I just finished reading Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning by Gary Marcus. In it, Marcus, a professor of psychology, writes about what it’s like to learn how to play guitar at the age of 40. There’s plenty of interesting stuff about how we learn and what our brains do when they’re learning how to play a musical instrument. This alternates with his first hand account as he spends a year trying to learn how to play this bewitching instrument. That second part interested me as a guitar teacher.*
I’d like to share a couple of quotes from the penultimate chapter that struck a chord re: A Life’s Work:
Yet becoming musical has been, without question, the hardest project I’ve ever taken on; nothing else, except maybe chess, has required as much study. The question remains: Why do I try so hard? Why would anyone, especially an amateur who had no hope of making music into a career, put in so much time and effort?
And a paragraph later–
In the era of the iPhone orchestra, I couldn’t help but wonder: Why was I investing so much time trying to play a traditional musical instrument when machines, with their infinite patience and perfect sense of timing and pitch, can do nearly everything I can do so much better?
So Why Do This?
Now, I am not an amateur, and machines can’t make documentaries (yet). Marcus’ struggle to learn guitar and my struggle to finish the film are different, but the seeming insurmountability is similar.
All of us can ask these questions about something in our lives, and we don’t have to look long and hard to find answers. These questions are really variations on “Why do people follow their dreams?” and “Why do people make art?” And yet, reading these paragraphs made me re-ask the question, “Why do I do this?”
It’s not for the money (when you do the math, there is little if any), it’s not for the power (there is none), it’s not for the fame (less than none), it’s not for the glamour (even less than less than none). There are perks, it’s true. I would not have met so many amazing people, many of whom have become good friends, through the years if I wasn’t writing or making films. I would not have been to wonderful, nurturing artist residencies. I would not have been able to show my work at festivals around the world. But that’s not why I do it.
I do it because telling these kinds of stories via film and the written word floats my boat like nothing else I do. Ultimately, that’s it and I can’t articulate it beyond that.
What do you do and why do you do what you do?
* I teach guitar to a limited number of students. If you’re in NYC and want to learn guitar or bring your guitar playing skills to the next level, drop me a line. If I have a spot open, maybe we can work together.