“Guitar Zero” has a subtitle which reads: “The Science of Becoming Musical at Any Age.” It definitely lives up to this title with the author’s in depth analysis of what it takes to become musical. Gary Marcus gives a first person perspective on what it’s like to start out with zero musical knowledge or capability and turn oneself into a mediocre musician. I enjoyed how Marcus had done very detailed research on all his points, and, if you view the bibliography, you can see he went through seemingly endless amounts of journal articles to accomplish this book. One part that was not to my liking was when he began to speak a lot about how the brain is put together and which parts help with music. I feel as if there were a lot of anatomical things stuffed into the book which it could have done without. As a guitar player, I figured it might focus on guitar more, but it turned out to be mostly about music in general. The title is a bit deceptive.
Three words that describe this book: Challenging, Informative, Inspirational
You might want to pick this book up if: You really prefer reading non-fiction and don’t mind stumbling through some “college level research paper” passages. Or if you want to understand the lengths at which you are required to go to become musical and need an example of someone who has done it.
-Hugh
