"They found a striking difference among the groups. All three groups spent the same amount of time--over fifty hours a week--participating in music-related activities. All three had similar classroom requirements making demands on their time. But the two best groups spent most of their musicrelated time practicing in solitude: 24.3 hours a week, or 3.5 hours a day, for the best group, compared with only 9.3 hours a week, or 1.3 hours a day, for the worst group. The best violinists rated "practice alone" as the most important of all their music-related activities. Elite musicians--even those who perform in groups--describe practice sessions with their chamber group as "leisure" compared with solo practice, where the real work gets done."