Ten Thousand Hours of Practice, Musical Aptitude and Inner Fire: Developing Musical Talent in Young People

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Never in the course of the last century, has so little attention been paid to the development of talents and gifts in schools. Programs for talented children are being eliminated at an increasing and alarming rate, with minimal or no funds expended on this population in both our state and most other states in the country. Governments continue to appropriate the lion's share of their nation's education budget towards remedial education for children who currently achieve at the lowest levels, leaving little for children who achieve at the opposite end of the spectrum. In fact, the current federal education budget designates less than $10 million to talent development and gifted programs. In 2006, the U.S. Department of Education spent approximately $84 billion, and the only program addressing the education of talented and gifted youth received $9.6 million, one-hundredth of 1% of expenditures. In schools that do provide some level of support, existing programs are often part-time, providing children with limited opportunities to develop their talents. The vast majority of these programs focus on academics alone, with minimal (if any) attention paid to talented children who demonstrate musical or artistic abilities, or to those with strong potential that has not yet been honed. Simply put, most schools are not places where talents and gifts are developed. Most teachers do not consider the development of talents as part of their responsibility, while many parents do not know how or do not have the interest or the time to cultivate the gifts of their children. Parents who do find ways to develop the talents and gifts of their children often find that, in school, these gifts go unnoticed and unidentified. What does society lose from failing to encourage and develop musical gifts and talents? Whose responsibility is it anyway? How do we measure the loss to our society when children with the talent to compose or play at the highest levels are denied lessons or other opportunities to develop their potentials? How does our society make up for the loss of remarkably high potential and how many undiscovered performers and composers are unengaged and unmotivated in music classes today? In this paper, the process of the acquisition of musical talent development is discussed. Definitions of musical talent and genius are reviewed, as is the information we have regarding the development of musical talent at its highest level The ways in which parents, educators, and the community in general can contribute to the acquisition and development of differing levels of musical excellence is also summarized.