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| first read about this in Scientific American in 2006. I think in some cases kids absorb music thru their parent's playing, listening etc.  So, even though they might not be practicing, they're doing 'the hours' vicariously - absorbing the melodies, riddims etc.  I think that's why the kids of musicians seem to have such a huge head start.  Gladwell also talks in the book about the importance of folks being in the right place at the right time... and having nurturing environments when young & meeting great mentors - Bill Gates, Bill Joy etc.  Watching my daughter and Joe Pug's progress, I have no doubt that this is a critical part of the equation.   There are freaks like the kid I saw play Beethoven at a piano that was over his head.  He was like 3.  But for 99.99999% of us, there's nothing like practice and discipline - that is, learning things that are very hard and not easy to learn.  Challenging yourself. You can practice for a trillion hours, but if you don't try to do really challenging stuff, you don't improve - that's why there are 22 year old kids who can play a circle around me, young chess players who can obliterate the old sages.   "It's not that I'm smarter than everybody, I just work on problems longer." Albert Einstein All of Gladwell's books are great mind blowers. Okay... back to work!!! On Jul 17, 2009, at 12:29 AM, Art Simon wrote: 
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