How important is musical talent?

The Lounge General Discussion
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In some other thread @TobySD wrote an interesting reply to some daft joke I made about not having the talent to pull off a one-man live performance thing.

I found the topic interesting, but didn’t want to derail that thread, hence this new one.

I actually have no clue how important an innate talent is for developing a person’s musical skills. If someone told me a talented person could progress more on, say, the guitar, in 1 year than an untalented one could in 10, I’d probably accept that at face value. Then again, I’d probably also accept the claim that talent would only be relevant if the goal is to be one of the world-class experts at a specific instrument or musical skill. I really have no sense of perspective on this at all. Thoughts anyone?

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personally I think it’s about having (or if you start early enough developing) an ‘ear’ - the essential thing is being able to determine and evaluate with some form of accuracy what you are doing - if you cannot determine then there’s no discrimination between a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ note. I think listening to the best ‘music’ - the essential thing is listening for some kind of intent within the writer/composer. Without an ‘ear’ that can determine what you’re doing - things tend to verge towards randomness or pure accident which while interesting perhaps during the 1950’s is unlikely to interest contemporary audiences.

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Regarding music, taste is way more important than talent.
You don’t need any talent at all to make decent music, though it obviously makes it easier.

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always reminds me of this :

Vc5x477
Vc5x477503×764 76.1 KB

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That’s spot on.

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having a good ear is the “main” musical talent required, i think.
knowing theory is nice, but also can slow down the process of actually creating a track…
practice is also a key.
staying focused (and maybe also sober) and doing the “work”
to get good tracks and sounds is not easy for many, with or without
musical talent.

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I think there’s an issue with definition, and also subjectivity, if we talk about talent in a musical setting. Are we talking about innate ability to take to something, or are we talking about a level of skill acquired through hard work? What about the role of creativity? Isn’t the quality of the musical outcome largely (entirely?) subjective? The more I think about it, the harder it is to define what talent actually is

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I think talent is a stepping stone, some have an innate tendency to understand or hear harmonics and can more audibly discern between harmony and dissonance, other might have an inate talent for rhythm. I think there’s a whole myriad of different talents that can woven into being musical…

With that said having a talent is just having a slight advantage starting out. Like other stated the main ingredient is practice and perseverance… there are no shortcuts…

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The thing is there are some people who get really good with very little practice because they have a natural talent for that thing, others spend a lifetime of hard work getting competent. I have a couple of friends who have annoyingly good aptitude when it comes to learning new things and although they practice the progression is far faster.

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If you have a load of money and want to make drones and abstract noises on modular gear to post on the internet - zero

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You have to be good, talented.

You can practice all day and learn something. That doesn’t mean it’ll be special. It just means you can do it.

But no matter how good or special you are, there’s always someone less good and special who works harder than you. They usually get the gold star.

With that, talent and hard work are keys to “success”

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On a few occasions in interviews Autechre have claimed the reason they’re successful is not their programming but their taste, and I kind of think that’s true.

Problem is, how do you know if you have good taste, and if you don’t, how do you improve it?

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Read The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. I’m sure you’ll love it.

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And maybe your friends think “damn, that digimatt has a real way with words, I wish I was that witty and fast to come up with a good retort”.

I think we all have talents in one way or form. It all comes down to everyone being wired differently…

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Where creativity is a big factor, perseverance might not be enough.

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No that’s true, practicing and preserving is all about discipline and forcing oneself… and creativity withers under forced labour…

Creativity I think is a whole other discussion though… creativity and talent are not the same thing.

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I tend to agree with @TobySD and the above comic. I don’t think such thing as talent exists. Nobody is born somehow gifted to reach amazing heights in any profession. Anyone can reach basically anything they set their mind to.

I base this mainly on my own experiences of becoming an illustrator and comic book artist. I had zero talent when I decided in the 90s that I wanted to draw comics for a living but I started to draw and mimic my favourite artists’ styles. After maybe a year or two of constant drawing and practice I’d say that I became kind of good at it. It took countless hours of practice to learn to draw and to develop my own style and ”voice”.

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I think this is a classic nature vs nuture discussion…

I personally believe more in the nuture argument.

my belief is simply:
we are born a blank canvas, but our mind is very mallable, and immediatly starts forming paths - by our environment.

so when we start to intentionally ‘learn’ things, we are not blank anymore … and some things come a little easier (e.g music?) and some harder (maths?) … and its different for us all.
but what then happens is reinforcement…
things we find easier, we perhaps enjoy more, due to ‘success’, so we do more (practice!), so get better.

at some point we hit a plateau… but I think, if you enjoyed ‘success’ early, you’re more likely to push on.

of course, there are lots of other factors…
a good teacher, your peers, or family might help motivate you more
(e.g. your parents being into music, are likey to encourage you more?)
also environmental factors… e.g. practicising facilities at school/home.

as you get older of course, your mind is not as malleable any more, so it gets harder…
but you have the benefit of learning experience (e.g. you know the way you learn best)

so yeah… no natural talent, just many factors that might give a head start on that practice curve…

but talent is earned :slight_smile:

also what is ‘musical talent’?
Im not sure someone who can play (eg.) a violin is necessarily going to have a huge headstart in ‘making beats’, nor vice versa. except perhap technical skills (music theory), which is kind of not what we are referring to i think as ‘talent’… would they have ‘an ear’ for it… if they only listened to classical music?

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That’s where definition is an issue. Creativity is a massive part of musical talent, at least in the realm most of us are part of

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It all starts with practice. Even if you are blessed with “talent” you will need lots of practice to realize it.

I think it’s very important to be driven. To grow as a musician, you need to have intellectual curiosity to try new things and practice things that aren’t easy. You’ll need to study stuff you don’t already know. All of this takes lots of internal drive and motivation. It should really feel like you’re doing something that you NEED to do.

Taste is important too. You have to have empathy with the listener to produce something they would want to hear, even if it’s something they don’t innately know they want. Music isn’t just about trying to impress people with how “talented” you are.

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