Talent is overrated

Talent is overrated. Or let me rephrase that, talent is miss understood. To say someone is talented at something which at the end of the day is a learned skill, sounds like excuse for someone else not put in the hours. I have been told over the years that I am talented at certain things. But guess what? I worked my ass off to get good at these things. My first song I wrote was not a great song. It was a song, though, it was a start. Even when I was younger and writing a lot of songs, I can now see how I fell for the fill in second verse syndrome.

But I had the hunger to learn. I listened to a lot of music. I analysed why I liked a certain kind of songs and why I didn’t like other kinds of songs. And I wrote a lot of songs. Hundreds, which I never played to anyone. I listened to lectures on songwriting, I read any book on the subject I could get my hands on. And little by little I got better.

I did the same thing with my guitar playing, I listened the great ones as well as the not so great ones. I figured out what was the important things to learn and what I should work on. I put the hours in, I practiced at home and played live shows any given opportunity. I leaned to record myself, and I listened back to my playing, figured out my weaknesses and worked on them. And little by little I got better.

If I was to explain how I see talent, it is that desire to learn and get better. You need to have an all out desire to learn. You can get a teacher and get lessons. But to be truly great, I think you need to go after the information, fall in love with it, live and breathe it. Ever heard the saying “if you could bottle talent”? Well there it is 🙂

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get two of his free songs go HERE and click Download