How much talent do you have for playing guitar and how important is it really?

One of the interesting things about learning to play guitar is the self discovery aspect of it. We are all individuals and as a direct consequence you’re going to play guitar in a way which is unique to you. No two guitar players can sound exactly alike, ever.

Before starting to learn guitar it’s impossible to know how much talent you’ll have for the instrument, that’s what I mean by a self discovery. Learning guitar is going to teach you something new about yourself.

It’s certainly true that we are born with different levels of natural ability for different things in life. I’ve seen this in action many times in my private teaching where one student will progress quickly and easily while another will suffer and struggle to do the exact same thing.

What I love about that is you can’t know in advance, it’s only through actually trying to do it in real life that you can discover the level of ability you have been given for playing guitar.

Having a natural talent will mean that you’ll pick things up quicker and make faster progress than others. However at a beginner’s level talent is not at all important. Anybody, no matter how little talent they possess, can learn to play adequate guitar through sheer practice and good quality instruction over time.

At What Stage Does Talent Really Matter?

Where talent really matters is in the advanced stages. The more advanced you wish to progress in guitar playing the more important the quality of your talent will become in achieving that.

So if your goal is to play guitar fluently to an adequate standard then I would say that talent is of no importance whatsoever, you can still achieve it with regular practice over time and good lessons regardless of talent. If however you wish to break new ground and become a ‘maestro’ on the instrument then the rules change quite substantially and talent becomes absolutely vital.

Happy Playing,
Paul

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