RE: Todds Alegria

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RE: Todds Alegria

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Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: Todds Alegria (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

I suppose I've always been a bit sceptical about the word "talent", but I do think certain people maybe have a knack of picking things up or hearing things in a certain way.
When I was working overseas, a young Norwegian guy asked me if I could teach him how to play basic guitar. (just for playing pop songs etc).
I showed him some basic chords E, A, D, G, C, etc a proper "barre" F so he could move it up the fretboard.
I showed him for a half hour a day for 5 days.
I didn't see him again for 3 months.
When he returned, he'd bought his own guitar and had started a group.
He got his guitar out the bag and played some stuff.
Jeez, the guy was great! Fast chord changes, good rhythm and working up and down the fretboard chucking in some Jazz chords and neat little licks!

Another guy I knew at the Glasgow Folk Centre, had only been playing guitar for over a year. He was about 18 or 19 or so.
I remember thinking that this guy "had something". Hard to actually define, but he was "different" from the usual amateurs, some whom were very good guitarists a la "folk/blues" style.
He had a very nice touch on the guitar without being overy complicated.
In the span of the next year, he developed his own innovative technique, wrote some songs and was signed by a record label.
He went on to become a bit of a cult legend making 30 odd albums.
Clapton recorded a cover of one of his songs.

http://www.grunthos.demon.co.uk/johns_albums.htm

So maybe some folk just have an aptitude for picking stuff up quickly, others have to work at it, and others just can't get a handle on it no matter how much they practise!

Some say that in Tennis, that Borg and McEnroe had "talent", but Connors had to work twice as hard to be up there with them.

Ron

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 6 2004 15:30:28

Miguel de Maria

Posts: 3532
Joined: Oct. 20 2003
From: Phoenix, AZ

RE: Todds Alegria (in reply to Ron.M)

Dave, sorry for giving you a hard time, chap. I guess if you consider guitar a hobby and just that, I could see getting guilty about practicing too much. When I was in college, I loved to play basketball and I was down there shooting hoops every day. A former high-school bball star would come down and say, Why are you practicing man? Are you going to go pro or something? But I just loved to play.

As far as talent, it's such a slippery slope. Some people do seem to pick things up faster. What is it? Better mental or physical memory/intelligence? Better coordination? Did their parents play Mozart or Moraito in the crib for them? Some people seem to do in a year what takes other five or ten or never, but I can't say why. It almost seems a mindset--they "get it", they know what they have to do, instinctively, to get the results they want. And then they do it! It may take the rest of us ten years just to realize what we really want or what works for us.

Did Paco just have more talent than everyone else or did he practice more than everyone else? His technique is phenomenal and leads us to Paganini-like comparisons, but he did claim to practice 10 hours a day. So did Charlie Parker. Mozart was a genius of the highest degree, but his father was a composer and presumably trained him for music from an early age. Now, I wonder what you can play in the crib TO Mozart? Bach? Speaking of Bach, he was a genius of the highest degree, but witness his humble quote: "I have worked hard, and anyone who works as hard as me will do as well."

For myself, I have made a conscious choice to ignore "talent." I do know, that with the proper work I will get the results I want. It has no bearing on me what gifts others were or were not born with. The one constant I have seen, with so few exceptions as to be a rule, is that great musicians work real hard. Hey, I don't mind working hard.

It may be (probably is) true that some people are born with greater innate abilities, but what does that have to do with me? Music is not a race, nor a competition. Just becuase there are people out there better than me, that will always be better than me, that were better than I ever will be after five years, doesn't mean I'm not allowed to play and make a living at it.

That goes for everyone.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 6 2004 15:45:06

Conrad

Posts: 533
Joined: Jul. 16 2003
From: Toronto, ON, Canada

RE: Todds Alegria (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

I think taste separates Mozart, Parker, Paco, etc... from others. I am convinced that Paco's technical ability can be achieved by others, and many have come close for sure, but he has an understanding of composition and emotion that has not yet been matched. Then again, this might have been cultivated as well.

As for Charlie Parker, I heard 15 hours a day! Same with Paco... I heard Tomatito practiced through all sunlight too... And think of the Sinti and Romany gypsies, among others that play in the style of Django Reinhardt (Stochelo Rosenberg, Bireli Lagrene - phenomenal players, some of the best in the world)... they are born with guitars in their hands, practicing all day out of their caravans.

- conrad

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 6 2004 17:54:15

Billyboy

Posts: 389
Joined: Aug. 18 2003

RE: Todds Alegria (in reply to Miguel de Maria)

Miguel, I'm a big Bach fan, and have done a lunchtime recital at the local library on Bach, I posted a clip a while back of the Gigue to the 6th Violin Partita. It seems a common thing where flamencos are interested in Bach, Ive read it loads of time in Flamenco books. As far as a hobby is concerned I would love to earn a living with Guitar, but don't see the opportunities. The reason I got into guitar in the first place was the Beatles, saw A Hard days Night, and was told incorrectly that they were all accomplished Classical musicians, so I thought, If that’s what I have to do, bring it on. I was so determined to follow John Lennon, I learnt to play Green Sleeves within two weeks of taking up the guitar, I'm half Irish, and they seem to have an aptitude for music, but I think it was shear determination that was the key, never ended up as a Rock musician. But with Guitar you have to be turned on by it, when I saw my fist Flamenco Guitarist, in Benidorm on a street corner, sat on a bench, ( and to this day I think it was Tomotito), this was early 80s, I thought that is was unbelievable sexy, and was smitten, what I'm trying to say is it must turn you on in a sexual way, for you to spend the time practicing.
dave

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Apr. 6 2004 19:24:23