I decided long ago that I would never learn music. I didn't seem to have an aptitude for it & when I tried to learn it didn't feel fun, so I dismissed it as being too difficult and not my thing. Why bother? I thought. I'd rather focus my efforts on the things that come naturally to me that I truly enjoy.
But this year I've begun to crave new challenges. Radically new challenges, because I've mastered all the stuff I ever wanted to do that came naturally to me. Like cooking. I can throw together nutritious meals that taste *amazing* without even thinking about it. I'm also pretty decent with reading comprehension. And man. You should see me rock a disorganized house into a minimalist paradise.
I've learned that I can learn anything pretty quickly if I set my mind to it. I have a hunch that learning music will correlate nicely to learning computer programming languages. In a Nova Documentary I rented from the library last winter entitled How Smart Can We Get, I learned about a greatly expanded Knob that developed in Einstein's brain, resultant of having played a stringed instrument since childhood. Whenever Einstein was stumped, he would go and play his violin, and then spontaneously intuit the answer to some physics question that had him perplexed.
But this year I've begun to crave new challenges. Radically new challenges, because I've mastered all the stuff I ever wanted to do that came naturally to me. Like cooking. I can throw together nutritious meals that taste *amazing* without even thinking about it. I'm also pretty decent with reading comprehension. And man. You should see me rock a disorganized house into a minimalist paradise.
I've learned that I can learn anything pretty quickly if I set my mind to it. I have a hunch that learning music will correlate nicely to learning computer programming languages. In a Nova Documentary I rented from the library last winter entitled How Smart Can We Get, I learned about a greatly expanded Knob that developed in Einstein's brain, resultant of having played a stringed instrument since childhood. Whenever Einstein was stumped, he would go and play his violin, and then spontaneously intuit the answer to some physics question that had him perplexed.
I admit I'm also very excited to experience the pleasure of jamming with my friends. I've always been envious of that special kind of intimacy that arises between people when they are entangled in euphonious expression.
A musical friend text me the other day asking what I was up to. I could barely contain my excitement about heading to Blue Mountain for a snowboarding vacation and that Tim Buckton was setting me up with a bass guitar and I was so stoked to start learning. (eventual hyperlink to essay about how underground skateboard/warm winter clothing/musical instrument distribution = massive community building opulence)
He replied that Paul Mcartney is the best bass player ever. Interesting choice I mused. I don't understand music well enough to have an opinion on who the best musical anything is, but in a split second my mind had Outliers loaded up on the imaginary overhead...
A musical friend text me the other day asking what I was up to. I could barely contain my excitement about heading to Blue Mountain for a snowboarding vacation and that Tim Buckton was setting me up with a bass guitar and I was so stoked to start learning. (eventual hyperlink to essay about how underground skateboard/warm winter clothing/musical instrument distribution = massive community building opulence)
He replied that Paul Mcartney is the best bass player ever. Interesting choice I mused. I don't understand music well enough to have an opinion on who the best musical anything is, but in a split second my mind had Outliers loaded up on the imaginary overhead...
Right. The 10000 Hour Rule. The Beatles got super good from playing 8 hour sets 7 days a week at strip clubs in Hamburg: "
All told, they performed for 270 nights in just over a year in a half. By the time they had thier first burst of success in 1964, in fact, they had performed live an estimated 1200 times. Do you know how extraordinary that is? Most bands today don't perform twelve hundred times in thier entire careers." Gladwell writes.
Read Outliers!!! I recommended to my friend.
I told him to grab it on audiobook: almost every library I've ever been to has a copy. The next day I found it in hardcover at the Salvation Army. (Reticular Activation System, Beautiful Universal Synchrony, or both?!?!) so I brought the book home and was inspired to write this. And as you can see, you needn't leave the comfort of your internet connection: someone has uploaded Malcom Gladwell's entire book to youtube and I assure you, the man has a lovely reading voice:
"The emerging picture from such studies [of expertise] is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world class expert - in anything," writes the neurobiologist Daniel Levitin. "In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again. Of course, this doesn't address why some people get more out of thier practice sessions than others do. But no one yet has found a case in which true world class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that the brain takes this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery."
I start doing some quick math. Lets take 2 hours a day. 10000/2 = 5000. divide that by 365 days = 13.698630137. Round that number up to 14 years. (for all those days you slack off or go on a family vacation, or whatever). In 14 Years you can become a master at any skill. I find this figure significant because I've been pondering lately that that's how long its been since I've gone without television. Half my life. No cable, no satellite, no Netflix! just a movie from the library or the thrift store once in a while.
I never thought to connect these numbers until just tonight. How much television does the average person watch? 2 hours a day? I have no idea. I was making a list of the cumulative effects of giving it up such as:
-No advertisements constantly hypnotizing into believing I'm not good enough (which is how they sell you pretty much everything)
-I'm never distracted from my priorities because I have to catch the latest episode of....... (?)
-I have oodles of extra time to learn new stuff. (in just 2 hours a day of practice I could be a wicked bass player by age 45. which sounds... really interesting... as I realize how actually fast that time will pass. Wow. I will be 45 years old in... not that long. huge perspective shift just happened right there.)
I always assume that everyone else has all the same things going on inside thier head that I do.
That all the other people are happily perusing over all of the remarkable things there are to think about.
I don't actually know what other people think about. Or how anyone else's brain works.
I am certain that you can master anything you want with the 10,000 hour rule. I'm also certain that everyone out there can derive something amazing from some aspect of the experiences that they've dedicated the last 14 or 15 years of thier life to.
What did you spend your last 10,000 hours practicing? How are you going to spend your next 10,000?
You don't have to ditch your TV. (Flea's bass playing would sell me on doing it though, if I hadn't already ditched the boob tube so very long ago)
How could you incorporate daily hours of practice into your life?
Could you listen to audiobooks in your car, or maybe at work, if you have a job like cleaning that doesn't require your full attention?
Could you turn your computer workstation into a standing desk and do squats & lift weights while you are reading/watching stuff?
Could you try a new recipe every day? Or spend time drawing?
Could you take a free online course? Could you volunteer at interesting places around your neighborhood to gain new skills and make new connections? Could you and your kid learn to play chess together? Could you and your kid learn to play basketball together?
I have no idea what your goals are! The opportunities are endless!!!
Opportunity, as a matter of fact, is technically Part 2 of this post. (stay tuned!)
I will leave you with Les Claypool, who happens to be one of my favorite Bass Players.
Could you listen to audiobooks in your car, or maybe at work, if you have a job like cleaning that doesn't require your full attention?
Could you turn your computer workstation into a standing desk and do squats & lift weights while you are reading/watching stuff?
Could you try a new recipe every day? Or spend time drawing?
Could you take a free online course? Could you volunteer at interesting places around your neighborhood to gain new skills and make new connections? Could you and your kid learn to play chess together? Could you and your kid learn to play basketball together?
I have no idea what your goals are! The opportunities are endless!!!
Opportunity, as a matter of fact, is technically Part 2 of this post. (stay tuned!)
I will leave you with Les Claypool, who happens to be one of my favorite Bass Players.
