If you’re familiar with Pareto’s Principle, then you know that 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results and vice versa. However, you may not know that 20% of the 20% of your efforts produces 80% of the 80% of your results.
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Pareto’s Principle: also known as the law of 80/20
80/201
=
16:1
80/202
=
250:1
80/203
=
4,000:1
80/205
=
65,000:1
80/206
=
1 million:1
80/20 in Business
The business community loves Pareto’s Principle because they use it to leverage a few key aspects of their businesses to get more results—a lot more results—for less effort! How do they do it? Imagine for a moment you’re a real estate agent. Pareto’s Principle tells you that 20% of your clients have the money, the means, and the intention of purchasing your real estate.
Armed with the power of 80/20, a smart real estate agent focuses all of her energy on the 20% of her clients with the money, the means, and the intention of buying property. If she wants to further improve her results, she could focus even greater energy on the 20% of the 20% for a 250:1 leverage of efforts to results!
80/20 in Music
Well, the same holds true in music: 80% of the songs use 20% of the chords, scales, rhythms, progressions, licks, you name it! In other words, there are a few key musical concepts that show up over and over again. If your child takes the time to master those musical concepts, he can leverage his time for maximum results with minimum effort because the law of 80/20 is fundamental.
It applies to music in the same fashion it applies to business—or anything else for that matter.
That means, there a few key concepts that have incredible leverage!
Rock Dojo and the Law of 80/20
In The Complete Belt System, we isolated those key 20% of the musical concepts that show up in all your favorite songs. We call those heavily leveraged concepts the 5 Must-Know Musical Concepts for Rock Guitar!
They are:
- Open Power Chords
- Moveable Power Chords
- The Minor Pentatonic Scale
- The Major Pentatonic Scale
- The Basic Rhythms
Music is the Ultimate 80/20
In order to unlock the power of Pareto’s Principle, you’ll need to help your child commit to practicing the guitar for 15-minutes every day. Fortunately, deliberate daily practice is the ultimate 80/20 because it helps children develop the mindset necessary for success in music and in life.
Deliberate daily practice develops:
- Self-Discipline
- Earned Confidence
- Increased Focus
- Grit
To learn more about the Law of 80/20, I highly recommend the following books:
- 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More
by Perry Marshall.
- The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less by Richard Koch
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by Perry Marshall. 
.ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Brian Parham is the founder of the Rock Dojo in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches hundreds of kids between the ages of 6 and 12 years-old to play, perform, and compose their own original music on the guitar in after-school group guitar lessons. He’s also the author of three guitar method books including Guitar for Kids: Rock Dojo The Complete Belt System.
