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Hi all,
Didn't read the book yet, and I would be glad to
know if it exists in audio.
But what I can say about this is that it's all a
matter of balance. Gift without work gives a lot of mess with fantastic ideas
every once in awhile. Work without gift gives boring and academic results. Gift
and work together gives Mozart, Mandelson or Frank Zappa.
JPR
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 9:39 PM
Subject: Re: OT: 10,000 hours
In my opinion, with most things, quality surpasses
quantity.
This reminds of a joke popular among teachers that goes as
follows:
"He once told me he had twenty years of teaching experience, but
I
later found out he only had one, repeated twenty times."
Don't get
me wrong, Outliers is a great read (as are other Malcolm
Gladwell books,
especially Blink).
cheers,
Sylvain
On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at
3:06 AM, Steve Bingham<sbingham@con-brio.com>
wrote:
> 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
>>
>
>
>
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