Just do it!

Can't tell you how many times we've seen our students hover over

the correct note to hit but they can't bring themselves to hit it

:-). We whisper in their ear "just hit it" and magically it

happens.  For those book learners, there is a great book called

"This is Your Brain on  Music" by D.J. Levitin. There's a great

section that deals with talent and  being a virtuoso. The author

claims that research studies show it's 10000  hours or practice

makes a virtuoso and not talent. Studies maintain that  10K hours

or practice are required to become a 'world class expert in

anything'. 10K hours of practice is the equivalent of 3 hours/day

of practice  for at least 10 years. After playing with a bunch of

yang-qin players, I'm  convinced this is true.  One cohort of

HD player/festival instructors (Ken, Linda, Rick, Karen, Nick,

Dan, Russell, Dana, John,   myself, Wes, etc.) is at a certain

skill level  simply because of the number of years we've played

the HD. The more senior  cohort of Sam, Malcolm, Walt, Paul

simply have more hours than we do. The  younger

player/instructors like the Tinas, Brenda, Sam, and others are

at  another "practice" level. In other words, the 3 cohorts I

mentioned (and there  are a ton more) are at different spots in

the 10K practice cycle.  I personally believe that practice gives

you the skill set you need to be  creative. Talent is how you put

everything together. The less you have to  think about HOW to do

something, the more you can think about WHAT to do.  Bottom line

is that to become a better player, you must practice. The amount

of practice depends on what else is going on in your life and

your motivation to become a better player. Play to enjoy the music,

practice appropriately.  Play to become a performer, practice

accordingly. Play to match the  international players,

start now because 10 years is a long time :-).



originally posted 2/15/2008 to hammered dulcimer listserv