The influence of deliberate practice on musical achievement: a meta-analysis.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Meta-analysis of observational/correlational studies (by design analogy, not clinical CEBM)
PubMed 25018742 · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00646
What was done
The authors conducted a meta-analysis examining the effect of deliberate practice on musical performance. Studies were included if they reported durations of task-specific accumulated practice as the predictor variable and objectively assessed musical achievement as the outcome variable. The final analysis synthesized 13 studies representing a total of 788 participants.
What was found
The aggregated effect size for the relationship between task-relevant deliberate practice and musical achievement was rc = 0.61 (95% CI [0.54, 0.67]).
Why it matters
This provides a quantitative estimate of the relationship between accumulated practice and musical achievement, supporting the central role of long-term deliberate practice in expert performance.
Limits
The synthesis includes a relatively small total sample size across 13 studies (N = 788). Because the included studies are correlational rather than experimental, causal inference is limited, and the abstract does not report assessments of confounding factors such as innate aptitude, age of starting, or practice efficiency.
Cited by
- supports Elite musicians practice for three to four focused hours per day rather than extensive hours like 11 hours a day.