On Imitation

I fail to understand the impulse of some folks who doggedly try to exactly copy the playing style of the famous old bluesmen. I come across “tuition” in this regard through my lurking around some of the guitar forums out there. Lick by lick, folks slavishly copy the accents and even the supposed disposition of the fingers (passed down through the decades by some expert, or student, or by hearsay”¦) Surely this is the musical equivalent of painting by numbers? Better by far to put on a recording of one of these masters and play some air guitar – far more convincing.