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It's a reasonable question to ask.
Indulge me for a moment and I'll share a relevant story with you.
When I first moved away from my home in Pittsburgh, PA.
I moved to Florida to attend the University of Miami and pursue a Masters Degree in Jazz Performance.
As you could imagine, there were many students from different cultures who spoke different languages.
I became friends with a student who was, originally, from Cuba....but he spoke English
He and I also became friends with someone else who was from Bologna, Italy....but he spoke English also.
Even though all 3 of us were, technically, speaking English it was easy to hear that the way in which we interpreted the language and spoke it was different.
Different accents, dialect, slang that was different BUT we were ALL speaking English.
Not everyone is going to sound, look, act exactly like everyone else but we all ARE capable of understanding each other by paying attention and being aware of those differences and embracing them.
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WHAT ABOUT MUSIC???
Are you speaking the language or are you just getting by with the few words, phrases you've picked up along the way?
Music is a language as well
In order to be able to speak it FLUENTLY, we must continue to develop our vocabulary.
Once we've got a decent vocabulary together, we can then learn how to put those words (notes) together in a way that is cohesive and makes sense.
Think about it, people don't just pick up a language and then speak it fluently. No...they learn some very important vocabulary usually out of necessity (ie...learning notes, then scales, then modes, then alternative scales, then how to arrange the notes and it goes on from there.
Am I illustrating this correctly???
We ALL have the ability to learn the language of music.
Some of us immerse ourselves in the culture and become fluent faster than others but it's all the same language.
You must decide how well you want to speak this language and do whatever it takes to get you there.
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