Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Beatles Hamburg Years

Everybody loves Beatles. Their simple love songs helped them achieve immense success and became a cultural phenomenon. Whats the secret behind their immense success?

Well, the key to their success is simple, hardwork. Im sure your elders must have told you to work hard innumerable times. We never really believed right? Now there is a reason to find truth in that statement.

Well, there is a theory which states that when you practice for more than 10,000 hours the same thing again and again, you achieve excellence in it. Beatles managed to jam together for more than 10,000 hours before they really set the music charts on fire. Before they hit big, managed to land gigs in Hamburg and performed live an estimated 1,200 times. Doing some number-crunching, they managed to notch up 9,600 hours of gig time in Hamburg itself. (Assuming eight hours of jamming per day). They surely must have managed 400 hours of additional jam time. It was the period they spent in Hamburg refining their skills that Beatles became great. Not only did they gain stamina, understood their instruments and fellow band members, they became well-versed with various genres and most importantly, learned discipline.


With the above example Im trying to put forth two points. Firstly, sheer hardwork can make you great. But then again, are we willing to take that much pain? Smartwork is always a more attractive option. I cannot practice one thing for 10,000 hours for sure.

Secondly and more importantly Beatles were not born great. They achieved greatness through sheer hardwork and loads of luck and coincidences. Their discography is primarily bubblegum. It was sheer hardwork which enabled them to intersperse their discography with a few great songs. Most importantly, if Beatles had not gone to Hamburg, we would have never heard Hey Jude.

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