Talent...

I've read many interviews and bio's over famous musicans....

Some make it after years of perfection, people like Angus, the Edge are often talented and highly intelligent...

do you think it takes talent or, passion or pure luck to make it to the top?

What makes a good musican? Thoughts please... this is music, not lyrics.

lol i like how you said "thoughts please", almost subliminally suggesting what my answer would be.

I don't know what this talent thing is that everyone keeps talking about. It's just a way of people telling other people that they appreciate what they do, or like what they do, or can relate. It's just another way of conforming...

to make it to the top of what? If you're talking about being world famous that's not really top, honestly music is definately not about making it anywhere, hence why pop music is so bad. And why do you want to make it to the top of such a shithole industry anyway. I'm so against anyone who would make music for money, that defeats the purpose of creating it, but you know...

anyways, i think you should really think about the extreme difference of a good musician and a famous musician.

Right On!!!

sept some people are good at something so they make a living from it,
nothing wrong with that. Its when they start appearing everywhere on
pepsi ads and shit, when it becomes just about the money, thats when i
start frowning apon these artists.

As for your question Naked i feel it takes a lot talent and & passion
to make it to the bigtime. remember you can learn tallent. no1 is born
with the ability to make a good record its what life expierences you
have along the way. Also who you meet/blow will help out too.

There are many reasons people become sucessful/famous and its a long way to the top. The people who make it to the top rarley do it overnight and have put in years of effort and made huge sacrafices. Speaking to the drummer from COG on the weekend and they have just what I would call made it. Debut album recorded by big time record company and producer, national tour, frequent airplay etc... When I asked him how old he was he said 34. Fucking 34 that is years and years of dedication to his art and I cant imagine the amount sacrifices he's made to be where he is now and there is hundreds of stories like this. How many people off RA would put in that kind of dedication and the amount of years he has to achieve some thing, I know I probably couldnt. I was only reading on the weekend that Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters remembers the days of living in a flat with his fellow band members with No money, No food and not knowing if he was gonna make it to see tomorrow freezing trying to sleep on a couch with no blanket. Usher and yes I know Usher but he has been perfecting his singing and dancing skills since he was like 5 years old and he deserve's all he has.

In terms of talent so many people have come to me after I had played show's in my band and said your so talented but I'd just blow it off and say thanks but I'm not that good. When I stopped and thought about it I have put 7 years of my life into learning to be a drummer and yeah I think im pretty good but there is always gonna be someone out there better than me or you. So anyone who takes up and instrument learning to play thinking I'm gonna make a millon dollars some day put the thing down and fuck off. You dont deserve the joy of playing. You play because its fun and it makes you feel alive to play and perform. The biggest high I've ever fucking had and there was no chemicals involved here was playing in front of 250 people and having them applaud our music. Imagine playing infront of 1000, 10,000 or 50,000 people. I cant begin to comprehend what it would be like to have even a 1000 people going crazy for what I do never mind 2000 or more but it would be fucking awesome feeling I would say.

I dont quite know what it is with people that are mega talented-sucessful-famous. Its almost a prerequisite that you have to be fucked up in a way. By fucked up I mean drug addict, abused, racially persecuted, reclusive, occult follower, poverty stricken etc... these kinds of people have a story to tell and for some reason we love to listen. A good example of this is Jimmy Page. As a child he grew up in a very poor house his father was a practicing mason and Jimmy was reclusive and extremely shy but spent hours a day on the guitar, the only time they could pry it from his hands was while at school. All of that time spent mastering the guitar and look what he went on the achive in the world of rock. TOOL is another great example of weird, abused, occult following type people making great art. Its just what these kinds of people do.

Another point I must mention is that talented people attract other talented people. I dont know what it is but they find each other some how. The first band that Jimmy Page was in, The Yard Birds consisted of himself Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck three of the most influential guitarists of our time and they all went on tohuge solo sucsess. How does that happen? Another is Adam Jones and Tom Morello who were in their first band together in high school but separatly went on to form TOOL and Rage Against the Machine. Adam is also a highly talented visual and graphics artist designing the T-Rex head in jurassic park and producing all of TOOL's film clips.

I dont know who said this but i hope it holds true for me some day.
Do what you do to the best of your ability. Make the music you want to make and dont let anyone try and change it. Do all that you can to better yourself and give your self an advantage no one else will have and if you hang in for long enough the rest of the pack will fall to the weigh side and you will be atop the mountion you have built.

My thoughts.

I could go on for ever because this is a topic I feel very passionatley about but in terms of what makes a good muscian its a combination of things. No one thing is going to make you good.

