Funny Guitar Book for Middle Age Men
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Well, this book begins with the opposite dilemma. Gary Marcus began his journey as an adult, without any musical abil
You may remember a video game named "Guitar Hero". You watch a screen go by with color codes, and you press the appropriate color-coded fret on a small mockup guitar. When you press the correct fret at the right time, a cool riff plays, and you continue. At each level, the difficulty increases. Not exactly like playing the guitar, but for the non-guitar-player, it can be a thrill.Well, this book begins with the opposite dilemma. Gary Marcus began his journey as an adult, without any musical ability whatsoever, but he really wanted to learn to play guitar. He had a long, upward battle. He struggled for a couple of years to the point where he brought his musicianship to the point where he was pleased. His first gig was with a rock band consisting of himself (as an adult) and several 11-year-olds at a summer camp. The description of the learning, rehearsing, and performance is wonderful!
Gary Marcus is a psychology professor, so this book is about the science of learning, primarily about learning to play music. Gary Marcus has some interesting points of view, some of which you will probably have some reservations. For example, he writes that music is a technology. It is not a language. He gives plenty of examples of how new sounds are driven by new technologies. Of course, singing might not be considered a technology, but singing harmonies, in a sense, is a technology. Five hundred years ago, harmonies were rarely heard in music.
Marcus disagrees with Darwin's theory of music evolution, that guys play music to attract girls. He gives some carefully considered reasons for his disagreement. For example, he cites the lack of dimorphism in musical ability. He claims that people pursue music out of passion, not necessarily to become rich or popular. He argues that music stars didn't exist thousands of years ago. And, there is no specific module in the brain devoted to music.
Marcus covers a lot of ground in this book. He asks (but does not really answer), what makes good music? He writes about music theory; non-musicians do not know music theory, but they subconsciously understand the principles. The purpose of music theory is not to forge new ground, but to supply a language for sharing between musicians. Marcus has enormous esteem for Jimi Hendrix, who had both technical and creative abilities. Hendrix did a lot of experimentation with his guitars, modifying them in order to discover new sounds.
This is a very engaging book, and it is written on a very personal level. For me, as a composer, I found it very thoughtful and provoked me to think in new terms. For example, just as progress in science is very much driven by new technologies, it seems like music is also driven by new instruments, approaches, and technologies. I recommend this book to anyone interested in how we learn music.
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He obviously had a really good time researching the book and meeting and becoming friends with musicians - that's great, but no guarantee of a good book.
Perhaps I'm being unfair - I took lessons on mandolin a few yreas ago and eve
I was disappointed with this. The writing is fine but . . . It didn't have much to say that didn't seem fairly obvious. Some of the most interesting information wasn't about learning to play an instrument but comparing how musicians and non-musicians appreciate music.He obviously had a really good time researching the book and meeting and becoming friends with musicians - that's great, but no guarantee of a good book.
Perhaps I'm being unfair - I took lessons on mandolin a few yreas ago and eventually became frustrated with the results and stopped. I thought this book might give me some hints or insights in that area, but I didn't find anything here.
The jacket blurb says that Marcus "debunks the popular theory of an innate musical instinct while simultaneously challenging the idea that talent is only a myth." that just seems like semantic blather - the book admits that some can become great musicians, albeit of widely different sets of skills, much more easily than other people - but why exactly this is isn't much discussed. (I was reminded of a kind of learning I know much better myself, the study of foreign languages - and there are clearly people who are gifted and then there are the rest of us . . . )
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I am always fascinated with the topic of the scien
Almost 40 year-old professor of psychology Gary Marcus decides to learn to play the guitar even though he had been previously told he has no sense of rhythm whatsoever. Marcus really desires to play guitar, and so he embarks on a quest to find out if he could learn to play even at his age and with no previous or innate musical talent. He sets out to explore the questions of whether music is built into the brain and how we learn to become musical.I am always fascinated with the topic of the science of learning and this book was right up my alley. I really liked the fact that Marcus not only shares with us the latest studies on the human brain with regards to music, meets with and relates the views of scientists, teachers, famous musicians and other experts, but he also applies this knowledge to himself as a new musician. This personal aspect of the book prevented it from being a dry account of scientific literature. His fun experience of attending DayJams, a rock-and-roll summer camp for kids where he got to play in a band with 11 year-olds made me smile as Marcus relates his innermost and honest feelings about it.
