When was the last time you heard someone say “I can’t do math.  I’m not talented” or I can’t do science experiments, I’m not talented”.  Never, right?  Math, science and reading teachers expect their students to meet certain standards within those particular disciplines.  There is never a question of whether or not the student is not talented enough to learn these subjects.  But for some reason, when we talk about “specials” or music, art and physical education, we decide whether or not a child can succeed based on some kind of nebulous talent.

I’m going to break it to you here boys and girls.  My students aren’t always talented.  My students are working to become musically literate.  My students are garnering needed skills to convey themselves through what happens to be an art form.  They are studying the elements of music so that they can intelligently speak about and understand something that they encounter in all kinds of venues every single day. They may have an affinity for music, but they are not talented as of yet.

I wish I could tell you how many adults have told me they can’t sing.  It’s not that they can’t sing, it’s that they were never taught how to sing OR they decided they couldn’t sing and didn’t believe they could be taught. According to research, there is a very tiny percentage of people who can’t physically match pitch and that would happen only if there was some kind of disconnect between their hearing and being able to reproduce the sound.  I currently have a student who is deaf in one ear and she can match pitch. Singing is just that, hearing the sound and reproducing it vocally.  This is a learned skill.  Today I had a handful of students who did not want to sing by themselves because they believed they couldn’t do it. I encouraged them to see me after the rest of the class left and they all sang for me.  Each one of them was able to reproduce the sound exactly as I sang to them.   They have the skill, just not the belief.  Yet.

As spectators, we look at entertainers who have distinctive voices and think, I could never be that talented.  Let’s analyze this a bit.  This singer had to begin by matching and reproducing sounds just like anyone else.  Maybe it’s something they heard at lot at home.  Maybe they spent a lot of time practicing as a kid, but it begins with the same foundation as anyone else.  What separates them from the rest of us is that they have made the decision to give all of themselves to the art form.  If you talk to professional vocalists, they will tell you singing is not easy.  It is an aerobic exercise that must be practiced daily, working on specific breathing techniques, increasing their range of notes, using their knowledge of dynamic expression, timbre, and tempo to convey the meaning behind the words they’re singing.  It’s this kind of personal interpretation and plain hard work that turns a well trained musician into what lay people refer to as “talented”.

It’s much like anyone studying physical education.  Sure, maybe they practiced the game at home with parents or at school at an early age.  But a physical education teacher gave them the foundational tools to build consistency in their skills.  That with practice and hard work can help them improve.  Maybe one day they’ll take their personality, competitiveness and work ethic and combine them with their solid foundation of skills and everyone will refer to them as a talented “star athlete”.  Again, this person has taken a set of skills and worked hard to become better, just like the musician.

Both of these examples show how a student, educated in the foundations of a particular discipline can meet curricular expectations, just like math, science, reading or writing.  But I like to believe that in the arts, there can be sparks of magic.  Classroom teachers might refer to it as the “ah ha” moment.  When it happens in the arts, it not only touches the soul of the person who experiences it, but it touches those around them.  It’s powerful.  The arts, done well, can elevate human beings to be the best they can be.  It is the intersection of foundational skills, curricular understanding and the individual themselves.

My kids may not be talented – yet – but in the meantime, my job is to help them to believe in me and in themselves, so they’re not afraid to try new things, to gain a deeper understanding and learn new skills.  In the process, I hope they have some fun and see that music can make them feel things they have never felt before.  In the process, maybe it will cultivate a love for something they’ll carry with them their entire life.  Because you don’t have to be talented to sing well at any age.