I first read of the "10,000 Hour Rule" in Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Outliers" which describes exceptional achievers in many fields, including music. Gladwell describes an experiment done by K. Anders Ericsson in the 1990s at "Berlin's elite Academy of Music". Violin students were divided into three categories: "stars", "merely good", and future public school music teachers. By age twenty the elite performers had totaled ten thousand hours of practice; the merely good, eight thousand hours, and the future music teachers, four thousand hours. Ericsson did a similar study with piano students with the same results and other studies in other fields have turned up similar numbers. Gladwell states: "The striking thing about Ericsson's study is that he and his colleagues couldn't find any 'naturals', musicians who floated effortlessly to the top while practicing a fraction of the time their peers did." His main point being that people who reach the top work at it much much harder tha n those who don't. In a television interview, Gladwell defined "talent" as the "DESIRE to practice."
Does anyone here know how to teach desire to practice? Dick Martz -- http://www.rjmartz.com/horns Horn Collection -------------- Original message from "Kit Wolf" <[email protected]>: -------------- > > It is not important, how many hours one studies one thing. > > But it is very important how effectively practice time is used. > > I wouldn't argue with any of that - I fear that I'm not a good 'practicer' > myself. My point is more that 10,000 hours has always seemed to me to be a > number plucked out of thin air and I don't immediately see why it should > be 10,000 hours rather than another figure. > > On the other hand, at the top levels human potential is perhaps not so > very different. If anybody wants to be exceptional at an endeavour, in > comparison with 'competitors', they need not only to practice > productively, but also to practice a great deal. Both are necessary but > not sufficient. I don't see any conflict in what we're saying here. > > But my interest in this is largely academic. Personally I started enjoying > the horn a whole lot more when I remembered that I was playing for fun and > didn't need to compare myself to anyone. If I can play better today than I > did yesterday, then I'm satisfied. Obviously for the pros on the list, > this may be different. > > > If you have a very good teacher, NEVER question his advice. > > This interests me. As a scientist, my teachers welcomed it when I > questioned them. Indeed, I don't think they would have respected me if I > hadn't. Should matters really be so different in music? > > Kit > > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/rjmartz.lists%40att.net _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
