Talent vs. Hard Work

[Jake Blues]

When I was a kid my desire was to be a great pool player and I told my dad when I was in high school I was going to be one. Worked very hard at it, practiced a lot and got pretty good. But after beating all the drunks at the bar and moving on to stiffer competition I quickly realized that I was good but not a great player by any means. And believe me there was a lot of hard work involved. My dad's words were true from the start he said, "You will get to be pretty good but you don't have enough talent to be great--He was right.

Guitar playing is the same in my opinion. Started playing very young and was very motivated, practiced hours a day, still do. Some people hear me and think I am really good. Indeed there is some talent, a sense of time, dexterity, a decent ear, etc..

However I will never be Greg Kock, or Scotty Anderson, or Eric Johnson or Albert Lee. Not because the desire isn't there. Not because of lack of practice. The talent level is just so much greater for the other players mentioned above. What I tell young guys who are trying to learn is try to enjoy it and work hard and go as far as you can but don't beat yourself up for not being as good as your guitar hero.

Indeed hard work is a part of it. And to be honest most kids who get a guitar for Christmas will never put the work in. But in my opinion the practice and the work for every person has a ceiling based on God given ability.

The good news is that unless one is tone deaf or completely devoid of any musical ability whatsoever most people can improve with hard work and find the instrument a great fulfilling lifelong hobby.

[refin]

There are some who are blessed with the ability to play IF they commit themselves to develop the natural gift---otherwise,it rots like uneaten fruit.

[Tim Bowen]

Spud Webb is between 5'6" and 5'7", and he's one of the most notorious slam dunksters in the history of professional basketball. I'm 5'10" and have dabbled at basketball for much of my life, as I love that game. I couldn't slam dunk a basketball if my life depended upon it, I'd probably wind up in the hospital. In fact, I know very few people of any height that can dunk a basketball on a regulation-sized goal.

My dad was a licensed pilot, and could repair anything from a transistor radio to a washing machine to a Harley Davidson, in a heartbeat. I'm thankful that he showed me how to play G,C, and D chords back in the 60's, but he didn't really have it in him to be a musician. Dad did all he could to encourage me toward being mechanically inclined, but I really wasn't interested. I didn't learn to swim until I was in my twenties (thank God, I hate the thought of drowning). Any sport that involved some sort of ball, I naturally gravitated toward. If the sport called for skates or skis or anything other than a ball or jumping, I didn't vibe with it. I started drawing and painting at a young age, have earned much of my income through graphics and drafting. Mom and dad did neither, but there's a long history of artists within my (adopted) family tree. As a musician, I'm totally fascinated with mathematics, but I sucked at it in high school. I've always found language to be intuitive, like a birthright, and yet I hear folks massacre it on a daily basis.




"Talent" is one of those often ill-used words that makes me shiver. How many folks possess the combination of uncanny facility and lousy (subjective) tastes? Of what worth is facility without interest and desire? How many folks have you known that wanted to achieve a particular thing, that were in possession of an intense obsession, only to be let down by the reality that they simply couldn't arrive at such? How often am I disappointed in myself because I can't bring to fruition all that I can see within my mind's eye? How much of accomplishment is gathered through the vague and ambiguous notion of sheer talent, and how much of it is the result of sheer hard work and desire? Leonardo DaVinci was known in his time as a forwardly thinking man with a short attention span, and his fresco techniques have barely stood the test of time, whereas his ideas and executions, surely have.

One of my fave topics of discussion.

[fltpkr]

Wow, Tim. Extremely well said.