Education Quote by Ruggiero Ricci

Ricci’s line lands like a quiet rebuke to the myth of the self-made virtuoso: the idea that genius is something you “find” by digging deeper into your own head. Coming from a musician who spent his life in the unforgiving glare of concert halls, it’s a practical warning disguised as modesty. Technique can be drilled alone; taste can’t. Taste is borrowed, absorbed, argued with. It’s built by letting other people’s phrasing, tone, tempo choices, and even mistakes get under your skin.

The wording matters. “A lot of listening” isn’t passive; it’s labor. Ricci frames listening as a discipline equal to practice, a daily act of humility. The second clause - “you don’t just learn out of yourself” - undercuts the romantic image of the artist as a sealed container of authenticity. He’s saying your inner voice is real, but it’s not self-sufficient. Without contact, it turns into mannerism: your own habits mistaken for style.

Contextually, Ricci grew up in an era when recordings, radio, and international touring were reshaping musical education. Listening meant more than hearing the canon; it meant encountering rival interpretations and realizing there isn’t a single “correct” Beethoven, only choices with consequences. Subtext: if you want to be original, stop trying so hard to be. Pay attention. Let the world in. Originality, in this view, is what’s left over after you’ve listened widely enough to make your own decisions.