Note from the Editor
New Routines
Why do some people achieve more than others? Why do they stand out in the crowd? Is it because they are born with a particular set of genes, or are they nurtured in a special environment by caring parents?
Natural interests and abilities probably exist in all of us, but it is the mundaneness of repeated activities that make us better. The saying“ practice makes perfect” can be appreciated by any artist, musician, and craftsmen.
Malcom Gladwell addresses that issue in Outliers: The Story of Success. One story he shared was of young violinists in study groups of varying ability. They all started at the same age with the same amount of practice time. Differences emerged after some years when the students that practiced much more ended up the best in their class, regardless of their initial evaluation. The best achievers performed a total of ten thousand practice hours over the study period. The conclusion was that there weren’ t any natural musicians that rose to the top. The ones at the top always worked much, much harder.
Gladwell uses the example of The Beatles’ success to make his point about the ten thousand hours rule. The Beatles spent seven days a week, nearly five hours of playing time a night, performing in Hamburg, Germany for years, long before they were a part of the British Invasion. That experience really made them.
I don’ t want to be at the top of anything any more. I do, however, want to get much better at playing guitar. My window to do that is shrinking.
I am a slightly above average rhythm guitar player that has improved over the years by playing with other much
by Cindy Steele
Available at Spears Pottery in Nashville, IN( On South Van Buren Street near the stoplight / courthouse)
62 Our Brown County • Nov./ Dec. 2018
more accomplished pickers in weekly jam sessions. I can keep up with most of them and can anticipate new songs’ chord changes. I never play any breaks because of a lack of confidence and experience.
The way to get better is to play more. You have to let go of old habits to make room for new routines. The guitar now remains out of the case and looks at me in my main living room. It says pick me up and play me. And I do with increasing frequency.
A fellow picker is coaching me. He also gave me lessons many, many years ago. Now I don’ t think of our sessions as lessons, just nudges into the new routine. The practice scales and exercises are building my muscle memory beyond the basic chords I have been playing for decades.
TV consumes my attention way more than I want to admit. The old routine has been to come home, turn the tube on, and go into a mindless stupor in the easy chair. The new routine includes the easy chair and the TV, but I pick up the guitar and do some practice runs while I watch my favorite programs. That’ s not so hard. And, little by little, my practice time is accumulating into that ten thousand hours bank.
Who knows, maybe that new routine will pay off some day, and I will develop the confidence to play a break or two on jam night.•
~ Cindy Steele