Author: ken
Date: 2004-05-31 20:46
To me, the subject of natural born talent is a separate issue but since it's been touched on ... in over 30+ years in my corner of music I've worked with many musicians I considered gifted; two blood nephews of Pearl Bailey immediately come to mind. However, the ones that seemed less talented generally became more successful, not from a perceived lack of natural ability but from an "inherent" drive for success, positive attitude, love of the craft and unrelenting work ethic. With seemingly less talent these players rose the ladder with less education and connections then their contemporaries of the silver spoon variety. They got more phone calls (better sales people), more efficiently networked themselves (better business people) and landed higher paying gigs and exposure with bigger name groups and artists (better players).
On the other side of the fence, I've known my share who had so much natural talent and family money it leaked out of their ears and pockets, however, they most often had miserably poor work ethics, flat out lazy, and often squandered their talent refusing to practice relying on it to squeak through gigs and recording contracts. They had an affinity toward self-destruction with some becoming failures, not evolve as a person and ultimately quitting their horn for good, or going into another field. The best jazz alto saxophonist I ever heard in my life (Bird-Cannonball caliber) drives a garbage truck full-time in Chattanooga, TN.
Natural born talent is not the only path to success. I believe a case can readily be made for a "whole person concept". And, ALL method books are valuable tools in achieving a means to an end, but not the definitive course of action. Becoming proficient and/or mastering the art of improvisation is a life long journey that must clearly be experienced in real world musical situations. A beginning instrumentalist of any idiom must strive to join and play in a group with others (or in jazz improv at least buy MM1 books and play along). v/r Ken
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