I especially liked reading 1) about the differences in the way children and adults learn music and that one is not necessarily better than the other, 2) why learning music is hard–it has to do with our memory, 3) that music taps into two different brain reward systems at the same time rendering music as cocaine for the brain–explains the rush musicians get, 4) that both talent and practice matter, and finally, 5) that learning a new skill such as music makes us happy.
Having said all this, Marcus explores man's physical and mental nature in relation to music, which I found thought-provoking and insightful, but fails to acknowledge the spiritual nature of man in relation to it. The closest he comes to expressing it is when he talks about the pleasure we get from music that can be derived from a single note. He states, "...in the right circumstance, that resonance can bring a sublime, almost unearthly sense of connectedness to the universe." (p.130)
Essentially, though, Marcus' theories stem from the belief that man has evolved. From my experience in reading scientific literature, evolutionists are baffled by the fact that man has a consciousness, pursues music and art, and has moral values. The book Life Ascending, while favoring a mere biological explanation admits: "When we ask how a process [evolution] that resembles a game of chance with dreaded penalties for the losers, could have generated such qualities as love of beauty and truth, compassion, freedom, and above all, the expansiveness of the human spirit, we are perplexed. The more we ponder our spiritual resources, the more our wonder deepens." Indeed. When it comes to music and man's love of everything it encompasses—composing, playing an instrument, and deriving pleasure and awe that makes our spirits soar from listening to it—it seems logical to me that this awareness and attraction to music is placed in humans by an intelligent Creator in whose image we are created and who wants us to worship him with music and song as understood in Ephesians 5:19. I couldn't help thinking of this as I read this book.
However, even though I don't know much about the mechanics of music, I was impressed by how much Marcus learned in such a short time and how well he told it all in his new book. I sometimes struggled to understand the technical guitar jargon but it did not detract from the book's overall topic at all. A guitar player or any musician for that matter would have been able to relate, I'm sure.
After reading Guitar Zero, I have a new-found appreciation for music and musicians. I recommend it to all musicians, parents, and anyone interested in the science of learning, guitar playing and music in general. Marcus states, "Music is the perfect storm for the human mind: beautiful in form, intricate, and eternally new." (p.145) I wholeheartedly agree.
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This book includes a number of references to scientific studies, offered in a palata
I also took up learning to play the guitar late in life, actually later than the author's 40 years, so I was intrigued by what insights he had to offer. As a developmental psychologist, Marcus combines his knowledge of the science of the brain with his beginner's experiences learning something as complex as making music with the guitar. To boot, he admits to having a poor sense of rhythm as his biggest challenge.This book includes a number of references to scientific studies, offered in a palatable way and without overdoing the particulars. It is also buoyed by the author's interviews with noted musicians and covers a range of music genres, particularly as learning them requires their own unique approaches. There is also a engaging recap of a "playing with the band" experience Marcus has an adult participant at a kids music camp. So all of this was fine and helpful for me, who is currently about 20 months into learning to play the acoustic guitar without cutting corners.
I had some difficulty finding credible the author's declarations of achievement, even as it is given with much humility. He implies that over the 18 months of his taking up the guitar that he also wrote the book. He talks about how for some 6 months, he mostly immersed himself in learning while being self-taught--reading books, watching online videos, and the like. He declares that he practiced many hours each day which brooks no doubt. But he leaves the reader with the impression that he's pretty good at playing, even though there are things he struggles with. It's fair to say that I believe that learning to play an instrument means respecting with all humility the instrument itself, the essence of all that it represents in the history of music, and the personal discoveries that players reap from the challenge. What I missed from this book was that touch to the soul that a new musician needs to appreciate and harvest that magic of the music to be played.
