The Illusion That Our Fav Artists Did not Have Musical Training

We all like to hold on to the romantic notion that our favorite artists are “natural talents” who never took (or “needed”) music or guitar lessons to become that good.
Believing that an artist is naturally born with those great songs in him, or with those otherworldly guitar skills, makes for a more fun story.

That story we tell ourselves also adds a bit of mystery to the artist we like.

Moreover: artists like to cultivate that impression (or should I say “illusion”) themselves of course, because it makes them being perceived as more mysterious or at least “more special”.

That’s why we often hear things like:

“The Beatles never had lessons”.
“Jimi Hendrix never took guitar lessons”
“Eddie Van Halen is completely self-taught. He’s a natural talent”.

Most people never question the validity of those statements.
They should!

Lessons vs school

I think that one of the many inherent issues with this is that we confuse “never had lessons” with “never went to a music school”.

Those are 2 completely different things.

While it is probably true that the Beatles never went to a music school to study music, it is also true that:

John Lennon and Paul McCartney supposedly wrote 50+ something songs that their producer George Martin turned down before they came up with “Please Please Me”. That right there is song-writing school. I don’t think it is likely that George sent John and Paul back to the drawing board without giving them pointers and advice on how to improve their songs or writing. After all, that is part of what producers do. So… how exactly is that different from a music school, which is nothing more than a building with people whose job it is to give you — the student — pointers, and advice to become a better musician?
George Martin was the man behind the scenes, who wrote all the intricate string and horn arrangements to all the Beatles songs. He was the trained, schooled musician on their team. After all, the job of producing an artist involves teaching, guiding, helping, instructing, molding, improving. Again, how is that not a school?

Getting the Facts.

It’s also inherent in human nature, to neglect to check facts in favor of keeping up the more appealing and sexier mysterious explanation instead.
It’s often more fun to believe in the made-up story than in the often lesser exciting reality.

While there’s a certain degree of enjoyable mysteriousness to the thought that Eddie Van Halen was born with amazing talent that had never been schooled, the real truth is that his dad, Jan Van Halen, was a musician who played saxophone, clarinet, and piano.
In addition, both Eddie and his brother Alex took piano lessons from a teacher as children.

There is usually a more simple, accurate explanation and different picture behind every “natural musical talent”.

Playing with Other People.

There probably is no better school than playing music with others.
Before James Marshall became “Jimi,” he had played for many years as a backup guitarist in numerous bands: from The Isley Brothers to Ike Turner, Curtis Knight, and so on.
He had also spent numerous years jamming with other people.

The people you play or jam with, are your teachers.
They show you stuff you can’t do yet, or do things that you try to copy during the jam. None of this is any different than being with a teacher in a school: jamming with him on new material he just taught you.

Moreover, pretty much every Jimi Hendrix biography mentions how Jimi had plans to study music theory with Miles Davis. If the sources of the authors are correct, there seems to be general agreement that Jimi felt insecure in the presence of other skilled musicians about his musical knowledge.

As a guitar coach, the only purpose for me to write this blog is to help guitar students.

In my teaching career, I have worked with countless students who lost motivation or drive, because of their inclination to compare themselves against unrealistic beliefs they had about other musicians and artists.

Knowing that the musician you compare yourself to or use as an example, only got really good because of hard work, or because they took lessons with a great mentor, helps tremendously to keep up your motivation in your own musical journey.

It’s motivating to know that guitar does not come naturally to anybody.
You’re in good company: every musician you admire had to work their butts off to be where they are at.
Even Michael Jackson still practiced vocals and worked with a vocal coach non-stop till right when he passed, Eddie Van Halen was never seen without a guitar in his hands, John Coltrane was still practicing lines right before he went on stage, and so on.

By all means: hold on to the fun stories, as long as they are not hurting or hindering your journey.

I — for one — always prefer reality and facts over stories, no matter how appealing the stories sound.

Conclusion

Hit me up anytime at [email protected] if you have any questions, or if you would like to book a lesson.

These free lessons are cool, but you will never experience the progress, joy, and results that my students experience in lessons when you’re learning by yourself from blogs and videos.

That is why people take lessons: way better results and progress, much more complete information, exposed to way more creative ideas than you can get from a blog or YouTube video.
There is only so much that self-study can accomplish.

If you want to see amazing results and progress in your guitar playing, buy your first lesson here and get started ASAP.