Personally I think that “God given talent” or “Divine Inspiration” should also be on that list.

I look at the first two choices and I think of the movie “Amadeus” and the portrayal of Salieri and Mozart. One worked and worked and worked for it but was never on the same level as the other who seemed to be born with it.

Hendrix was DEFINITELY born with it.

Just my opinions.

–=MR.JOE=–

I voted 3. But I believe being able to spend years woodshedding is a natural born talent as well since not everyone is ABLE to commit their lives to focused practicing.

I think talent does play a big part — but devotion and practice can go a long way.

Even if you don’t have the natural talent, you shouldn’t lose hope… Like everything, playing the guitar is a skill and an art. Skills can be developed like any other, it just takes more practice for some folks.

My inspirational thought of the day

Anyone with devotion and application can become a very good if not excellent guitar player althought the person with the talent can become a lot better with THE SAME amount of exercise.

A talent without practice is soon outgrown by a less talented person who practices on a regular basis. It’s like that in every field, not just with guitarists.

Hard work is required but I think there has to be at least some natural talent as well. I know people who can’t maintain a tempo when simply tapping a table with their finger. From that standpoint it would be very hard to become a musician, in my opinion.

Just for the record and also answering to JT…

I had a friend who didn’t have any sense of tempo, but he started playing guitar. No one could play with him, he had his own rhythm and everyone tried to follow his since he couldn’t follow others, but he also didn’t had a constant rhythm…he really didn’t had a sense of rhythm or tempo…it was just that awful! But he really liked music and want to pursue a musical career…Well he got into a Music Conservatory. In only one year he could maintain any kind of tempo or rhythm! Further more, he outpaced everyone else being rhythm, tempo, theory, etc.
That is what teachers and schools exist for!

Also …

Michael Jordan, the best basketball player that ever existed, was rejected the first time he attended is school basketball team exams. He was just that bad…but he worked every single day for about an year. Next year he got to the same tests and became part of the school basketball team…and the rest is history!
Steve Vai have said several times he isn’t a born talent, he had to work every day for about 10 to 12 hours.
Albert Einstein worked at a patent office, science was his hobby…go figure!

I’m a quote “collector” and i have several that suit this topic
Here they are…

Talent may or may not exist, talent without desire and endless amounts of hard work is meaningless. That said, I don`t really believe in talent much. Why? Because anything can be accomplished by anyone.
- Marty Friedman

“Talent has a lot to do with how much someone actually loves that which they want to achieve. In my phraseology ‘to have a talent’ basically means “being naturally in tune with something” – but there are ways to increase talent by becoming more in tune.””
- Uli Jon Roth

“I do not have any talent at all - you can beat me with hard work.”
- Kristofer Dahl @ guitarmasterclass.net

“if you think that talent, intelligence, etc. are fixed qualities that you are born with and can’t do anything about, you spend most of your time trying to look smart/talented rather than trying to learn.”
- Lori Linstruth

(My comment got cut in half )

“If you believe you can, you will. If you believe you can’t, you won’t. ”
- Tom Hess

I believe it’s down to hard work.

..however…

I think some people have an aptitude for learning things involving co-ordination and listening. I think they can achieve greatness without (much) guidance.

Others don’t have that aptitude. But with a good teacher AND the desire and hard work, they can also achieve it. The crucial factor is not JUST the teacher, it’s the student being willing to accept what the teacher says and follow their guidance… Because amazingly, some don’t…

I think it’s a mix of talent and hard work. Some times the talent makes the hard work seem easy…but when I look at players like Allan Holdsworth and Shawn Lane…they just have something else…an “x” factor.

Weel I think that some kind of people can have certain easyness for playing some instruments, or maybe it can be that for all of us music is our passion we can have the patience to sit and practice for some hours (although it’s a little tought…).. Keep practicing, there’s no trick!! just keep motivated and do it!

I vote effort!