thoughts on talent, music and writing

Yesterday and today I spent about 10 hours in a recording studio with 15 cutting a CD that is her Christmas present to friends and family (and I suppose, in a way, my present to her). It was interesting talking just a little with the audio guy there about talent. He thought at first that 15 was a college student, home for the Holidays, and when I told him she was a sophomore in high school, he mentioned several times how impressive both her voice and her sense of style. She recorded about 12 songs, 5 with cello and piano, and ended up improvising a bunch of the music on the spot, or simply transposing it as she went for her voice. Maybe I will put up one of the songs later on youtube and link to it from here.

I told AG that I tried to emphasize with 15 the importance of working hard and not get too caught up in whether or not she had more "talent" than other people. I think his reaction to this was somewhat similar to my agent's when I talk to him about talent versus hard work. Just head shaking and surprise that anyone else in an artistic career could dismiss so easily the importance of talent. AG tried to explain to me how many times he had had people in his studio who had worked very hard, but did not have the talent to get where they wanted to go. Of course, this would be very painful, and he said there was a point at which he just wanted to tell people to find something else they could be good at and not waste anymore time on what they couldn't.

So, apparently, I am refusing to see what everyone else does. Nonetheless, I think I am going to continue to do this because I still want 15 to work hard and to answer the question, "Why am I not famous yet?" with "Because I am not good enough yet."

My attention for listening carefully to music production is about an hour. After that, I went glassy eyed and silent. I just couldn't care about anything big or small after that. AG mentioned when he found out that I was a writer that he couldn't imagine spending day after day for years working on one book. You see the parallel? I spend hours every day sometimes on the same opening paragraph or just thinking up possible titles for a book. I love the painstaking work of copyediting. I love the details. There is nothing that is more like a treat for my brain and my talent.

15 said as we finished up, "This is my favorite place ever. I want to do this every day." So I guess she has found what she loves, and that is an amazing thing as a parent to watch and connect with.