Creativity Quote by Kevin Eubanks

Eubanks slips a small truth about music culture into an offhand technical distinction: the “why” of many rules in popular art is often just habit with good PR. On the surface he’s talking gear and technique - fingers for jazz, pick for rock - but the real subject is how scenes police authenticity. The line “there’s really no rhyme or reason” punctures the myth that these choices are purely functional. Yes, fingers can give you a warmer attack and more dynamic nuance; yes, a pick can add bite and consistency. But Eubanks is pointing at the way those sonic preferences hardened into identity badges.

Jazz, in its self-image, prizes touch: the idea that tone comes from the body, from closeness to the instrument, from craft you can’t fake. Rock, built on volume and attitude, turns the pick into a tool of aggression and speed, a tiny piece of plastic that reads as industrial, blunt, electric. Once those associations calcify, technique becomes costume. Players who cross the line risk being heard as tourists, even when the notes are right.

The sly punch is in “that’s just the way it has been,” a phrase that sounds like resignation but operates as critique. Coming from Eubanks - a guitarist fluent in jazz tradition who spent years in a mass-audience TV context - it’s also a wink at genre gatekeeping itself. He’s not asking you to deny tradition; he’s asking you to notice how quickly tradition becomes law, and how often “law” is just inertia wearing a leather jacket.