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He mentions that he worked closely with Steven Pinker during his time at grad school.
Author Gary Marcus:
I came across this one by chance, and am always interested in reading b
This was an interesting read. Author Gary F. Marcus is an American scientist, author, and entrepreneur who is a professor in the Department of Psychology at New York University, and was the founder and CEO of Geometric Intelligence, a machine learning company later acquired by Uber, according to his Wikipedia page.He mentions that he worked closely with Steven Pinker during his time at grad school.
Author Gary Marcus:
I came across this one by chance, and am always interested in reading books about music. In this case, the author writes about his desire to learn how to play the guitar at a relatively advanced age (he was 39 when he began learning the guitar). As someone who picked up the guitar at a fairly late stage as well, I was excited to read what he had to say.
The writing here is very interesting and thought-provoking, and Marcus proceeds with an easy, engaging style that is accessible to the layperson. Good stuff! The formatting of the book is also excellent; chapters are nicely divided into succinct paragraphs that make easy work of absorbing and compartmentalizing the information presented here. Very effective communication.
Marcus takes the reader through his musical journey here; from practicing up at his in-law's cottage in Quebec, to receiving lessons from different teachers, to joining a band. Along the way, he also talks about the origins of music, famous musicians and their techniques, and many other things music-related.
I did disagree with some of the theories he puts forth (and/or dismisses) here. Namely, he argues against the concept of music as it relates to evolutionary biology in a few ways:
*He dismisses the "social cohesion" theory of music, which is that music partially evolved as a means to unite groups of people together, in shared social rituals. Author Nicholas Wade writes about this in detail in his 2009 book "The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures" in a more convincing manner, in my opinion. Basically, Wade argues that music is a proto-language.
Although Marcus doesn't see any individual fitness benefits to musicality, he is neglecting to see the group-level fitness benefits; ie - the increased social cohesion and social capital generated that kept societies cohesive before the advent of religion or the nation-state.
*He also dismisses the theory of music as a product of sexual selection, citing a lack of dimorphism between the sexes with regard to musical proficiency as evidence. But there is a dimorphism in musical proficiency, however, as historically most musical prodigies have been male. Marcus mentions some famous female artists like Alicia Keys and Mariah Carey, but I think he is fallaciously using anecdotes to disprove a trend. The musicians occupying the uppermost echelons of technical proficiency on musical instruments are disproportionately represented by males; which follows the old evolutionary biology maxim that: "Men are more interested in things, while women are more interested in people"...
*I also have to disagree with this bit of reasoning from him, talking about the inborn nature of language vs. music: "...Meanwhile, language is ubiquitous, acquired by essentially every normal human being, yet nearly 5 percent of the population is tone-deaf, and many people can't reliably sing on pitch. When one considers the trouble that children — and untrained adults— face in extracting even simple musical intervals as opposed to the gifts that toddlers have in stringing syllables together, the story in which music served as a direct precursor to language seems deeply implausible..."
While language is universal to all humans; so is music. However, if children are not exposed to language at a critical age, they will grow up unable to speak for the rest of their lives. In other words; people need to be taught language, in an ongoing process that takes many years towards verbal competence; even more time for written proficiency.
Without steady and early instruction, they will literally only make animalistic grunting or primitive, nonsensical wordings going forward.
Music, on the other hand, is automatically appreciated and engaged with - by babies too young to even speak, without any training or instruction. Babies will readily respond to music; dancing and bopping to the rhythm. And although most people never receive any formal music training, they can often inherently hum along with a song, and even anticipate the chord changes to the bridge or chorus in a song they've never heard before...
Still, these contentions didn't affect my enjoyment of most of the writing here, and the story Marcus was telling. You don't have to agree with everything an author writes to enjoy a book, after all...
