[Harp-L] Re: Deliberate Practice

[Robert Coble <robertpcoble@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>> Date: Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:57:57 -0500
> From: icemanle@xxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Deliberate Practice
> To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
>
> This was the main thrust behind my "all you need to practice is 5 min/day" philosophy. Following the guidelines I set out helped the student learn focused practice, which propelled the learning curve much stronger than thoughtless practice.
>
>

And I understood that perfectly. The point is NOT whether there are (or are not) genetic factors involved; the author of "Talent Is Overrated" leaves that question open, even though he does a pretty convincing job of explaining why the difference between mediocre and great performers is NOT "just" talent (or LACK of talent).

The real point is HOW great performers differ (in their approach to acquiring mastery of their chosen field) from the myriad mediocre performers (including me on harmonica). That is the value of the book; it is a summary of the approach to "deliberate practice" and the results that can be expected from it.

My oldest brother is a "natural genius" at the keyboards. He has been playing for several hours every day since he was old enough to sit upright on a piano bench. He also is one of the most dedicated people I have ever seen who practices deliberately. I have watched him play a single phrase over and over for hours, day after day, until he mastered it. My youngest brother started taking piano lessons about 5 years ago. He has an excellent teacher. He WANTS to learn to play better, but his practice habits are (for want of a better description) "hit or miss." He still works full-time, and spends a lot of time on things other than music. His practice regimen is NOT "deliberate;" it's haphazard (at best).

My youngest brother (age 56) inquired of his oldest brother (age 67) how long it would take to "catch up" to him in skill. The simple answer: 50 years of dedicated, focused practice. Needless to say, that wasn't very encouraging, but it was truthful.

It is NOT the quantity of practice time that makes the difference; it IS the quality of that time. If you can't dedicate 5 minutes per day to focused, directed, deliberate practice (as the Iceman suggested), you will NEVER achieve a very high level of skill, regardless of any innate abilities you may have hidden inside of you. There is a "ten year" rule that simply states that it takes approximately 10 years of dedicated, focused study in ANY field in order to rise to the top. This applies to "geniuses" like Mozart and Tiger Woods and Bobby Fischer as well as to many others documented in the book. If that "rule" is true, then it shouldn't matter at what age you start climbing the mountain. Most of us still have enough life expectancy to reach quite high up the slopes.

One of the greatest of chess World Champions, Dr. Emmanuel Lasker (who held the world championship unbroken for 27 years), postulated (without proof) that WITH THE PROPER TRAINING REGIMEN, a chess player without "natural talent" could be TRAINED to the level at which a master player could not give ANY odds without certainly losing the game. Out of the millions of chess players currently active, only a small percentage ever rise to the AVERAGE level (several levels below master), in spite of hundreds (or even thousands) of hours of "practice" and competition. Is it solely a matter of innate talent, or is it totally sloppy, unfocused so-called "practice" that is responsible for such mediocrity? There is a distinct difference in results between 20 years of practice with ever increasing demands through deliberate practice and 1 year of sloppy practice repeated for 20 years. 

I do know from personal experience that I can accomplish pretty much whatever I CHOOSE to do. Please note that I am NOT saying that I can do ANYTHING; I can't. However, the only limitations I acknowledge are limitations that I build up in my own mind. I am certain that regardless of the endeavor, I can steadily IMPROVE my skills IF I approach the subject in a focused, determined, "deliberate" way. I learned how to teach myself successfully over many years in any subject. The available literature in every field is full of pointers to the knowledge and skills required to succeed. Choosing NOT to utilize the best methods for training is almost a guarantee of failure to reach your goals. Believing that you are limited (prior to putting every fiber of your being into attempting to climb the "mountain") will certainly "prove" that you are limited-but not necessarily by your lack of innate talent.

Back in the late 1970s, Radio Shack had a computer ad that was great-as far as it went. It read something like this:

"You are only limited by your imagination."

My corollary to that ad was:

"Most people can't imagine how limited (and limiting) their imagination really is!"

It's OKAY to have other priorities than becoming a top performer at playing music (on harmonica or any other instrument). It is also very hard to juggle family, work and other responsibilities with a dedicated focus solely on music without causing serious interpersonal damage somewhere. It is for this reason that youth is the best time to focus on achieving mastery in any field; someone else is responsible for putting food on the table and a roof over your head, and there are no significant others who might feel slighted by your lack of attention to them. 

It can be daunting to realize the gap in practice time and especially quality of practice which separate the great performers from the good performers. It is an even wider gap between those great performers and the rest of us. BUT, it is NOT necessarily because the majority of us just weren't blessed with the talent to achieve greatness. We often settle for mediocrity because the truth is too painful to contemplate. One of our greatest contemporary harp players is Jason Ricci. If you look at the YouTube video of the early Jason (prior to the blossoming of his "natural talent"), you would NOT predict that he would become a great performer. (It is to Jason's eternal credit as a great human being that, I believe, he put that video of himself on the Web.) Ask Jason how many hundreds, nay, thousands of hours of dedicated, focused practice he put in BEFORE his "natural talent" was "discovered." I suspect that he would get a good laugh from that question!

Regardless of your personal belief in the "talent versus no talent" question, try the Iceman's suggestion of just 5 minutes of dedicated, focused practice every day for at least 3 months. If you have never learned how to teach yourself, find a teacher. As an old Zen koan says:

"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."

As a suggestion, pick just one note that has given you problems; perhaps a bend on hole 3, perhaps some note that just doesn't sound good to YOU consistently. Focus on that ONE THING until you have mastered every nuance of it. Don't just play the note a few times and then quit. Savor it, roll it around your palette like sipping a fine wine, enjoy the sensuality of that note and make love to it, find ways to enrich that note with your own personal stamp through varying tone, attack, etc. (BTW, that's not an original thought; you'll find suggestions in the archives for playing a single note and holding it for as long as you can keep air going through the harp. The point is NOT to just see how long you can blow or draw on one note.) How hard could that be?!? (Hint: it's a SOB for most of us!!!)

I think most of us would be very pleasantly surprised at the impact deliberate practice would have on improving our "mediocre" skills. Every time I have tried it consistently, I have had huge leaps forward.

Now, go out there and DELIBERATELY PRACTICE!
Crazy Bob  		 	   		  
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