All of the hours. I’d say half of my education as a musician if not more, has been simply listening to music. As a bassist or anything else, it’s still learning.
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How many hours to learn bass?
- Thread starter IamGroot
- Start date
10,000 hours is a myth based on a study of violin players at a school for performing arts. Researchers found that a correlation between grades and how much students practiced (shocking). Most "A" students estimated that they had practiced over 10,000 hours in their life, while students below that GPA had practiced less than that.
If that one study is valid (and that's a big if because it hasn't been replicated) it means that 10,000 hours is how much you need to practice to get an A in music school, not learn an instrument.
It's very easy to practice ineffectively and waste a lot of those hours without getting better.
10,000 hours is a lie.
Talent is the variable that is not taken into account here. We’ve all known people that slave away practicing and other peopl that are gifted enough to just show up and kill.
the only thing I would say is if you put in 10000 hours of even loosely focused practice you should be a lot better than when you started, but that being said the virtuoso musicians that really leave a musical legacy are some combination of highly ambitious, dedicated, naturally talented and probably to some degree a little bit lucky.
I like Gladwell too, but think he misses the mark sometimes, or at least doesn't really see the whole picture as much as he sees what he wants to, and that must be correct.
Stephen Dubner (freakanomics) has some good stuff about the "10K hours rule." Not exactly tearing it down, but more like, it's not the whole picture.
Well, @IamGroot has had a busy morning, hasn't he? 
How long to learn bass?
Less than to learn banjo.
Which is why they're priced accordingly.
How long to learn bass?
Less than to learn banjo.
Which is why they're priced accordingly.
excellent say's it allAbout an hour and a half! That should cover it!
twice as long as it is from the middle to the end
I’ve been playing 2 years. I can hang with a band, but there is WAY more to learn until I’m satisfied with myself, and then more to learn on top of that.
I don’t think I’m “naturally” talented if that has any meaning. I do have a good ear, and I’ve ingested a vast quantity of music by virtue of a traveling vocation. It helps to know the music.
I practice as much as a middle aged father of four can. Sometimes I disappear on Saturdays for a few hours. If I were to venture a guess, I’d estimate I’ve put in 1,500 hours, and maybe more when I binge. I lose myself in bass time.
I don’t think I’m “naturally” talented if that has any meaning. I do have a good ear, and I’ve ingested a vast quantity of music by virtue of a traveling vocation. It helps to know the music.
I practice as much as a middle aged father of four can. Sometimes I disappear on Saturdays for a few hours. If I were to venture a guess, I’d estimate I’ve put in 1,500 hours, and maybe more when I binge. I lose myself in bass time.
It all depends on what is meant by "learn bass".
In the old days, I met a guy who was the lead singer of this band. He also played like 7 different instruments. I asked him about it, how he came to be able to play so many instruments. He told me that he really doesn't "play" all those instruments. Like on sax, he knew how to play one song. It was all a matter of getting a passable tone, and learning the fingering on that one song. But once he got up on stage, and played that one song on sax, people saw that he could "play" the sax. So yeah, after a few hours time, this guy learned to play the sax.
In the old days, I met a guy who was the lead singer of this band. He also played like 7 different instruments. I asked him about it, how he came to be able to play so many instruments. He told me that he really doesn't "play" all those instruments. Like on sax, he knew how to play one song. It was all a matter of getting a passable tone, and learning the fingering on that one song. But once he got up on stage, and played that one song on sax, people saw that he could "play" the sax. So yeah, after a few hours time, this guy learned to play the sax.
i learnt to play the bass in less than second 
but there again i'm a real smart arse 
but there again i'm a real smart arse 
I could play it after my 1st half hour lesson in 1971— great teacher.
48 years have passed and I’m still learning.
48 years have passed and I’m still learning.
Ah, yes, Gladwell's famous misinterpretation of the expertise research.
The basic finding from folks like Anders Ericsson (that's where Gladwell got this) here is that most world-class experts (musicians, dancers, athletes, chess players, etc.) have to put in about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to reach world-class status. That's a rough average, not a rule, and it varies according to what field and what age you start. For some things, you have to start young because your body physically changes and that physical change is necessary (example: ballet dancers, whose ankles actually grow differently when they are teens). There's some role for talent as well—Ericsson never emphasizes that, but some later research shows it still matters, though it still matters less than the total practice time.
The other key thing there is "deliberate" practice. Deliberate practice is practice with feedback where the focus is on eliminating discrepancies between current and desired performances, with a particular emphasis on addressing weaknesses. Just playing is not deliberate practice. It just doing the activity counted as deliberate practice, then millions of people would be expert drivers, which 20 minutes on the road should convince you is not the case. Deliberate practice is extremely effortful and even people who are highly dedicated to their craft can rarely can put in more than 1,000 hours/year so sometimes you'll hear this as the "ten-year rule." Again, still not really a rule, just kind of a group average.
So, does it take 10,000 hours to be good? No, and certainly less than that to "learn bass," unless by "learn bas" you mean "be a world-class bass player."
Are people with 10,000 hours done learning? No.
But if you put in 10,000 hours of actual deliberate practice, you should be great.
The basic finding from folks like Anders Ericsson (that's where Gladwell got this) here is that most world-class experts (musicians, dancers, athletes, chess players, etc.) have to put in about 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to reach world-class status. That's a rough average, not a rule, and it varies according to what field and what age you start. For some things, you have to start young because your body physically changes and that physical change is necessary (example: ballet dancers, whose ankles actually grow differently when they are teens). There's some role for talent as well—Ericsson never emphasizes that, but some later research shows it still matters, though it still matters less than the total practice time.
The other key thing there is "deliberate" practice. Deliberate practice is practice with feedback where the focus is on eliminating discrepancies between current and desired performances, with a particular emphasis on addressing weaknesses. Just playing is not deliberate practice. It just doing the activity counted as deliberate practice, then millions of people would be expert drivers, which 20 minutes on the road should convince you is not the case. Deliberate practice is extremely effortful and even people who are highly dedicated to their craft can rarely can put in more than 1,000 hours/year so sometimes you'll hear this as the "ten-year rule." Again, still not really a rule, just kind of a group average.
So, does it take 10,000 hours to be good? No, and certainly less than that to "learn bass," unless by "learn bas" you mean "be a world-class bass player."
Are people with 10,000 hours done learning? No.
But if you put in 10,000 hours of actual deliberate practice, you should be great.
Reply, As many as it takes. I’ve been working on it for prit near 53 years.....
That's actually not true—the critical aspects of that study have been replicated many, many times. See Ericsson & Pool's 2017 book "Peak" for a summary, or Hambrick's 2017 edited volume "The Science of Expertise: Behavioral, Neural, and Genetic Approaches to Complex Skill" for a slightly different perspective.
