Re: [Harp-L] Virtuosity




On Oct 19, 2004, at 10:20 AM, Pierre wrote:


To me a natural talent in the context of music is someone with a rare gift
for music. I would say Stevie was a natural talent given that he released
his first CDs at the age of 12. Now I don't really know if it was talent or
just that he played 18 hours a day for 6 years.

Probably the latter. As my wife is oft to say "What's a (insert category here) to do?" example: one night while watching a very good harp player, I exclaimed how amazing he was. Mama Cass "the live one", said "Look at him. Couldn't get a date, played the harmonica in all that spare time".

Here is a definition of virtuoso I found on the net:


When I say virtuoso I mean: "supreme mastery or skill" from the above
definition. A virtuoso by definition (IMO) is very very rare, no more than
50 in the world in this century. I am not sure Adler is a virtusoso nor am I
sure that Stevie is not. Probably neither of them are (see reasons below). I think I got a bit
carried away when I listened to my new Adler CD.

I don't think you got carried away at all. Virtuoso has been mis-used and abused for too long. It's like the word STAR. It used to be in Vaudeville that one of the acts was considered the headliner. Someone tacked a star on that performer's dressing room door. NOW, as soon as you are the lead performer in ANYTHING, some yahoo tacks star status on you.

Which probably means a virtuoso must be so far above the rest, that nobody
can play (or even tries to play) at their level for years to come.

Now you got it. And as far as the word "mastery", no one has , as yet, mastered the harmonica. It is still "open range".

Sorry about the generalisations, I tend to do that sometimes. I used to have
a friend who would call me on it, but I don't work with him anymore so I
think I'm getting bad again.

Maybe your friend had lower standards than you did. So why let him keep you "good" and why would his being missing equate to you turning bad? I like the way your brain works as it is. Don't change.
smokey-joe

Thanks,


Pierre






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