anyone feel like they're a "natural"?

runmikeyrun · #1 10-03-2011, 07:31 PM

I have played a few different instruments- started with piano at 5, then cello and sax for a minute in grade school/jr high. I got on bass at 14 and have been with it for 20 years. Music has always come fairly easy for me, no matter what instrument i've played. I know there's a whole left brain/right brain argument and being somewhat left handed/ambidextrous I think that might have something to do with it. No one in my family is musical in any way shape or form and I have a large family. My ex-gf played 8 different instruments, all well, and she could get a handle on pretty much anything she picked up in only a few minutes.

Anyone feel like music just comes naturally to them?

BoRadBass · #2 10-03-2011, 07:38 PM

Sorry, not me at all. I am a SLOW learner, but I have noticed that with dedication and practice I can learn new things. So I am NOT a "natural".

Vincent P · #3 10-03-2011, 07:45 PM

I would not call myself a great player but, have always found that if given time to play with an insturment, I grasped it pretty quickly. Unlike your situation, most of my family played some sort of insturement, or was musically inclinded in some fashion or another. My only regret is that I put down my bass for so many years to raise a family, could have kept playing during this time. I now have the pleasure of watching my son, who is an incredible musician.

runmikeyrun · #4 10-03-2011, 10:04 PM

Vincent I know what you mean... I can hold my own but i'm not a great player either... but I can pick most stuff up pretty quick. If only school came this easy... lol. I really envied my ex, she could play anything. I'm not talking about similar instruments... she could play oboe (double reed) sax, piano, bass, tuba, violin, flute, and a few more I can't recall. All these instruments are really different from each other in the way you have to play them. She wasn't bad in the sack either

**jmattbassplaya** · #5 10-03-2011, 10:06 PM

I'm a jack of all trades - above average with everything, but a master of none.

Kwesi · #6 10-03-2011, 11:44 PM

Music as whole? Not exactly. Bass? Absolutely. It always felt right to me

GeneralElectric · #7 10-04-2011, 12:05 AM

+1 to Kwesi's bass skills.

I find that I pick up instruments fairly quickly. I know how to play a bunch of different instruments. Nothing virtuoso status, but I can definitely play in a band and play out with most of it and hold my own in most musical settings. I'm not that great on theory but I'm slowly working to rectify that.

I play bass, guitar, lapsteel, banjo, mandolin, violin, cello, and upright with varying levels of proficiency. I also play harmonica and okarina (however you spell it) from time to time but not exactly serious about it. I learned how to play uke in an evening at a friend's house. By the time the beers after dinner had opened I was already taking requests. But it was a uke...

Read on if you feel like reading my musical history. I'm bored and sick which means lot of time to post on TB.

Bass is my main instrument simply because I enjoy it the most. I've been playing 11 years now, most of it live. I don't slap, tap, or do anything really fancy but I got great feel and rhythm. I mean, I suspect I do because I've been playing out for about 9 years now and have never been turned away from a gig. I usually get a call back to play again and play around 100 shows a year with various bands. I went to the International G2G last year and everyone there was leagues above me playing wise, but I probably play out more than most of them.

Mandolin is my second most played instrument. I'm a pretty proficient mandolin player. Not that there are many mandolin players in my neck of the woods to compare me too!

I learned it last year in a month to do a St. Patty's band. We did pretty well and packed out the dozen or so shows we played. We doing it again this year too and I've only gotten better.

I picked up banjo a few months ago. I can jam with people comfortably but not enough were I'd want to play out live. I consider "live" status the ability to play drunk and have it not turn into a train wreck. It didn't take me long to figure out, but the frailing clawhammer style I decided to do has taken some getting used to. Now its just adjusting myself to G tuning and the tiny string spacing.

Recently picked up guitar and lap steel at the same time. I tune the lapsteel to open D so I can do one finger chords so I guess I'm not "really" learning how to play. Guitar is a bit of a process simply being I never really pick it up and the finger picking pattern is weird compared to bass and banjo.

Picked up upright a few years ago. I got onboard with that relatively quickly and felt I got around better on that than electric. Totally different feel and vibe that I connected to a lot more.

Violin I picked up 3 years ago. I started messing around on it for a few months and suddenly I realized I was playing songs by ear. Switched to cello when I felt I outgrew it and was having trouble getting around the fretboard with my sausage fingers. I can still pick it up and play fiddle tunes.

The only thing I haven't been able to pick up is percussion. Why?

lowfreq33 · #8 10-04-2011, 12:40 AM

Lapsteel is generally tuned to an open chord.

Monsterbass74 · #9 10-04-2011, 12:41 AM

I used to.

The BurgerMeister · #10 10-04-2011, 01:00 AM

yes. i can pick up the basics on any instrument after a few minutes, though i don't think i'll ever spend the time to become a virtuoso on any single one.

JonahTheAmazing · #11 10-04-2011, 08:20 PM

I play because of my brother. If he didn't push me to play, I wouldn't have tried it. I didn't pick it naturally, so I wouldn't call myself a natural. That, and I'm no good anyways.

funkyebk · #12 10-04-2011, 08:48 PM

I love sharing this story:

I always "felt" like a musician. I wanted my oldest brother to teach me to play guitar, but if you know older brothers, you know how that turned out. I tried to learn keyboard, but never got past the very basics. When I was in jr. High I played trombone in band. Badly. I wasn't last chair, but I was next to it. My parents got me lessons with a gentleman that had a recording studio and was a "teach anything" kind of guy. After a few months I was getting better, and even moved up a position after nailing the "Can Can Polka". One week I showed up for my trombone lesson very early, and he was still working with another student. "Hang out in there" he told me, and pointed to the main studio room. A piano, keyboards, amps, drums, guitars... And one old P-bass in the corner. I picked it up (he had given me permission before) and plucked around on it. After what was probably 15 or 20 minutes, I realized he was standing in the doorway watching...
"how bout we skip trombone and you get a lesson on that today?" he said.

