Monday Musical Moment: MMM: We’re back! & Talent in Music
Good morning to all, and for the first time in a while, happy Monday!
I’m so glad to be back resuming this weekly column after a much-needed summer break recovering from the completion of my doctoral degree. Happy to report that I am feeling refreshed and ready to get back to “normal,” or as close to normal as I was before! While I am still figuring out this new stage of my life and career, I’m excited to start this chapter and share more wonderful music with you.
For this first Monday back on the saddle, I thought I would share a few thoughts on a topic I’ve thought a lot about throughout my musical career that has recently come up again over the past several months, and that is the concept of “talent.” Music is one of few aspects of life, along with sports and maybe other games, that are often associated with the word “talent,” or a natural inclination towards a specific activity, like hitting a forehand in tennis or playing the piano. I feel very fortunate to know many people who I consider “talented,” as musicians or in other skillsets, and I also have had the privilege to have been referred to “talented” occasionally, sometimes coming from the incredibly kind people in the congregation here at First UMC!
In the past, I had a very hard time accepting any positive comments about my performances. When I first started playing the trumpet, I would often play in my home church, Cottage Hill Presbyterian Church in Mobile, Alabama, where my whole family went to church. When I would play in Sunday services, my family and sometimes members of the church would often comment on how well I did, that I was “so talented,” and my first response was to refute them and say “no I didn’t” or something like that, and immediately begin to beat myself up about all the mistakes I may or may not have made. Some of you may have felt similar feelings, feeling like you did not deserve the praise you were receiving. I had a hard time believing that I was given a “talent” that other kids in my grade could not achieve. I remember vividly in 8th and 9th grade, around the time I started playing more seriously, my grandfather said to me after playing church one Sunday that I sounded great, and before I could finish saying how bad I thought I did, he stopped me and said, “Justin… when someone says something positive, take the compliment.” I remember feeling embarrassed with how I had reacted to compliments in the past, sometimes from strangers, but I still had a difficult time accepting compliments, and still to this day. As I type this, it is even difficult to write that someone has complimented me in the past… my girlfriend Andreea would be the first to tell me how ridiculous that is!
For years, I thought there was no such thing as talent, that everyone who was truly excellent at what they did, took the time to learn and develop the skills necessary to perform that particular task. My first teacher in middle school would say that he wasn’t a talented trumpet player, he just took the time to “learn the skills.” As the son of a truly driven and hard-working man, I valued and appreciated the message that he was giving me and always worked hard at practicing my trumpet from an early age, which meant that I quickly surpassed other middle school trumpet students who, like everyone else at that age, thought it wasn’t “cool” to practice… I wasn’t aware of that at the time, and quickly found success, but at no point did I think I was “talented.” Later in high school and college, I was fortunate to win competitions, seats in ensembles, and tackle advanced repertoire at an earlier age than my colleagues, but at no point did I think I was “talented.” Over those years, I carried the belief that being “talent” either made you egotistical about your own abilities – something common in the trumpet world – or that it discounted all the hard work I had done to get to that point that I know my peers had not done.
Over the past decade or so, I evolved my view in two important ways: first, that I am thankful to any and every person who takes time to say something positive or constructive about my playing – thank you, Papaw – and second, that there are qualities that each of us possess at birth that make us better suited for certain aspects of life. For my own life, growing up around my dad I learned to work hard at whatever I tried to do, and that I wanted desperately to express myself through music in whatever form that took. Now that I have advanced degrees and positions teaching and playing a high level, I still don’t consider myself particularly “talented” at much musically, but my desire to just do music in whatever ways I can has led me to practice and work hard at multiple musical disciplines. For example, I strongly believe that the music I make when I play the trumpet, and the skills and technique it takes to express that music, are separate things, but one shouldn’t exist without the other. An excellent cellist, singer, guitarist, or conductor is great, but they also must have something to say musically. And if someone with a lot to express musically doesn’t practice or work at their craft, there will be limits to what they can express.
I still firmly believe that hard work and “talent” are separate attributes, and that people that are talented can be limited if they do not work hard, and you can become proficient at things you work on and practice. Our amazing ukulele ensemble members at First UMC, most of whom had never picked up a ukulele before a month ago, are a great example of that! They meaningfully contributed to worship with just 120 minutes of combined rehearsal time over four weeks. They weren’t born with innate ukulele gifts, but they learned the skills!
Lastly, I would like to offer some encouragement for the week ahead: to anyone trying something new, especially a musical instrument, to stick with it and work at it. Never tell yourself you can’t do something because you’re not “talented.” And, if you would like to learn anything musical, I am always happy to help you be a part of the music here at First UMC!
These thoughts are the result of several discussions I’ve had with many people about these ideas, and if you made it to the end of this column, thank you for reading!!!! I leave you with someone with a true talent for touching people’s hearts, the late Hawaiian ukulele artist, Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole.
Have a great week!
Justin