[mikestew]

The relatives of Jimi Hendrix have mentioned how l’il James would “spend hours playing scales”. People want to play like Jimi, but forget (or don’t know) how he went from James to Jimi. “He was talented”, thereby excusing themselves of the hard work it takes not to suck. Jimi might have been born with a little of it, but I’ll bet hard work made up the majority of his “talent”.

Point is, of the things I’m good at, none of them was something I was just born doing well at. Some things come easier than others, but none come naturally. I’ve worked hard at everything I’m good at (even if it was so much fun it didn’t seem like work) , and I just assume the next thing I try will take just as much work. So don’t get frustrated, just assume if it’s worth learning then it will take effort. Otherwise everyone would do it. :-)

[sincerely]

I think i'm going to have to disagree. For every Jimi Hendrix, there are hundreds if not thousands of people who put in the work and end up as uncredited studio musicians or releasing albums on bandcamp that only get bought as ratio buffer for someone on a private tracker.

[mikestew]

No disagreement, as you’re looking at the business end, upon which talent and hard work often have little bearing. I think that people who buy a guitar want to play like Hendrix, not headline stadium tours. And that’s what I’m talking about: if you want get good on an instrument, you’re going to have to pick it up and do the grunt work.

If you want to get good at the music business, as you imply, well that’s another discussion entirely.

[DarkTree]

Oh of course, I exactly agree with this, but I think the gap between beginner and Hendrix being filled by deliberate practice is extremely paralyzing for people. I have learned to have confidence in the process. Once you spend years learning a skill and notice that over time you do actually get better because of that persistence, it's kind of a magic realization. Armed with that mindset, you can start learning a skill like guitar knowing that, no, you probably won't be good in a month, but if I stick with it for a few years I'll probably sound pretty decent.

[mikestew]

(Sorry for the delay, I’ve commented so much in the past day, this got buried.)

but if I stick with it for a few years I'll probably sound pretty decent.

Thats the frustrating thing with music, both as a beginner and one helping the beginner get started. I’ve been playing mandolin for about two years, almost every day, and i’m just now starting to get to be what I’d call “kinda good”. Meaning I can sit in just about jam, and if they stay in major keys I can keep up even on songs I don’t know, might even improv a decent solo. So on the one hand, I’d say to the beginner, “if you sit down six days a week for thirty minutes of deliberate practice, you can’t help but get decent after a year or two. I’d argue that it’s almost unavoidable.”

But what the beginner hears is, “I’ve gotta do scales for two years before I have any fun.” Which isn’t true, but if your standard is Hendrix I guess that’s what you hear.