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Comment by rtsil | Hacker News Reader

Joni Mitchell's story and Pat Martino's story are remarkably similar (brain aneurysm). The question is, did they regain access to the part of their brain that allowed them to play guitar, or did they really re-learn?

In Martino's case, after his full amnesia, he was able to retrieve his unique playing style, but was that because he learned by listening to his recordings (just like Joni did), or because the style never left him but was somehow locked?

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Part of it was from listening to his own recordings, part of it was from discovering it inside his brain again. As Pat's aneurysm grew over time, it's likely that his brain had already somewhat remodeled to accommodate it. IIRC, in a TV show about it, they talked with one of his friends/students whom he would play guitar duos with. His friend was playing for Pat after the aneurysm (Pat wasn't back to playing yet) and the guy hit a wrong chord and Pat suddenly said "No, D minor 9th" and grabbed the guitar and played the right chord.

Pat also tells a similar story about meeting Joe Pesci backstage and knowing him only from movies until Joe tells him, "I can tell you what you used to drink at Smalls' Paradise in the '60s". Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niUwDegpYyo

Kind of interesting to imagine the motivation for the former, it's surely different to that which achieved it in the first place: 'I want to be who I was' or something, rather than 'this expresses who I am' or 'I like this sound' or whatever.

My understanding is Martino had to learn by listening to his old records

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