Re: OT: 10,000 hours

[Steve Bingham <sbingham@con-brio.com>]

Doing a quick bit of basic mental maths I reckon I've done an average  
of, at the minimum, 1 hour a day practice (not counting rehearsals and  
gigs!) for the last 39 years (more when I was a student, less when I  
was in my late 20s/30s, and more these days!!).

So I make that about 14,000 hours.

Does that mean I'm great?  (-;

Actually my very first classical violin teacher (when I was 7) used to  
say that it took 7 years to get to a point where one could really get  
around the violin. Really though I think it's impossible to put a  
figure on it, at least in terms of years. Perhaps the hours figure is  
a more useful gauge, but so much depends on the quality of the  
practice and not the quantity (as anyone who has given instrumental  
lessons will know!).

Meanwhile I'll content myself with the thought that although I may now  
be classed as officially great, I'm still learning!

Keep practicing.........

Steve

ps. with regard to being a prodigy, one reply has already cited  
Mozart. Maybe his really great works came later in his short life, but  
there's got to be something special that allowed him to do pretty  
amazing musical feats at a very early age. I would also mention  
Mendelssohn who, for instance, wrote the incredible Octet for Strings  
at the age of 16.

Although I guess if he worked 8 hours a day, 7 days a week on his  
music he could clock his 10,000 hours in less than 4 years......!


On 17 Jul 2009, at 08:29, Art Simon wrote:

> I just read Malcolm Gladwell's book "Outliers", and it makes a
> convincing argument that there really is no such thing as a prodigy,
> and it takes at least 10,000 hours of practice to become great,
> whether you are talking about music or computer programming. The
> author cites the examples of the Beatles and Mozart. I was having a
> hard time trying to come up with musical counter examples, maybe Tod
> Dockstader? Even "anti-musicians" like Alvin Lucier and Brian Eno
> certainly put in the time developing their chops. I'm pretty convinced
> that there really is something to this, and that practice is the most
> important part of developing as a musician or a composer.
>
> I'm curious if anyone else has heard this hypothesis and might have  
> an opinion.
> -- 
> Art Simon
> simart@gmail.com
> myspace [dot] com/artsimon
>