When NYU psychology professor Gary Marcus was a child, he loved music. Marcus, however was not musically gifted. He tried to learn to play the recorder, but struggled to master the simple tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
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"I was so bad that my teacher encouraged me to seek my fortunes elsewhere," he said.
Marcus eventually decided to abandon music and pursue a career in science. Three years ago while on sabbatical, his lifelong love of music re-emerged. Inspired by the video game "Guitar Hero," Marcus picked up a guitar for the first time.
At first, nearly every aspect of playing the guitar was difficult for him. Though music theory came naturally, he noted that learning the notes on the guitar's fret board was demanding of the human memory.
"Then there's an issue of dexterity for me personally and a big issue of rhythm," Marcus said. "I had to struggle quite a bit to be able to just play notes in time."
Marcus soon realized that mastering the guitar would be a huge undertaking.
"In order to give it the attention it required, I had to really make it a part of my life," he said.
Marcus began researching music cognition to align his interest in music with science.
"As a scientist, I wanted to understand music better," he said. "I didn't want to just be a passive listener."
During the 2009 fall semester, Marcus began teaching a freshman honors seminar called Guitar Heroes (and Heroines): Music, Video Games and the Nature of Human Cognition for the first time. The course has used "Guitar" Hero to explore music and psychology.
"I had been playing guitar for just a very little while when I started teaching the class," Marcus, who has taught the class three times, said. "I really like teaching music even though it's something that's only entered in my life relatively recently."
CAS junior Sofia Pasternack took the class during her freshman year.
"Gary challenged us to look at how our brains process music in order to understand how and why it has such an emotional, social and cross-cultural impact," Pasternack said.
Earlier this month, Marcus published his book "Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning." It details his experience learning to play the guitar and examines the cognitive science involved in the process. He is currently promoting it on a nationwide book tour.
"The response to the book has been overwhelming," he said. "I've been getting wonderful stories from older adult readers who tried to learn [music]."
Marcus plans to continue learning to play the guitar, which he believes is a lifelong process.
"My intention is to keep practicing long after my book tour is over," he said. "I used to think it wasn't possible for me. Now I've sort of crossed the threshold. I went from having no rhythm to having some rhythm, and I think that will stick with me."
