Item — HN Reader

The 10000 hours rule might be bogus, but the examples given are unconvincing. Sid Vicious not being able to play bass well means just that - hes not good at it, probably because he didn't practise. That it didn't matter for him to become successful is a different story.

Slash of G'n R fame practised very hard to get to his level by literally doing nothing else from morning to evening.

2 comments

Yes. This. Sid Vicious was nowhere near world-class at the bass. He may be world-class at playing up to the media and managing social situations. But after seeing that example, I feel it made me believe more in the 10,000 hours!

Ironically, he may well have put in the 10,000 hours practicing those skills - fashion, looks and charisma certainly take time to master.

Being an exceptionally good instrumentalist is not how you get to become a world famous rock band (or band in general). If that were true, people like Steve Vai would be more famous than Slash and Guns and Roses.

Yes, but Vai is a bad artist -- no cultural sensitivity, no sense of melody, restrain, etc.

Now, technique is great for classical music, because the pieces are given and are masterpieces in themselves. Beethoven is there, and you just play it as best as you can.

But when you write our own stuff yourself based on your advanced guitar hero skills, you end up only interesting people impressed with flashy technique.

Well that's what I said. Being a really good instrumentalist has little to do with popular success. I deliberately chose the word "instrumentalist", not "artist". I don't understand why you start with "Yes, but [...]" when you aren't contradicting anything I wrote.

Incidentally, "cultural sensitivity, melody, restraint" are things that are harder to deliberately practice than raw instrumental skill.