Victor Wooten's refreshing take on the language of music

 

Upon starting an Elementary Music Pedagogy Ausbilding (Ausbildung means a kind of certification program / study of something) I have been very motivated and interested in going deeper into the topic of what is music and how we connect to it. Going through the YouTube rabbit hole, I was very grateful to run into a TED Talk by Victor Wooten who is a bass player, teacher, and musical ambassador.

He starts by sharing his own experience in being raised into a pass player and made a very profound comparison regarding "jamming with the professionals". He believes (as do I) that music is a language. And just as we learn our native language, we start right away in conversing with the "professionals". That a baby isn't told, "oh you don't know enough about sentence structure, therefore you need to wait to talk to mom and dad." This sounds ridiculous, but then when I think about the way music education is structured, this is what tends to happen.

Another powerful idea that came from this was how when someone praises us, or in his terms "puts us on a pedestal" that we shouldn't take ourselves off that pedestal, but rather accept the station that those see us as. And from there, use our high position to help others rise up quicker.

His mother had offered two words of wisdom, one that I am still trying to process. The first was the question she asked her sons, "What does the world need with another musician [insert any profession here]?" The wisdom of this question, the speaker shared didn't fully hit him until he was much older and had children of his own. I think this might partly mean that you live your life with intention, and thinking about what you can give to the world.

The second piece of wisdom from his mother was telling her sons that, "You are already successful, the world just doesn't know it yet." This I find beautiful and hits deep. This sense of confidence in who you are as a person and what you have to give to the world. I've found that when I come from a place of trust in what will come, a trust that if I put effort, love, determination, and joy into something, that the fruit will come. That what dream I have, or vision of something does find a way to manifest. And when there is doubt, it's much harder to act boldly, or give 100% because there is a hesitation and doubt of "what if". Hearing this statement from someone that believes in you is also a very comforting, loving and reassuring thing. I hope that I can remember this when speaking with my daughter.

All in all, I am now a Victor Wooten fan. Through looking at his Wiki, it seems that he also has written a book The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music. Hopefully I'll have a chance to read this.

Music as a Language: Victor Wooten at TEDxGabriolaIsland