useless exercise in futility. you are not cliff burton, you will not sound like him no matter what you do because you are a different person. it's fine to study his playing and lift a few things he does, but don't waste your time trying to be a clone.
Ab. So. Lutely.
TSkills: Here's a possible future scenario... You've just belted out an awesome set at a venue somewhere & afterwards a friend of yours comes up & says either:
"Man that was awesome! You sounded just like Cliff!" or...
"Where I was stood I couldn't see very well, but I thought it was you up there - sounded like your style"
Which would you prefer? (Clue: the first response should only apply if you plan making a career in a Metallica Tribute Act).
Listen to a bucketload of different assorted stuff. Lift bits from here, there & everywhere - from complete lines to little four-note hooks - then let 'em stew in
your head. Don't ask yourself "How would Cliff (or Jaco, or Geezer or Duck or whoever) play this", instead ask yourself "What can I come up with that both fits what the song needs
and sounds good
to me?". As your experience, knowledge & internal library of riffs, licks, hooks, scales etc. grows the easier it'll be to answer this in your own words.
Play like
you - it's simultaneously fiendishly difficult & dead easy - the trick is to let it happen, not to force it. It won't happen overnight, next week or even next year - it's a continuous process. If I were ever to come & see you play, I'd want to hear
you... not you pretending to be somebody else.
Pete.
