In his 2008 book “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell wrote that “ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.” The meaning behind this, in theory, is simple. To be considered a master of a certain craft, you must practice it for ten thousand hours.
Ouchie! No wonder they turned me down for the Roller Derby. Sure, I know I could kick-ass on my roller skates, but no way was my walker going to hold up sufficiently for 10,000 games!
So alright already, I don’t actually know how to roller skate fluently, but I’m trying to assess what I might become masterful at, besides procrastination, dedicated candy consumption, and sleeping late.
The only skill I’ve worked on recently, besides – thanks to the internet – learning to fold sweatshirts, towels and underpants like a dedicated professional laundry attendant – has been practicing the piano.
It’s not a piano, exactly. It’s a Casio digital keyboard. It’s the second one I’ve used. The first one I borrowed from daughter and son-in-law Gretchen and Brad. It had only 66 keys, but it came to an untimely end due to someone torturing it to death trying to master one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Inventions for the harpsichord. (It wasn’t my fault. They just don’t make things like they usta.)
And so it came to pass that, one day in January last year, my grandson Bryce dragged me, kicking and screaming, to a music store where I shelled out $350 to purchase a new Casio keyboard with 88 keys. And when we got home, he set it up, provided me with his old iPad Pro for the sheet music and a piano bench. To assuage my guilt at such reckless frivolity, I decided I’d better practice on the object for one to two hours per day in an effort to pretend that I – and he – had made a prudent investment.
The worst thing about owning a keyboard is that people assume you must be able to play something on it besides chopsticks or Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, or Ninety-nine Bottles o’ Beer on the Wall. Because of this lofty expectation, I have never exposed my actual ineptitude to any other humans – not even Bryce – , and only practice privately when I’m encased in headphones.
I started taking piano lessons in 1937 at age 7. I continued with the ever patient guidance of the good Sisters for the next 12 years At that point, I had an epiphany. I could read the discordant notes on the wall and they were foretelling my future. Oh, no! if I kept it up, I was aiming myself for a fate worst than death: I was going to have to become a piano teacher! It was time to cash in my sheet music and run for cover. So I did.
I had never previously regretted the decision made during my adolescence until Bryce forced me into facing a keyboard again after mostly 73 years’ absence from one. It was illuminating, and I have important news for you, boys and girls. I’m sad to inform you that playing the piano is not like riding a bicycle. Trying to re-learn it is, in fact, a humiliating experience, roughly equivalent to gliding gracefully to your seat in a swanky restaurant with a train of toilet paper clinging to your shoe.
As bad as it was tangling with that uncooperative instrument in January of last year, as the months went on, I started remembering how much fun it could be – sometimes. I was back at beginner level but I was getting reacquainted with a long lost old pal.
Family members kept asking me what the hell I was doing at that keyboard every night after they all went to bed, and was I ever going to be able to play something after all that practicing? But I was too embarrassed. No way could I actually play anything for any victims of my acquaintance.
But last month, I stumbled into an interesting discovery on Facebook at a website in the UK called Le Cheile Music. Le Cheile” (pronounced lekayleh) is the Irish for “together”. Leah, it’s founder and teacher, was proposing a challenge for any pianist who wanted to try mindfully playing any piece 100 times during the month of May to find out if the repetition would markedly improve the performance. She suggested – and there was no charge for it – that any player could submit a video showing the play of a piece at the beginning of the month, and then again at the end of the month so the Le Cheile 100x Challenge viewers could watch it and then comment on its development.
So I actually did it. I practiced a Mozart sonata 100 times during May, recorded it on my phone and then fearsomely submitted it, warts and all, to the website. The comments from its viewers were very encouraging! Apparently, they have another 100x challenge every month so I’m going to submit another piece at the end of June.
But I got to thinking: I knew I had made significant improvement in playing the sonata while repeating it 100 times. What if I started counting hours of any time spent on any keyboard practice to see if I could get to that 10,000 hours Gladwell suggested? Honk if you think I should try it.
Let’s just do a generous seat-of-the-pants estimate that I may have already practiced piano daily for a half hour during each of the 12 years (a total of 4,380 days). That means I might have clocked 2,200 hours of practice during that time. Adding to that the minimum of 1 hour I’ve practiced since January, 2022 when Bryce hooked up the keyboard, those 510 hours bring my total effort to 2,700 hours.
So what all that means is that – get ready for the drum-roll here – I only have 7,300 more hours to get to the magic 10,000 hours goal when I can get my piano playing to the mastery gold star level. I think I’m going to accept the challenge!
