Members boxorox Posted January 13, 2009 Members Share Posted January 13, 2009 Used to play with a guy, and a lot of youngsters, well, he'd say, "Me and Boxo did our practicing 15 years ago." Well, to some extent, that's right. If you've laerned your instrument and disciplined yourself, you don't have to learn anything new. You only have to apply what you kow to new circumstances. Never did agree with him. There's always something more to achieve, something more to learn. You have to put in a lot of woodshedding. If you can't see there's more to achieve, if you stop learning, if you don't think you can be better, then jump of a cliff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ctoddrun Posted January 13, 2009 Members Share Posted January 13, 2009 Used to play with a guy, and a lot of youngsters, well, he'd say, "Me and Boxo did our practicing 15 years ago." Well, to some extent, that's right. If you've laerned your instrument and disciplined yourself, you don't have to learn anything new. You only have to apply what you kow to new circumstances. Never did agree with him. There's always something more to achieve, something more to learn. You have to put in a lot of woodshedding. If you can't see there's more to achieve, if you stop learning, if you don't think you can be better, then jump of a cliff. ...sort of. MY style is always going to be evolving and practice is the way for me to do that. But look at ANY pro with a instantly identifiable style... BB King, Stevie, Eddie, on and on. You could argue that they found their voice on the instrument and left it at that. Then you look at pros like Steve Lukather, Trevor Rabin, Steve Morse, etc. Those are the guys that never stop learning, but if I played you a snippet of one of their songs you were unfamiliar with, could you name the player? I'd bet no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Micky Z Posted January 14, 2009 Members Share Posted January 14, 2009 practice is for people who lack confidence... Practice is for people who want to enhance their confidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GreenAsJade Posted January 14, 2009 Members Share Posted January 14, 2009 There's a thread about this exact article and the "talent" thing over inThe Singer's Forum To summarise: there's a claim that this article tells us that talent is a myth. I think it's conclusively pointed out that this is neither supported by the article, nor even true. It's important not to loose sight of the fact that "talent" is a measure of how readily someone learns a skill. "He is talented" means "he is able to learn this skill with comparatively little work". It does NOT mean "he is good at this skill", though people mistake it that way. A talented person still has some work to do to be good at a skill, AND a person with "less talent" (IE less natural ability to learn this skill quickly) can still be good at it, just with more work. When you understand this distinction, the whole argument looks pretty silly. There was another accompanying claim - that the article proves that anyone can be great at something with enough work. Once again, the article doesn't say that, and neither is it true. What _IS_ true is that "I'm not talented" is not an excuse for not putting the effort in. GaJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blackknight Posted January 15, 2009 Members Share Posted January 15, 2009 The Outliers book is particularly interesting in that it argues that all great achievers are set up for success by more than just fortunate genetics - it helps to be born to the right parents but it helps even more to be born into the right place, at the right time. Bill Gates just happened to attend the right high school at the right time, so he could get access to that computer (which was rare in the late 1960s). One aspiring lawyer had the misfortune of being born in the 1910s - by all accounts he had all the talent and work ethic to become a great lawyer, but it was a horrible time for him to hit the job market, just after the Great Crash of 1929 - his kid was far more successful, entering law school at a time the population had been depleted by WWII, so less competition... I'm glad you brought this book up, as I was going to...just read it on my Kindle and it was very eye-opening. When I saw the comment about the age of the article, my first thought was "Outliers said the same thing, and it's a recent bestseller." (I'm also glad I read the rest of the thread before posting my initial reaction.) I HIGHLY recommend the book by the way, for anyone interested in this topic...very easy/pleasant to read, not at all dry/academic. The Beatles example was one that particularly stood out to me...I had no idea that they had put in so much time playing in Hamburg...literally 8-hour gigs for multiple days in a row, and that went on for weeks at a time, and happened multiple times...think about what that would do for you, individually and as an ensemble! (entertaining aside: it was in strip clubs apparently) It reminds of several times I've heard newly-successful people make fun of their "overnight success"...usually by pointing out that it's taken them decades to achieve it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RupertB Posted January 15, 2009 Members Share Posted January 15, 2009 Yeah, Michael Jordan, who was known for practicing basketball hours on end, sure had poor self confidence. One of the reasons MJ practiced for hours on end during his highschool days was the fact that he was cut from the basketball team at Laney HS as a sophomore. Even as a junior, he was good but by no means the best player on the court. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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