Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Paul
100% convinced that there are those that have natural musical ability, undeniable examples include the savants that are unable to function on other levels but are obviously "born musicians." I believe it's a continuum with some folks born with no ability to make sense of musical structure, though it's rare. The rest of us fall somewhere in between.
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I broadly agree. Just as there are a tiny minority of savants at one extreme, so there are a tiny minority who suffer from "amusia" at the other - to them, music makes no sense at all, it's just meaningless noise.
For everyone else, music part of being human. It's only a particular kind of cultural upbringing that persuades some that they "can't do it", that to be a musician is a
profession, only open to a certain lucky elite. That if one is not "talented" one may as well not bother. A lot of people seem to like to say they are "tone deaf", and really they're not.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Paul
Imagine a group of 100 motivated beginners all putting in 20 hours of playing per week for a year, all with the same teacher. Does anyone think all players will be at the same level of proficiency after one year?
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I'd say pretty much, yes.
The question would really be in the nature of that motivation. Are they really all
equally motivated - from the beginning and right the way through? If not, why not?
You'd also have to screen for any prior experience. They may be beginners on the instrument, but have they sung before? What is their ear like at the beginning?
Even so, I wouldn't argue that even if you could get a group that all began from exactly the same place, they'd all end up with exactly the same level of skill at the end.
Only two things really bother me:
(1) The way the "talent myth" persuades some that music is not for them at all. That there's a minority who can do it, and a majority who can't. (Celebrity culture, the star system, and the Romantic myth of the artistic genius compounds that.)
(2) The unthinking adulation of those who are good at it, as if they have a magical innate skill, that they were destined to develop. Ask any "talented" person, they will respond with how much work they've put into it. (Not that there is
nothing innate; but whatever may be innate is vanishingly small compared to the training.)
It's not that I expect people to go "wow" at all that work
instead of going "wow" at the innate talent. I don't want anyone to admire me for my hard work, any more than I want them to go starry-eyed at my "God-given talent" (not
).
I'm just impressed by other cultures (African ones in particular) in which everyone is musically active in some way. If they don't actually play an instrument, they all sing, they all join in in group musical activities. There are no "god-given geniuses" in those cultures, but no "tone-deaf" people either. It proves that music is not some special talent only available to a lucky few.
It's quite clear that there
is the kind of variability in all of us that you're describing; that's easy to observe; and maybe that variability is (at least to some degree) innate (although that's often an unwarranted knee-jerk assumption). But it doesn't rule anyone out of the game.