This post has been edited by Matt_1 on May 31 2005, 08:01 PM

success is a fickle thing; it can happen by chance, effort, through talent or luck. However - consistent success, high performance, and continually positive feedback and peer review is most often attained through a combination of all of those things. You need *some* talent, natural ability. You need some effort put in, and some luck. It can happen with none of those things but by chance. HOWEVER as I say, to be consistently successful and to do something well enough to be respected by all your peers, you will need more than just one of the above.


Trav

QUOTE (Matt_1 @ May 31 2005, 07:39 PM)

How many people off RA would put in that kind of dedication and the amount of years he has to achieve some thing, I know I probably couldnt. So anyone who takes up and instrument learning to play thinking I'm gonna make a millon dollars some day put the thing down and fuck off. You dont deserve the joy of playing. You play because its fun and it makes you feel alive to play and perform. I dont quite know what it is with people that are mega talented-sucessful-famous. Its almost a prerequisite that you have to be fucked up in a way. By fucked up I mean drug addict, abused, racially persecuted, reclusive, occult follower, poverty stricken etc... these kinds of people have a story to tell and for some reason we love to listen.

Wow Matty, when you said you had written an essay, i didn't actually believe you, but FUCK! you have made some damn good points here....

Good work and keep on being passionate

This post has been edited by erinbradley on Jun 23 2005, 12:59 PM

QUOTE (Matt_1 @ May 31 2005, 07:39 PM)

The biggest high I've ever fucking had and there was no chemicals involved here was playing in front of 250 people and having them applaud our music. Imagine playing infront of 1000, 10,000 or 50,000 people. I cant begin to comprehend what it would be like to have even a 1000 people going crazy for what I do never mind 2000 or more but it would be fucking awesome feeling I would say.

ive been skydiving and had sex (dont tell my mum - also awaits derogatory comment from josh) - which i consider some of the best feelings you can have. djing to a crowd would be right up alongside both of those two. if i get into that "zone" when im playing, i seem to forget everything else and run with it. i finish playing and i come off all sweaty and light headed (much like sex ). i get goosebumps watching people playing to massive crowds and imagine what it would be like. i mean, imagine playing to 250k people on brighton beach like fat boy slim.

(leading back to the talent question) but i dont reckon you get to a place like that on pure talent. sure you have to have talent, but IMO you also need to push yourself to reach a goal like that and a certain amount of luck (a lot of the time which is created by your persistance). i know plenty of people i think are talented, but whether they reach certain goals is resultant on their dedication to something.

i know there's times when i thought i should stop buying records and use my money for other things, but then something will jar me back into gear - like mates or an opportunity or even a record. and then i feel like an idiot for ever questioning it. in the same respect, i sorta know that there is only one way im gonna make it with music and that is if i dedicate myself to it - something i plan to do more of when i finish study. then it will just come down to if i actually do have any talent and luck.

I'm not talented i'm just lucky!

I'd say people are born with it or don't have it at all

QUOTE (Alex666 @ Jun 23 2005, 02:34 PM)

I'd say people are born with it or don't have it at all

Me tinks also you either hav it or you dont, but either way, the process involves persistance, and just different levels of it, for some it will come easy and others it wont, but ultimately we all hav an ear for sound.... As vibrations ar our friends"

i dont think people are born with talent,
how many babys do you see that can mix?

it's got to be a bit of both... natural and learnt. I've got a nephew who is 5 now and he used to watch his parents mix it up... now he gets on and does it himself and he's not bad for a 5 year old... he's better than me at least!!!

My Girlfriend and i are at the two oposite ends of the scale.

She is a singer, was born with perfect pitch and can memorise complex musical phrases and such in a single listen. she has pure singing tallent, but she is hesitant about using what she has coz she doesnt know how to go about it and doesnt have the confidance and/or musical background she needs to break into the industry.

I on the other hand are a product of hard work, dedication and passion. lets be honest, i have no musical tallent. i can sing in tune, some of the time and i have no natural rhythm. But as i was brought up i was imersed in music, my parents both loved the blues and dark rock. I have been so surrounded my music my whole life that its not just a thing any more its an intergral part of my life. I was lucky enough to go to a high school where they not only offered composition and arranging lessons but musical analysis and even electronic composition in soundforge and logic. I learned any 'tallent' i may have these days, i dont write music from insperation very often, most of the time i spend hours bashing out a line trying to get it right.

i guess what im trying to say is: some tallent is inate, other people glean their tallent from their surroundings