How do we define talent?
How is this word used and what is talent really?
Take a minute to think about it (or 2… it’s not that simple!).
First the easy part: I opened the dictionary and the definition of talent is: “natural aptitude or skill”. An aptitude we would have by birth then. Ok, so what natural aptitude do we really have as humans? At birth, has anyone ever been able to naturally play beautifully the violin, paint a masterpiece, or play tennis like a pro? Of course not. I can only think of one thing we do naturally: breathing (I have a cousin who could wiggle his ears too, but that’s another story). For everything else, we need to practice. It’s not before a couple of years of practice to control your sphincter that your mom would let you crawl around without your diapers. Even walking, which probably feels like a natural skill you have, was really not. It took you at least a few months of falling miserably on your butt before you could make daddy and mommy proud.
As a professional, everyday I meet musicians I could easily consider more talented than me. The reality is, only about 10% of them might actually be more talented, and we’ll see where that number comes from in a moment.
Let’s look at three examples when we qualify someone as talented:
1. To sell
Try this: open a music magazine or a festival program, and count how many times you read this musician is “talented”, or “one of the most talented” or simply “the most talented of his/her generation”. Journalists, booking agents etc… receive emails and press kits by the hundreds weekly (if not daily) and all of them present with great excitement the most talented musician of all times. So the word talent here is used to sell an artist, either to the audience or to a professional. And literally every single musician is on a regular basis described as “one of the most talented [instrument of your choice]”. Clearly an overused adjective to which I give zero value in that context, and so should you.
2. To be supportive
I remember when I was a kid struggling my way through the tune Harlem Nocturne. When my parents had friends visiting, I was often asked to entertain them (which I didn’t particularly enjoy). Each time I was surprised to hear everybody praising me for being such a talented young boy. I was thinking “I have spent hours and hours for this miserable result, why the heck are they saying such an idiotic thing, don’t they know any better?!?”. I knew my tone was horrible, I had no technique, my articulation was approximative to say the least. Simply put, I was playing the saxophone slightly better than a goat would (some would say the same of me today). I knew I was light years from my idols such as Cannonball Adderley, Coltrane, or Miles.
Probably my parents and their friends genuinely thought I was talented, but the mediocre performance they had just witnessed was the fruit of hours of practicing, certainly not from any natural skill! They were being supportive and indeed, they didn’t know any better, but we can’t hold that against them.
3. Excuse
Finally, talent, or the lack thereof, can be used as an excuse for not doing something: “I stopped playing the guitar after 3 months, I had not talent at all”.
I mentioned earlier that for all the people you could think of being more talented than you, it is true for about 10%. You are as “talented” as 90% of the professional musicians.
Several researches about musical talent have shown why. Professor John Sloboda conducted in 1992 a research about musical talent. He and his team studied 257 young musicians who had studied music in the UK, where there is a grade system from 1 to 8. The researchers divided the students into five groups:
Group A: high level students training in a music college to become professionals.
Group B: good level students but didn’t get into music college.
Group C: serious students but decided not to pursue a music career.
Group D: students learning an instrument for fun but didn’t consider going pro.
Group E: students who had given up learning an instrument.
The easy conclusion would be that group A is more talented than group B, which is more talented that group C and so on. Indeed, group A students did get through grades faster than group B students: in 3.5 years, group A students achieved grade 3 while group B students achieved grade 2.
However, researchers found out that no matter what group they were in, every students needed the same average amount of hours of practice to pass a grade exam: 200 hours to go from grade 1 to 2, 800 hours from grade 6 to 7, and a grand total of over 3000 hours to reach grade 8. The researchers discovered that group A students practiced much more, with regularity, discipline, perseverance and organization to become better musicians. They started practicing 30 minutes a day, to an hour a day by the fourth year. Other students started practicing less than 30 minutes a day and/or did not increase their time spent to practice.
Conclusion: the more you practice, the more talented you become!
