Practicing

Practicing

A musician can be no better than his or her practicing. Becoming a great musician requires sustained hard work.
How much should you practice? There is no simple answer to this question. The following chart is not meant to give a definitive answer, but to make students and their parents aware of the amount of work that becoming an accomplished pianist requires.
Casual - the minimum required for enjoying the piano.
Serious - enough to make solid progress and gain an acquaintance with the great works of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and other masters.
Big Dog - You want to play with the big dogs? This is what it takes.

Nothing in this chart is absolute. A student can become very accomplished by practicing the amounts listed in the serious column, and can even reach professional levels. A student can practice more than the amounts listed in the big dog column and still not be very good if they are not concentrating. But the more intensely focused practice a student does, the better they will become.
Focus is the hallmark of great musicians. The same could be said of great actors, or great athletes.
All parents and older students should read “Secrets of the Expert Mind” from the August 2006 issue of Scientific American for a discussion of experimental explorations into how people achieve high skill levels in chess and music. The author’s conclusion is that great musicians are made, not born, and they become great by constantly striving to meet challenges that are just beyond their reach. According to studies, it takes about 10 years of work to become expert in any serious field of endeavor. www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=00010347-101C-14C1-8F9E83414B7F4945.