Notes, I want to give you about a +17 for that post, because +1 isn't enough plusses.

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Most people cannot develop their inborn talent to it's full potential without putting the time in to learn theory and technique.


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As said in many posts, there is no short cut, you have to put in the time and effort.


I called my first teacher every name in the book for making me learn all that "boring" stuff when all I wanted to do was sit down at the piano and put on lavish shows like Liberace. As if lesson one led to what Liberace was.... When that teacher died, I went to the funeral home to thank him for making me learn all that "boring" stuff. (Of course he didn't know I was there...)

I honestly DO believe that most people can learn to play well enough to play, just play, not write, but rote and muscle memory. If you don't have the innate talent base, it will take you much longer and many more repetitions to learn it, but eventually you will learn "Okay my fingers need to go here for that chord, whatever it's called." Ear players can play on par with anybody. The rift comes when an ear player comes to a session and I sit a chart down in front of him and he asks "What are these little dots?" In that situation, I just play him what I want him to play, and then in 10 minutes he plays it, usually far better than I would have. Ear players can compose well too, they just can't transcribe, but there are people who will do that for more than the "slight nominal fee" that WC Fields used to talk about.

However, as Notes said, as I said, as many have said, you can get to the core of the matter much quicker if you invest in some basic basics classes. Again, community college. Take Music 101. Maybe even go back for Music 102. DO NOT go to a music store where the local whiz guitar player claims to be a teacher. He will teach you songs. Learning songs is not "music".