ABSTRACT
Acquiring a human ability is a time-consuming and sometimes arduous activity. In some research being undertaken by John Sloboda, Jane Davidson, and myself, looking at the early progress of young musicians, we have found that 16-year-olds who are seriously committed to music practice for 4 hours per day, on average. By the time they are 18, those youngsters who have made sufficient progress to have a good chance of being able to enjoy careers as professional musicians will already have spent up to 9,000 hours practicing—a very substantial amount of time.
