Review of Guitar Zero by Gary Marcus

Guitar Zero is a book that tells the story of professor of cognitive psychology Gary Marcus' as he turns himself into a living experiment to investigate the question "Can a 39 year old with no previous musical background learn to play guitar?"

 

How Does Someone Become Musical?

Gary Marcus harboured a dream of creating music with the guitar. But his attempts had all led him to believe that he could never do it, until one day after a success at the Guitar Hero video game he came to wonder "Could persistence and a lifelong love of music overcome age and a lack of talent? And for that matter, how did anyone of any age become musical?"

 

Guitar Zero describes his quest to answer these questions and provides two main things to those interested in music in general and in the guitar in particular.

 

The Science of Learning Music

Gary Marcus has undertaken a thorough survey of the complexities of learning music. He describes the physical and mental reasons that make learning to play music such a complex task for the human mind and body. He compares the processes of mastering music and language and also investigates the the genetic and cultural origins of human music making.

 

Hope and Inspiration

Secondly, for would-be or budding guitar players of any age Guitar Zero provides hope and inspiration.

 

The book throws new light on some of the ideas, or excuses, that make adults think they can't learn music or learn to play guitar if they didn't start when they where six years old. Gary Marcus guides us through research evidence that shows that there is little real proof that our ability to learn something new declines significantly with age.

 

He shows via research and his own experience that it is indeed possible for a sufficiently motivated learner to learn guitar - or other skills - at any age.

 

But It's Not a Practice Book

Not surprisingly, his research indicates that the most important factor in learning the instrument is practice. But some kinds of practice are more valuable than others. Gary Marcus observes that effective practice focuses on playing weaknesses; you must always keep working on something new if you want to improve instead of just repeating what you know already.

 

The book doesn't offer a detailed practice program to show you how to learn the guitar step by step though. If this is what you are looking for then you might be disappointed.

 

You will discover lots of information about the general approaches to success with the instrument that will be helpful and inspirational to many learners. It also investigates guitar teachers and teaching methods in a way that will help you to identify good teachers and work with them to get the most from your time.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion Guitar Zero is an interesting and entertaining study of the mental and physical processes behind learning to make music with the guitar. The author's enthusiasm for the instrument and his wonder at the simple joys of learning to master new skills are obvious throughout the book and should help to inspire you to try and learn the guitar or any other skill that you've always dreamed of but never thought possible.

 

Solve Guitar Problems With This 3 Step Process

The other day I came across an interesting post about applying problem solving methods as a way to improve guitar playing. Learning to play guitar is definitely something that presents us with many different problems, both small and large. I got to thinking a little about my own problem solving processes and how I applied them to learning guitar skills.

 

I think that an explicit method for recognizing and solving guitar playing problems is an excellent tool. It helps me to avoid aimless practice or playing stuff I already know to avoid a problem instead of making progress. Here's one simple process that I find helpful in lots of situations.

 

Step 1. Describe the problem

The first step is to identify just what problem you want to solve. Take some time to describe the problem you face or the thing you'd like to do next to get it clear in your mind.

 

I like to write down a description of the problem on paper, this helps me to think it through and identify what is really going wrong. You might find it helpful to record yourself and you practice and talk through the problem. Ask yourself what exactly goes wrong? What were you doing when the problem occurred? What does the problem feel like - do you have tensions or blockages in particular parts of the body?

 

Step 2. Brainstorm solutions

You'll probably find that you get ideas about how to solve the problem while you describe it, but don't just jump on the first one that pops into mind. Instead, take a little time to make a list of all the ideas that you could try to help you solve the problem.

 

Grab a pencil and paper and give yourself ten minutes to list all the ideas you can think of. New ideas can occur to you later on too, so keep your paper handy so you can easily add to your list; sometimes a good night's sleep brings fresh insight.

 

3. Pick and implement

All of that description and brainstorming won't actually solve any problems unless you turn ideas into action. Choose one or more ideas from step 2 and get to work to implement them.

 

The biggest trap at this stage is getting hung up worrying about choosing the "right", or "perfect", solution. Don't fall into this trap, use your best judgement or pick the idea that appeals most to you and get busy putting it to work. Taking some action is more important than waiting to find the perfect action.

