[kajecounterhack]

I find that some concepts are slippery to some people, and others are slippery to others, but when you approach a slippery subject and an excellent teacher explains in the right way to you (or a bright peer), it becomes easier to understand. That combined with practice is good enough to fill you in and hard work does indeed compare with prodigy. I don't know if I believe in prodigies -- any piano prodigy I've known has played piano from a young age. Same with math. Practice is everything. Exercise your brain muscle and it gets bigger.

[jacquesm]

True, in piano though (as well as in string instruments) where finger dexterity is very important it really helps if you get this ingrained in your fine motor control at an early age. Simply put you can distinguish someone that has spent 5 years learning to play the piano from age 6 to 11 from someone that learned to do the same thing from age 30 to 35 with ease. Even if you were to stop at age 11 and restart when you're 30 you will probably still be ahead of the pack.

And then there is the 10,000 hour rule to consider:

http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/outliers_excerpt1.html