It is generally accepted that 10.000 hours of practice is what one needs to achieve a professional level in any skill. That is 4 hours a day for 7 years. One can actually reach a professional level in quite a few different disciplines!
The researchers found another category of students. In each group they found students who spent considerably less time practicing than the other students and yet reached the same level. Why are they not all in group A? Are they more talented than the other but just lazy? Some perhaps had actually a natural ability to “understand” music but didn’t have the passion to nurture it. For the most part, the answer is they probably practiced more effectively.
There are 2 ways of practicing: ordinary practice and deliberate practice.
Ordinary practice is basically practicing what you already know.
Deliberate practice means you are practicing something challenging and you spend time to improve your skill.
Deliberate practice is not typically fun, implies practicing something very specific with a lot of repetition. But this is what will allow you to control your instrument and eventually have more fun and freedom.
So what is it to be “musically talented”? Not even the greatest musicians were born and instantly played an instrument or composed a masterpiece. Take your favorite musician or composer, the one you judge the best of all times. You have something in common with that person: both of you needed to be taught your instrument and both of you have practiced. One probably more than the other though.
In my opinion, talent is a natural attraction to an activity and a strong will to work hard to improve the necessary skills to master that activity. While I was naturally attracted and fascinated by music, my older brother had absolutely no interest in this, and it turns out I have very little interest in his passion for hunting. My younger sister played the piano for a while, but she preferred to play outside with her friends rather than staying in and practice alone for hours.
I didn’t have any natural ability for music, I didn’t even have particularly exceptional grades, but I had the passion that gave me the will to practice for hours and overcome this lack of “natural skill”.
So you know what you got to do now! Practice, practice and practice. Set up goals, organize your practice time, do more deliberate practice than ordinary.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic, feel free to share your comments, ideas or questions below.
Recommended books on the subject: Why You Love Music: From Mozart to Metallica — The Emotional Power of Beautiful Sounds by John Powell. This is your brain on music: the science of a human obsession by Daniel Levitin
Who is Alex Terrier?
Alex Terrier is a French musician based in New York who has been associated with Kenny Barron, George Garzone, Grammy Award winning Mingus Big Band and many more.
He is hailed by Dave Liebman as “a very impressive saxophonist and composer”.
I, too, play tennis, and fairly well, and I teach sometimes. I am a high level expert skier, and teach all winter. For both things, along with the saxophone, I am not making my living from these things. So the prime driver is ENJOYMENT. The problem with ‘talent’, and the comparisons that go with it, is that it diminishes the enjoyment. Alex is right that we want to be the best ‘our self’ that we can. When the work becomes a burden, we need to drop that load, and do something else. If it’s a permanent form of oppression, then we must give up.
Hi Alex
it is all so true what you write. It is an eye-opener. It may give me a slight bad conscience – I could practice more but I have to prioritize as I have other hobbies that I like to fulfill as well. I probably play saxophone better than a goat, I probably play tennis like an amateur. In both cases I want to achieve to become a better amateur going for deliberate training and practicing. I listen with pleasure to Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Buddy Tate, Alix Combelle, etc. and would be delighted to reach just a good fraction of what they perform.
Hey Finn!
I confirm you play much better than a goat! I play tennis as well so perhaps we’ll have the chance to meet on a court one day!
if you want to improve, the key is regularity and deliberate practice, even if it’s 30min everyday, it will be better than a few hours here and there.
I remember when I was a kid I thought the same thing, if I could play even half as good as Charlie Parker I’d be happy. But the thing is, it doesn’t make much sense to be half as good as someone else. the goal is to be the best yourself!
Bonjour Alex,
Merci pour cet article très clair et inspirant.
Il me fait réfléchir sur mes difficultés personnelles : je n’arrive pas à maintenir ma motivation car je bute sur des difficultés extérieures. Ex : je ne peux pas répéter chez moi, je dois faire des kms pour rejoindre ma salle de répétition -quand elle est libre car je ne suis pas seule à l’utiliser- et je ne peux pas m’y enregistrer avec mon pc portable car il n’y a pas de réseau.
