Gary Marcus, author of ‘Guitar Zero’ did briefly talk about his book during Zocalo Public Square, an event that defined itself as a living magazine happening at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles on Friday night. He even showed us his new musical abilities by playing some improvised instrumental bluesy-jazzy Santana-esque jams with local musicians. The event was announced as ‘What Music Does to Our Brains’, but it was rather focusing on Marcus’ adventure.
As he explained, the title of his book, ‘Guitar Zero’, is a play of words at two levels. Marcus started learning guitar at ‘ground zero’, with zero talent as he humbly admitted, 'I did not know anything about rhythm and had totally no talent’. His book is a journey through apprenticeship, a true scientific experiment he attempted, using himself as a guinea pig, trying to find out if someone with no talent for music whatsoever, and especially no innate sense of rhythm, could learn guitar.
Of course, the title if his book is also a direct allusion to the video game ‘Guitar Hero’, the ‘dumbest video game’, as he said the game has always been a torture for him since you actually get booed if you don't play the notes at the right time.
After his misadventures and frustrations with ‘Guitar Hero’, that was his 'gateway drug’, he decided it was time to try to become musical, starting to practice six hours a day during a summer.
First, it was hard, as he could learn the keys but could not play them in rhythm, but he is apparently not the type to get easily discouraged.
I have to say that Gary Marcus is a psychologist, director of New York University’s Center for Language and Music, and a specialist of how children learn language. In the popular opinion, there are these common ideas that music is a language, that adults have a much harder time to learn a second language compared to children, and that music and language have to be learned early in life. But Gary had noticed that some adults were nevertheless successful at learning a second language.
And he began his journey, trying to take small steps after small steps, taking things slowly but overall demonstrating that even adults can learn if the learning is broken down into small pieces. He approached the whole thing like ‘engineering’, realizing that memorizing the fretboard was a disaster for the human brain, but persisting, even interviewing teachers and musicians.
He even took a ‘rock’ n’ roll summer camp’, where he got picked to play bass in a band. There, he had to work with kids (Marcus is around 40), and had to write a song starting a Monday in order to be able to play it the next Friday! He noticed how kids were much faster with their fingers, but his contribution was noticeable as he helped at putting the song together, because he had a large musical culture that kids did not have.
The experience taught him many things; first he discovered how playing music can be ecstatic. If listening to music can enhance your mood or be comforting (he called the iPod a self-medication for our generation), playing live is a totally different experience, a higher level of wonderfulness and a total thrill.
Curiously, he also discovered that he could move differently, was able to dance in time (something he was unable to do before) and was more aware of his body since he had learned to play guitar. He was even better at riding his unicycle, something he may explain by the fact that the body is more involved in the music when someone is playing. Because people who play do this foot taping, and overall experience more the rhythm, playing guitar apparently teach you more about your body.
But the adventure was also a learning experience, ‘the counting is still difficult’, and ‘I am still working on tons of things’, he admitted. But this limitless joy produced by discovering this new form expression was also the part he loved the most.
It was also a humbling experience – although the guy did not seem to have an ounce of something even close to arrogance – as he learned about his limits, he said he now knows he will never sound like Santana, but it really does not matter!
The experience forced him to forget his ambition but Gary Marcus is totally more enjoying the journey than the destination.