I would recommend this one; as a life-long fan of music, as well as a musician who is interested in social psychology and psychology, in general.
4 stars.
Oddly, for the first 99 pages of the book he largely avoids the top
I was a little disappointed. My interest is that somewhere around age 55 I took up the guitar. I have no particular musical talent but I can strum chords consistently enough to sit in on an Old Time Jam. I had hoped for a more nuts-and-bolts description of how a middle-aged person with no discernible musical learned an instrument. He discusses his struggles with rhythm, but doesn't have much about how he actually learned to play.Oddly, for the first 99 pages of the book he largely avoids the topic of talent altogether, claiming that anyone can learn to play. It was literally on page 100 that he acknowledges that, yes, Jimi Hendrix began playing relatively late and was playing professionally a year after picking up the instrument.
People like Hendrix do not need to be taught. They are born with an innate ability to comprehend the architecture of music, a mystery to someone who often has trouble hearing where chord changes come even though I know what the next chord to be played is. It is true that practicing and playing help develop your ear. But after a brief discussion of the truly talented, Marcus almost immediately wanders into the weeds of music theory -- interesting, to be sure, but not why I had originally picked up the book.
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Having recently developed my own guitar habit (practicing every day for the past ~20 months or so), this book would seem to be in my wheelhouse...I'm older than I'd perhaps like to be as a beginning/intermediate guitarist, and following someone else on a virtually identical journey interested me. Which leads to the problem with the book, and (I think) the reason
I encountered this book back in 2013, and marked it as abandoned; unfortunately, I didn't add any review notes, so I picked it up again.Having recently developed my own guitar habit (practicing every day for the past ~20 months or so), this book would seem to be in my wheelhouse...I'm older than I'd perhaps like to be as a beginning/intermediate guitarist, and following someone else on a virtually identical journey interested me. Which leads to the problem with the book, and (I think) the reason I abandoned it initially back in 2013.
The book isn't about that. That aspect is just a hook to get people to pick up the book.
Sure, there are some asides in which he speaks about his personal journey, or a few beginner things he found challenging. But virtually the entire book is about either (a) the nature of music and why people react and relate to it as they do, or (b) the academic research behind music learning. If you are, for example, an adult interested in learning music, the knowledge that you can might be cheering, but that's pretty much all you're going to get out of this book. There's virtually nothing that's going to help you identify the best path for learning an instrument, and nothing actionable that will help you make progress. Maybe it was just me, but I didn't find it "an inspiring and fascinating look at the pursuit of music" (back cover text). I'm not sure what I was expecting...it's not that what is here is bad by any means (and I especially liked the drop-ins from interviews with Pat Metheny), but as an adult music learner, I felt like I didn't get anything out of this.
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Interesting read, was hoping for more usable info that I could apply to learning and teaching. Learned a few points, but feel like it fell short of its potential.
Also, possible expectation that it would take complete rookie from guitar zero to hero.
Close to the topic, it will tell you many specifics that make a guitar so non-obvious in
A perfect encouragement for all budding guitarists, and pretty good source of some less obvious and rarely mentioned nuggets of music theory. Which is pretty much the only complaint I could think of that purists could have. Getting more than they bargained for. As always, I'm baffled why this would be a problem for anyone.Also, possible expectation that it would take complete rookie from guitar zero to hero.
Close to the topic, it will tell you many specifics that make a guitar so non-obvious in its secrets, but a veritable fortress of musical superpower once you unlock it for yourself. In my very own, unpopular opinion, they make it the God's very own instrument.
I believe the complete obscurity of this instrument for uninitiated and seemingly absolute control and fluency the likes of Jimmy Page, Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn exert over it is the very source of the terms such as "guitar hero" and "guitar gods".
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I am about the same age as Gary Marcus was when he started learning to play the guitar and I also have very little musical knowledge or talent but I have always had (like many people) some vague interest in improving my understanding of music and hopefully even playing an instrument at a basic level( piano in my case).
