Hmm, after reading all of the posts thus far, I'd say that it is more
important to inspire everyone to do their best than to judge whether
or not they will be the best. As corny as that sounds, it is
impossible, and I do mean IMPOSSIBLE, to judge the level of one's talent.

While I admit that my experience in this field is limited at best, I
have known people that were promising, said to be among the best
players in the state in his age bracket when entering college (for
lack of a better term), and now in grad school he has made little
improvement and has come to encounter several mental blocks and is
unable to surpass them. On the other hand, I have also known people
that were told all throughout grade school that music was a carreer
out of their reach and that they should aspire to something that
suited them better like a carreer in mathematics, and yet here they
are blowing past the competition and making dramatic improvements in
as little as two years. Who can say where someone will be in a few years?

In any case, even if someone does not become the best I would
encourage them to pursue their heart's desires. I find music very
fulfilling and I am certainly no Carol Jantsch, and I think that by
telling kids that they don't have a chance when we really don't know
what they will be capable of in time is a fairly harsh thing to do, as
well as convincing them to do it because they look like they could be
the next best tuba player. In the end, it should be a decision that
they make for themselves and we have no place but to encourage them in
that decision and show them the realities of it.

Back to the point at hand, I would say that the situation with Carol
is rare, but that is due in part to her understanding of music and
hard work. Generally, music isn't something you understand without
being taught, sure, you might be able to play some, but it's abstract
and has been defined in some ways by the human ear over time. What is
the job of our teachers if not to put the right "sound" in our ears.
What do marcato, staccato, and legato mean? How are you taught? It's
short right? How short is short? It's not short!? We eventually
agree on something that sounds right to both our ears and the
teacher's ears. Again, it's still possible to discern the correct
sounds from recordings, but not as likely.

In the end it boils down to both ways exist. True talent (although
more rare than people believe it to be in my humble opinion) does
exist and I would say that it simply takes the form of great
intellect. If a person is naturally great at an instrument, they
could be great at nearly anything, because they are smart enough to
easily see the idiosyncracies of whatever needs to be done and apply
principles that work towards their goal. More commonly, people have
to work hard to discern the differences in sounds to make a great
sound (articulation, style, tone, intonation, etc.) and do so through
strong will and determination (and I'm not saying they're dumb, music
is highly taxing on the brain, think of all the multi-tasking!).
Either way, everyone works, and most enjoy it. :) That's my two
cents, whatever it's worth.

Seth


--- In low_brass_coolertalk@yahoogroups.com, "Ken" <knuxie35@...> wrote:
>
> A 20 year old tubist with 8 years on the instrument gets selected for
> one of the premier orchestras in the world. What effect will this have
> in the world of low brass? Does it give hope that anything is possible
> or a delusion resulting in a flood of wide-eyed kids buying tubas and
> dreaming of their shot? I'll get your opinions then I'll try to give
> mine.
>