It’d be helpful if you’d join me. Think of one of the activities that you know you do pretty well – and that you already enjoy doing. Figure out some formula to calculate how much time you’ve already spent doing it, and then deduct that from the 10,000 hours you want to achieve. And then, go for it! Just remember that anything worth doing is worth doing to excess! Right?
Finally, I cautiously offer below the submission I made to the Le Cheile Music website of all three movements of my playing of Mozart’s Sonata in C K425. It’s certainly imperfect, but it’s a helluva improvement over the way it was a hundred attempts before!
OMG!!! I… I can’t even… I mean …come on …It’s just… YOU’re just …Unbelievable. What you’ve done… Wow. I mean… Seriously?
I hope my nonsensical utterances can somehow convey the extent to which your accomplishments have rendered me utterly speechless.
I hope you’re proud of yourself because I know a whole lot of your groupies are sure tooting your horn!!
I’ll have to consider this challenge you’ve laid down, I play Pinocle a lot but not sure about 10,000 hours? I mean I could do it but I’m not sure my 3 buddies would put up with me that long. I’ll ask on Tuesday when we play next.
Again, standing ovation 👏 👏👏👏 and congratulations on a job well done. 💐
I have several comments to make but I will try to be brief! This is the first time I have heard mom play the piano since I was a kid. It brought me to tears and I, like Chris, was speechless, when I first heard her practicing scales. She has been playing the keyboard with headphones on every night for more than a year. I’ve asked to hear her many times but she always said no. She said she made too many mistakes! When Matt was hospitalized last Jan/Feb I asked her what she did on the nights she missed and she told me she just played an extra hour the next night to make up for it. I realized that her passion for music was alive and her dedication to practice faithfully made her happy. Mom also told me she has to set a timer when she practices at night so that she will get to bed before daybreak. She really loves music and it is truly amazing to witness her progress.
A few months after Bryce helped mom purchase her keyboard, last summer, mom started complaining about the sound quality. I heard her asking Bryce if he could hear the issue and then she ended up asking Matt and me if we could hear the problem. Of course, we were clueless and thought there was no problem to our untrained ears. Mom believed that one on the keys was off, by a tiny bit…like an octave?
Anyway, to make a long story short, Bryce packed up the keyboard and then he and Mom returned to this huge music store in Tacoma packed full of drums sets and guitars and amplifiers etc. to see what could be done. Our tiny Mom told the store employee that her keyboard sound was off. He proceeded to tell Bryce and Mom that these keyboards are factory tuned and that couldn’t be the problem. He also listened with his supposedly trained ears and he didn’t hear a problem. But guess what? They got the store manager or store owner to come out to listen and he confirmed what Mom heard all along. Long story short, Mom returned to Kartar Ridge Ranch with a new keyboard that was tuned perfectly.
What I have learned is that…. my mother is a truly amazing individual. We have much to learn from her work ethic, her perseverance, and her passion for beautiful music. I also admire her for stepping outside of her comfort zone and sharing her music with us today. She had to overcome some performance anxiety to produce this video. I am so proud of this masterpiece and can’t wait to hear many more!
😮😮
This is such a gift to hear you play. Incredible.
WOW, grandma, this is so impressive! Hearing you make this beautiful music brought tears to my eyes. I am in awe. Thank you so much for sharing this with us! I love the idea of the 10,000 hour challenge and will be giving it some thought. Love and big hugs to you!
Great honk! Wow! Talk about diving in the deep end. I might have stopped at one movement, you did the whole thing. What a pleasure to hear you playing. You are a total inspiration. Keep going, and keep sharing it with us.
You are incredible!!!! I mean not just the technical accuracy (and even your page-turns are impressive!), but you phrase each turn of the music so beautifully! It’s obvious you really understand what you’re playing, and I could listen to it all day. I have nowhere near your talent, but I’ll join in the challenge with you! Singing of course because, again, I don’t have your skill. 😭 Let’s see how far we get!
Wowy Wowy!!! I’m speechless👍
You are truly an inspiration!
OMG!!!!! You’re a frocking inspiration!!!!!!!!!!
Meant to say frickng
You are truly such an inspiration!!! Love you lots Grandma, thank you for sharing your gift of music with us!
WOW!!! I am in awe!! I am so amazed and inspired by you!!!! Thank you so much for sharing this story. I’m inspired to join the next challenge! 🥲
So impressive!
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