Remember that bassist who was always better than you?
Remember how you felt after practicing for hours and hours on end to try to keep up with them and you sill always found yourself in his musical shadow?
Meanwhile, they didn’t even touch their instrument for the past week. And yet they’re still as great as ever.
How pissed off were you?
Pretty pissed, I’d imagine.
We all knew that guy: a musician who appeared to have a natural talent or a natural aptitude for the instrument.
Their form is spectacular, their phrasing is immaculate, thier ability to think on their feet and it seems like they couldn’t miss a note if they tried.
On the other hand, you see players who have been playing for just as long of a time, but don’t seem to be anywhere near as skilled. Why is that?
Does it have to do with IQ?
“Natural” ability? Better ears?
More acute aural perception? All very unlikely.
What could be that defining factor is a player’s ignition and it’s a topic worth investigating to understand the myth of “natural aptitude”.
A Lesson In The Psychology of Ignition
Back in 2006, a professor at the University of Illinois named Gary McPhearson conducted a study on the very subject of why are some children better musicians than others? Why do some take to it with a seemingly natural grace while others struggle and inch along? McPhearson’s findings were remarkable and contributed significantly to debunking old paradigms of IQ, “natural” talent and other traditionally accepted ways of thinking where talent and musical skill comes from.
What McPhearson found was that the children who were in to play music for the long haul i.e they could see themselves doing it for their entire life out performed those who were indifferent towards music or were accepting that they were in it for the short term by 400%!
That is an incredible leap in skill development!
The students in it for the long haul likely had a period of ignition as McPhearson saw it.
A brief powerful moment where a student saw something happening and could envision themselves doing the same thing.
Being able to envision oneself and have that amount of future sight is the largest contributing factor to skill development – not just rapid skill development. The student works harder to achieve that envisioned self. To them, it is a perfectly rational outcome that is within reach.
Look For Yourself Waving to You in The Distance
Read that subheader one more time.
I’ll wait.
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Sounds pretty deep, huh? Well, it’s actually the body, mind and core of ignition psychology.
Beyond a certain point in our physical and mental development, our idealism and ability to be affected by these ignition moments becomes harder. In other words, remember when you were younger and you wanted to be a rock star and you imagined this:
And the thought of it excited you. It motivated you and drove you to play harder and work harder at your craft.
But as time went on, the flame faded. Reality set in, finances, jobs, careers, loved ones all helped to squash that flame.
That’s why most people don’t go on to see the lifestyle shown above. They lose that vision. They lose their fire.
When pop acts or major rock stars or actors are asked what was your beginning like, a common answer is that they knew at a certain age (likely between the ages of 12-20) that this is what they wanted.
Though the good and the bad, that fire drove them to see the rewards.
This is usually why you hear star performers, athletes and scientists all say that they say X event or watched Y on TV and it was at that moment that they knew what they wanted to do with their life.
This is not to say older people can’t have these ignitions mid life.
There are stories of friends, family and loved ones having an epiphany at work or on their couch where they realize, “What I am I doing? I want to do this!” and make the changes to their life.
Odds are, if you’re ignited now – you know it.
Each day, you feel the drive to make music and keep getting better at it. You’re working at your instrument and looking for new ways to improve your craft (hopefully by continuing to read Smart Bass 🙂 ).
If you’re not – then it’s not too late to have that spark of inspiration. There’s a good chance playing bass simply hasn’t clicked yet or you’ve overcome a learning hump yet by stroke of good (and relevant) fortune, MTV released a fully uncensored interview with Kanye West from 2002 where there is a period that he talks about the moment he knew he wanted to be a rapper and how his actions following that decision all fell in alignment to that focus:
Conclusion
To summarize, it’s not too late to get that spark. When you do – you’ll know it. There’s no doubting it. To try to force the spark to happen will more than likely lead to disappointment and a feeling unfulfilled.
If you’re ignited and you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, your future illuminated and your future self waving to you in the distance – hopefully with a bass guitar in hand – you, my friend, are ignited.
Take those feelings and pursue them.
Who knows – maybe you’ll be someone else’s ignition source.
[chimpy_lite_form]
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