Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Virtually all great artists in any field started out trying to copy the masters, then went on to be one themselves by adding their own personal, unique, individual contributions to the field.

"When you begin any art, everything you try is shallow, every direction you turn may be wrong- very few beginners break free from the restrictions of their mistakes. You must study and nourish your talent, then you will realise that man can be as great as heaven and earth- you need not content yourself with an inferior posiiton. Mistakes must simply be corrected; today's ideas are correct, and yesterday's are wrong for today."-- Cheng Man-ch'ing

Yungflutes wrote:

Making art is the organization of techniques and materials combined with vision to convey a life experience. Once you learn the  techniques, you're half way there.

I remember reading about how Karl Berger said that when you try to play like some artist you admire, and you can't quite get it, that is a good thing because that is you. I interpreted that as saying that individuality in style is a good thing, and is the natural direction for things to progress.

With the abundance of techniques, it could easily take a lifetime to just get to that halfway point.

BTW, isn't all this goal stuff with halfway points and stuff like that kind of anti-zen? If you're picking up the flute and enjoying it, you're cool. Trust that it's the same as most artistic and physical endeavors it feels cooler when you get better at it, so that's an encouragement not to plateau if possible.