Guitar Zero: The New Musician And The Science Of Learning (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
Gary Marcus has written a beautiful book about his journey to learn the guitar starting at age 40. Gary is a professor and a scientist, and the text is peppered with his honest hunger to know more and beyond about music, about music and the brain, and about hundreds of questions you never knew who to ask. Gary is charming in describing his own journey, his passionate build up towards learning further skills and his rapture at each stage. I love the tone of the book, and it taught me, a musical novice many things to appreciate and pursue. This is not a book written in the Malcolm Gladwell mould, i.e. inferring causality from temporal contingency, but is more in the line of an improvement diary with extensive side-notes - commenting, thinking aloud and discussing with a whole lot of musicians about what makes them tick and why. This is Gary's personal story, about his joy and he has worked very hard to extrapolate his curiosity and joy into a universal explanation of why music works. His struggle to master the basics of the guitar, rendered in the most charming self effacing words warms one's heart and gives hope to a lot who might be starting on a similar journey. P.S. My story, at least at the very beginning, is very similar. I have never had any music education, never tried my hands at a musical instrument. The last two years I have been obsessed with the Blues, and that has built up into an irresistible desire to learn how to play a guitar, for no other purpose but to "make the guitar cry". Like the umpteen impulses one learns to differentiate between, I have been wary whether this is a passing fad in my head. Last two months or so, I have been obsessively reading everything I could to first understand the guitar, music theory..in essence anything I could read up and understand/learn without having the actual guitar in my hands. Culminating in this book, which I started reading the day after I finally paid for an acoustic guitar, I have a feeling this desire and obsessiveness to learn the guitar is not going away. Thank you Gary. A terrific book for any music teacher. Marcus, a research psychologist and expert in cognitive development, decided to take up the guitar at age 40. This was his first foray into music, and his insights are fascinating. As someone with an intimate understanding of how the brain works but (initially) no understanding of how music works, he provides a pricelessly valuable viewpoint on how music is taught and learned. Certain aspects of my teaching will change as a result of reading this book.
What do You think about Guitar Zero: The New Musician And The Science Of Learning (2012)?
This book was okay, but there are better books that cover these topics.
—mike
Just read the first few chapters, I think I'm gonna like this one!
—caleb
Lots of interesting information, citing a great deal of research.
—MrSmittydogg
Solid 3.5 stars. Interesting topic and research presented.
—smarticles
Good info on how we learn, specific to music.
—Bree
