Looking at the amount of time and energy that goes into practicing one's instrument and learning the theory associated with playing that instrument, and then putting all together in a performance, has to amount to one the most difficult disciplines going.

What do you folks think?

Apples and oranges...

I think any person who wants to reach the very top in any dicipline, be it for instance music, sports or science, basically spends all available time on practice, training or research. Who's to say that one is harder than the other?

I know I don't have the ambition or the will to sacrifice enough to reach the very top in anything... :p

Well - how about training to be surgeon? Not only do you have to study the theory of many conditions, anatomy etc.

You have to do the practical stuff like working on corpses - dissection etc.

But then after 5-8 years of training you have the huge responsibility/pressure that people may die as a result of any mistake you make!

In music, nobody dies if you play a wrong note!! ;)

I think it's a lot like anything else in that you have to put the time in, and easier in a way, because you don't necessarily need a piece of paper (aka degree) to make money with music, although the amount of time spent in training would be close to the same.

Also you might say that playing music is a science as well as an art, when you think of the mathematics and theoretical concepts.

Where the difficulty lies is, I think, in playing in bands - you have to know a bit about business, have good social skills etc to get anywhere (and have a lot of luck too!).

Not to be an ass, really, but I always didn't think it was all that hard. I mean, I really am not very talented, but I do okay.

I doubt that it's any harder than many other things, since if you want to become really good at anything you'll have to work hard to get there. The difference - as FOGHORN pointed out - is that great musicians do what they do out of a passion to do it whether the spotlights are on or not (or whether it's paying the bills, etc...). What's really hard about music is trying to find and live the kind of life that allows for both paying the bills and feeding the soul. If you swing this pendulum too far in one direction, you could end up working so hard that you don't really have time or energy to enjoy what you're doing. Swing it too far in the other direction, and you'll be artistically fulfilled, but broke. Not that this scenario is limited to musicians, but in many fields, it seems to be all about the paycheck, which simplifies matters.

Originally posted by Bruce Lindfield
In music, nobody dies if you play a wrong note!! ;)

Unless you find the brown noise and make everyone around the world crap their pants and cause a disaster.

I vote for ninja. That's discipline.