Posted by Rick Denney on May 14, 2003 at 11:05:29:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Teachers vs. Students and Schooling posted by James Rees on May 14, 2003 at 01:36:05:
Go get the recordings of the masters. Find the music they performed, learn it, and record yourself playing it. Play the two side-by-side. When you are ready, you'll know it. Whatever there is in your recording that you don't like as well as theirs, work on relentlessly.
If you think your teacher is not telling you the raw truth, play both recordings for him and ask him to identify the weakness in yours compared with the other one. He will likely hear things you don't, and the test makes it hard for him to coddle you. But, really, you should be your own critic, because it will be you taking the auditon, not your teacher.
Despite my statements about talent, you should always assume that you have sufficient talent to succeed once you are committed to that success. Never use talent as an excuse. The only way to find a talent ceiling is to bump into it over and over again, never allowing it to keep you from bumping into it the next time. You might find it wasn't a talent ceiling at all and break through. That's the trouble with talent ceilings--they look just like technique ceilings. Eventually you will know.
The folks who don't have sufficient talent usually know it before they start, because they find other talents in other fields and pursue those, keeping music as a diversion rather than a life's work.
I think I have a significant limitation of musical talent, but I have to admit that I've never tested it by putting in the required work. I had more visible talents in the other directions, though, that led me down a different path, so I was never compelled to test my musical limits. That is one test of talent, too, because a big part of talent is a built-in, unanswerable, undeniable drive.
Rick "who thinks talent is only conspicuous by its absense, but then only in the presence of long, hard work" Denney