Do you need natural talent to be a great (or even a good) musician? Don’t believe this. It is true that some people possess more natural abilities in one or skill or another. For example, some athletes are naturally fast sprinters.
You know what everyone says, “Teaching yourself is the best way to be original”. This is so obviously false its hard to believe that anyone could actually believe it - yet some people still do. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking this is the best way to learn.
The point is athletes with great abilities have them usually in one area. For example, Michael Jorden (arguably the world’s greatest basketball player of all time) was not very successful when he tried to play baseball (or golf for that matter). Think about athletes in the olympics, they are specialists. They have found their natural ability and developed it to its greatest potential, but that natural ability is usually limited to one skill.
Doing that alone won’t work well and even if it does eventually work, it will take 10 times aslong! Besides, how will you know if what you are trying to do is original if you don’t learn about what has already been done?
Listen to more music. Find more of the same music you already like. There is a lot of music out there that you haven’t heard.
Define your purpose. What is your definite purpose? Do you really know what it is? If I were standing in front of you right now and asked you this question, could you give me specific answers and explanations? Can you write it on paper in specific terms?
Take up one of your usual pieces of music where that habit has been showing itself by producing unwanted results, and we begin to practice it in the same careful way that you did the exercises you were using to change the essence of the bad habit.
Well, that is the truth. That is the message I am always trying to get across. I am always trying to convey to people that if you have tried to learn the guitar and failed, it is not you, it is the approach to it all that is at fault. If you are stuck at a certain level of development, it is not you, it is your approach that is keeping you there. Change the approach, and you will create different results. I know this is a fact, because I do it every day, for myself, and for others.