What's uncommon about my approach to creating music..
As a guitar player I used to focus all my energy into getting fast chops etc.
Nowadays, it's much different. When writing/recording music with my band, 50% of my task is thinking about the arrangements and the orchestration of every part. When thinking about 'what to play over that particular chord progression' , I'm hearing the notes and rythms in my head. Without consideration for difficulty, I'll just learn it on guitar no matter what. Sometimes I make up stuff that is impossible for me to play, so I'll just practice for days to get the damn thing right.
So that's how I'm 'teaching' myself guitar now. I rarely play other people's songs, and in this way I'll get my chops automatically up to par with what I want to achieve. And it's 'real', because I took the 'creation' approach instead of trying to mimic other bands' music and feelings, which I am not very good at.