you don't have to be a talented musician?

[wiechfreak]

Hi, me and my friend disagree on this. My friend says to become famous or even somewhat successful in music you must be a great musician with whatever instrument you play. I, however think that is not true. It is mostly in the songwriting skills. Look at Nirvana. I'll be honest nirvana is my favorite band of al ltime but the truth is they werent that talented. Almost every song of theirs is a combo of bar chords that can be easily played by a novice guitar player. It is however actually using the chords to write the songs that is whats important. I know being talented definetly helps but I dont believe its necessary to be very talented to become successful. What do you guys think?

[Wudluv2sweep]

Kurt cobain wasnt technical or anything, but surely you could argue he had a talent for songwriting?i think most people can learn to shred or whatever if they have the time and motivation - some will learn faster than others, but songwriting etc is more difficult, in my opinion anyway

[GuitarLausing]

when you say talented, what do you mean?
Talent goes further than technique.. IMO

[wiechfreak]

by talent i mean...talent as a guitar player. I mean for example Jimi Hendrix was one of the most "talented" guitarists ever. But Kurt Cobain and many others werent very talented at all but they just wrote great music using simple guitar parts.

[Koala]

I guess you most have some talent at something, you dont have to be an instrumental virtuoso thats a fact, but heck being good at shaking their butts make some people famous. I mean, ask ricky martin.

[RandyEllefson]

I don't think Kurt Cobain was the genius people say he was, but he WAS talented as a songwriter, as much as I hate to admit it (hey, he destroyed my genre, the bastard! ).

Anyway, little talent is necessary to get a lot of attention. Unless that talent is sounding like a mediocre version of what is popular. Then, talent is everything.

[Zatz]

by talent i mean...talent as a guitar player.

Again, what do you mean by "talent as a guitar player"?

But Kurt Cobain and many others werent very talented at all but they just wrote great music using simple guitar parts.

Hence there are some very talented guitar players who write extremely crappy and complex music.

This discussion will go nowhere unless we define what is talent. Let's refer to Webster's Online Dictionary:

http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/talents

There it goes:

n. 1. Among the ancient Greeks, a weight and a denomination of money equal to 60 minæ or 6,000 drachmæ. The Attic talent, as a weight, was about 57 lbs. avoirdupois; as a denomination of silver money, its value was £243 15s. sterling, or about $1,180.
Rowing vessel whose burden does not exceed five hundred talents.
- Jowett (Thucid.).
2. Among the Hebrews, a weight and denomination of money. For silver it was equivalent to 3,000 shekels, and in weight was equal to about 93 lbs. avoirdupois; as a denomination of silver, it has been variously estimated at from £340 to £396 sterling, or about $1,645 to $1,916. For gold it was equal to 10,000 gold shekels.
3. Inclination; will; disposition; desire.
They rather counseled you to your talent than to your profit.
- Chaucer.
4. Intellectual ability, natural or acquired; mental endowment or capacity; skill in accomplishing; a special gift, particularly in business, art, or the like; faculty; a use of the word probably originating in the Scripture parable of the talents (Matt. xxv. 14-30).
He is chiefly to be considered in his three different talents, as a critic, a satirist, and a writer of odes.

- Dryden.
His talents, his accomplishments, his graceful manners, made him generally popular.
- Macaulay.

WordNet Dictionary
Noun 1. talent - natural qualities or talents
Synonyms: endowment, natural endowment, gift
2. talent - a person who possesses unusual innate ability in some field or activity



Getting back to Kurt Cobain you can say that he possessed a unique ability to write simple but catchy songs, came up with his own sound, style, had strong distorted voice etc. Innate or acquired, he had a lot of skills that distinguished him from the rest of talented musicians. So was he talented?

Zatz.

[wiechfreak]

i do agree that he was very talented...at song writing. But as for guitar playing he never did anything fancy. I mean I've only played for 2 years and i can play all their songs easily. I mean that you dont have to be talented at playing your intstrument as long as you have good writing skills.

[GuitarLausing]

as you put it, it's like playing music and playing guitar is two completely different things. And this adds to the neverending discussion technique vs. music. Which I hate.

Dunno why, I just hate it. Do what you want to do really. There is no "real" answer to this, cuz you can play real fast with slamming technique and never make decent music, and you can play slow and unconfidently and still make great music..