Re: [Harp-L] Virtuosity

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

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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