Monday, 24 Nov, 2008 Science

A new study carried out by the British scientists revealed that it takes a person 10,000 hours of practice to become ace in a certain discipline. They say that top musicians, sportsmen and chess players were all able to become masters in their field by achieving the level where their time of practice reached 10,000 hours.

Researchers suggest that the time spent for practicing makes the difference between a person who is good and the one that is brilliant. They carried out their study at Berlin's Academy of Music by observing violin students who began playing at the age of five. These students started practicing for 2 or 3 hours a week and as they grew so increased the time they spent for practicing.

Top performers, by the time they celebrated their 20th birthday, reached 10,000 hours of practice, but those who simply showed good results achieved the amount of 8,000 hours.

"It seems it takes the brain this long to assimilate all it needs to know to achieve true mastery," explained neurologist Daniel Levitin to Focus, a BBC science magazine, which published The Story of Success.

In his book, entitled Outliners, Malcolm Gladwell wrote that The Story of Success may explain why Beatles became so popular. While in Hamburg, Germany, the band played about 8 hours a night, seven days a week in their early days. When they became popular the Fab Four had already performed about 1,200 live concerts, more than many young bands play during their career.