THE ROLE OF PRACTICE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERFORMING MUSICIANS

A sample of 257 young people aged between eight and 18 who had underta ken individual instrumental tuition were interviewed in depth about th eir performing history from the start of playing. A subset of 94 of th ese individuals also kept a practice diary for a 42-week period. The d ata collected allowed estimates to be calculated of the amount of time devoted to various types of practice and other activities. The sample was selected in order to encompass a wide range of levels of musical achievement, from pupils at a highly selective specialist music school through to individuals who had abandoned instrumental study after les s than a year of formal instruction. Dat a about formal examination su ccesses confirmed the very wide range of achievement in tile sample. I t was discovered that there was a strong relationship between musical achievement and the amount of formal practice undertaken. Weaker relat ionships were discovered between achievement and amount of informal pl aying. There was no evidence that high achievers were able to gain a g iven level of examination success on less practice than low achievers. High achievers tended to be more consistent in their pattern of pract ice from week to week, and tended to concentrate technical practice in the mornings. These data lend strong support to the theory that forma l effortful practice is a principal determinant of musical achievement .