This is something that has been bugging me since I started playing, and I don't think I'm alone in that. The question of which is more important: talent or practice? Well, I've been reading a book called "This is Your Brain on Music" written by Daniel Levitin - a prominent recording studio engineer who decided to get a PhD and dedicate the rest of his life to music research. This is what it has to say about the matter:
"The strongest evidence for the talent position is that some people simply acquire musical skills more rapidly than others. The evidence against the talent account - or rather, in favor of the view tat practice makes perfect - comes from research on how much training the experts or high achievement people actually do... In several studies, the very best conservatory students were found to have practiced the most, sometimes twice as much as those who weren't judged as good. In another study, students were secretly divided into two groups (not revealed to the students so as not to bias them) based on teachers' evaluations of their abilities, or the perception of talent. Several years later, the students who achieved the highest performance ratings were those who had practiced the most, irrespective of which "talent" group they had been assigned to previously."
This gives very convincing evidence of what Kris has been telling us all along. We assign the label of "talented" to those who have already achieved great skill through many hours of practice. It should be encouraging to anyone who wants to be a great musician.
I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this.