Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning Audiobook

" Interesting book, though not quite what I wanted to read. Gary Marcus is a PhD in cognitive psychology who decides to pick up the guitar (and to learn music) later in life. The part of learning music and learning to play an instrument late in life is what drew me to this, since it's pretty much my own story. Marcus writes precious little about his personal journey and much more about the scholarly, cognitive aspects of the endeavour, which were interesting to read about. I got to understand better how humans are (or rather, how they are not) wired with a music instinct, how our brains evolve as we are trying to learn an instrument, how one can be an expert musician without knowing how to read music, and many other interesting points on cognition. Although all this material made for a very interesting intellectual read, I fear that the lasting lessons for my journey as a musician wannabe can be summarized in few words. In short, it's an interesting work in making psychology more accessible to the masses, but not terribly helpful to a guitar student. "

" Ok. Some interesting research on pedagogy presented, but ultimately this was a lightweight book. "

" This was in informative book, but did not fulfill the implied promise of the subtitle. I'd hoped to find cognitive strategies to apply to my lifelong study of the guitar, but not much of use in that area, just background info. As an experienced musician, I found 5 or 6 valuable insights, but nothing Earth-shattering. For example, he spends a page providing an alternative insight to Gladwell's Outliers, indicating that talent does exist. To be fair, much of the information in the book I've read elsewhere, such as in Outliers, and the book would likely be more valuable for beginner musicians. "

" Well, it's 5 stars if you're interested in learning guitar as an adult, cognitive psychology, or both. "

" If I wasn't trying to learn to play an instrument, I wouldn't have given this book four stars. I wanted more of the author's personal story, which he wrote in an amusing way. The information about learning was valuable, too, and I hope will help me as I try to learn to play the ukulele. I think all of this could have been condensed, though. My mind started wandering sometimes... "

" I'm not much into psychology books, but this jumped out to me based on the fact I am in the exact same condition. I was left with the same question I started out with when I finished. Good history lesson, but not a lot of the science of learning I was expecting. "

" Really makes you want to pick up an instrument again. Maybe the bass, already learn the harmonica. "

" As someone learning to play the guitar, I expected more... Because I know there's a lot more than described in this book. "

" Very good book. Informative about music and how we learn things. Reccomend. "

" Favorite quote (p. 86): "Why does practice matter as much as it does? ... [W]hen we master any domain, be it guitar or algebra or squash, our brains get better at two things: recognizing what the pieces are (known as chunking) and knowing where to look (known as attention)." "

" A fascinating blend of memoir and psychology. A fast, enjoyable and informative read, even for someone who doesn't play the guitar! "

" I enjoyed the more science orientated sections but overall it was hard for me to really get into this book because while I love music and tend to break into song often, I don't have a passion for creating music. "

" Interesting read; especially for a academics "

" Interesting account of a psychologist learning to be a guitar player in mid life and studying himself as he did it to learn more about how we learn to be musical. "

" Some guy learned guitar, and wrote a nearly entirely unrelated book. Nothing really to be learned here, move along. "