Get Your Grit On!

Grit and the art of practicing an instrument

Peak skill is reached after years of deliberate practice. Deliberate practice spells success. The expert performance framework distinguishes between deliberate practice and less effective practice activities. Alas, deliberate practice is rated as the most effortful and least enjoyable type of preparation activity. Deliberate practice mediated the prediction of final performance by the personality trait of grit, suggesting that perseverance and passion for long-term goals enable musicians to persist with practice activities that are less intrinsically rewarding—but more effective—than other types of preparation.

Are the most effective preparation activities enjoyable and effortless? Nope.

Let’s face it – sometimes practicing just ain’t fun.

There is no magic in the number 10 but it is important in achieving excellence:

- 10 years of deliberate practice and experience

- 10 thousand hours of work to achieve excellence

For example, the accumulated time that musicians have spent practicing alone during development is the best predictor of expert performance. (Ericsson et al., 1993). Individuals who accumulate more hours of deliberate practice likely do so because they are committed to improving their performance, not because they find these hours of practice innately rewarding.

In many other domains, world-class performers have been shown to acquire their skills through thousands of hours of solitary deliberate practice, effortful activities designed to improve performance. Deliberate practice entails engaging in a focused, typically planned training activity designed to improve some aspect of performance. During deliberate practice, individuals receive immediate informative feedback on their performance and can then repeat the same or similar tasks with full attention toward changing inferior or incorrect responses, thus improving the identified area of weakness.

Will Smith, the well-known actor says “ Where I excel is with a ridiculous sickening work ethic. While the other guy’s sleeping, I’m working. While the other guy’s eating, I’m working.”

Grit

Grit is a combination of passion and persistence. Having grit means pursuing your goal with vigor and focus over an extended period of time. Less gritty individuals are easily discouraged or frequently led off track by new interests. Grittier people are more likely to engage in deliberate practice, and their cumulative time devoted to this activity explains their superior performance.

Being gritty means:

·       Finishing what you begin

·       Staying committed to your goals

·       Working hard even after experiencing failure or when you feel like quitting

·       Sticking with a project or activity for more than a few weeks

So, let’s get more grit in our practice. GO FOR IT!!

Linda Langeheine, Some Gritty Teacher!