Today's Total: 20 hours 9 minutes
I can remember a time about five years ago where getting 3 hours a day in playing and practice time was easy. A buddy of mine has at one point logged closer to 8 hours a day average. However, being that I'm a stay at home dad with a kid that just learned to crawl... I'm averaging 45 minutes a day so far.
The trick I'm finding is trying to look in between activities to get more time in. Even if that is just running a scale up and down and then playing through the changes of a random tune. Really, content isn't my problem. It's freedom.
I figure to reach the goal in two years (May 6, 2018), I would need to average about an hour and a half each day. That actually puts me ahead a little. I think I actually got 1.36 hours as my number. Either way, I'm half way to my average goal which means I have a lot of catching up to do.
The good news is that I've recently hit a streak of booking gigs. Adding a 2 hour gig into my mix hear and there makes a huge difference! Plus, I work a couple days a week at my church and I hadn't gotten to focus on music while there the last couple of weeks. Starting this week, that will change a lot.
There is a lot to be hopeful for. I'll be making it eventually!
Monday, May 23, 2016
Monday, May 9, 2016
The Thousand Hour Project
For a couple of years now I had heard this rather new adage that mastery of anything comes at about ten thousand hours. The idea is basically that if you spend ten thousand hours of concentrated study on a subject, then by default you have mastered it. It's a great idea and definitely a way to give some sort of quantifiable idiom to mastery.
But, I don't necessarily believe it.
Still, the challenge of getting ten thousand hours gets at me. If you break that down, that is 416.66 days. Over a year straight of playing before you are a master at your musical instrument. When you put in all the other things in life like family, food, sleep, church, video games, movies, driving, etc, etc... That sort of commitment and achievement is sort of awesome!
Doing a small amount of research as I am writing this post, I came across someone who is working on 10,000 hours towards golf mastery. Apparently, this guy quit his job and devoted himself to it. I can't tell if I'm inspired or skeptical. Either way, I'm not alone on my quest.
For me, I can't see myself getting more than about a an hour to two hours each day of practice and play time. I would wrap any time on the fretboard as counting for this because I try earnestly to be learning even in a performance situation. I don't believe you can ever not be learning. So, at 2 hours a day, it should take me 5,000 days to achieve. That's 13 years. Damn.
But what about just a thousand hours? I mean, I've already been playing music since 1992. I've got a lot of back time to look at. Now, we are just talking 500 days. Even though I see 13 years as obtainable, just under two is much more palatable.
So, there is my first goal... Log 1,000 hours of play time. Once I've accomplished that, we'll see what is next.
But, I don't necessarily believe it.
Still, the challenge of getting ten thousand hours gets at me. If you break that down, that is 416.66 days. Over a year straight of playing before you are a master at your musical instrument. When you put in all the other things in life like family, food, sleep, church, video games, movies, driving, etc, etc... That sort of commitment and achievement is sort of awesome!
Doing a small amount of research as I am writing this post, I came across someone who is working on 10,000 hours towards golf mastery. Apparently, this guy quit his job and devoted himself to it. I can't tell if I'm inspired or skeptical. Either way, I'm not alone on my quest.
For me, I can't see myself getting more than about a an hour to two hours each day of practice and play time. I would wrap any time on the fretboard as counting for this because I try earnestly to be learning even in a performance situation. I don't believe you can ever not be learning. So, at 2 hours a day, it should take me 5,000 days to achieve. That's 13 years. Damn.
But what about just a thousand hours? I mean, I've already been playing music since 1992. I've got a lot of back time to look at. Now, we are just talking 500 days. Even though I see 13 years as obtainable, just under two is much more palatable.
So, there is my first goal... Log 1,000 hours of play time. Once I've accomplished that, we'll see what is next.
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