Average music prodigy practice time how to#
Average music prodigy practice time professional#

Average music prodigy practice time how to#

Learning how to overcome those difficult times is essential to keep you on the path of growth, but more importantly, to keep you engaged for a lifetime. Maybe their musical hopes and expectations are not being met, and suddenly they are losing the love and passion for the instrument. Unfortunately, as the months and years go by, the progress can become less apparent, or they might even reach a plateau for a while. For most beginners, this wonвЂ™t be a problem, since it is what brought them to the instrument in the first place. It may sound corny or clichГ©, but I truly donвЂ™t think itвЂ™s overstated. If I had to point out the most important aspect of learning piano or any instrument for that matter, it would be the love for the instrument. But if youвЂ™re not one of them, donвЂ™t be sad, instead, realize that you will have the benefit of experiencing the joy of growing for a longer period of time :). So, yes, many super talented or even prodigious musicians will reach their potential much earlier than an вЂњaverageвЂќ musician. Once I have attained a certain level of musicianship, it becomes a вЂњnew normal.вЂќ So enjoy the new solo, cool chord progression, or that extra bit of knowledge of harmony youвЂ™ve just learned. Also, I started to realize that what makes me happy on my musical journey are those small steps in my musical growth. When I realized that even I could become an excellent musician if I have the discipline and patience to practice deliberately, my mind changed. Sure not everyone has the potential to reach 100 % of the virtuosity of musicians such as Joey, but many more people have the ability to come close to around 90 вЂ“ 95 % of that level. The good news is that for many dedicated musicians similar level is attainable. To come close to this level of musicianship it would take an averagely talented musician around 20 to 30 years of dedicated practice, while probably still not reaching the level of JoeyвЂ™s playing.ДЄs hard as it might be to hear this, it shouldnвЂ™t discourage you. In the following video, you can watch seven-year-old Joey Alexander already playing Duke EllingtonвЂ™s Caravan, after one year of his journey with the instrument. So, is it over for us who donвЂ™t have as much talent? By observing many exceptional artists over the years, I found that talent works primarily as an accelerator in their musical development. I used to be amazed and frustrated at the same time watching 11 or 12-year-old prodigies such as Joey Alexander, Andreas Varady, or Bireli Lagrene with an incredible ability to perform at an early age. While being naturally gifted can help you learn faster, talent alone wonвЂ™t get you anywhere if you are not using it. TalentДЄs a beginner, I was wondering, am I talented enough to become a good musician? As elusive as the term might be, there are certainly differences between different people and the amount of natural gifting they have. Therefore acknowledge and identify your distractions or bad habits and start breaking them. Being productive, focused and disciplined during practice is a learnable skill. If you are struggling in this area, do not despair. If you are not familiar with Jacob Collier, he is a grammy award-winning musician/singer/composer, who besides an incredible talent, also has an amazing work ethic. Therefore it is important to make a clear distinction between the вЂњfun timeвЂќ and the вЂњpractice timeвЂќ and respect its boundaries.ДЄs an example of effective workflow, I chose Jacob CollierвЂ™s video in which you can see his process of harmonizing a short musical idea from one of his fans (and yes, I know itвЂ™s not a practice session, but you get the point). ThereвЂ™s nothing wrong with having fun with our instruments, as long as it doesnвЂ™t interfere with our goals. While the regular practice of many musicians may include mindless repetitions, playing around with favorite chord progressions, riffs, or just messing around with random musical ideas, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is carried out with a specific goal in mind.

вЂќ In other words:Д®ven though I realized the importance of practice a long time ago, itвЂ™s been just recently that IвЂ™ve realized the vast difference between practice and deliberate practice.

There is a saying which describes this very well: вЂњ Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard. Without a doubt, talent can play an important role in our development, but most professionals would agree that practice is certainly much more crucial. Most musicians would agree that practice and talent are considered to be the most important. In the following few paragraphs, I will describe the six factors I consider to be the most important. Some are predetermined genetically, but most of them can be influenced by our choices.

Average music prodigy practice time professional#

There are plenty of factors that can influence whether a person becomes a professional artist or not. Important factors in becoming a professional pianist