“But, I can’t sing, I wasn’t born with it”, said my friend. I was staring at him with the weirdest dumbfounded look my face could make naturally. “Of course, you can” said I.
Singing isn’t a talent that you can be born with. If you can sing naturally you might have ‘some’ advantage but the core principles required to become a better singer would still require you to practice. Singing is developed just like any other skill.
Welcome to BOSL where I tear down myths with logic and allow people’s minds to be liberated to become better singers and musicians. Let’s start something controversial.
What Is Talent?
To spare everyone confusion talent is something we refer to when someone is good at something naturally. It just comes to them, they just seem to ‘get it’.
I am in no way refuting that talent isn’t present. It is. Some people develop perfect pitch – the ability to know which note is being played without any reference. It’s a rare find among musicians but I am going to tell you this and you’re going to find this amazing – nonmusicians can have a perfect pitch as well.
Talent Picks You
Talent seems to pick you rather the other way around. It might seem unfair but that’s how it is. But, there are certain limitations that might not allow you to use your talents in the way that you want to.
Peer pressure, family pressure, ideologies that you adhere to, moral reasoning. You get the idea. Sometimes it is what it is. Just like talent.
That puts talent in a very stifling position. What if certain things never happened that would allow your talent to flourish? What then? Are we supposed to all wait for our talent to show up and be miserable until we find our talent?
Sports
Look at sports.
Swimmers who have longer upper bodies tend to be better swimmers than people who don’t. The opposite is the case in running. People with longer lower bodies are far better runners than swimmers.
As a result whichever body type you are, you’d be ‘talented’ in that area.
The same goes for your ability to think. If you can visualize color or think in a certain way, which is highly likely if you picked it up as a child then you’d be far more accustomed be able to do certain things better. Talent.
Turn It Around
You can turn things around for yourself if you’ve discovered some natural ability.
For example, you may not want to become a mathematician just because you can calculate fast, but you can use that skill to transform an already existing skill and put it in a field you love. For example, you can use your mathematical skills to make 3D objects in softwares like Blender using code that runs on one or the other mathematical calculations.
What is Practice?
That brings us to ask the most important we can ask ourselves today. What the hell is practice then?
Practice is the deliberate effort to get better at something by repeating and performing things we can’t do yet.
You must not be able to do the thing you’ve set out to do because otherwise, it’s not practicing!
Talent demands that you ought to be able to do it, and practice prerequisites you not be able to.
Therein lies the mental shift I have been talking about. If we become people who don’t encourage other people to practice to get good at something, then we’re all the worse for it.
But, the more people realize that practice indeed is the way to get good at things we will start to see the difference in ourselves.
This starts at the individual level. I have been practicing all things in my life. Music the most to be honest. If you want to get good at something, then you better start practicing and not rely on talent!
Because talent might be too late.
What if You Don’t Have Talent?
Then congratulations you’re just like the rest of us and in order to get good at anything you have to practice for it just like everybody else.
You might be finding this as a sad thing, that you’re not talented at any specific thing. I don’t think that’s the correct way to think because the amount of growth you can have by deliberately putting your mind to something is going to reap rewards you didn’t even think were possible.
I am an example of that. I may not be the greatest but I sure have enjoyed life by learning things that I wanted to learn.
I picked up music when I was 16, attended a seminary, and learned a little theology at 18 went to Berklee College of Music when I was 20, dropped out, and picked up 3D animation at 22.
Along the way, I learned how to build a PC, and fix my own motorcycle and I am now planning to go become a motorcycle technician in Canada.
The point is that deliberate effort pays.
Practice is Deliberate
I keep on saying this. But as long as it’s true it’s definitely worth saying it again and again. Again.
So, as this article is coming to a close I would like to say and finish it by saying this. Singing does not require talent. At all. You can develop it and have it with you for the rest of your life.
But as you can imagine, teaching you how to sing is a little beyond the scope of this website. The competition is too high as well. So I like to present you with an alternative. The best one actually in my opinion.
I have written extensively about why I believe online courses are worth what they are. Read it here.
As for which course you ought to invest in and you really should, you can read about it here.
Have fun and practice so hard that they tell you that you are talented!