So the aspects of the book that directly addressed his experience as an older learner where
I really liked the concept of this book, but didn't like some aspects of the execution.I am about the same age as Gary Marcus was when he started learning to play the guitar and I also have very little musical knowledge or talent but I have always had (like many people) some vague interest in improving my understanding of music and hopefully even playing an instrument at a basic level( piano in my case).
So the aspects of the book that directly addressed his experience as an older learner where very interesting to me.
Points that stood out to me:
(1) Contrary to popular belief, there is no research that says adults can't learn to play a musical instrument at a competent level.
(2) In fact adults have some advantages over kids:
(i) Greater ability for dealing with abstractions, which can help when learning music theory
(ii) Great variety of experiences to draw from, for example in finding different ways to learn, figuring out how to overcome plateaus, etc.
But the kids have advantages too:
(i) Better manual dexterity (perhaps better ability to memorize muscle movements?)
(ii) Greater ability to relentlessly practice the same boring thing over and over without getting bored (perhaps due to a lack of a job or other responsibilities?)
(3) Learning to play well really requires developing your musical ear, for example. being able to instantly tell how far apart two notes are. I didn't realize this was so important, even for just basic playing.
(4) Expert musicians represent a piece they are playing differently from beginners. Beginner think of individual notes, but experts will instantly categorize it as a larger structure, whether in terms of its keys and chords, or even in larger units, like a part of a concerto.
(5) I liked the idea that "music = repetition + variation". Humans seem to like repetition in music, much more than in other art like literature or painting, but we want to see the repetition varied each time it comes up.
In general, after reading this I have a better idea of how expert musicians think about music and what it might feel like to be able to play really well or to compose a new piece.
But the part that was a bit disappointing is that I wish he had dwelled more on his own experience and less on the general theories. I was more interested in learning about his own journey, not the speculations on how much of musical achievement is talent vs practice. And he treats most of those general topics in a rather shallow way, without really bringing much depth, which makes it feel like he was just padding the page count. The book would have been (in my opinion), if he had focused more on his own progression, and had fewer digressions to the general stuff.
And finally I was VERY disappointed that there are ZERO videos online of Gary Marcus playing the guitar. This must mean he still doesn't have confidence to play in public, which is a bit strange as he doesn't seem to be a shy person in general (he is a very successful professor and CEO). It would have been fun to see what he can actually do.
CONCLUSIONS:
(1) You (yes, you!) can learn to play an instrument at ANY AGE! (W00t!)
(2) But it will take an intense motivation and probably a couple of years and a couple of thousand hours of practice before you start sounding somewhat decent and can play in public or jam with other musicians.
The book is largely three things:
1. A memoir
2. The psychology of learning things as your age (like language, or music)
2. Musical history
The psychological aspects of learning are found throughout the book, while the first half is more memoir than history, and the latter half more history than a memoir. All in all, I liked the book and only found it slightly meandering and long-winded. That said, there's some great stuff in here.
I don't know th
Not as bad as the three-star implies. Details below.The book is largely three things:
1. A memoir
2. The psychology of learning things as your age (like language, or music)
2. Musical history
The psychological aspects of learning are found throughout the book, while the first half is more memoir than history, and the latter half more history than a memoir. All in all, I liked the book and only found it slightly meandering and long-winded. That said, there's some great stuff in here.
I don't know that there was much here you wouldn't know, or find obvious, and I dare say there was nothing you could start applying tactically to your own training, but the major thrust of the value here can be found in the argument that - no - it isn't all practice > talent. While many of the arguments made in the book are at least food for thought, I think the text undervalues other aspects of "talent."
For example, the book spends some time on the idea that there is no musical center of the brain, but rather a series of several areas that come together to form our ability to process and digest music. So when the matter of "who's got it and who don't" you'd think this psychological concept would be brought to bear. Instead, we're left with the toothless answer of "the great musicians grew up in musical families."
