Is Musical Talent a Myth?

[johnsmith-wofr]

Talent is the ability, or will to persevere through the suck.

[RyanAlexanderBloom]

I've had students with genuine natural talent who needed almost no help to achieve whatever sound they could imagine. I've also had students who had to work really hard to get anywhere. The students who succeed the most are those with both work ethic and talent. Many promising talented individuals squander it by being lazy or thinking they don't need to try as hard. I know a couple kids with perfect pitch. They are pretty good at music, but one is a truly amazing player and the other is stuck at being slightly above intermediate forever. One is a keyboard player and he often cannot adjust if he hears/remembers something slightly wrong or is told to change or alter something from the first time he heard it. His perfect ability to mimic what he hears keeps him from understanding how it actually works. His ego gets in the way of actually studying music and improving. The other plays guitar... he takes everything home and breaks it down and puts it back together and studies the theory and practices the parts over and over until he really gets it. He is about 16 and probably could already get work as a pro session player. Both have innate ability and one excels because he is willing to keep trying past what comes naturally.

[caleblange-yates]

I suck. I'll probably always kinda suck compared to most drummers who have been playing as long as I have.


But I have fun playing, so I'm not going to stop playing, and I won't compare myself to others in a derogatory fashion. My goal is only to be better than I was yesterday.

[kicksnarehats]

I increasingly feel that saying something like "you are incredibly talented" is almost insulting ... it diminishes everything that goes into mastering a craft or art.

[OogaBoga]

Thanks, Nate. I really needed this today. You're a good dude for having and conveying such a healthy attitude and approach to music.

[matrixate]

I failed prealgebra, twice. Years later, I got degrees in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy. For me, it was interest, attitude, and discipline. Then again, I was introduced to the piano at 12 along with my sisters. They were a couple years younger than me. I excelled faster than they did. I compose and make digital music. I can hear the melody somehow, where they apparently can't. I believe it has partly to do with interest.


By the way, great transitions. Very easy to watch. I think you hit the nail on the head with the production flow.

[bigcarrot]

I loooove the drumming between transitions! Brilliant

[zenkenten]

Musical talent ABSOLUTELY exists. When given the same starting point, information and practice time, some students WILL progress faster than others. In over 20 years of teaching; I’ve seen how cognitive ability, physical ability, auditory ability, and passion all contribute to musical development. We each come to the table with varying amounts of these components ...and they can change over time. Use your strengths to help overcome any weaknesses. Try to define your goals so that they are your friends and not your tormentors. If you can enjoy your musical journey (and help others enjoy their‘s), you win! Thank you for the intriguing video!

[highvibee]

Feels like you are speaking to me personally and I totally egress.

[guitarsANDcars]

Greatest drumming channel ever. You speak to my drumming soul

[arpeggiomeister]

This video addresses a struggle that I have dealt with for many years. I will not mince words or avoid certain areas to coddle people from the truth. We musicians have a tendency to measure ourselves against others with our musical proficiency. The title of the video asks a specific question: Is musical talent a myth? Are some people born with a gene or special abilities that make them inherently more proficient then others. The answer is an emphatic Absolutely!!! If you are not born with this gift should you quit music? That is a separate question and I think he does a great job of addressing it. I will demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that "talent" is not a myth. I will let you folks decide the second question for yourselves.

I am a heavy metal guitarist. I grew up in the 80s and "shred metal" was all the craze. There is a song by Racer X called "Scarified" which is an amazing display of technical ferocity. I have been practicing 4+ hours a day since I was 13 years old. I am now 45. The outro lick to this song is something I struggle with to this day. There is a video of an 11 year old boy by the name of Anton Oparin who plays this to perfection. For anyone who doubts that talent is a myth, this kid simply has not been alive long enough to put in the kinds of hours that I have put into the instrument. His technical skills are beyond mine. His pick technique is flawless. Talent is the only explanation for this. I am no slouch. I have skills and I worked very hard to attain them. I work on this stuff to this day. At 11 years old he has mastered something I have spent a lifetime trying to conquer.


