I’m sure that you’ve heard before that it takes 10000 hours of practice to really be good at something. At the very least, I’m pretty sure that I’ve brought that up in another blog post at some point. If you haven’t noticed, I’m big into practicing and working for your success rather than waiting for it to come to you. Because it won’t.
Basically, the idea is that it takes, on average, 10000 hours of practice before someone can say that they’ve “made it.” To put things into perspective, I’ve been playing guitar for about 10 years. I’ve had dry spells where I haven’t played much at all over a week or two, but I’ve also had days when I’ve played for 8 hours. So let’s assume an hour a day.
(1 hr/day) * (365 days/yr) * (10 yrs) = 3650 hours
Not enough. I know that I’ve played and practiced longer, but it’s still not 10000 hours. I shouldn’t expect success. And I don’t. Obviously “success” is relative, but in this case it’s along the lines of Andy McKee or Trace Bundy; the icons.
Sure, people will make it on less. There are always exceptions.
But why would you expect to be one of them? Music is within the arts, which everyone knows is a bit off, but it is still like any other career. You can’t jump into it and expect to be an overnight hit.
Looking at other careers, I’ll take a look at my own, the field of Mechanical Engineering:
There are different levels of being a Mechanical Engineer. To break it down into its simplest form, you begin as an Engineering student, become an Engineer in Training (EIT), and later can become a Professional Engineer (PE). Many choose to not pursue becoming a PE, but for many more, that is the end goal.
How do you get there?
Engineering student: 4-5 years of undergrad. In my case, I graduated with something like 150 credits. Though I came in with credits, that was about 18 credits per semester. A full semester, every semester. It is expected that you spend an hour out of class for every credit hour. That amounts to a 36 hour week (which is on the extreme low end for engineering).
(18 credit hrs) * 2 * (9 wks/semester) * (8 semesters) = 2592 hours
EIT: To become an EIT, you have to pass the FE test. It takes a while to study for. I think they recommend 10 hrs/wk for 2 months. After you have become an EIT, you have to work for at least 4 years under a PE. Not counting the studying and assuming a 40 hour week (also unrealistic) at 50 weeks per year:
(40 hrs/wk) * (50 wk/yr) * (4 yr) = 8000 hours
Total: 2592 + 8000 = 10592 hours to become a professional engineer, over an 8+ year span. And that’s a very low estimate.
If you want to do music for the rest of your life, as a career, treat it like one.
Good advice! As with most things, people generally see the surface-level, final results and never the work that goes into making it happen. Often, great musicians and artists are written off as being able to do what they do because of their sheer talent. Fact of the matter is that their greatest talent was their hard work and devotion that allowed them to get where they are.
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