 

The first idea you try might not get you all the way to the solution you want. This is no big deal, you've already learned more about your problem and discovered one idea that doesn't solve it. That's much better than if you'd done nothing. You also have some easy options to keep advancing towards a solution for your problem:

 

• Go back to the list of ideas from step 2 and put another one into action
• Revise your problem description in the light of what you learned and brainstorm some new ideas to work on.

 

Try it and See

Try this three step process next time you come across a guitar playing problem and see how it helps you to keep moving towards a solution instead of getting blocked. Let’s summarize the three simple steps:

 

1. Describe it - get a handle on what the problem really is

2. Brainstorm it - create solution ideas

3. Pick and implement – choose and idea and put it into action

 

Don't forget to feed back what you learn in step 3 to improve your problem description and generate more ideas to solve it.

 

What About You?

Do you have any favourite problem solving tips that have helped you to improve your guitar playing? Please use the comments link below to share them with us...

 

Photo by andrewmalone.

Blues Guitar Solos – 5 Tips on Phrasing

Blues guitar phrasing is something I have to work on all the time. If I don’t pay attention then it’s too easy to get into bad habits, so it’s always useful to have a checklist of things to do… or not do… to keep your phrasing in good shape and avoid problems.

 

Here’s a nice video that offers 5 useful tips to get your phrasing into shape and keep it there (you might need to click here to see it on the blog if you’re reading this in a feed reader).

 

 

Here’s a short summary of the tips from this video.

 

1. Repeat ideas

Repetition is one of the fundamental elements of music. Build your solos out of blocks of only a few notes, and repeat them to draw in the listener. Use only a few notes and work them hard to create the most you can out of them.

 

2. Open up space

Use rests to create space in your music. It gives you time to come up with something new and heightens tension in the music.

 

3. Sing the notes you play

As Marty put it, singing the notes you play “connects with that inner music inside of you, that is a really good thing.” Singing also forces you to breath and introduces natural pauses that will help you open up space.

 

4. Dynamics – loud or soft

You can break up monotony in your playing through use of dynamics – how loud or soft you play. Mix things up and don’t just play everything at full blast.

 

5. Know when to get out

Finally, just like you have to end your phrases to leave space around them, you also need to end your solos to keep something in reserve for the next song.

 

If you enjoyed these tips then click here to visit Marty’s site for many more great guitar lessons. You can try out lessons free for three days. Note that I partner with GuitarJamz because I enjoy the quality guitar lessons it provides, if you decide to subscribe after following this link I may receive a small commission. You can learn more about Marty’s lessons site by reading my GuitarJamz review.

 

Oh, and by the way, to get the free jam-track Marty mentioned in the video click this link.

Guitar Chords – Learn to Finger Major 6th Chord

Last week I posted a lesson on 6th chords. I got a question from a reader struggling with the major 6th chord form with its root on the sixth string, which is admittedly quite hard to play. I struggled for a long time to learn how to play this chord accurately, I think the difficulty comes with the way all four fingers are spread out.

 

I especially had problems with my third (ring) and fourth (little/pinky) fingers, they would end up on the wrong strings – third finger on the third string and fourth finger on the second string – which sounds terrible.

 

So here’s a step by step approach that I found really helpful to master this shape.

 

Grabbing Chords in the Air

I used the “chord grabbing” technique to learn this shape. If you’re not familiar with this technique, then click here to read a post and see a video that demonstrates it. I’ve found it’s a really useful technique for mastering many chords and helps to avoid the problem of having to slowly place fingers one by one.

 

However, at first I couldn’t get all four fingers into the right shape to grab this chord, so I approached it gradually.

 

First, I practiced grabbing the two-note shape shown below with just the 2nd and 3rd fingers. After a while my 3rd finger got into the habit of falling on the second string and not the third; my hand “memorized” this spacing.

Then I worked on the three-note shape below, adding my first finger to the previous two. This step proved quite easy.

 

Finally I was ready to work on the complete four-note shape, below. I’d still start by grabbing just the two notes with the second and third fingers to warm up, then move on to three fingers and finally all four.

It took me a while, but this approach eventually got me to the point where I can play this chord shape quite fast without my third and fourth fingers getting on the wrong strings to make a horrible dissonant sound. If you’re finding this chord tough to master then I hope this approach might help you too.

 

What About You?

Do you have any chord playing problems you’d like help with? I’d love to hear from you, click the comment link below to leave a comment with your question…