yeah, i think that sentiment has been beat to death. of course you have to be musically inclined, you have to have a certain measure of natural talent, you need certain skills- but that has nothing to do with someone seeking out a learning method. reading articles on techniques has helped me greatly; reading posts on this site from guys like vitaminman have given me great insite as to what it takes to get the most out of a given instrument; when someone here doesnt know what is best to do in a given situation, a setup problem, maybe they want suggestions for somthing, naybe they cant do a certain thing that they want to do.... watching a video is no different than piano lessons, or taking a recording course, because there are PRINCAPLES that are applied. thats why people take music theory and composition. people that are tremendously talented and are successful in a given field will almost always tell of their countless hours of practice, athletes watch film, writers read books, musicians will often study the traits of one that they admire..... and we all have certain artists that inspire us, many of us will here songs - iknow i do- and block out the words to dissect the beat. some of us will attempt to recreate someones elses beat and figure it out, i know countless taggers who began by tracing a friends work or something from a magazine, and it helped then greatly. that doesnt mean that they do not, or didnt have the talent, because a given passion almost always relates to a talent that the person has. there is just a multitude of ways of going about cultivating that talent. thats why most of us are on this site, isnt it? we all have questions at some point, so does that mean that everyone who asks a question doesnt have talent? of course it takes talent, but it seems like a great deal of you think that talented people wake up with their current skills one day without ever seeking out information...