How To Be “Talented” | The Millennial Edit
This week on the tonebase blog, Rosie Bennet discusses the notion of talent, what defines it, where it comes from and how everybody can enhance theirs!
“Talent” is one of the most used words in the classical music lexicon. But what does it really mean?
Most people who start playing music at a young age, or people who start playing music outside of a conventional musical upbringing, will hear this word used in relation to their playing at least once.
Talent.
It seems to be the most important commodity in the world of arts, at a certain point it doesn’t matter how much you have worked, how intelligent you are, your worth as a musician is governed by how talented you are, it’s the ultimate wild card of an otherwise quite rigid and but non sensical world.
The word talent comes from ancient greek — tálanton “balance, a particular weight, especially of gold, sum of money, a talent”. Perhaps there is an intrinsic connotation with this word that means that we so often associate our ‘talent’ with our worth? Or perhaps it is simply that the word has been so extensively used that we quickly forget the nuance or context of its use.
During the last couple of years I have been teaching group classes to children between the ages of 6 and 14, and what has struck me the most is the unfairness of musical ability.
Some children are simply natural, perhaps exposure to music at a young age, or being aware of the rhythms in the world around them allows them to understand basic but incredibly abstract concepts in the basis of their learning ‘this note length is half of the previous note length’ for instance.
The difficulties that arise with group classes is the same ‘problem’ that academic teachers encounter in schools, that there is little room for manoeuvre in terms of learning style because children are so varied in their abilities and understanding.
The frustrating but amazing part of teaching is discovering also that children who show ‘talent’, are probably all ‘talented’ at different aspects of music. Some children find rhythm very easy, others enjoy the challenge of theoretical musical problems; harmony, solfège exercises, where other children are talented in that they simply have the dedication to work.
None of these talents is less important than any of the others, the big brain ache of a teacher is to work out how to allow each child to excel in their given talent, while relying on that talent to help them work out some of the things that haven’t come to them so easily.
One of the things that I see a lot on the internet is blogs and tips on ‘how to reparent yourself’ a form of self help where a person ‘parents’ their inner child in order to overcome psychological blocks they face in their lives, usually regarding the way they treat relationships.
Seeing as the musical world is so rife with problematic language that often causes players to suffer from self esteem issues, perhaps it is time to try and ‘reparent’ ourselves but from a teaching perspective.
Working out what we are good at can be a complex task.
The more interested we become in improving our playing, the more we are encouraged to be inwardly critical. But, take a moment to sit back and think of the things you have always found easy, the things about playing music that you have always enjoyed, even the littlest thing that you easily disregard could be a major talent that you have.
Once you have identified your talent, think how you could develop it further, how could you improve upon this gift, how can you solidify it into something you can rely on?
Once you have worked these things out you can start on the parts of your playing that you would like to improve. Can you perhaps rely on your good memorising to help you become better at sight reading?
If you had a student with your abilities, what exercises would you give them to keep learning fun whilst also helping them improve something? A whole load of practice isn’t always the answer!
Look deep, trust yourself and be kind to yourself, learning isn’t ever easy, but you are already doing so well!
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About Rosie Bennet
Born in London in 1996, Rosie started playing guitar at age seven. She received her early musical education at The Yehudi Menuhin School of Music and went on to study with Zoran Dukic (The Hague, NL), Johan Fostier (Tilburg, NL), Rene Izquierdo (Milwaukee, USA) and Raphaella Smits (Leuven, BE). She has performed in festivals all over Europe, including Open Guitar Festival in Křivoklát, Czech Republic, Glasgow’s Big Guitar Weekend, Scotland, Porziano Music Festival, Italy and the West Dean guitar Festival, UK. Highlights of her concert career include performances at Wigmore Hall, London, The North Wall, Oxford and concerts given on El Camino De Santiago.
