Oberlin

Behind the scenes of every great musician exists countless hours of practicing. Malcolm Gladwell hypothesized that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become good at something. Assuming the average professional musician practices three hours a day, it would take them approximately nine years to become "good" at their instrument.

This does not seem unreasonably difficult for an aspiring classical musician. In the prime of their developmental stages, most conservatory level students practice many more than three hours a day. So why do all the students who practice laboriously upwards of seven hours per day not demonstrate mastery in four or five years? Why doesn't everyone who approaches Gladwell's magic number realize greatness?

Gladwell's statement is misleading in that the total number of hours of practice does little to influence ability. Rather, the operative factor in progress is how one uses these hours.

A question commonly asked of performing artists is, "how much do you practice?" In contrast to a perhaps expected answer detailing the strenuous hours put in throughout their career, many of today's top performers have a more modest answer.

When asked this question, Joshua Bell responded that on a good day he practices three hours. Referencing the Gladwell estimate, Yo Yo Ma says he practices 5,000 hours every 5 years, or five hours a day, totaling 50,000 hours for his career so far. Itzhak Perlman states that he never practices above three hours a day, adding that anything over five hours is useless and harmful. He relates his observation to a sponge, saying "a sponge has that much absorbent capability and after a while you can pour water over it and nothing stays."

There are many instances in musicians' careers where they leave the practice room frustrated. This dissatisfaction often comes not from an inability to perform accurately a particular passage, but from regret as they look back at an inefficient practice session. Playing aimlessly while the mind wanders, repeating mistakes in hopes that performing it correctly just once will cure the issue, running through a piece and not dividing it up into manageable parts, and many other personal "practice room issues" can turn a potentially productive hour into an inefficient and frustrating experience.

Goal-oriented practicing is a solution to many of these common problems. In Wynton Marsalis's "12 Rules of Practicing" he advises working out a regular practice schedule, setting realistic goals, concentrating as opposed to just going through the motions, practicing relaxed and slow, focusing on the difficult parts, playing with maximum expression at all times, and looking for connections between music and other parts of life. These aspects may seem general and obvious, but often are lost in a "practice room mentality" of trying to pump out as much playing as possible in the time allotted.

Arthur Rubinstein once said "it is not so good, in a musical way, to overpractice. When you do, the music seems to come out of your pocket. If you play with a feeling of 'Oh, I know this,' you play without that little drop of fresh blood that is necessary -- and the audience feels it.''