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Talent and Potential
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ToddK
Posts: 2961
Joined: Dec. 6 2004
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 Talent and Potential
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This is great stuff. Found it at the classical forum.
Figured you all might like to read it.
What About Talent??
I have a particular distaste for the idea of talent. Students should never focus on how talented they are or aren’t. Please don’t misunderstand—I’m not saying talent doesn’t exist. What I’m saying is that, for anyone learning to play the guitar, talent (or its absence) isn’t a productive focus.
For those who believe they lack talent, it can become an excuse for accepting mediocrity. For those who believe they have talent, it can become an excuse to cut corners. Talented students often find themselves outstripping their less talented peers. This can lull them into believing they don’t need to work as carefully or intelligently as other players. Talented students who succumb to this error seldom become great players. Having failed to cultivate an honest and uncompromising sense of craftsmanship, they eventually reach a point beyond which they can’t progress.
Talent is something we can judge only in retrospect. So students who dwell on how much talent they have are putting the cart before the horse. It’s as though they’re deciding how far they’ll get before they’ve even started. Instead, why not aim high and see how far you get?
We tend to see great players as an alchemic miracle, and often overlook more prosaic reasons why they’re better than the rest of us:
they practice more
they practice consistently
they practice smarter
they refuse to settle for mediocrity
In fact, what many call talent is often in large part the capacity for taking infinite pains. I remember hearing a guitarist extolling how talented Manuel Barrueco is. When it was suggested that someone who practiced exactly as Barrueco does could become as good a player, this guitarist dismissed the idea out of hand. Barrueco is talented—that’s why he’s a virtuoso.
But consider for a moment what it means to practice exactly as Barrueco does. You wouldn’t accept sloppiness in your playing. Buzzing a note or snapping a string would be unthinkable. I’ve seen Barrueco in a master class almost wince when a student makes an ugly sound on the guitar. Such sounds have a nails-on-chalkboard effect on him. If this were your attitude it would drive you, as it does Barrueco, to eliminate these sounds from your playing. Consider also that you would be disciplined in your practice. Your attention would be fully engaged on the problem at hand. Mindless finger wiggling while staring out the window at the squirrels would have no place in your practice time. (It’s surprising how many concert artists neglect to practice intelligently: one well-known guitarist claimed to have practiced scales while watching the Johnny Carson Show.) You would also consistently put in the necessary practice time. Be honest, how many of us really do that? Perhaps most importantly, you would be passionate not only about music, but also about the process of learning to play it. Practice wouldn’t be a tedious chore tolerated only for the end result of making music. Rather, it would be an infinitely variable exploration of the entire music making process. Practice itself would have an intrinsic value, and you would have a deeper understanding denied to those lacking your passion and resolve.
I recall someone who likened such attributes to madness. But if you think about it, it’s a perfectly sensible way to approach music. Imagine a virtuoso looking at mediocre players who year after year display the same fundamental flaws. The virtuoso must wonder why these players continue to wallow in mediocrity rather than buckle down and resolve their flaws once and for all.
What concerns me most, however, is that the idea of talent often short-circuits any further discussion of how great playing is achieved. For example, consider the following statement: “Manuel Barrueco is a virtuoso because he’s talented.” What does this tell us? Nothing. Indeed, it has the ring of a tautology. Further, it suggests that great playing is a mystery—one we shouldn’t try to understand. It also suggests the potential for great playing is something you either have or you don’t. This is a hopeless and unproductive way of looking at guitar playing.
A more positive approach is to define what talent actually is. Can we systematically identify factors that, when brought together, define talent? I believe so. I don’t underestimate the difficulty of doing so, nor do I believe we can pinpoint every element of talent. But there’s much we can understand, and we should approach great playing with a clear-eyed passion to discover its inner workings.
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Date Mar. 8 2006 23:23:15
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Ricardo
Posts: 14878
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
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RE: Talent and Potential (in reply to ToddK)
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Yeah I agree with most of that stuff. There are plenty of talented individuals who gave up along the way for whatever reason. Not sure if there are any not so talented individuals who are considered "great" players, just because they worked hard or smart or whatever. I think most of us are born with ability to do certain things, and truely talented people can do many things well, not just one thing. Sports, music, math, etc. The important thing to be a musician is to have drive to do better, or inspiration, and understanding of rhythm.
As far as Barrueco, I also "winced" when I heard his duet with Al dimeola on Nylon and Steel, where he was trying to play Paco's part. Very stiff. At least in an interview he admitted the timing was very hard for him. And he is one of the few who attempted to play Chacone at a steady tempo, so at least he is aware of rhythm and what it means. To me, THAT is the main reason he is a "virtuosso", but for me there are better players out there. Talented or not, if you work with a metronome properly, you will get better at playing music IMO.
Ricardo
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Date Mar. 9 2006 0:45:32
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edgar884
Posts: 1975
Joined: Nov. 16 2005
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RE: Talent and Potential (in reply to ToddK)
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when I whent to my first master class I found very soon that I was behind every one.
I had to play 10 hours a day just to keep up with the thumb stuff. I found that I could play the falsetas and learn the material very fast but I couldn't play it right. I really at one point was so frustrated I wondered what I was doing there. Then I realized that I had an advantage, I have the patience to practice for hours on new material. I found myself doing very well at the end of the week and felt pretty good about the whole thing.
So talent, I don't know I've always hated that word. To me talent means you work hard at what you do. Sometimes your upbringing can give you the ability to do what ever you want.
You know what it is, parents that talk to there children and encourage them to do artistic things have talented children. So talent simply means that you have a natural ability to do something well.
On the other hand it could be the blood runing through your veins.
I think that those that have talent should practice more and use the gift that they recieved from the universe and share it with others. After all I think most artists are a little afraid of death. Music and art makes us immortal in a way, because we are leaving behind a piece of our self. Many people don't understand what it is to live in the now.
It's a blessing to be able to play music and enjoy the music as it comes out, you forget who you are, your troubles and what time it is, nothing matters when your in the zone.
Just your guitar and the music.
So if your not talented(gifted)you may have to work harder than the talented guy, but in the end who cares theres always someone better than you, it's the hard work and the journey that makes it all worth it.
I don't want to be famous and I don't play guitar for everyone else, I do it because it is a challenge and I keeps me from going crazy.
Most of my talented students have never gone anywhere, these are the students that give it up or just don't care. I believe that the people who stick with it don't have talent, they just want it more than the guy with talent.
Those of you who are good on the guitar are good because of practice not talent. People who say your talented don't know what there talking about or they simply don't understand what it is to work hard at something. wow thats my 2 cents on that sorry about that.
_____________________________
May we find God through Flamenco instead of Angels and Demons
www.gabrieledgar.com
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Date Mar. 10 2006 18:24:17
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