The Smarter I Practice, the More Talented I Get

 

"The harder I work, the luckier I get." -- Samuel Goldwyn

I always liked the above quote. While perhaps some things can be attributed to luck, there is no doubt that hard work can lead to great success. Someone might appear have just been "lucky," yet they put a great deal of effort, sacrifice, and dedication into getting where they got.

Regarding musicians, people often say that the great performers, composers, etc., were/are just "talented."  While each person may be born with greater or lesser degree of natural abilities in regards to music (or any other discipline), clearly one would need to work hard and put in many hours to achieve a very high level of musical excellence. There are some who even say there is no such thing as talent. You may have heard about the 10,000 hour principle -- that someone who puts in 10,000 hours before the age of 8 or so will achieve mastery, regardless of the innate abilities they were born with. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about this and others have embraced this idea.

When it comes to music, however, I don't believe that anyone could become a great musician just by  putting in the hours. Everyone is born with a different level of "ear," meaning the sensitivity to and awareness of musical pitch. Some are born with "perfect" or "absolute" pitch, which could be considered the highest level of ear. Others have difficulty singing on pitch and can't even tell whether a pitch goes up or down from the previous pitch. They may say they are "tone deaf," though I do not believe there is any such thing. (People who are "color blind" still see colors, just not as distinctly.) Having a great ear to start with will help someone on their musical journey, but, by itself, does not guarantee success. (And, no matter how good your ear is to start, you can, and must, continue to make it even better.)

Musicians certainly do put in the hours to get to a high level. Many who start at a young age will have a "head start" on the hours. But I am quite convinced that there are many who put in thousands of hours yet do not achieve greatness or anything even close to greatness. People might assume that they just weren't talented enough to begin with. Yet I believe it is more likely to be the quality of the hours, not the quantity.

Many people who have attempted to play the piano waste tremendous amounts of time on practices which do not help them (and can even cause harm). Some examples of this are: finger exercises that do not really improve your technique, spending too much time playing hands separately, playing everything too slowly, using a metronome, excessive repetition (which dulls the mind), playing un-musically, going through the motions while the mind is elsewhere, not really listening to your own playing, and many more. Many of these subjects have been discussed in my previous posts.

The level of achievement or mastery you attain is a direct reflection of the quality of your practice. I'm always amazed that people actually think they can practice one way (e.g. un-musically) and then flip a switch and play differently when it comes to performance time. It just doesn't happen. 

Certain "talents" that you didn't think you had may develop over time if you persistently work towards them. For example, you may think you have no talent for improvising. But if you improvise every day, really listen to what you are doing, assess what could be improved (with the help of a teacher, hopefully), you will get better. After some years of doing this, someone else might hear you play and say, "wow, you really have a talent for improvising!"

My advice to students of the piano would be this: forget about "talent." Spend your time at the piano making your playing as beautiful as you can, and your practice time as efficient and focused as you can. The smarter you practice, the more talented you'll get.