“I think [what holds musicians back] is being concerned with what other people think, and a feeling that the people who make great things are somehow special, and that they [themselves] are not special.
And that’s just not true. Everyone has the capability to make great things—and none of us are special.”
Legendary music producer Rick Rubin
Most musicians today are burdened by society’s ideas about “talent” in music. We’ve already touched on this several times so far. And I wanted to begin this short section with that Rick Rubin quote because it captures the slight subtlety we need to be aware of when confronting this issue.
At this stage, science has conclusively proven that there is no such thing as a magical “talent” you need to be born with to accomplish great things in music, and that every impressive high-level musical skill is learnable.
I won’t go into all the scientific research and proof here. That would literally take a book in itself! If you’d like to know more, I highly recommend picking up one of the several pop science books such as “Talent is Over-rated” by Geoff Colvin, “Peak” (by Professor Anders Ericsson, who carried out much of the most significant original research on the topic), or others you’ll find in the Reading List in the Additional Resources. If you’re a podcast listener you might also enjoy my interview with Professor Ericsson where we discussed the truth about “talent”, also linked in the Additional Resources.
For our purposes here, it’s enough to take it as a given that the idea of a magical, mysterious “talent” or having a “gift” for music is simply untrue. If you find yourself skeptical about this, I encourage you to dive into this topic and learn just how clear-cut the research findings are. Or, you can simply “take it for testing” as one of my mentors likes to say, and discover for yourself the truth about your own “talent”, as you start to apply what you’ll learn in this book.
So the science is clear: “talent” is a myth. And yet most people today still believe whole-heartedly in that myth!
It’s easy to see why. The Talent Myth is constantly reinforced by our celebrity culture and media. We put the “greats” up on a pedestal and tacitly imply that those people are a breed apart. The regular person in the street should admire them, but it would be unrealistic to aspire to that level of ability themselves.
It’s also a romantic notion, which appeals to a certain part of our psychology. And that’s where the slight subtlety mentioned above comes in…
When we choose to recognise the scientific reality, and acknowledge that behind every apparent child prodigy or overnight success actually lay an extensive amount of very specific learning and practice, our intention is not in any way to diminish the accomplishments of those “greats”. On the contrary, it’s to fully respect all the effort and expert skill development which let them accomplish their great feats. If anything, it actually makes them even more impressive.
It may be romantic to imagine these heaven-blessed aliens who can do things in music no mere mortal could ever hope to—but I would propose that it’s equally romantic in its own way to imagine all the diligent, devoted, heartfelt toil that went in to turning themselves into the kinds of musicians who seem so other-worldly.
Here’s a suggestion, to help you start ingraining this new mindset, that talent is no more than a myth:
When we see an incredible musician, our default response, ingrained in us by society, may well be to feel intimidated. “Gosh,” we think, “I wish I’d been born with that kind of talent!”. When we accept that talent is just a myth, we can choose instead to feel inspired. “Wow,” we can think, “I can’t wait until I can play like that!”
This simple shift, from “intimidation” to “inspiration”, is a small one. But it will make a profound difference in your musical life.