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Precocious Predictions – Debunking The Mozart Myth

October 21, 2006 By Graham English

This article by Eric Wargo was inspired by an address Malcolm Gladwell gave at this year’s Association for Psychological Science Convention.

To be a prodigy in music, for example, is to be a mimic, to reproduce what you hear from grown-up musicians. Yet only rarely, according to Gladwell, do child musical prodigies manage to make the necessary transition from mimicry to creating a style of their own. The “prodigy midlife crisis,” as it has been called, proves fatal to all but a handful would-be Mozarts. “Precociousness, in other words, is not necessarily or always a prelude to adult achievement. Sometimes it’s just its own little discrete state.”

I teach a lot of adult students and they generally make comparisons between their current skill level and that of Mozart as a child. Not only is it not in their best interest to do that, it just isn’t fair. I’ll talk more about Mozart in a moment, but what’s important to remember is that we all start from square one — whenever and wherever on our personal time-line that may be.

…And when it comes to musicians, the strongest predictor of ability is the same mundane thing that gets you to Carnegie Hall: “Really what we mean … when we say that someone is ‘naturally gifted’ is that they practice a lot, that they want to practice a lot, that they like to practice a lot.”

I find this conclusion over and over again. It’s difficult to measure “natural gift” but it’s easier to measure motivation and inclination by counting the hours someone spends improving a particular skill.

…Compelled to practice three hours a day from age three on, by age six the young Wolfgang had logged an astonishing 3,500 hours — “three times more than anybody else in his peer group. No wonder they thought he was a genius.”

Want to be an expert? Do the math. How many hours have you logged? I’ll say it again and again, get my practice schedule and practice.

Full Article: The Myth of Prodigy and Why it Matters

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Filed Under: LifeHacks, Prose Tagged With: deliberate practice, Malcolm Gladwell, Mozart, Practice, practice schedule, prodigy

About Graham English

Graham English is a musician, author, and entrepreneur.

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