Well, science always starts from a place of skepticism, but there's obviously such a thing as natural talent at learning a skill or instrument. A lot of these authors are little better than self-help snake oil salesmen in my opinion, not true scientists. They say sex sells, and it's true, but science also sells. Tons of commercials load in scientific sounding phrases to make their products more appealing, and of a better quality than competing brands. And every author wants to sell 50 million books if they can. I have a hard time imagining how a true scientific test regarding natural talent can be accurate, or in any way able to be reproduced. The ability to reproduce a test is absolutely necessary for scientific study. It's simply a fact that some people, regardless of their IQ, can pick up a skill faster than others. Call it a knack, or a gift, or natural talent, it all amounts to the same thing.

I'm interested with your view on naturally talented people often becoming mediocre due to lack of focus or perseverance. I think it has happened with me. When I was in highschool I could shred better than I can now, and I became one of the best guitarists in my school fairly quickly. I would practice sweeping, tapping, alternate picking and legato style shredding for hours a day, but now that I'm older I don't feel compelled to become a virtuoso, not necessarily due to a lack of perseverance though. I've had a few bands, but I was fed up with other musicians not taking it seriously, and other petty squabbles that happen with bands. A lot of musicians, although I am one, kind of annoy me these days, to be honest. I practice less because pushing up to a new plateau in my playing is very time consuming, and I don't see myself pursuing music professionally any more. I don't have that same drive for guitar that I did when I was in highschool and trying to become the new steve Vai or Joe satriani or, gods forbid, Yngwie Malmsteen. Also my tastes have changed. I used to be a technique snob, but now Bob Dylan is one of my favorite musicians. There's a man with ridiculously mediocre technique who became one of the most respected musicians in the world. I wanted my solos to be less "shreddy" and more melodic, so I don't push myself as hard as I used to.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I would say that I have resumed being a good student of the guitar sometime shortly after my guitar teacher gave me this job, but before my first actual lesson. I have a few lessons under my belt now, and it's going more smoothly than I thought. Pebber's videos are giving me so many ideas to try with my own students, but I still have to take it slow. I'm not sure how much I should be pushing the students to advance quickly versus how much I should just be encouraging them to not take on anything that will blow their minds too early on. I always encourage them to play with a metronome, unless they are so uncoordinated that even the metronome throws them off. I know I will have to reintroduce the metronome to those students' practice routines at some point, but I'm not sure I'm able to accurately gauge their progress. Also I need to strike a balance between building up good fundamentals and focusing on what THEY really want to learn.

I am only posting this link because Heyman suggested a sample, and I don't really know how to make a video. I'm not looking for shameless self promotion, and I hope Pebber doesn't have me CIA mindwiped, but here is my soundcloud account. soundcloud .com/jamschmitt
There is a sample of me improvising, doing cover songs, and doing a few original songs. The most "shreddy" I get is on the long improv track called smoldering funk rock jam. The stuff is not very high quality, and I would never release this stuff on an album. It's just throwaway tracks from various jam sessions and times when I felt like recording some music.