Blog
The Cost of Excellence
Standing in the school hall on Open Evening, I was so proud of the students in our outstanding Sixth Form band.
Without a doubt, they were the embodiment of EXCELLENCE. From the audience’s perspective, what they were doing appeared effortless; the songs were played faultlessly and seemed so straight forwards in the hands of these exceptionally talented young performers.
As a music teacher however, I am aware of the work which goes into preparing for a performance such as this. Everyone must learn their own part and then the band rehearses together for hours at a time, in order that communication between the musicians in the ensemble becomes second nature. It is only after this demanding process that the band become a single entity rather than a disparate group of individuals.
Even this though, does not recognise the work that has begun many years earlier. In his book “Outliers: The Story of Success” Malcolm Gladwell asserts that to be an expert at something, you need to have practiced for 10,000 hours by age 20. Let us assume that most people start learning a musical instrument at around age 10. This would mean that to achieve 10,000 hours by age 20, musicians needed to practice for 1000 hours a year; about 20 hours practice per week, or just under 3 hours per day. This is the cost of excellence.
This morning, the Sixth Form band played again, in the Year 7 assembly. Looking around the room, I found myself wondering who in the room was already on that journey towards excellence? How many hours of practice had they already accrued in their chosen field? How many of the students would demonstrate the ASPIRATION, TENACITY, and ENTHUSIASM in order reach the required 10,000 hours by the time they are 20?
In the Year 7 assembly, the band played “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder, to mark the start of Black History Month. Stevie Wonder was born 6 weeks premature; the oxygen-rich atmosphere of the hospital incubator caused his retinas to detach, and so he became blind. To achieve excellence with all of one’s faculties requires huge commitment and hard work; to do so on multiple instruments without sight is truly remarkable!
Whatever your talent, whether it be sport or music; dance or art; computer programming or mathematics, the cost of excellence is the time that you are prepared to dedicate to developing your skill. In the words of the former tennis player Andre Agassi, “If you don’t practice, you don’t deserve to win.”