Is it unfair? Should I just give up? These are hard questions to answer. I have struggled with those questions but something inside keeps driving me. If your quest is to be the best then you are setting yourself up for disappointment and failure. Even if you managed to become the best there is always someone out there looking to knock you off of that spot. Be the best that you can be. Joe Satriani is one of my favorite guitarists. Compared to other guitarists in this genre his technical skills are middle of the road and yet he found his voice and is one of the most recognized guitarists of all time. He is a legend... ...and yet he is not even close to being the "best". For me, this is the answer. Find your voice. You don't have to be the best. Just be the best you that you can be. After all, what more can you expect from yourself. If you work at your craft others will enjoy it. It doesn't matter if you express yourself with 8th notes or 64ths, it is where you take the audience with those notes that matters.

[caffeineadvocate]

Wrote a big huge long paper about this during my time at Berklee. We drew a lot of the same "conclusions". It really is an interesting discussion, but a very difficult thing to study or quantify.

One thing I will add, that you alluded to briefly, is that practice doesn't make perfect. PERFECT practice makes perfect -- and it takes a person with drive, knack, 'it' .. whatever you want to call it -- to want to achieve whatever musical greatness is to them. So, yeah... a little bit of everything, eh?

Good talk. Thanks for the brain food, man.

[chrishaigh]

I reckon the more proficient someone becomes the less talented they think they are as they notice how many more hours it takes to have any perceivable progress. So a lot of these "walls" that musicians hit are absolutely natural. Just keep going. Practice hard, trust and enjoy the process.

[livegroove]

Well.. All I know is that as a music instructor who teaches all ages, I see many people work extremely hard only to accomplish what other students do almost effortlessly. I see kids whose fine motor skill are developed much more than other kids their age. There's a theory that babies who don't go through the crawling stage and just go right to walking don't delevelope the fine motor skills in their hands as the ones who crawl for months. I've seen people with a much better l sense of rhythm than others.. I had one guy who just could not understand the idea of accenting two and four. He even asked me if there are people who are just A-rhythmic.. So I don't know, but working with kids in particular has me pretty convinced that you're born with a lot of the musical talent. Or at least it gets developed at a very very young age.

[brucebrooker]

Make music. Don't think. Don't imperialistically impose yourself upon something that is defenceless and in your care.

[drumsonly]

I really enjoy your philosophical, analytical videos. Your channel is in my top 3 all-time favorite music instruction channels on the net. You go outside the boundaries of drum wisdom to other areas of mind and heart of a drummer/musician.

[mdp]

I always smile at the” you’re so lucky you can play an instrument “ statement

[drummer]

Wow. Almost 3 years on and I can’t believe how slow the pacing for this video was and how low my energy was. The algorithm really used to boost practically anything back in the day

[Kjodienda]

Thank you Nate. I think there are few of us who have not struggled with this issue at one time or another. Regardless of what we do for a living, some of us are naturally gifted in that we have an innate ability to transform our thoughts into actions. Some of us make the most of this ability, while some of us squander this gift. Master Drummer and educator, John Riley, tells us that the “gifted”…”spend countless hours and years refining their craft by practicing the things they cannot do simply because that process is the thing they find most enjoyable in life. That is THE GIFT.”
And it is with this attitude that you must go forward. Whatever you do, don’t constantly compete to see if you can match chops – be it your idol or nemesis. There will always be somebody better than you - or any of us for that matter - on any given day. Instead, when observing another drummer’s performance, take the opportunity to learn from it. I have never attended any type of function or performance where I didn’t walk away with some new nugget of wisdom. Find satisfaction in being the best YOU can be...

[forrestkimpel]

I love that you are doing a video about this. All I know is if I can make ppl move then it's like one of the most satisfying things about life.

I love the positivity that you and Rob Brown put into the world.