Re: [Harp-L] Re: Positions etc.

Steve, no doubt. I should have added somewhere that innate talent is clearly a factor. There are some self-help books that claim, "anyone can do anything as long as they set their mind to it". That might be true to a degree, but what these book miss is that there are innate factors that can't be taught. They can be modeled with some limited success, but not truly taught. And that innate factor, not just learning methods, makes a huge difference, sometimes all the difference in the world.

I've seen people pick up languages very quickly, seemingly out of nowhere. Years back I dated a girl whose father spoke 23 languages fluently, something that's beyond the reach of most people. Aside from focusing on it and having language learning a central part of his life (he'd make it his business to learn at least one new language per year - who knows how many he knows by now), he just had the "knack" for it. Obviously, the more languages he knew, the easier it was for him to learn new ones, but he had the knack right off the bat, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten to the point of mastery of even a few languages, within such a short period.

So, yeah, I fully agree with you that we're not all blessed equally. The reason that I don't focus on that is double. A) There's nothing much I can do about it. I've got whatever talent I have, great or little. What good would it do for me to focus on that? It's much more useful to focus on what works and do the best I can. B) There's really no way of knowing what my real limits are. Maybe I suck because I haven't found the method that works for me? Perhaps there are psychological limitations that I place upon myself - for instance, not really letting go and being afraid of giving it my all? This can possibly hinder me a lot more than the limits I have in my innate capabilities.

What I'm attempting to suggest is a method for those who need a method of learning, and can't seem to just pick up music/language out of the air.

Ultimately, I would say, do whatever works for you. If you find a way that works, stick to it!! And share it with others, since they might be similar to you and might benefit out of it.

If, however, what you've been doing hasn't gotten you where you want, find another way. And I was attempting to suggest one alternative.

My basic assumption is: There's Always a Way. You just got to figure it out. At some point your innate talent will set the limit to your success, it might take you much longer than others, or you might not be as good as the best, but you really have no idea what you're capable of doing until you give it your all. Until you get to the point of reaching your innate limit, there's a hell of a lot you can do. I personally don't think music should be a contest. If you love what you do, you express yourself, that's your passion, other considerations shouldn't matter.

By the way - your Play Along book is great. I use it a lot, and I recommend it to all.




On Mar 15, 2009, at 8:10 AM, Steve Baker wrote:

Zwi, thanks for a great post with many insightful observations. If we all functioned the same way I guess it would work for everyone. Trouble is, to grasp any language you need a degree of affinity with it and some are blessed with more than others. As a native English speaker I moved to Germany aged 23 and was fortunate enough to be able to learn the language without formal instruction or prior knowledge to the point where I not only speak it fluently but also write professionally (though I'll never lose my English accent). However, my talent for the language of mechanical things is so limited that I'll probably never learn to mend a fence. The simplest and most obvious things in this area present me with alarming difficulties. The language of music may likewise be easier for one person to grasp than for another,

Steve
_______________________________________________
Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l


This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.