I loved the idea of my blog title 10000hours88keys. I had listened to several radio segments about the concept of becoming an expert after spending 10000 hours trying to develop an expertise. I thought of the 10000 hours as a potential goal.
As an adult amateur pianist, I began to get very discouraged about practicing for 10000 hours. I even started to determine, using a calculator, if I practiced 2 hours a day for the next thirteen years, that would result in 10000 hours, and I would be 74. 10000 hours seemed far too daunting.
That might have been possible, when I didn't have a job, didn't have responsibilities, and honestly when I had more energy. So I thought it through and said to myself, "Rose, what if you took your practice time week by week and simply tried to devote a focused amount of time each day, to half the assigned pieces of your lesson, or learning a piece of popular music of the day."
A focused hour sounds possible, whereas 10000 hours can seem like the impossible. And what about the crazy weekday, when the best you can give is 20 minutes. Well 20 minutes is better than nothing. Sort of like working out, 20 minutes walking around the block, beats 3 hours in your favorite chair watching teevee.
So I have renamed my blog FocusedHour88keys.
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