Walking home from work yesterday I was wondering about the interaction between mind and body when working toward a goal or intended result. In my case the current goal is to discover my potential with the guitar.
The language of music appears to be as complex as a spoken language. It took me 30 years of practicing English before I felt comfortable using it to accurately express my thoughts and feelings. While I am confident that I can learn the basics of music theory and expression, I am uncertain that I will be able to master the more advanced concepts and nuances.
Alongside theory is the physical play of the guitar. When I began 10 months ago I believed I would not get very far, but over time my reflections have convinced me that playing will not be as difficult as first imagined. I have accurate body coordination and quick reflexes, and have used these gifts for such things as baseball, golf, basketball (I suck at playing the team game but can accurately shoot when alone in a gym), tennis, table tennis, and running.
I can recall how difficult and foreign it was to swing a golf club and strike the ball properly, but after a lot of practice (hitting hundreds of balls daily in an open field) I developed a good swing and could hit the ball solidly. Weighing 135 pounds I was driving the ball longer than men who weighed more, which exhibited that my mechanics and swing reflexes were coordinated. I also took pleasure in the short game of golf, realizing that bigger men had no advantage in this part of the game. I became a good putter and can remember rolling in 30-50 foot putts.
Thinking about the evolution of my golf game I realize that learning the mechanics of guitar could be a similar process - put in the practice... watch what happens. During the past few weeks I have seen quick progress in all parts of my guitar play - chord transitions, scale play, picking accuracy, better strumming contact/sound. Even basic music theory is becoming easier to understand.
I went to the library this week and borrowed a beginner's guitar book because I wanted to refresh my memory on things already learned, and hopefully find a few new things. I placed the book on my music stand, sat in a chair, guitar in lap, and read from chapter to chapter. I finished 3/4 of the book in 2 hours, being able to execute most of the mechanics and understanding most of the theory. I plan to finish reading the book soon and am confident that I can get through the last quarter in one session.
Having achieved a comfort level with guitar basics I am now contemplating the concept of talent. This word has always troubled me because I could not discover the object it was supposed to represent. It is something invisible, the only clue to its existence being the end result. But results are not talent, but rather a manifestation of it. If talent is the internal force which produces a result, could not talent be considered just another word for will or desire? If I desire to do something, and will to do it, and the results are mediocre, the talent is then considered average. But if the results are superb the talent is taken note of as something good and rare, and the highest, best results are given the special distinction of genius.
Is talent a mixture of desire, will, intelligence, and emotion - a word that describes the inner workings of a person? In that sense everyone has talent in varying degrees, and to discover the specific qualities of an individual talent would require a thorough understanding of human psychology.
How is it that my efforts to learn guitar are now resulting in progress and pleasing results? Why did I not remain at the level I was at four months ago? The perception of better results makes me feel blessed with good luck.
Something more is required, though, than effort and practice. It is this "more" that I can't decipher. What is it that makes two people who give similar effort achieve vastly different results? When asked about his chess success, Bobby Fisher replied "I practiced a lot, then just got good". There were people who practiced just as much, or more, than Fisher, yet their results were not as spectacular. There was something in the psychology of Fisher's mind which made his results the best, and he was therefore considered a chess genius.
Eventually I will reach a plateau in my guitar play, my maximum talent level having been actualized - the goal of this quest is to discover how much musical talent is contained within my psychology.
After many years of wondering I finally have an idea about talent.
