Totally get Andy eagles point , yes people are born with a level of natural aptitude at certain things and maybe are lacking in other things BUT it is no coincidence that the real top guys in any discipline go above and beyond with the hours and discipline to take things to that level , and yes I totally get how u can view people saying u r gifted as an insult if u have worked thousands of hours at it and made huge sacrifices to get there , if I had done that and people went ‘oh lucky him he is so naturally talented and gifted ‘ I would be like ‘ ok Man do u know how hard I have worked ?’
First point is the word ‘gift ‘ is a word used for something someone gets free eg like a Christmas present etc , not really the right word to use for an art that requires thousands of hours to get good at , no one gets good at guitar playing for free ,as we all know from the very start of when we did it , u have to apply yourself , yes u might have a good ear or a great memory , both of which make learning music a lot easier than if u started basically tone deaf and with memory like a sieve
So yes there is a level of natural ability but what does make the cream rise to the very top is the absolute dedication to their craft and on top of that if they are clever enough to figure out the best way to apply all those hours that they are prepared to put in to maximise the outcome , that makes them an even better learning machine
If u haven’t heard of the 10, 000 hour rule , look it up , Malcom gladwell has done an excellent pop pyshcology job on explaining and proving it in real life cases , like the Beatles in Germany getting tight playing solid day after day , bill gates etc etc , the human Brain and body is awesome at getting good at things directly relatable to time spent doing it
Every autobiog book I have read about top athletes / musicans/ business people , the one thing that stands them apart from the masses is time dedicated and ambition to do to. Most of us have balanced lives split across work/family/hobbies etc , and it’s a good balance , also I think a healthy balance , most of these ‘on the cusp’ guys are almost autistic at the levels they can work too on ONE thing , and indeed a lot of the time I don’t think that’s actually that healthy to a ‘rounded’ life to be honest
Eddie van Halen , still sitting on the end of his bed in the same place playing getting guitar when Alex was out partying , people like sammy saying he always has a guitar round his neck .Vito Bratta , saying he would play 8 hours go out and play a show , and then come back and do another 3 hours of practice , Clapton / Slash .. all the stories are the same , endless playing and Practice NOT a gift from god
Ronaldo the footballer , works harder than anyone else , nadal the tennis player all the same story , they know to be the best then they have to put in more hours and practise more Intelligentley than the next guy
So yes u maybe ‘gifted’ a good hand as far as basic fundamentals are but 90% of how far u can go is down to training the Brain and body through hours of application
I always feel strongly on this as when I started playing guitar , I did believe that people had natural gifts, I thought I was just crap at it as I was not ‘gifted ‘ with that talent , something my parents also reinforced in me , they didn’t encourage me , just kept saying maybe it wasn’t for me , try something else your good footballer etc , this was also reinforced by reading the old guitar mags , it always seemed then that it was cool to say u never practised , guitar playing came easy, it etc etc , no one really wanted to admit to the ‘geekiness ‘ of spending hours and hours practising etc
So really as a teenager instead of applying myself just thought I was crap because I didn’t have the gift as it were
Fast forward or mid 30’s and all the life lessons leant along the way and I realised with guitar I had just not bothered trying as much as I should .. I started to want to learn , the better I got , the more I am encouraged to play and the better I feel about my skill , but in my case , never had a good ear to start, the more I put in the more I get out , still limited by time constraints due to other aspects in life , but it’s not rocket science or a mystery thing to me at all anymore .. time in = results and improvement
So as I said really get Andy’s point ,we have had jams at home where people of gone ‘man your so talented at guitar , wish I was that gifted and could do that ‘ and yea it’s a compliment on one way , but yes part of me wants to go ‘ you know how much I have to play and practice to do that ?’ It’s not a gift it’s work .. ask my wife ‘yawn all he does is play his guitar yawn ‘ etc
The one massive gift I have been born with is the ability to comprehend the direct correlation between time spent at something and the rewards that brings , whatever it might be in life , forget gift and talent , hours work applied intelligently to a task = reward
Always makes me laugh at work then vastly overweight people go ‘ oh i cannot lose weight , faulty genes or something , I just look at a lettuce leaf and put on pounds ‘
Yes people are born with a genetic code for such things , but every body is capable of a body weight they so wish dependent upon effort they put in to achieving that , it’s just harder for some than others , some need more work and more will power , same with guitar playing .. most peoples ability level they will get to is directly governed by the ambition and time they have to apply to it ,NOT by any free gift
