Prodigies

[Joe]

My son is something of a drumming prodigy. Or so I've been told by two band directors and his private instructor.
You hear that tossed around a lot these days. Prodigy, genius, etc; I'm skeptical of it.
So I looked into what being a prodigy exactly means. All it means is that you have a propensity for ease of learning and mastery of technique and you don't have to practice as long as the average person would to achieve the same results. But, for a prodigy to begin to approach their potential the average amount of practice needed is 10,000 hours.
There are exceptions: like prodigies who also have a very high I.Q., A.D.D. for the ability to multi task and endure high activity, exceptional social skills, or being a social outcast, a photographic memory, or even linguistic abilities that allow the person to study texts and converse with people/instructors abroad, in different languages.
But for most, being blessed with a talent without putting in the 10,000 hours of work means they'll never realize the full potential of their gift. In his case, assuming he is average, it will take him 2 hours a day of practice for 13.2 years to realize his gift.