@trumpetb said in Is there such a thing as a “natural player”?:
I have done many things in my life and in many of them I have been told I am a natural. Mostly that happens after many years of very hard work.
Let us assume they are right and I am a natural trumpet player.
I was not a natural trumpet player at first and for a very long time. It only took 8 hours a day of constant practice every single day for around 10 years to finally become a natural. That is only about 30,000 hours hard graft.
Louis Armstrong was also I believe called a natural, he practiced for 7 years.
More than likely he practiced for 12 hours a day as it was a passion with him. That is also around 30.000 hours of hard graft.
We both share 30,000 hours of hard graft Louis and I.
I have been called a natural in many other activities, rifle shooting, pistol shooting, golfing, archery, driving.
It is funny how I always became a natural after devoting many years of very hard work (that nobody noticed).
I think it takes a lot of unnaturally hard work before you can legitimately be a natural.
I find it insulting to be called a natural to be honest it ignores all of the immense effort that it takes and has been expended to be able to finally make everything appear to be totally effortless and natural.
So my answer is, No there are no naturals there are people who put in immense efforts to be become good enough for people to then think they are naturals
People will say that when they really like your stuff. It’s easier and still a nice thing to say, by the way, than, “you sure put in thousands of hours of hard work to achieve this level of competence”. I get it with my artwork, “such a talent” they say, “I can’t even draw a circle or a straight line”. Neither can I. That’s why they make compasses and straight edges. And yes, I am grateful to get nice compliments like that, and take it for what they intended it to be. But I have done it for over fifty years, honed the talent that I had to start with. Not just woke up one day at age 7 and started painting masterpieces. I still don’t think I paint masterpieces, or play them either, but that’s why I keep trying.