Unexplored was that greatness in one aspect of music isn't good enough to be a famous musician. And it's not as if that concept wasn't in the book - at a few points artists like Smokey Hormel and Pat Metheny are cited as having knowledge of many styles, instruments, experiences, and compositional theory. On the one hand, I kept thinking this book presented a lot of arguments I immediately wanted to push back on (a good thing) while leaving too many loose ends unaddressed.
I'm worried this review will make it seem worse than it is. It's a great read and I found it compelling enough to finish in a few sittings. This book would be a great pick for any book club with a lot of audiophiles in it. Or anyone with a passion for classic rock.
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I'm an older female professional with a busy work & family life, on a similar journey to learn guitar and songwriting. I have been learning guitar since 2016, writing music and learning music theory since 2017. I just taught myself how to play & sing The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?" earlier this month. I had tried to teach myself the song last yr without getting too far, but I just persisted this time. Johnny Marr, the chief songwriter & guitarist of The Smiths, is a virtuoso musician, songwriter, producer. Marr is also my all-time favorite guitarist. I never thought I could play any of his songs until last month when I slowed down his song "Down on the Corner" to 25% speed and then taught myself how to play it. From there, I learned The Smiths' "There Is A Light," "How Soon Is Now?" Last wknd I taught myself how to play The Smiths' "Half A Person." That's how it went- I started slowly with one seemingly impossible song, learned it. But once I figured out Marr's signature guitar moves, most common chord voicings, chord progressions, I was able to learn more of his songs. So even an old lady like me can learn some cool guitar moves.
Other memoirs written by middle aged men on learning music at their age include:
Play It Again by Alan Rusbridger
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Never Too Late by John Holt
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
Cognitive psychologist Gary Marcus, who clearly has a history of being "challenged" musically, decides as he approaches the age of 40 to master the guitar. A serendipitous sabbatical from his usual gig teaching at NYU gives him enough leisure that he feels motivated to take on the project seriously. Guitar Zero (a pun on the popular video game Guitar Hero, for those like me who didn't get it)recounts his adventures, which inc This book wasn't quite what I had expected, but I wasn't disappointed.
Cognitive psychologist Gary Marcus, who clearly has a history of being "challenged" musically, decides as he approaches the age of 40 to master the guitar. A serendipitous sabbatical from his usual gig teaching at NYU gives him enough leisure that he feels motivated to take on the project seriously. Guitar Zero (a pun on the popular video game Guitar Hero, for those like me who didn't get it)recounts his adventures, which include playing in a rock band with 11-year-olds at a music camp and MANY MANY hours of practice.
I had expected a memoir of a middle-aged scientist observing himself learning a new skill, which I got, but Marcus also explores many facets of the science of music, such as whether talent or practice is more important, what kinds of music people like and do not like (I was pleased to have my own preferences supported by finding out that the "most unwanted song" would be sung by an operatic soprano.), and how experts and novices differ when they listen to music.
No knowledge of music theory is necessary to enjoy this book. Marcus does a good job of explaining the theory needed along the way, but I do not believe he spends so much time on it that it would annoy a reader who does not need the explanation. As someone who is a contemporary of Marcus' father, I was a little at sea when it came to many of his references to musicians I genuinely had never heard of, and I would have appreciated definitions of pop music guitar terms like "riff" and "lick", but he does talk about Bob Dylan and even mentions the Andrews Sisters.
I picked up a lot of fascinating information from Guitar Hero and was incredibly impressed with what Marcus accomplished as a guitarist. Maybe I should pull out that guitar that has been sitting in the closet for the past 30 years.... ...more
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About half the content focuses on how the brain works (author is a psychologist) and the other is on music itself and why it can be hard to learn. The author chose to focus on music because of his personal interest. If music had not been the topic, however, this is still a valid exploration of b
At the risk of oversimplifying, this is a book trying to answer an age-old question, can an old dog learn new tricks? Middle-aged man decides to pursue a lifelong dream of learning music. Can it be done?About half the content focuses on how the brain works (author is a psychologist) and the other is on music itself and why it can be hard to learn. The author chose to focus on music because of his personal interest. If music had not been the topic, however, this is still a valid exploration of brain activity and resilience.
