To dismiss the existence of Natural Talent, or attempt to diminish it’s importance in determining what a person is ultimately able to achieve or not achieve with practice is a mistake. If Natural Talent means nothing, then what you are saying is that every man who is 6′ 3″ and weighs 215lbs can with enough practice, learn to move around a boxing ring and punch with the same blinding speed as Muhammad Ali. Never happen. There is only one Muhammad Ali and although he trained as hard as anyone in his early days, all the training in the world could never have made him what he was if he didn’t have the genetics and Natural Talent to become what he became in the first place. A drumming example? Buddy Rich. There was only one Buddy Rich and I doubt there will ever be another. You can take any number of Drummers with good potential, but no amount of practice will ever give them Buddy’s feel, his ear, technique, etc. As the great Louis Bellson said, “Nobody ever did anything on a drum set better than Buddy Rich” If you can occasionally play up to him, fine, but you will never do anything better than him”.

All people regardless of age race, or gender are equal or should be, under the eyes of the law and God in terms of our inalienable rights that our creator endowed us with. However, in terms of athletic ability, physical dexterity, an ear for music ( some people have perfect pitch for example, whereas most have relative pitch. This can’t be learned, you either have or you don’t ) or intellectual capacity, All people are most definitely NOT created equal. To argue the contrary by way of dismissing Natural Talent, is lunacy. It is immutable that Natural Talent and genetics, are chiefly what separate the GREAT from the very good.

😉

Indeed you make a very valid argument. I agree with you. Thanks for putting that into perspective for me.Have a nice day 🙂

@jacobhamm:disqus – Without context or information about how long they have been playing, how regularly they practiced, or how much guidance they had – it’s impossible to determine much from these videos.

With that said, I believe we tend to look at young musicians with a skewed perspective, because we measure their skill based on age rather than hours of focused practice. The reality is – anybody (at any age) that practices for 1-2 hours each day with focus and direct guidance could achieve these results in a relatively short amount of time.

Investing just two hours every day for two years is nearly 1500 hours of focused practice. That’s WAY more than enough time to develop anything shown in these videos – especially if they have a teacher meeting with them regularly.

With that in mind, I would admire the accomplishments of these young drummers not based on “natural talent”, but on the amount of work they have more than likely put in to achieve these results. And of course, credit goes out to the instructors that have likely provided much needed guidance.

@jacobhamm – Without context or information about how long they have been playing, how regularly they practiced, or how much guidance they had – it’s impossible to determine much from these videos.

With that said, I believe we tend to look at young musicians with a skewed perspective, because we measure their skill based on age rather than hours of focused practice. The reality is – anybody (at any age) that practices for 1-2 hours each day with focus and direct guidance could achieve these results in a relatively short amount of time.

Investing just two hours every day for two years is nearly 1500 hours of focused practice. That’s WAY more than enough time to develop anything shown in these videos – especially if they have a teacher meeting with them regularly.

With that in mind, I would admire the accomplishments of these young drummers not based on “natural talent”, but on the amount of work they have more than likely put in to achieve these results. And of course, credit goes out to the instructors that have likely provided much needed guidance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAk6yzjbjCs&feature=share&list=PL3gEPjdjK_iBnRt2RPRQv5VaSYh0IiFvW This is six year old Avery playing Motley Crue’s shout at the devil.

http://youtu.be/OyfbIXjlJt0

This is him playing over the mountain by ozzy

http://youtu.be/QnBYBg-o1L4

This is jagger alexander-erber

Do you have a specific example of this – ideally with information about how long the child has been playing and what other musical or rhythmic hobbies they may have had? Every case that I’ve heard about, with early talent of any kind, either grossly overstates the skill of the child for marketing/story-telling purposes, is exaggerated as the story gets told and retold, and/or involves the child getting a very early start at practicing and/or developing related skills that have a direct impact on their abilities.

I’d love to see a documented example of an outlier that contradicts this as it would be interesting to look into it for any possible lessons to be learned.

Not that I am trying to undermine your statement in any way, but what about kids that are 3-6 years old that are better than many experienced drummers. What is your opinion on that. What I think is that there is a natural aptitude for being percussivein some people. I do agree that people need to practice to get better but I also think that natural ability is prevalent in some cases. Interested to hear what you think.

I’m putting together a few things to share my practice strategies in more detail, but in the meantime I’d say: keep a written list of things you are excited to practice and update it often (don’t be afraid to cross stuff off if it gets too long), make sure you always end every practice on a positive note, and most important of all – enjoy the learning process rather than fixate on individual goals or outcomes. Focus on refining and improving the way you learn over what you’ve learned.

P.S. You can see what I’m practicing here: http://www.RickKettner.com

Indeed, totally agreed!
I’ve been killing myself with double bass and finger technique lately, I seriously don’t practice anything else. I’ve been playing drums for over than 10 years now and just bought the double bass so… kinda boring sometimes =/
Thanks for the tips, will deff try it

I would practice things you need work on and set a time limit, or haven’t played before, and for me I always play something at the end of practicing that I can play well, which makes the practice worth it, and I can leave practicing on a positive note! And try not to over do it with practicing,because sometimes, at least for me personally, I’ll get frustrated when my practice doesn’t seem to help me learn whatever I’m trying to play! So, at that point I’ll take a break and come back to it, or go watch a video on it, and give it another shot! If it works out, then great, if not, I’ll just play things I’m good at, no matter how simple it may be, and tomorrow is anther day! It’s not giving up, it’s just saying that, well maybe tomorrow will go better, and having that mindset will usually for me, make the next day better!

As I can see you read the comments, so:

Wonder if you can upload a video on youtube commenting on your practice routine (saw your challenge on forum) and tips on how building one. I’ve been practicing 2 to 3 hours a day for almost a month now but still it gets boring from time to time, any tips beyond changing the exercise?

As I said before, agreed. There are many subjective aspects, personality being one of them. Practicing is essencial no matter what.

But, just in order to give some success references on sports you should check Romario or Garrincha – soccer players – which got famous for skipping practices, still awesome players.

But I agree with you, one can’t simply rely on Natural Talent and thank you for the post, after reading it I went straight to the kit.

Motivation is the key!

I believe that groove, creativity, and feel is developed just like anything else. The kinds of things that develop these skills may be harder to measure or track, but I’ve found no reason to believe that one person is *gifted* without actually putting in the work. In this case, practicing drills and other technical aspects of drumming is it’s own thing, and groove/feel requires it’s own level of focus which may not be emphasised for all drummers.

Everything I’ve ever read on the science of success and talent – that document and analyze people that excel in sports, music, or virtually any other area of expertise – attributes their success to deep focused practice over time. Without exception.