Actually, you're both wrong... it's all attributable to predestination!

How can you post a thread about your new 62 Stratocaster and not post pix? That's the real mystery here.

What happened to just giving e-kudos on a hip acquisition?

That said, in the most literal sense, since fret crowns are in this experience, anywhere from 20 to 50 thousandths of an inch above the board, their radii will differ by that factor.

Where's the beef - I mean where's the pics!

So if you think like that then you must think that criminals are born as criminals and not a product of there upbringing and the enviroment in which they are raised. I can't agree with that!!!! These traits and skills are learned through the parent (s) or and enviroment. Now an argument for the other side. I do agree that people are born with different genetic and physical makeups that help in the ability to gain intelegence or have a specific talent. We all don't have the same IQ, we all can't run the 4 minute mile or have nimble fingers to play ect.ect. no matter how much you practice in most cases there will be someone better for some reason.

What I am getting at is nothing is writen in stone for anyone at the time of birth. There are to many variables in Mother Nature.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

CV the guy has already proved against himself by seeking to defend (a unattacked) Ynkiw malmsteen. He's absolute proof that practice leads to musicianship and not anything else. If the guy could write a song he'd sell like greenday or even springsteen, neither of which are as good guitarists. The simple fact of the matter is that he cant write a song and relies on speed pyrotechnics through a skill that was learnt. Theres no way he sprung from the womb blazing up a fretboard. Unlike lesser guitarists he doesnt sell, why? Is it because the majority of the guitar playing public (never mind the general public) find him (although a good guitarist) boring to listen to? Do you ever hear him on the radio?
Musical understanding is also something that is learnt. No one sprung from the womb, never struck a note and composed a opus. To believe anything else is to mask your failings as a musician/guitarist behind the veil of 'their more talented than I' when in truth its 'they worked harder than me'.
Aint foolin no one but emselves.

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Let's not confuse being an incredible guitarist with being an incredible song writer... A person can be a "guitar god" without also having the ability to write music. Those are two different skills and one can excel at either or both... And, selling records (showing my age there..) isn't necessarily a measure of incredible talent... lotsa great music never sees the light of day sales-wise and lotsa garbage music gets sold in large numbers... ... Just my opinion

I'm not saying sales are a sign of talent or i'd have to admit that MJ's life wasnt a waste of good oxygen. What I am saying is that technical ability comes through nothing more than practice. To say otherwise is to belittle the effort people have put into developing their skills. Musical understanding whilst it can be aided by a kind of natural aptitude (but no more than some people are born with a analyticaly inclined mind, for instance) has to be worked at and developed. Anyone who thinks a 'prodigy' can blister a fretboard or compose great works without years and years of painstaking excruciating effort is living in cloud cuckoo land. No one is born with a natural talent everyone develops their talents through effort and work. The excuse that 'I'm not as good as blah blah because he's got a natural talent' is nothing more than a lame cop out for someone who hasnt put as much effort in. Me included.
And yes Oldguy i remember records too, infact i only moved onto cd's 2 years ago and only last year onto mp3's.

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Nikininja, I have read many of your posts - as I have read others here as well. I must say that I respect and admire the wealth of knowledge that is represented here every day. But I must respectfully disagree with your position in this particular subject.
First off, my musically formative years started in the late seventies and spread through the late eighties (from age 16 through age 25 or so). I listened to a broad spectrum of music during this period, and I have one observation to make about thie section I pulled from your post above: I never heard of SRV until a few years after he passed on. Alas, he seems to be one of the guitarists that many folks seem to agree is one of the best. Where were his records on the radio when I was listening to every guitarist that I could find any material on? I also have to say that there are many, many guitarists out there that are younger and have been playing and practicing far less than I have for the last 30 years, but they are absolutely better guitarists than I will probably ever be - technically and otherwise. My 19 year old son is one of them. He's been playing for about 5 years now - very much off and on - and already amazes me with his technical ability, speed, and accuracy.
Some people are indeed "born" with certain traits or skills that lend to greater achievements in certain subjects. A soccer goalie can train until he's blue in the face - be the best in positioning and tecnique. But if he has hands of stone, he'll never be in the elite class of keepers
Williams, Ruth, and DiMaggio never ever practiced and trained the way Major leaguers do nowadays. Geez, they drank more beer and smoked more cigarettes in a week than most of us would in a year. But some of their achievements have stood the test of time for decades. - steroids not withstanding!
If I thought I could be half as good as SRV with nothing more than heavy doses of non-stop practice, then I'd quit my job today and be the next guitar god. But, it ain't in the cards, as they say.

