This nurture vs nature discussion seems to go on forever in any forum that deals with any sort of practice to which "talent" is associated. Often, people use the word "talent" where the word "skill" seems to me more appropriate, as when somebody puts in a good performance. We really don't know how much of that performance came from preparation and how much was raw "talent". David Sudnow developed a way of teaching adults how to teach themselves to play a cocktail style of piano, and worked under the premise that other than the very rare case of tone-deafness, everybody could get to the point of arranging these tunes from any fakebook according to simple rules and thoroughly enjoy playing them for themselves and others. He pushed against the idea of "talent" as a deciding factor as to whether a person could or could not participate in such activity (i.e. the common belief that "some gots it, some just don't") and addressed this sort of thing as one of the many "myths" about music making. I personally saw many older adults take to the piano and enjoy playing this type of music. How much "talent" was involved, I don't know, but I did get a strong sense that "talent" might well be a deciding factor for whether somebody routinely makes it to Carnegie Hall or not, but certainly not a factor in pursuing music as a hobby quite successfully and even playing on a smaller scale professionally.
How do we REALLY know if we have "talent" and how much we might have? I believe that people have different talents and really the trick is finding that which we do well and capitalizing on it. I seem to have a good ear (which is a learned skill called relative pitch - definitely NOT a talent), but a crappy memory. I can read standard notation (but am not good at doing it in real time - sight reading), but don't have the patience for it. I do well getting the gist of a piece of music and then making it my own so it is more natural and less about memorizing. Some would call that "cheating", but I view it as my own way of being able to participate using those aspects of my skill set that seem to come more naturally. We ALL have these types of skills in one form or another, so there is certainly no need for anyone to get an ego, thinking they are better than others.
I suspect that we each have these types of abilities, and finding what we individually can take to and enjoy, regardless of what the next person can or can't do, will result in much less comparison and frustration, and much more enjoyment and even progress. When we try to force ourselves to do something the way somebody else does it, we may well be trying to do what comes natural for that person, but not for ourselves. The result could be frustration for us as we struggle with it, while the other person is in his or her natural habitat and it flows for that person. We would then assume that we don't have a "talent" for the activity and give up. I personally believe that all of us can do many things well, but in our own individual way. Clearly, a little bitty guy is not going to be a big football or basketball player, but there really are probably few such obvious physical disparities for playing our chosen instruments. One person may have smaller hands and therefore must find a smaller instrument, but that kind of thing is possible to deal with. I know one guy who could not get the embouchure correct for playing brass instruments due to some kind of problem with his teeth, so he switched to guitar and has had a fine career playing jazz. We each find different areas where we flourish and others where we get stuck for a while on a plateau, and these occurrences will most likely be different for each of us. Therefore, comparing ourselves to another person will only result in frustration, when in fact, there will be times when we are flourishing and the other person is on a plateau.
So, to me it seems best to relax into what we enjoy doing, take our time, and don't compare ourselves to others. Don't worry about talent or the lack thereof and just do what you do.
I have always thought this is applicable to such discussion:
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
So, if we believe we are not "talented" and can't do a thing well, then we are right. On the other hand, if we just do and don't think ourselves out of it, maybe we will surprise ourselves. Better yet, if we think we can do it and approach it from that perspective, then we can be right too.
Just some thoughts...
Tony
P.S. This post is as much directed at me as at anyone wondering if "talent" will prevent them from enjoying music making. This discussion comes up frequently in various forums and I always have to remind myself of the points I am repeating (as read and told to me by others with more wisdom than I have) here. We can really defeat ourselves from doing anything worthwhile with this "talent" stuff.
