10,000 Hours of Deliberate Practice

The following is a response to a query started by Ron Marks (http://ronmarks.zozuz.com) that I thought would be helpful for developing artists/musicians. Ron wondered whether or not the 10,000 hours rule of deliberate practice -- how to become an expert/master at some activity -- applied to creative and/or novel endeavors such as music composition.

Well, we believe so. We believe that creativity is the birthright of a musical consciousness, and that we must stimulate our neural connections towards ever-growing creativity: make our imaginations the drivers of our conscious evolution as persons and communities. This takes time.

Chomp on this, you would be artists:
10,000 hours means 1 hour a day for 27.3 years, or
10,000 hours means 3 hours a day for 9 years....

I think I've logged about 3,000 hours playing music,... and I just now feel like I am getting somewhere.

Woodstack Records Says:
August 4th, 2009 at 1:29 pm

RE: Deliberate practice for the creation and production of quality music.

Gladwell cites that the Beatles had 10,000 of performance time BEFORE they “made it big” by being better at playing pop music than anyone else.

It is my belief that conscious growth and deliberate practice TREMENDOUSLY applies to creative and imaginative endeavors. Creativity and Imagination are aspects of our growing brains: the more we execute and stimulate our creative and imaginative centers, the more talented and proficient we become in creative endeavors. WoodStack’s business is music.

Today, un-signed and underfunded talented musicians are taking on the bulk of the production and promotion work. Ideally, these artists should be within an organization that does a lot of the groundwork for them, and they can focus on the music.

This is our experiment in the 21st century music business: What happens when dedicated artists take the time (10,000) hours to perfect their craft? Focusing and generating creative processes, if they are going to stand the test of time, takes an aweful lot of time. That is what we are all about, and I wanted to write this comment because I feel that disciplined creativity IS possible, and is crucial to maintain a deliberate practice to create great art.