WOW is this about to move onto behavioral genetic traits. We are all born with different ones. Some do make it easier for some to develop abilities over and above others. Then you add the genes we are born with that determine our physical characteristics which can effect ability.
This can deep I will have to brush up on Mendal!

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Who gives a $@!& about the radio. The music these radio stations play suck anyway. Malmsteen doesn't need to stoop down to their level.

By the way we know that the great composers were playing and composing naturally at an early age without lessons.

Malmsteen doesnt need to stoop down to radio level. But every other modern musician that sells more than him and are more successfull than him do. Mag are you also one of these 'I'll never do mtv on moral grounds' people that never get asked. Lets see some evidence of classical composers having no lessons.

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Twobrs
Firstly I'd add SRV to the decent guitarist that cant write a song camp, thats why you never hear him. People arent that interested outside the guitar playing community. How many non musical instrument playing friends flip and go bandy legged at texas flood. Not many.
I agree with you that you are born with certain traits,but unless they are developed and worked on they go to waste. Its been that way forever look at Jesus's parable of the seeds. Only the one that was nurtured properly grew. Well done on nurturing your son. Your influence on him from a early age has done him the world of good.

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SALZBURG, Austria – Technically demanding and at times furiously paced, two newly identified Mozart works unveiled Sunday are helping scholars complete their assessment of the maestro's very early achievements. The childhood creations — an extensive concerto movement and a fragmentary prelude — provide yet more proof the Salzburg native was a true prodigy. And maybe a bit of a showoff.

"We have here the first orchestral movement by the young Mozart — even though the orchestral parts are missing — and therefore it's an extremely important missing link in our understanding of Mozart's development as a young composer," said Ulrich Leisinger, head of research at the International Mozarteum Foundation after a presentation of the pieces in Mozart's native Salzburg.

Mozart, who was born in 1756, began playing the keyboard at age 3 and composing at 5. By the time he died of rheumatic fever on Dec. 5, 1791, he had written more than 600 pieces.

There is your evidence as I stated. Stop denying it you fool.

Easy, easy.

As so often with heated arguments on the Forum this one revolves around a false dichotomy.

Patently, people attain wildly differing levels regardless of how much they practice. If practicing hard was all it took to achieve technical brilliance there'd be more fabulous musicians in the world (I happen to know from sad experience). On the other hand, nobody from Mozart to Malmsteen got where they did without practicing very hard, especially early on.

Two sides of the same coin.

Mozart was driven shockingly hard by his father in his early years: he'd practiced more by the time he was 10 than some of us in a lifetime. And although he started composing amazingly young, his early work is frankly undistinctive (wiser heads than me adjudge).

Had Mozart died at 20 we'd never have heard of him, despite the piano concertos and such he'd already written by that time. At most, his name would merely list amongst numerous other novelty performers who traipsed endlessly around the salons and courts of Europe at the time.

Should you purchase complete sets of Mozart Symphonies and Concerti (I have a few) I'd be truly amazed if you spend much time listening to the earlier pieces. Outrageous of a nobody such as me to say it - but they're so-so at best. His genuinely magnificent work was done in his (short) adult years, springing from the musical experience he'd by then gained - which came from both nurture and nature.

That's my view, anyhow. Shoot me down at will!

Cheers - C