10,000 Hours (or, possibly subtitled, "This one band, at time camp ...!")

Dovetailing with the movie "August Rush" from my last post, right before I watched it had downloaded and listened to two books back to back - "This is Your Brain on Music" by Daniel J. Levitin and "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. The first gave not only a good overview of music theory, but some insight into how our brain processes the magic we call music. The second looked into what makes the successful people, or outliers such as Bill Gates or even young hockey players in Canada, the people they are.

One of the more interesting things that each book pointed to was a research study that indicated that the highly successful musicians (and, it turns out, computer programmers, hockey players, etc.) have in common is not necessarily some innate "talent" but the fact that they have put in a sheer amount of hours of practice. In fact, the magic number is 10,000 hours. "Superstars" are often those who get to 10,000 hours before others.

Think about it: If you start at age 10 and practice 1 hour/day for 3 days/week, you get to the magic number when you are 74 years old. But if you practice 7 days a week, you'll get there at age 47 or so. But say you go for an average of 2 hours a day, 7 days a week? 23 years old.

I can see how this makes the drum corps and independent winter guards much more "successful" in their season than their high school counterparts (with age and physical and emotional maturity having a lot to do with it as well).

But I wonder how this translates to the successful music and marching band programs: for instance, those that meet for an hour a day every day vs. 90 minutes every other day (or every third day).

In theory, the ensembles and the students have roughly the same amount of rehearsal time. In fact, in Texas, the rules of the University Interscholastic League limit out of class rehearsal time to 8 hours/week. What makes one band that much better?

There may be high standards of outside of class individual practice. It may be (subsidized?) private lessons. Either way, this adds up to sheer time.

There is something else, too, that also takes time. I remember stories of Vietnam POWs who spent their days visualizing each and every step of a golf game, everyday, and so when they were released and had the chance to play again, they could do so as if they were gone for a few days, not years.

Raymond Berry, the Baltimore Colts receiver and NFL Hall of Famer, wasn't considered a superstar at his position when he came out of college. But, according one book on the historic "Best Game Ever", Berry was a detailed student of the game, carefully mapping out plays, and even rehearsing games by himself down to the second, with each and every break, building his endurance and skills.

Years ago the question was, "Is it live, or is it Memorex?" Along that line, "Is it talent, or practice?"

It seems that time is the answer ...