Think of the Taxi tv show theme
This by far your best video. It begs for a sequel. He took Bill Evans to the next level. Thanks Noah .
Beautiful video! Thank you!
I need a software that shows chords while I'm playing them, just like this one that you're using, where can I buy it please?
Hey, this is great. Please consider doing a similar video on Marco Benevento. Thanks.
he was a genius god bless his soul amen
Really awesome Thanks!
Good stuff.
Do you play some other instruments in addition to piano?
Used to play some drums and clarinet, a bit of guitar... but realistically, I should probably just say no lol! Why do you ask?
nice good vid,well played
Thanks, Jack! Appreciate it.
Don’t try to sound like some one, you are not that person so you cannot really sound like them. Sound like your self
While that is good advice, we can learn a lot by examining the musicians we admire to learn more about how to expand our own voices.