Do we have to be talented or well practiced

Contemporary Drummer101

We've all heard the phrase or something like "they are naturally talented" or "gifted" but is this really the case? Does practice not make us?

Ol' Donie

I read a quote from Stevie Ray Vaughan a while back. "There's no easy way, man you have to learn the hard parts for yourself". If that lad had to do it the hard way, i'm happy enough to belive that its mostly just practice that makes good players.

This is also convenient for me, because if it does come down to natural talent, i should have given up a long time ago.

Then when i feel like giving up, i just read the srv quote again, and off i go.

Then sometimes when i feel like the practice is paying off and i'm improving, i read a quote from Albert King. "The most important thing is, the better you get, the harder you work".

And off i go again.

Ostrom

I think the 'gifted' interpretation is redundant.

Mark Knopfler once claimed in an interview that he fell asleep practicing scales over and over when first learning guitar; Steve Vai and Yngwie Malmsteen have both talked about 8-hour practice sessions in various interviews. Also, I think either Clapton or Hendrix claimed that they locked themselves away in their bedrooms for an entire summer learning, practicing and repeating scales and chords. Joe Bonamassa apparently had to be forced to do his homework when in school, and his parents had to limit his live gigs to weekends only, around the time he was opening for B.B. King (I think he was 10 or 12 at that stage). These things simply don't become embedded and fluent without countless hours of repetition.

Having said that, I would also like to think that there is some element of 'natural' differentiation between players - Bill Bailey's 'perfect pitch' perhaps, or maybe some inherent disposition toward musical thinking. Although the background to many of these players is too familiar - either growing up in a music-saturated environment, or grinding for countless hours.

Deschain

I've actually have had this argument with a lot of my non musician friends. Who bang on about the 'pure raw talent of' x guitar player etc. Which can be actually very frustrating because they are arguing about something they really know little about. Anyway, I would be of the opinion (based on my own musical journey of course) that talent or whatever you want to call it is not just some inherent ability a musician has been gifted with, but that it is a earned quality. It takes a lot of practice to become a really good musician and that talent is earned not given. I would consider myself a good musician, I have spent a long time getting to this level of musicianship and it was not something I achieved over night. I worked very hard to get to this level and I still work to not only maintain it but improve it. You do get the rare child prodigy but they cannot develop any further without practice, that is a fact not opinion.

I then went on to say that anyone can do it, so long as they have the drive and motivation to do it. I mean for me it was not easy, but I put the effort in and it paid off in the end. You see people don't see the practice side of things, the hours spent fumbling about with scales until you perfected them, learning your craft and striving to get better. What they do see is the end result, when Jimi Hendrix released Are You Experienced? this was not the first time he had played a guitar, he had worked up years of practising, gigging and working with other musicians to get to that level. The same can be said for any musician or band for that matter. You see a really good band play a gig, what you don't see is the hours it took to for them to rehearse and make sure they put on a good show. These things escape people when they listen to music, like it just happens out of thin air.

Of course I would say that there is maybe a natural need or compulsion to do it and that's why everyone doesn't do it. But that's only a lit match, you are going to need a lot more than that to keep a fire burning.

Yakult

Practice, practice, patience and more practice.
A lot determination and motivation also required.

Learned guitar greatly for the first 3-4 years with the above and then it became practice, no patience, no practice, lost determination and motivating so my progress came to brick wall for a while.

Its back now and I'm getting stuck into it all again, so will reapply that logic for as long as I possibly can and see where my playing will go. Also, playing in various different bands/genres really added to my playing, opened up many doors to thinking musically.
I know quiet a few talented musicians and their secret is simple, practice. Cant imagine it being different for any other top musicians.

endacl

Who was the golfer who, when overhearing somebody remark ' that lucky b**tard' after he made a particularly tricky shot, replied 'I know. And the more I practice, the luckier I get...'?

Same applies to music. You practice, you improve. Irrespective of natural ability. You don't and you won't. Or you just get lucky and punk is popular when you join a band. :-)

endacl

Who was the golfer who, when overhearing somebody remark ' that lucky b**tard' after he made a particularly tricky shot, replied 'I know. And the more I practice, the luckier I get...'?

Same applies to music. You practice, you improve. Irrespective of natural ability. You don't and you won't. Or you just get lucky and punk is popular when you join a band. :-)