So, somehow I came across, again more and more responses to Amy Chua's article. I don't actually want to address her article but some of the rebuttals. One them was that, "some children are just naturally gifted at music", and pushing others that weren't would just be useless. Apart from people that actually have some form of amusia (which is, by reports, actually very rare), I'm pretty sure that most people have the capacity to be decent, if not insanely wonderful musicians. You (or, I do!) hear a lot of people talk about music as if it is this crazy inborn talent people have that was given to them by magical fairies.
No, it is not.
You see, the people who are wonderful musicians do this thing: practice. And they have done it a LOT. And they practice the right way, which is, often, working on things that they failed at before and can't do now. It isn't playing the easy stuff over and over. Well, there are entire books and schools of thought on how to practice the right way, but let me suffice to say: practice, it makes the difference. (AND it makes a different HOW you practice)
Now, I'm not saying there isn't natural talent and so forth. But even people with natural talent need to practice, especially to attain a high level of musicianship. That goes for composers and songwriters, too. They practice; they (we) do it a lot.
So, yes, I believe that 100% of developmentally normal kids would be awesome pianists (or whatever) if they practiced three or more hours a day since the time they were five. (and if you want to be a professional, you'd better double those hours when you get older) Of course, among those kids, some will be better than others, and even then it'd be hard to say whether its nature or nurture... Usually, it requires self-motivation and intense love of music/playing and probably ambition, not a parent looking over your shoulder, but it is practice practice practice that makes the difference.
Crossposted on facebook. Yes, facebook.
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