If anyone could provide a specific*, preferably academic, reference for either or both of the points below I would be very grateful. Thank you.

1) The formation of conscious and unconscious connections in the brain while in the process of learning a musical instrument.

2) The notion that 10,000 hours of playing is (are?!) necessary in order to become 'expert' in a musical instrument.


* They really do need to be quite specific - i.e. title/s, author/s, even chapter/page ref. if possible. Thanks.

can't think of anything regarding a), but for b), the study of karl anders ericsson about gaining expertise springs to mind. it's a scientific study, must have been in the 90s. the main "guinea-pigs" were violinists if i remember it right.

i cannot quite remember the exact title, something like "towards gaining expertise blah blah bla", but i'm confident you'll find out so you can read and find the exact passage yourself.

there are several books based on this study, but i think that's the one to go for.

2) 10,000 hours http://bulletin.aarp.org/opinions/othervoi...s_practice.html

1) This might have something, or it might have references http://www.musictherapyworld.de/modules/mm...TT05_2_Pape.pdf

Thank you. I do need something a little more academic than the magazine article (which seems primarily to be marketing a self-improvement book) but there are some leads to follow up, so thanks.

looks like another person then who used the aforementioned study ...

i'm quite sure you'll find the andersson-thingy in the psychology- or music library of most unis.

i just googled: you can also buy the study, but it's $65 ...

Indeed it does!

Yes, that's a good starting point and I shall have a look in the university library when I go tomorrow.

Many thanks - I appreciate your help. ($65?!?! )

You should be able to access at least the abstract of the Ericsson reference here:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~d...tent=a739504845

If you want the full article it is always worth contacting the author direct and simply asking for a copy. This is standard practice amongst scientists - I get them quite often for mine, and have done the same for others. Usually the text of the request is simply "Please can I have a copy of your article xxxxxx. Thankyou"

Hope this helps

Thanks. I don't need the whole article, but the bibliographical details are very useful indeed.

here? http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/Ericss...racticePR93.pdf

Chris

Oh yes, that's excellent - thanks!

Is this article of any use?

If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Ericsson there is a link to a pdf version. I don't know if it's the full article though. If it is then $65 would seem a bit excessive.

EDIT - Ah looks like ChrisC got there first with a more comprehensive report. I'll have to take a look.

All the quoted articles are newer and merely short extracts basing on his first work. Anders Ericsson (in my second post I must have been writing faster than thinking ) has done a very lenghty scientific essay in the early 90s, many of his newer articles are based on that one. I started studying in 1993 and read it, that's why I can still sort of remember. And for that work $65 is okay(ish).

I think however that the newer articles give a pretty good essence what his work is about, don't kow if you still need a closer look at the original one then ...

I just need to refer to the research, rather than quote from it or discuss it in depth. Thanks.

The link I posted has ~ 400 pages - is that not the lengthy essay you're referring to?

Chris

Czerny

I haven't read Gladwell's latest book, but having read all the others, I'd be amazed if it were a self-improvement book. His books are excellent in that they explain difficult concepts in a informative and entertaining way to a layman, and (of interest to you) are well-referenced (i.e. to the same level I've seen in academic texts) with loads of academic notes and sources as back-up. If nothing else, take a look when you're next in the bookshop. (I'm not sure amazon will give you access to the notes and references?)

Oh, ok. I admit I only skimmed the magazine article and it didn't seem like sort of text I was looking for, but I'll take a closer look.

Ah but it starts on page 363 It's 44 pages. Mind you the last 4 pages are references which could be just what Czerny needs.

There is an internet site, you might like to search for. I think it might be called findarticles.com. It consists of medical (in the broadest sense) research papers to almost any subject you can think of. Cognitive siences are part of those research papers. So, it might really be worth a try. Sorry, can't be more specific. It's a long time ago I went looking for such papers.

If you've got access to a uni library do you have access to Athens? If so you should be able to log into that to get full texts from places like informaworld.

Yes I do - good thinking; thanks.