Je me laisse envahir par ces difficultés et d’autres tâches à effectuer et au final je n’arrive pas à respecter mon programme.
J’ai perdu l’organisation stricte que j’avais lorsque je travaillais et j’ai tendance à m’éparpiller et me laisser distraire. En fait j’ai un manque de concentration permanent sur mes objectifs.
Cet article m’a permis de réfléchir et de trouver des solutions.
Merci beaucoup.
Bonjour Annie,
je suis content que l’article te soit intéressant.
je comprends les difficultés que tu as et ca doit être très frustrant de ne pas pouvoir travailler autant que tu le voudrais. Concentre toi sur un objectif à la fois, et prépare bien ce que tu veux travailler lors de ta session de travail pour ne pas perdre de temps.
tu peux aussi travailler en silence, les exercices de gammes, arpèges etc… parfois je travaille juste les doigts, sans souffler:
https://jazzvideolessons.net/portfolio-items/3-ways-you-can-practice-anywhere-that-will-boost-your-mastery-of-the-instrument/
Je suis entièrement d’accord avec toi, peu importe l’aptitude à la musique au départ c’est notre pratique, notre travail qui détermine notre place. Je pense que Winton Marsalis avait formulé ça mais je n’ai plus la citation exacte. Je voudrais ajouter que la capacité à travailler des heures et des heures, sans jamais se lasser, c’est pour moi la définition du talent!
Très bel article bien écrit et très clair, comme le sont tes cours. Merci Alex de tout ce que tu fais pour la musique et pour tes élèves (nous)!
Merci Jérôme 🙂
en fait je pense que c’est une position assez partagée par tous ceux qui ont atteint un niveau d’excellence dans tout domaine, ils ont tous travaillé énormément et fait des sacrifices pour arriver là où ils en sont.
l’endurance au travail effectivement fait parti de l’équation. il faut travailler dur mais intelligemment, on peut aussi gaspiller du temps en travaillant des heures de façon inefficace.
Salut Alex !tu m’as interpellé quand tu as dis que tu ne considérais pas avoir de talent ,ce qui à mon avis du reste n’est pas vrais ,mais tous les vrais Artistes sont humble ,et c’est ça qui en fait leur vraie valeur sachant très bien que rien n’est jamais acquit et c’est à mon avis là que se joue le véritable talent ,car un travail acharné même avec du talent mais sans l’intelligence du coeur ne sert jamais la cause en particulier celle du JAZZ qui s’est construit sur un terroir de souffrances .
si on prend la définition du dictionnaire, non , vraiment je n’ai pas un grand talent, je n’ai pas une facilité naturelle pour faire de la musique. D’ailleurs je n’avais pas des notes extraordinaires au conservatoire (j’en ai retrouvé récemment, j’en parlerai dans le futur).
Encore aujourd’hui, je travaille beaucoup. J’ai des amis qui ont besoin de moins travaillé!
Au final, c’est la motivation, la rigueur du travail et la sincérité qui font avancer quoi qu’il arrive!
Good yarn, Alex. It reminded me of a quote from the great jazz drummer, Tony Williams when asked how he attained such skill at such a young age. His reply was, “Work……Work…… Work.” In my experience, being able to hear a phrase in your head and execute it flawlessly is a real talent, of course…that’s just one aspect of musical skill and may I say, my own weakness which I’m working on. It’s like reminding ones self that it’s the journey, not the destination, ie. the art of being perpetually inspired and not allowing frustration to creep in…that’s the tricky aspect ha ha.
yeah Shane, staying inspired can be challenging in the long run, even more when you have to deal with music business…
how about you spend 15 minutes everyday singing a phrase and then playing it? start by singing freely, no changes, no form, just sing a phrase and then play it. start as simple as necessary and complexify as you get used to the exercise. then you can of course do the same on specific chord progressions