Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Couldn't anyone be a great pianist?

I will hear people sometimes say to a pianist things like "Your so good" or "How did you get that good? You have a gift". When I hear these things said to me, I just tell them, it's practice, thats it, to which they protest and say, "well I couldn't do it." I tell them, yes you could, just practice.

Am I wrong in thinking that anyone can become a great pianist by merely dedicated practicing? Does this explain all the "prodigies"?

A prodigy is basically a child that has usually mastered something. A lot of prodigies get to where they are because they are passionate, dedicated, and usually, they have a good support system behind their backs to lead the way for them. The sad thing is, is that it is brutally hard to get a career in music because it is competitive and most of the spots these days are taken. I want to be one of those people that play in plays for the orchestra. I saw a guy doing that the other day and it was straight on awesome. Practice doesn't make perfect I say, but it brings you to greatness indeed. I don't believe there is a such thing as perfect in anything except Jesus Christ and God.

Well, while it's true that some people have a natural talent towards very general things (a good ear without training, for example, would benefit piano or language study - but someone else may have great hand-eye coordination that could do the same, or provide affinity to sports), yes, you're correct.

Anyone *can* be a great pianist.

Nowhere did anyone say anything about perfect, nor about being a concert pianist/professional musician. Also, that is neither necessarily what a prodigy is or how one "becomes" one.

It's about the ability to be a good pianist - and yes, I think it's an ability because it takes a lot of practice, thought, and to a certain degree (the OP's main concern), skill.

It's hard to say. Those who lack aptitude generally get sensible and move to something else. I suppose we COULD ruin some child's life by picking one who wasn't a natural pianist and forcing him into the practice routine of a prospective concert player. Anyone got an offspring to offer for the experiment?

If you are talking about the people who doesnt play piano, thats very normal they are not musically trained and your playing can amaze them very easily even if you are playing moonlight sonata mvt. 1. But if you play in front of the experienced pianist or intermediate pianist you can get more true criticism. Anyone cant become a great pianist. For example if you have a stage fright you cant become a great pianist. Also practicing is not enough you have to touch the heart of audience for becoming a great pianist. There are very few great pianists on earth or died for example rubinstein, horowitz, cziffra, volodos these are great painists so becoming a great pianist is not an easy process maybe the hardest thing on earth. You have to be one in millionth.

Prodigies are gifted. Simple as that.

Of course, even prodigies need to practice. But they get more out of every minute of practicing.

A more obvious example: chess prodigies. Unless somebody challenges me on this example I don't think I need to say much more.

Whether prodigies make much of their talents as they grow up is a whole different topic.

It depends on what you mean by "great". I don't think that everyone can become a Horowitz or a Martha Argerich, but with dedication probably most people can learn to play the piano reasonably well. There must also be some will to reach the goal. Children can be forced to practice, but adults cannot and will give up if they don't like what they are doing or don't have that "will".

I think that anyone can become a good pianist, with a good deal of hard work. To answer the OP's question in a slightly different way: I do not think that people are or are not predisposed to be pianists. I think that with all of the correct "conditions" (practice, performance, teacher, support of family and friends, etc.) anyone can become a good pianist, and on the flip side, I don't think that people who do not have a certain "talent" (whatever that is) are necessarily unable to excel. I think that anyone, with a lot of work and proper guidance, can do very well.

No amount of dabbling or paint can make everyone a Rembrandt -- fair analogy?

How would/could you know if someone was "natural" at the piano though? Wouldn't equally focused practice = almost identical results? (I realize this isn't an exact science)

Why practice then?

+1

Yes - you are wrong. Some folks, no matter how hard they try, simply don't have an aptitude for it.

And then, of course, there's the question of what you mean by
"great" pianist.

Well, maybe if you include the 2nd line in my comment, you'll see my answer to this rhetorical question.

I guess they have to walk backwards, do they?

Practice reveals the gift.

And if talent is all that it takes, then Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan wouldn't have to practice.

There's a decent discussion of this in "Outliers", by the way. (It's part of the famous "10,000 hours" thing you hear about from time to time.)

It takes both - talent and practice.

A favorite quote of golfers:

"The more I practice, the luckier I get."

In music terms:

"The more I practice, the more talented I seem to be."

Makes sense

Can anyone become a great singer? how many hours of practice will it take to have a voice comparable to that of Renee Fleming or Luciano Pavarotti ?


Yes, practice can take someone to competence but true greatness takes both the unusual level of aptitude and physical apparatus and the unusual level of dedication and hard work.

I basically agree, though one might ask what you mean by 'very well'? Does that mean mastering (i.e. playing musically and accurately up to speed) the Chopin etudes? I'm not sure about that.

To me, 'very well' means advanced intermediate, a term Gyro uses (IMO) correctly to denote the vast majority of piano students who don't make it to 'conservatory level', another term Gyro uses. The Chopin etudes -and the vast majority of the piano repertoire- lie outside and far beyond 'very well'.

Just my thoughts. This issue has come up several times, and it always tends to be very contentious.