there's practise and there's 'informed' practise.., it is important that one has a teacher.., a teacher is a library, a library is knowledge, accumulated and passed down is over the years. To practise in an 'uninformed' way is to go over the same thing day after day never moving forward. One needs to learn 'said thing' and move on to next 'said thing,'.., the next step. How can you move on to the next step if you don't know what is.., if there is no 'library', no guide to show you the way.

One can learn from books, but a teacher is so much more personal, if one respects their teacher then one wants to perform better for them until one wants to perform better for one's self. With books there is the chance of misunderstanding, 'I'll do it tomorrow' and other pitfalls.

people say I'm gifted (in certain circles ) but I say, we are all 'gifted' but we all have different preferences in the same way we all have different personalities.

As Gster said.., 'it all depends on how much you want to do it'

I maintain, there is no progress without 'work'.., 'informed' work. (and lots of it, not just a few minutes here and thee spread over a week. Sure there are the 'geniuses' .., the truly 'gifted' such as 'DeVinci' but I'm trying to keep this post on planet earth. 'De Vinci s' are too rare to consider, and he probably worked a 28 hour day.

some very good things said on this thread.

'we are all humans' yes quiet an assumption, if only it were true, what a world? Its become such a lonely and cynical place. The first thing we should learn is to respect ourselves and only then can we respect others. (my 5 cents worth )