The Process That Created Mozart
April 29, 2010 by Riya Agnihotri
Filed under Blog, Developing Genius
Mozart had an extraordinary upbringing, and his remarkable talent that wowed the world so early on in life – was as a result of a ‘process’, rather than his musical ability being a god given gift.
Mozart was immersed in music from the time of conception! His father was an outstanding and obsessively ambitious Austrian composer, musician and teacher. His name was Leopold Mozart.
Leopold Mozart sought fame and acclaim and wished to make a mark on music that he himself had been unable to do. Thus he directed all of his energies on his children. His daughter became an accomplished pianist under her father’s expert instruction. However Wolfgang Mozart received all of the Leopold Mozart’s attention. His father left his own career to direct all of his energies in to ‘making’ the ‘genius’ that we are so familiar with today.
So there we have it. Wolfgang’s early life was a concoction of the finest ingredients of world class instruction, bundles of encouragement and perhaps the most important ingredient of all: constant sustained practice!
One of the most important elements that one must add to any super-success story is the levels of motivation displayed by the child. For anybody to achieve (adults or children) there must also be an intense will to learn and acquire world class ability.
David Shenk makes the following statement about talent:
‘Deliberate practice requires a mindset of never, ever, being satisfied with your current ability. It requires constant self critique, a pathological restlessness, a passion to aim consistently just beyond one’s capability so that daily disappointment and failure is actually desired and a never ending resolve to dust oneself off and try again and again’ (David Shenk; Icon Books 2010; p57)
Daniel Coyle simply calls the same thing…IGNITION!
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