practice does not make perfect.

A study of violinists found that merely good players practised as much as, if not more than, better players, leaving other factors such as quality of tuition, learning skills and perhaps natural talent to account for the difference.

 practice does not, necessarily, make perfect.

When it comes to human skill, a complex combination of environmental factors, genetic factors and their interactions explains the performance differences across people

On average, top-ranked violinists had clocked up 10,000 hours of practice by the age of 20, though many had actually put in fewer hours. 

While the less skilful violinists clocked up an average of about 6,000 hours of practice by the age of 20, there was little to separate the good from the best musicians, with each logging an average of about 11,000 hours.

In all, the number of hours spent practising accounted for about a quarter of the skills difference across the three groups, 

Once you get to the highly skilled groups, practice stops accounting for the difference.

Everyone has practised a lot and other factors are at play in determining who goes on to that super-elite level,

The factors depend on the skill being learned: in chess it could be intelligence or working memory, in sport it may be how efficiently a person uses oxygen.

To complicate matters further, one factor can drive another.

A child who enjoys playing the violin, for example, may be happy to practise and be focused on the task because they do not see it as a chore

Practice makes you better than you were yesterday, most of the time But it might not make you better than your neighbour. Or the other child in your violin class.