Talent Doesn't Matter

This wonderful Bob Ross GIF, in which he says, "Talent is a pursued interest. In other words, anything that you're willing to practice, you can do", was the perfect inspiration for today's blog post!

If you talk to professional musicians and ask them what some of their least favorite things to hear from the audience after a great performance is, you might be surprised by the answer.

I'm sure you would suspect that they wouldn't like to hear any criticisms because that feels bad, and though it doesn't always feel great, professionals are always interested to know the honest truth of how their performance came across to the audience.

The thing that actually annoys them the most is probably the phrase, "Great job, you are so talented!"

Seriously, any professional knows the ambiguous conception of some kind of magical talent has very little to do with their success (or failure) on the stage!

Being a professional isn't about talent, it is about hard work.

The thing that separates amateurs from professionals is the high standard that professionals hold themselves to, and their unwavering dedication to getting the results they want consistently, not talent.

Now, I would imagine your personal clarinet dreams may not be to become a professional clarinetist (if they are, awesome, if they aren't, still awesome), but I bet you would be much closer to your clarinet dreams if you had the mindset of a professional.

So with talent out of the equation, I want you to ask yourself what is holding you back from your clarinet dreams?

I bet it comes down to the amount of time you are practicing, and what you are doing with your practice time.

If you have been using the idea that you just aren't talented enough to be as good at the clarinet as you want to be, I want you to let go of that false belief. It isn't a matter of talent. It is a matter of how much you practice and how effective you are in your practice.

Hopefully this has helped you to realize that you absolutely can reach your clarinet dreams, it is only a matter of putting in the time working on the right things with the right focus.

And, next time you are at a performance and want to congratulate the performers, instead of telling them about how talented they are, tell them how the performance impacted you and how their hard work paid off!

Happy Practicing,
Josh