This was not so much about reciting studies and facts. Many of his examples were simply famous people and thus not especially scientific. Overall, this is a positive message about the continued learning process whether your choice is music or a new language or skill.
...more I was prepared to really enjoy this book - it is about guitars, cognitive science, guitars, music, guitars, learning - and did I mention guitars?
However, I didn't think it was well organized and I didn't find much in there that I could use to improve my own playing or use in other endeavors. I also found Marcu
Cognitive Psychologist Gary Marcus decided at age 39 to pick up the guitar. He discusses his experience and relates it to cognitive psychology and what we know about the brain and learning.I was prepared to really enjoy this book - it is about guitars, cognitive science, guitars, music, guitars, learning - and did I mention guitars?
However, I didn't think it was well organized and I didn't find much in there that I could use to improve my own playing or use in other endeavors. I also found Marcus to be a little pessimistic in his outlook. That is a pretty subjective opinion, but that is what I felt while reading the book.
I gave up on an earlier book by Marcus, Kluge: The Haphazard Evolution of the Human Mind for similar reasons. It didn't have guitars, so I liked it even less.
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The book was very easy to read and understand. It was written to be read by many different types of people not just musicians or scientists.
I also want to give it an extra star because it kept me amused and entertained during jury duty lol. Thank you for writing this book
Mr Marcus.
As a language teacher I enjoyed the discussion of language acquisition and the ways in which it is similar and different to how our brain deals with music.
The au As I've just started teaching myself guitar as a mid-30s adult, I was really excited about reading this book. It was interesting in its own way but not what I expected. I thought it would focus in more detail on how the author went about learning guitar, and I expected to glean some tips to help me on my journey, but there weren't many.
As a language teacher I enjoyed the discussion of language acquisition and the ways in which it is similar and different to how our brain deals with music.
The author is clearly passionate about the topic, but I just felt that the book was lacking in substance. There were throwaway references to things like a growth mindset but these weren't discussed at length. I would have liked to have seen mention of interleaving and its effectiveness in learning to play an instrument.
The most useful takeaway for me was that in order to make progress during practice sessions, it's not enough to simply play through the pieces you know well. You must focus on the tricky bits and work on getting them right. ...more
I strongly recommend reading PEAKS by Ericsson before Guitar Zero and watching the Andrew Huberman podcasts on the dopamine role on learning and motivation (of course you could go on a more academic route but for it would be an overkill).
Honestly I was expecting more
For me this was a though book to read till the end since the prose is very bland and sometimes the rhetoric bends way too much to the easy targets of general platitudes to please a broader range of readers (make it more commercial) .I strongly recommend reading PEAKS by Ericsson before Guitar Zero and watching the Andrew Huberman podcasts on the dopamine role on learning and motivation (of course you could go on a more academic route but for it would be an overkill).
Honestly I was expecting more after reading books such as Peaks by Ericsson and the good opinions on "one of the deepest thinkers in cognitive science"....if this is one of the best then poor cognitive science, it really needs less "talented" thinkers.
I guess music lends it self to this type of speculations since it rarely has an objective measure of sort and has a strong hold on our emotions, culture and consequentially in our irrationality. Please do not use the knowledge in this book to perorate useless discussions since most of its conclusions are wildly questionable since and of the "facts" aren't well analyzed.
And remember, musicians invest their life in music because they get a dopamine high from it (which its basically true for every craft that one likes so its a useless observation) while Les Paul invented the solid body guitar (even thought the telecaster and its prototypes came way before it) and the Beatles only had 3000 hours of practice under their belt since they where talented :).
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