The day I thought I'd finally arrive as a song leader

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell refers to the “10,000 hour rule”, claiming that the key to achieving expertise in any skill is to practise for around 10,000 hours. I reckon I’ve done my 10,000 hours over the last 30 years of teaching songs and leading choirs. Yet I still can’t pull it out of the hat without preparation. Although the 10,000 hour rule has often been questioned, it’s certainly true that you need to put the work in to become good at something. Over the years I’ve become a much better teacher, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped learning or can rest on my laurels. When I was younger, I believed that one day I would “arrive”. I imagined I’d be able to stand in front of any group, improvise a warm up and teach any of the 1,000 songs I’ve taught over the years. Maybe I’d even get to the point where I could use a single tuning fork and work out the starting note of any song. Or perhaps I’d develop perfect pitch and not even need one. Then I’d know I’d truly “arrived”.…