Those two are not the same thing. I started out not being able to keep up with the talent around me, and that has never changed. But I have not yet maxed out own potential.
I know that in sports this all has a very specific meaning, but music is not a sport.
In sports there are very specific abilities that have to be demonstrated. And one's path to success, for the most part, is developing those abilities, (and the mental attitudes to excel and be excellent, of course). But the measurement and the criteria are fairly objective and easy to verify.
Music is very different. Technical ability to tear it up, being able to improvise faster and better, raw athletic musical talent, is less than half the battle, speed and accuracy and brilliancy are just part of it, and maybe not as much a part of it as we would like to believe.
We all know and have heard professional entertainers who do not play at that much of an advanced technical level, yet who anyone would consider a success.
My realization of this was listening to Steve Earle on mandolin, playing Galway Girl, and realizing that I was entranced, totally delighted and entranced, as was everyone else, and yet on a technical level his mandolinning was not really all that much. And on the scale of stardome his singing was not really all that much. But damn, who was on stage getting paid to play, and who was on the internet arguing about the value of practicing scales?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7-PM_4aeE4
I over think everything, this included.
https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/e...ician-part-two
And that is when I got serious about what my own goals and aspirations were. And I decided:
https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/e...y-Perspiration
And in my stated goal, I have not reached maxed out my potential. In fact i have a ways to go, and always will.
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