“Simplicity is the final achievement.  After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

-Frederic Chopin

Is the old saying “Quantity does not equal Quality“  really true?   Or is it just a myth that those who have achieved success would rather have you believe so that their unique genius is looked upon as the reason for their achievements?

Keep reading to find out why the old saying flat out sucks balls…..

After all, if everyone only knew that all it took was learning + quantity to equal quality, then the world would be filled with successful artists, athletes and business people.

Here is an excerpt from Derek Sivers’ blog which is an excerpt from the book, Art and Fear

The ceramics teacher announced he was dividing his class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right graded solely on its quality.

His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would weigh the work of the “quantity” group: 50 pounds of pots rated an A, 40 pounds a B, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot – albeit a perfect one – to get an A.

Well, come grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity!

It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

The key to this approach is learning from your mistakes and successes.  As long as your are constantly learning, tweaking, and optimizing your approach, you are getting better.  The quality of your work will thus improve more so than by just contemplating and predicting.  Action, and lots of action, plus learning will lead you to more success than you probably thought possible.

Chopin realized that the more and more notes you play, the faster you learn which combinations and progressions sound best.  By practicing and playing as much as possible, you are then able to simplify your approach to the ones that are most effective to getting your music across.  But in order to know which ones work, you have to discover which ones don’t and why.

So this weekend or at your next performance,  take notice to which songs people respond to the most.  Take notice to which guitar solos really reach out and connect with your audience.  Discover why it is exactly that a certain song on the radio makes you tear up.

Get out there and experiment. A lot.  Learn.  Understand.  Simplify.

Want to learn how real professional guitar players have used this approach? Check out our interview series with guitar playing professionals who are making their living with the guitar. Studio Guitar Secrets: Making Guitar Your Career

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