Why am I not an amazing musician??

[ASUmusicMAN]

Fiddlers Three

Terry Teachout

Why is it that some musicians become famous and others are merely admired, even though they may be similarly gifted? Carl Flesch, a distinguished violin teacher who also had a solid but unspectacular career as a soloist, was intrigued by this question, about which he wrote at length in his posthumously published Memoirs (1957). After a lifetime of closely observing his better-known colleagues, Flesch concluded that the best ones were those who played with the "inner participation" of their personalities, and the ones who became most enduringly successful were those whose personalities were the most interesting.

This observation may sound obvious, even tautological, but in practice it turns out to be anything but that. In reflecting, for instance, on the career of Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987), the best-known violinist of the 20th century, Flesch put his finger on an aspect of Heifetz?s playing that has long puzzled critics:

People would forgive Heifetz his technical infallibility only if he made them forget it by putting his entire personality behind it. . . . He got used to playing often with his hands alone and allowing his mind a Sleeping Beauty?s rest. When, however, [his mind] was roused by the Prince of inspiration, a work of art of the very first rank came into being. . . . When, on the other hand, he played without inner participation, then a marble statue, perfect but mercilessly cold, was the result.

Not only was Flesch an acute critic, he was also a shrewd amateur psychologist. Heifetz was in fact a deeply inhibited man, all but incapable of genuine intimacy, who concealed his interior turmoil behind an iron mask of stoicism. His playing, in which powerful emotions were kept on the shortest possible leash?as if he feared the consequences of giving them free rein?was the public manifestation of his equally rigid offstage personality.1

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http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article.asp?aid=11704058_1

[DudeAsInCool]

I read an interesting study recently on 'What Is the Most Important Factor to Becoming a Great Musician?' The one quotient that stood out was this: Amount of Time Practicing

[ASUmusicMAN]

That's what my professors always say...the thing that seperates me from players in the New York Phil is something like "they've practiced about 20,000 more hours than you"