[Harp-L] Re: Deliberate Practice

[Derwood <derwood.blues@xxxxxxxxx>]

I fully agree that practice is the best practice. I do not follow that but I
know that I would get better if I practiced consistently. But I also think
that "gifting" is much more powerful that is being described here. I have a
friend who is a guitar player. I have know him for over 10 years and he has
continued to get better and better over those years. He probably only picks
up his guitar a few times a week and will never be a focused practicer or
focused anything for that matter. He has an intuitive understanding of the
fretboard that amazes me. He just gets music. He can think of a song that he
has heard but never played and play it through within minutes right from his
head. He can sit down at a drum kit and play adequately even though he does
not own one and has never taken lessons. He can play songs on the piano even
though he has never had a lesson in his life. If I practiced well I still
would never be a musician like him. I am not wired that way. I may be able
to surpass him technically but will never compete with his musicality. We
cannot all be great. My wife has 11 years of piano lessons. To the last day
of it she would still practice the wrong note for a whole week because she
could not hear the wrong note. Technically she could play a song but it was
never musical. No matter how much she practices, she will never be great.
Many of the greatest are those with the"gifting" as well as the propensity
for focused practice. Most of the better than average are either gifted and
unfocused or focused with limited gifting. My inate sense of music has
gotten me to mediocre with very little practice and practice would make me
good. I will never be great because I do not have the drive and focus and I
am not that gifted. And I will keep that self fulfilling prophesy going
because of my lack of drive. But if we were all super then one one would be
super.

Derwood