He sat me down and taught me how to play "Hey Pocky Way" by The Meters.

It took me a little while to save up and buy my first bass, but I've never looked back. I'm no where near a natural, but I felt more comfortable on bass than any other instrument I tried. I still (after 20 years) think and feel like a bassist, and although i've learned a little here and there, everything else feels foreign.

Thank you Mike E. I owe you for opening an amazing world to me.

Waterpilot · #13 10-04-2011, 09:25 PM

Nope. I really have to work at it. It sucks knowing I'll never be "great" at it, but... I have enjoy it and have a good time so I'm content with the struggle.

Handyman · #14 10-04-2011, 09:32 PM

Sucking comes to me quite naturally. Not sucking takes a lot of work, though.

zeroncali · #15 10-04-2011, 09:54 PM

I wouldnt call myself a natural at anything and I still cant even remotely learn songs by ear. But the Bass just feels natural in my hands (even though though they are small with short fingers).

Mike M. · #16 10-04-2011, 10:04 PM

I've always been told that I'm way too hard on myself. But while I know that I do have a talent for music, I've always had to work hard at it. But then maybe if I eased up a bit on myself things would come a bit more naturally. But I do love it. Just wish I had more free time to improve.

I've been told that I'm a pretty good player (thier words, not mine) but I just don't ever want to BS myself. It's a big world filled with players who can wipe the floor with me any day of the week.

oldcatfish · #17 10-05-2011, 07:45 AM

I think the responses justifies a theory that I have had for years. With enough hard work/dedication/practice most people can get fairly good at anything. But to be great...there has to be a natural talent.

Here is a non-musical example of more evidence of my theory. My brother-in-law is a basketball coach. He played in high school and college. He lives and breathes the sport, spending all of his free time playing or watching it, when he isnt coaching.

I, on the other hand, don't really like the sport...but I seem to have a talent for it. I played for a few years in middle school, but didn't enjoy it, so I quit. I think that I've played maybe 3 or 4 pickup games since then...which has been about 30 years. A few years ago, my brother-in-law talked me into playing a one on one game with him. He beat me...but barely. He was absolutely stunned that I could keep up with him. Still to this day, he says that I "wasted my talent."

Unfortunately for me, the thing that I really enjoy (playing music), doesn't come as easily. I am pretty decent on several instruments (guitar,bass,keyboard,& drums), but they all took a lot more work than for some other players that I know. My friends seemed to put in half the practice, but get twice as good. I also enjoy singing--but have a terrible voice. If I ever tried out for American Idol...I'd make the reject show for sure. Music just isn't my natural gift. But I do enjoy it, and spend most of my free time playing an instrument. I even sing on occasion, unfortunately for my family, who have to hear me.

Phalex · #18 10-05-2011, 08:16 AM

I'm not a fantastic "Musician". I am entirely self-taught, and I gig every weekend. I figure I'm getting by on natural ability, because training certainly doesn't play a part.

Geek99 · #19 10-05-2011, 08:24 AM

I'm not - my technique such as it is, is hard won from reading books, listening to people and trying to figrue things out by ear. I'm now at the stage where I hear a drum pattern and I can put a bassline over the top of it in my head even if I cant actually play it yet. I can hear when people are off key.

My llittle daughter has a very good ear and like ukelele and drums. I think she gets it her mother who plays piano by ear and has perfect pitch.

nillawaffa · #20 10-05-2011, 08:34 AM

I feel like I have a natural ability with music in general. I love getting new instruments and trying to figure them out. I started on acoustic guitar when I was 10. Then my parents bought me a drumset when I was 12. When I got to high school I went through all kinds of instruments (mostly percussion: Timpani, marimba, every drumline instrument, ect.) My band teacher noticed that I had an extra period off during the time the "intro" jazz class met. So, he handed me a trombone and I learned it during class and made 2nd chair!

I didn't even pick up a bass guitar until I was a senior in high school. I felt like all the instruments I played until then prepared me for the bass. It was the perfect blend between guitar and drums for me. I still ended up going to school for percussion because the bass was so new to me, I knew I would have a hard time passing an audition at the school I went to (they did mostly upright bass). But I have always regretted not going to school for bass. I never took any lessons on any instruments (outside of the college percussion experience) and just used my ears and the internet to figure out what I wanted to figure out. Now that I'm getting a little older I wish I would have found a really good teacher to push me as a musician. I'll get to a certain point on each instrument where I hit a wall and then move on to the next instrument. I am still playing mostly bass guitar, but have hit many walls. I guess I just love the instrument so much that I'm willing to stick out the tough times and keep on truckin with the bass.

So, in conclusion, I feel like I do have a natural ability when it comes to music, but it only gets me so far. And I've met a handful of musicians in my life who have very similar stories as mine, but are WAY better than me. I think there can be many different levels of natural ability. Mine is probably a 6/10. Just enough to get by, but I'm no virtuoso.