pianoloverus If someone was asked to compare 5 minutes of very good practice to an hour fairly good quality practice most would say the comparison makes little sense because the quantity is so small.
Actually, I think that’s sort of an interesting question. Because I would say that 5 minutes of very good practice would be better than an hour of terrible practice. Especially if someone did that daily for some extended period of time, the 5-minute good practicer would probably eventually surpass the one-hour terrible practicer.
But if we’re talking about “fairly good” practice, then I bet that over time and daily practice, the one-hour fairly good practicer would quickly surpass the 5-minute very good practicer…
Which is basically saying what you said, that “both quality and quantity are important.” In my earlier comment, I was zeroing in on the “10,000 rule” because when Gladwell’s book first came out, people tended to talk like it was magic, you just put the time in and improvement happens. Well, we know that’s an oversimplification, and what you do during practice matters a great deal.
But, yes, time spent is important as well. And a lot of time spent “fairly well,” is, over time, most likely going to surpass “a little time spent very well.”