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"Talent" and "being born with it"
- Thread starter Katoosie
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- talent practice
I probably installed several million square feet of acoustical ceilings by the time I was 40. I've been an estimator since then (mid 50's) and rarely put my tools on, but when I do I run circles around all my guys doing the same trade.
When I started as an apprentice in the 80`s I had a natural talent for this skill but worked to perfect it. I'm still pretty fast after all these years.
However, teaching this same skill set you would think I'm speaking a foreign language because I've showed it to my guys so many times and they still don't understand it.
But with music I really have to work at it because I don't have a natural ability to absorb it like others.
Also very busy with work and don't have much time to practice.
I think you need some talent but much hard work.
Sorry for the long story.
When I started as an apprentice in the 80`s I had a natural talent for this skill but worked to perfect it. I'm still pretty fast after all these years.
However, teaching this same skill set you would think I'm speaking a foreign language because I've showed it to my guys so many times and they still don't understand it.
But with music I really have to work at it because I don't have a natural ability to absorb it like others.
Also very busy with work and don't have much time to practice.
I think you need some talent but much hard work.
Sorry for the long story.
I agree.
The drive to work hard; the ability to focus on learning and studying new information and practice repetitive procedural actions until they are learned are all “talents”.
But separately, I further disagree with the OP, per my belief that the ability to look at a chord chart and improvise a nice bass line or just invent a melody line is very much a natural ability.
if you can hum an awesome solo in your head, then you can eventually learn to play it on an instrument.
Conversely, it doesn’t matter how much time you spend learning to play any instrument if you can’t hum a cool part to begin with.
I agree 100%. No matter how much I practiced I could never be another Tom Brady.
Just my opinion. Some people are born with a better "ear" and/or "feel" for music than others. Some people are born with better timing than others. Hard work goes a very long way to make things equal or even surpassing some, but some things just come easier to some people than to other people. I have a college degree. Two, actually. But, ask me about nuclear fission - you will see. No amount of hard work on my part will allow me to work in that field.
Yeah, Gorn nailed it. Although I wouldn't call it talent. I'd call it potential. But what it actually boils down to is genetics. Some folks happen to be genetic freaks.
Actually, I bet most of us are in something. However, most folks never find out what it is that they have innate potential in. The reason I call it "potential" is that it still takes a crap ton of work to develop it. It's very rare to find the person that discovers what it is they have potential in, and puts in the vast amount of time to develop that potential.
Actually, I bet most of us are in something. However, most folks never find out what it is that they have innate potential in. The reason I call it "potential" is that it still takes a crap ton of work to develop it. It's very rare to find the person that discovers what it is they have potential in, and puts in the vast amount of time to develop that potential.
JeezyMcNuggles
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- Feb 23, 2018
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- I suck, but nobody really notices
I'm talented. I also have been doing this for a pretty long time, and turned my talents into skills. Being talented, is having things come naturally, or without much effort. Turning talent into skill, takes work and dedication. But, there are a whole lot of people out there that can't connect two notes on a instrument they've never picked up. Things do not come easy for these people. They can however, develope the same skills that anyone else can through hard work and dedication. It usually takes twice as much though, and they tend to just move on to other things out of frustration or lack of interest. But they could if they wanted to bad enough.
Me, I can do pretty much anything I want to, anything I try to, fairly well, without much effort.
Anything i have put my mind to i have done really well in. And i have zero natural talent at anything… just discipline when i develop a passion for something. I still suck at bass, but i am back at it after a 10 year break and already much better in some ways.
I think to make it to a high level of being a musician, or athlete or artist etc, you have to have talent, you have to work hard at mastering it, and then you also have to have that luck factor or "being at the right place at the right time" and hope nothing comes along to derail you...
However a really talented musician doesn't even need to hum it out loud and can instantly play the notes they hear in their head.
My opinion is this:
If we break it down into its basest components, I find that I always circle back to Gregor Mendel and his peas. Every living organism is a product of its heredity and its environment. The same obtains here. To what extent innate ability exerts itself over hard work (or more specifically, heredity vs. environment) is anyone's guess in a specific situation. Thats the mystery of complex living things.
I'll leave you with this . . . The most entertaining scene of the movie but which speaks to the question:
If we break it down into its basest components, I find that I always circle back to Gregor Mendel and his peas. Every living organism is a product of its heredity and its environment. The same obtains here. To what extent innate ability exerts itself over hard work (or more specifically, heredity vs. environment) is anyone's guess in a specific situation. Thats the mystery of complex living things.
I'll leave you with this . . . The most entertaining scene of the movie but which speaks to the question:
The best guitar player I've ever known did not have the ability to organize his own life. He was an amazing musician but couldn't stay employed, couldn't get to rehearsals or gigs on time, couldn't make rent etc. etc. In the time I knew him a lot of people wanted to play with him until they had actually spent any time with him. It was really sad. Talent will only get you just so far.
Talent exists for sure in my view. I could practice singing my whole life and still couldn't do it worth a damn. Many people could practice hours and hours at something and still suck at it. The reason you hear about people like Jaco practicing hours and hours is because he had "it". He had a knack, spark, etc. Most people won't spend a huge part of their life trying to get better at something they completely suck at it. You have to have some sort of knack for it.
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Ironically the majority of folks who claim there’s no such thing as natural talent are the very same people that actually have it. They will never be able to relate.
I’m certainly living proof of a person lacking natural ability playing bass. I’ve worked hard for 20plus years and I’ll always be just acceptable. Never exceptional.
I’m certainly living proof of a person lacking natural ability playing bass. I’ve worked hard for 20plus years and I’ll always be just acceptable. Never exceptional.
great thread. I’ve had a one very successful artistic career or another since 2006, and i am a huge believer that talent doesn’t exist. You get good at what you put your time and energy into, and i will always maintain that there’s nothing I’ve accomplished that someone else couldn’t have. “Talented” is a polite compliment, but we tend to say it about skill sets and abilities that take years and years to cultivate.
Hard work is important, but as Bill Parcels said, “You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken $&@#.”
Of course talent is a thing.
Of course talent is a thing.
It is not possible for someone not born with innate talent to conceive innate talent. I don't understand why this is even a thing to talk about. There will be people saying it exists, and people saying it doesn't. Those who say it doesn't do not, by definition, have it. Otherwise they would know. And those who do have it do not need to talk about it, so they stay silent.
