Quality Music - Skill or Talent?

**edard2002** · 04-17-2003

skill without talent simply cannot be creative.

talent without skill is impotent, and frustrated.

Quality music is made by folks who had the talent to *hear*, and then the *drive* to work on attaining *skill*

Quality music happens at the junction where talent and skill meet.

**nullex** · 04-17-2003

somewhat going against my previous statement, i completely agree with edard2002; very eloquently and accurately put.

**duder** · 04-28-2003

lets put it this way,

with out some technical skill, your creativity and talent goes no where.

technical skill is the gateway to your creativity that helps give it direction and shape.

what is to say that any one of us does not have the creativity of lets say: jimi hendrix? or i could be the reincarnation of mozart. if jimi hendrix did not have technical skill and some understanding of music, what good would his creativity been?
i think we are all born with some form of creativity, how we learn, what we learn and when we learn "skill" is how that creativity is expressed. For example, a teacher who has compassion and patience for a child has just as much creativity as a musician, its just routed towards something differant.

THE Beauty of music is that it is so mathametical and systematic in one hand, but in the other, its all creativity.

**nullex** · 04-28-2003

Originally posted by duder

THE Beauty of music is that it is so mathametical and systematic in one hand, but in the other, its all creativity.

very eloquently put.

**theblue1** · 04-29-2003

(I haven't read the whole thread... Lord Thalbridge's first post in the thread got me thinking so hard I had to respond off the top.)

With regard to (seemingly) inborn talent and learned skill:

I've known fabulous musical technicians who began playing when they were wee ones, who could play multiple instruments, could play anything they saw written down and suss out whatever they heard -- but who still had no appreciable passion for the music they played. It was just something they were good at that pleased other people so they kept on doing it... for as long as it got them approbation, money, or lovers.

And I've known other people who had to struggle to learn every lick... who had to drill like soldiers to learn how to play in steady time, who started out not being able to tell whether a given tone was higher or lower than another tone... and who remained completely "dyslexic" when it came to reading standard musical notation...

Oh, wait... that last one is me. (And a bunch of other people I've known.) In fact, I was officially certified by my elementary school music teacher (ah, the 50s when they actually had money for art and music in grade school) as completely and utterly without any discernible musical talent.

When I tried to use a pitch pipe to tune the guitar I saved up for when I was 13, I was completely lost. I had NO CLUE WHATSOEVER whether the guitar note was above or below the pitch pipe. I simply couldn't interpret whether the sound was higher or lower. (Happily, one of the guys in my cousin's bluegrass band showed me how to do relative tuning -- it was much easier for me to hear the relative high/lowness when comparing one guitar string to another.) I drilled and drilled, learning the 6 'important' chords in the key of G... I almost got so I could change between them fairly quickly. But I couldn't make it sound like music and after the better part of a year I gave up.

Even though I loved music and felt like I ought to be able to play, I started believing that teacher back in elementary school was right.

It wasn't until, as a "failed college poet" at the age of 20 in the early 70s that I tried again (on the same guitar, which had developed a pretty serious bow by then). By then I was roommates with an accomplished guitarist (who's now a big time engineer specializing in advertising music but who's also got som major label credits to his name). He was deeply into the CSNY style acoustic thing and lent me his '62 Strat to fumble around on.

When I told him about my earlier attempt to learn and heard me try to play he said... you don't hear it, do you? And I said, hell no... when I play it doesn't sound like music to me. He said "me either" and said, "look, here are the chords to the middle part of Neil Young's "Down by the River" (Em and A7)... just keep playing them back and forth, over and over, until it sounds like music to you. And keep the volume down so I don't have to hear it."

It took weeks, literally, weeks of just playing those two chords but one day, faintly, it kind of sounded like music...

I still can't read music (except to parse it out) and it wasn't until I got a simple drum machine (after I'd been playing almost ten years) that I finally was able to get a steady sense of rhythm -- but I think I've got a pretty good feel... and, if my playing is far from perfect I think it does have some passion. (Reasonable minds may differ...

)

[Some far from perfect guitar playing from a guy certified as having no musical talent whatsoever.

]

PS... I do think you have to have passion about music. For me, learning to play was such an incredible struggle (ongoing) that without a burning desire to make music I could never have gotten past those first two chords...

**jingle** · 05-01-2003

Music is an art that is different for everybody, the art that you make is based on your life, thats all there is to it. If you like basketball you work hard at it to improve. If you love basketball you live it. If you like hip-hop you work at it, if you love hip-hop you live it, its not inherited, hip-hop wasnt in your parents genes
being athletic is inherited 90% of the time, but being able to open the horizons doors within ones mind is the key, its feelings
and being CREATIVE with them in a way that people can relate with. I dont want to hear about your rims, that isn't talent you dont hear eminem talking about rims, and all his money, he talks about his life, NAS talks about life 2-pac talked about life thats 3 of the lyrical guiness's of all time, 3 of the BEST you dont remember songs about rims,cars,money,boats,jewelery, no people you remember songs that you can relate with, the ones that send the chill down your spine, the poetry.
To many mc's wanna be like some-one else,its all about your perspectives on life, if people dont feel what your sayin then you get shunned, i have love for anyone that loves music, so i guess the answer to your question is: No your not born with it ,you learn to love it, then and only then do you learn how to use it

**Gate'** · 05-02-2003

You can do anyting you put your mind to, but that means you have to really want to do it. Take me for example I spend almost every spare moment working on something that has something to do with music. Even while I'm at work....like right now

**djfullshred** · 05-02-2003

Originally posted by Gate'
Take me for example I spend almost every spare moment working on something that has something to do with music. Even while I'm at work....like right now

LOL. Same here. I wonder how many of us that don't do music for their jobs make or study music instead of their jobs.