[Nokinside]

It's easy to look down copying and forget that copying someone who is ahead is usually the fastest way to learn.

Japanese started the same way. They started with cheap sup-par copies and trinkets. Gradually their quality improved.

[ThomPete]

Agree thats actually how most people become great musicians, by learning what others do and build on that. In fact i cant think of an single area which isn't only getting better by copying other stuff and then moving past that.

One could say the evolutionary process is based on this principle.

Copy. Paste. Improve. Repeat.