idk if this anecdote helps at all but I have an acquaintance who is a really good DJ of some renown. Rather introverted engineer-type of guy. Only started doing music stuff in his late 30s. He has that impeccable ability to select the perfect track for the perfect moment and keep the groove going, without messing up the mixes. BUT the dude is completely tone deaf and has has barely any sense of rhythm. "How the fuck is that even possible?" I asked of him. "How do you keep track of the bars? How do you match the tempo??" He said he "just spins the disc and ride the tempo until it sounds good" and that he "never even bothered trying to count it out" because he knows he isn't made like that. So he just went and made up some own little fucked up system to keep track of the beats, because he knew he didn't vibe with the established set of rules and methods. Then he just practiced a lot until he got a feel for it. I still don't understand how he does it, but god damn does he do it well.

But I digress. I would argue that music is more like a language than a talent or skill or whatever. If you don't speak it at all and listen to someone else speaking in it, it'll be completely incomprehensible (but nice to listen to!). There is not a single person in the entire universe who was born able to understand music on a deeper level without studying it and actively using it. Those who seem to have been born innately musical have only learned it because they've been exposed to it from an early age. I can't remember consciously learning my own native language, like, I couldn't tell you now why some verbs have some particular conjugations in some contexts, but I can simply hear and subconsciously understand when something is correct. Music is the same. In time you learn to subconsciously understand what the fuck a C# minor sounds like or how long a 16th note is without having to really think too much about it. I only started learning this shit at 32 years old. damn I wish my parents would have given me an instrument to learn at age 5 so I wouldn't have to go through so much boring learning bullshit as an adult...

But no, I'd say talent isn't really a thing at all. It's just practice and consistency. More importantly: finding a way to practice that works for you. If you don't vibe with it then you're never gonna enjoy it, and if you don't enjoy it, you're never gonna be consistent. Honestly I always hated the platitude but I can't deny there is truth in it: consistency is key. Playing one shitty six-second song once makes you one shitty six-second song better at playing music. Going to the gym to lift one weight once is infinitely more progress than going to none gym and lifting none weights zero times, and so on. You can absolutely do it, I believe in you.

My true opinion is environment. You'll learn a lot without really practicing if you're doing it all the time with people. The idea of practicing is to make yourself better as a type of weight lifting. A baby can learn multiple languages organically just by using them, music is the same.

In my opinion, due to academia and horrible western culture, we have it backwards. Practicing is how you get good and environment is an after thought. That being said the reason why we practice the way we do is a response to our environment, there's not enough environment so we must practice.

It's unavoidable as a westoid and partly explains why we have many people who are completely illiterate with music but still have people who are absolute masters of the craft. Reality should be more flat where mostly everyone can atleast participate.

Nothing can stop you from getting good at anything as long as you do the following things:

1. Practice with intensity and sincerity, use your senses to figure out what is wrong with whatever you're doing.

2. Find a community, no one lasts long in a bubble. Find other people who are doing the thing and resist the pressures of the world together.

3. Find a mentor, you learn how to talk from Mom and Dad primarily and also your community, getting good at anything is the same. If you want to be good at basketball, do not shoot 3 pters in isolation all day. If you want to be good at street fighter, find people who play street fighter. Japanese guys arent good at Street Fighter because theyre Japanese or they have a Hadouken bone in their brain, theyre good because theyve had a) The most amount of time with the game. B) The most amount of time with a competitive scene. D) These guys meet up in person and fucking talk about and play street fighter.

4. Develop a tough skin and resolute sense of grit. I've paid off massive amounts of student loans, failed horribly in more times and ways than I can count or possibly remember. I've wanted to quit many times but ultimately I stuck with it.

5. Lastly, live your life that's consistent with what you want. Don't be a guy who works 80 hrs a week if you want to get good at something that's not work. All of my major life choices have been in service of: I want to be a musician and I'm not playing around. That being said, I'm realistic, I know what I am and am not and can't just insert myself into the New York scene.