Posts by Adam Ross4

swiftcobra15 said:It all comes down to talent versus practice, and motivation is the deciding factor.
If my goal is simply to beat everyone else—to be "better," if you want to call it that—then I’ll grind away and sacrifice whatever it takes to hit that mark of success.

But why wouldn't you sacrifice everything just to hone your talent? 😁
Why limit it to just "being better" than the next guy?

swiftcobra15 said:If I'm chasing self-fulfillment rather than just winning, then I'll work on my talents without feeling the burn. It won't be a struggle; instead, I'll actually enjoy the process of practicing what I'm good at. 😁 Lord help me, I'm an American through and through!

I mean, isn't practice just the act of exercising your talent? 😁

P.S. Why is your formatting so bizarre? 😕 It's making it pretty hard to read and even harder to quote. 😬

nobody and nothing said:Don't measure yourself against everyone else. Instead, gauge yourself by the genuine joy you feel when you actually nail something you're working on—that raw passion that keeps you going. Or better yet, the happiness you get from seeing someone else share that same love for their craft (without feeling the need to tear their success down just to boost your own)... 😉

👍

I’d just add that the word "success" doesn't really belong in a conversation about talent or art...
given how much baggage and nonsense that term carries these days... 🙄

Brandon Martin7 said:... playing back a single guitar solo isn't actually playing. It all starts in the imagination, not in your fingers...

👍

A buddy of mine once compared musical creativity and imagination to a game of "telephone," just using melodies and rhythms instead of words... 😁
I'm with him on that one... ☕

Real art lives in the improvisation, not the imitation... 😁

ironhawk36 said:I thought you were claiming we all have the same hearing. 🥳

Yeah, that relativity thing... just needs some real-world practice to actually stick. ☕

And of course... you have those people born with absolute pitch. I'm still not entirely sure if that's something you can actually develop.
There was some study floating around recently involving kids... they were attempting to develop their absolute pitch.
It worked okay enough for the two-to-four-year-olds... but once they hit that five-year mark? The results just went downhill from there. Fast.

I need to track down the link for those research results... once I have it, I'll post them here if anyone actually cares. ☕

Brandon Martin7 said:Back when I actually believed drawing was a skill you could pick up—tried my hand at it once (check out my caricatures here: click)—I realized how futile the whole effort really is. My current philosophy? You either have it or you don't. If you had the knack, you always did, ever since you could hold a pencil. If you don't, you never will. All you can really do is refine a style, assuming you already possess the talent.
It’s basically the same deal with everything else. No point struggling; you can't change your blood type 😳

I've "always" known how to draw, too... 🤔
But honestly, I feel like I picked it up when I was a kid, so I don't really remember any sort of "learning process"...

urbanviper93 said:Rumor has it I know a killer drummer who doesn't really have
much of an ear for pitch, but his sense of rhythm is off the charts. Doesn't that make him a solid
musician?

If he’s actually a great drummer, he definitely has an ear...
it just needs some development...
otherwise, he'll hit a ceiling eventually...

plus, rhythmic feel and musical ear are pretty much two sides of the same coin... ☕

Brandon Martin7 said:check out a few of my caricatures: click

👍

ironhawk36 said:the difference is that Arnold Schwarzenegger artificially enhanced his physiognomy... his body didn't just adapt to it, he forced it into that shape.

Well, aren't musical tones also somewhat forced when you listen to music? 😉
I mean... what does "artificial" even imply? Isn't everything ultimately natural? 😬 ... 🤔
If we're going down that road, music is artificial too... you ever see heavy metal just spontaneously manifest in the wild? 😁

Adam Ross4 said:not quite the same 🙂

Go ahead then. Explain the difference... 😉

Gulpa said:Arni used PEDs just to get those muscles 😁 it isn't talent, it's just juicing

Even a musician uses performance enhancers... in the form of music... 😁

Agreed... 😁
But the question we're really asking here is whether Arnold Schwarzenegger could ever actually tap into that level of acting depth seen in Nicholson through sheer practice... 🙂

It’s not about claiming one is strictly better than the other... 😉

And while we're at it, what even defines talent? Is it just some innate wiring, or perhaps just a collection of various external influences...?

Jason Richardson5 said:Look, I don't know about their live shows, but if they just scream like they're being tortured and noodle around on guitars without any purpose like they did on the record, then it's a no for me.

That thing you said about Jesus... 😬
Their vocals always struck me as... 👎

But that bass is... 👍

I’m just messing with you a little... 😉

Actually, I’ll take this chance to say that half of the American pop music scene can't carry a tune in a bucket... 😁

Jesus ... 👍

haha 😁

Gulpa said:Did I mention he was still composing even after losing his hearing? 😛

Yeah... but he wasn't tone-deaf. 😁
He could hear the tones "in his head." It was natural, really—he knew exactly where they lived on the fretboard. 😛

He had perfect pitch. He didn't need an outside reference. 😛

Adam Ross4 brought up "that thing"... 😁
Does everyone here actually believe it exists? And that it can be ranked alongside raw, natural talent...

Or am I the only one convinced that "that thing" is just the byproduct of environmental factors after you're born... 😁

Gulpa said:Beethoven 😁

😬

Adam Ross4 said:And, by the way, you can play an instrument without pitch, but singing?...

You can't even play an instrument without pitch... 🙄
I'd love to actually hear someone try to play without any sense of pitch... 😁

Sure, you can learn to sing without perfect pitch, though it's a much steeper climb than it is for those who have it...

As for modern music? You don't need talent or pitch for that. Just look at what's on the radio today—half these "singers" couldn't carry a tune in a bucket... 😁

And regarding the link between genius and pitch... it's well-documented that Mozart and Beethoven had perfect pitch. But Haydn, Stravinsky, Wagner, and others? They relied on highly trained relative pitch, which certainly didn't stop them from being legends... 😁

ironhawk36 said:Let's turn the question on you, 😁

Since you're such a big believer in practice over raw talent... 😛

How does anyone actually "practice" writing a sonnet, or composing a book, or painting?

Sure, we all know how to hold a brush or a pen... so why aren't we all Da Vinci, Shakespeare, or Mozart?

Not everyone knows how to hold a brush...
After practicing for a while, you find a different way to grip it... 😁

I'm not arguing for practice over talent... 😛
I'm just saying we should probably stop using those terms altogether... 😍
It's about habit and inclination... 😁

In my view, poetry and creative work mostly come down to a person's mindset and character... 🤔
The same goes for drawing and painting... you start with boxes, move to still lifes, then figure drawing... 😁

As for Mozart, he was playing from an incredibly young age—performing concerts even back then. He grew up in a musical family, surrounded by sound. Those influences, combined with his specific "mindset," likely fueled that creative spark...

Maybe... 🤔
Or maybe not... 😁