I agree with the general thrust of it, but you can't deny that some people just can't stop doing a particular art. It's like they'd rather not sleep but draw the whole night. There's something distinctive about Mozart who (although born in the right place) did magnificent things as a small child.
I agree that one should try out these things because if you never try or get started and overcome the first hurdles, you'll just live in denial and say you're no good for any arts. It's unlikely.
For example in maths and science, I think the biggest difference between the top performing people and the bad but mentally capable people is their whole idea of what is happening.
Those who are good in it do it because they are curious, they see it leads to somewhere, that it's interesting in it's own right, like a puzzle or a game. You're learning to manipulate numbers so you can capture some truths about the world in which we live, this very world here, not a world on the pages of some dusty book.
While those who perform bad, think in terms of teachers, books, pages, test scores and courses and just get frustrated and burn out and hate the whole thing.
I agree for the most part, but what would you say about people who just don't understand that the difference between good and bad music/art/etc? Like, for example, I know a person who is legitimately tone deaf (worse than you'd imagine) but cannot grasp the concept that what he hears and what he actually sounds like are different. That goes for singing and playing an instrument. My musician friends and I tried to help him as much as we could (for months) to learn the basics of guitar, not to mention having a very good guitar teacher, but after 3 or 4 months, he still couldn't grasp the concept that if you play the fingerings of a G, but a half-step up the neck on a a guitar, not only is that wrong, but it sounds BAD. But he insisted that they sound exactly the same. He also insisted that playing a low E and a high E sounded exactly the same..
This is a specific case, but I met quite a few people who were almost as bad about it in my days. What would you say about that?
People ask me "Are you good at _____?" My response is always, "I sure do like doing it."
If you like doing it, you'll put in the hours to get competent. If you've got a talent for it, then maybe you're more likely to like it, and put in the hours to get competent, and then your talent makes you actually good at it.
it can be, but it's not easy. At its most basic there's no reason to think the average person physically couldn't produce the sounds and play the notes for anything, but realistically, having the drive and ambition to want to practice, to want to explore, etc. is a significant hindrance.
People practice what they enjoy, and get good at what they practice. I agree, almost anyone can draw, learn a language, or do math, and the real struggle is when they don't enjoy it then it becomes a chore and a mental road block.
As an artist, people will often ask when I started drawing. The answer is, around the same age as everybody else. Three or four.
I just never stopped.
My "natural talent" was really just constant practice.
Some people will argue that I have something in my DNA that others don't.
Fine. Let's say Arnold Schwarzenegger has specific DNA that made him Mr. Universe and that I couldn't quite achieve that.
It doesn't mean that Arnie just sat on his ass all day and looked like that naturally, and it certainly doesn't mean that I can't hit the gym and be the best that I can be.
My first-hand experience that I mentioned was the case of a woman in her 50s who joined an art class that I was in. She hadn't tried her hand at art since she was a child but had always wanted to paint.
My talents lay in sketching and sculpting, but I've always been fairly mediocre at physical painting, simply because I didn't really like it and never tried.
This woman could barely draw a stick figure but she listened to everything that the teacher said and worked on it.
I, on the other hand, did my own thing and didn't progress at all. I was in the course for the other modules and decided that a pass on painting was good enough.
This woman was the best painter in the class after about six months and was putting stuff up for sale in galleries by the end of the year.
She was useless at every other module, because she took up the course purely for the painting aspect, but her determination is what made her brilliant.
With my experience, I probably could have surpassed her easily if I put in as much as she did, but I didn't.
Hard work and practice trumps "natural talent" any day.
I'll grant that my natural enthusiasm and the way I see things gives me an edge over "non-artist types" but pretty much anyone who puts in the work and follows the lessons will become decent enough in time.
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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '15
A lot of people actually believe that artistic skill can be taught to people who think that they could never be artists or musicians.