Why is it hard to believe musicians work hard?
Real talk. During Wimbledon 2013, you couldn’t move for articles about Andy Murray’s diet, his training regime and the team who live and breath to Build A Champion.
I read the articles, I listened to the punditry and I watched the results. It was impressive.
What did annoy me, however, was a few weeks later, watching BBC Breakfast interview the fabulous violinist, Daniel Hope. My frustrations are summed up neatly in the first 39 seconds of this clip.
“Wow, four hours a day?”
Like, as if it’s entirely surprising that a world class performer has to work hard?
There’s never any surprise that elite athletes train hard. Sometimes their diets are a little intimidating, but it’s expected and goes unquestioned that they spend hours in the gym, or on the court, or on the pitch/course/arena. Perhaps it’s assumed that musical talent is innate? Or that it is something you learn once and never have to refine? Perhaps one day we’ll open the paper and find a double page spread comparing practice regimes of two cellists, a comparison of their workout routines, a style comparison of their girlfriends and an itemised concert-day diet they swear by…
ok, maybe not.
