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The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music Paperback – April 1, 2008
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The Music Lesson is the story of a struggling young musician who wanted music to be his life, and who wanted his life to be great. Then, from nowhere it seemed, a teacher arrived. Part musical genius, part philosopher, part eccentric wise man, the teacher would guide the young musician on a spiritual journey, and teach him that the gifts we get from music mirror those from life, and every movement, phrase, and chord has its own meaning...All you have to do is find the song inside.
“The best book on music (and its connection to the mystic laws of life) that I've ever read. I learned so much on every level.”—Multiple Grammy Award–winning saxophonist Michael Brecker
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBerkley
- Publication dateApril 1, 2008
- Dimensions5.16 x 0.77 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100425220931
- ISBN-13978-0425220931
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“Victor Wooten has been doing things on the bass that nobody dreamed of, and we bass players can't help but hunger for some insight into what inspires him and how he does it. Here, as in his music, he surprises us and gives us more depth than we expected, more of himself than many would dare. This is his journey, his mystical quest, not merely to play the bass but to fully encounter and understand Music itself.”—Tony Levin, World Class Bassist with the Peter Gabriel Band
“A MUST-READ FOR ANY MUSIC ENTHUSIAST.”—Chuck Rainey, World Class Bassist and Recording Artist
“THE MUSIC LESSON IS A REVELATION.”—Chris Jisi, Senior Contributing Editor, Bass Player magazine
“BOTH ENTERTAINING AND ENLIGHTENING.”—Guitarnoise.com
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- Publisher : Berkley; Illustrated edition (April 1, 2008)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0425220931
- ISBN-13 : 978-0425220931
- Item Weight : 8.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.16 x 0.77 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #41,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7 in Music Appreciation (Books)
- #8 in Musical Philosophy & Social Aspects
- #23 in Music Reference (Books)
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If that's all you know of Victor Wooten, you might be expecting his book on music to be a compendium of speed-building exercises, licks and tricks, and practice regimens... a kind of manual for would-be bass guitar virtuosos.
This book is absolutely not that. It will not teach you double-thumbing, or pinky-hammers, or claw-hammer picking, or anything like that. In fact, if you read this book without knowing anything about Victor Wooten, you might think you were reading something written by a rank beginner still learning to play quarter-note blues-progressions, because that is how he regards himself. It is impossible to overstate how accessible this book is, even for complete non-musicians.
If anything, Wooten takes a blase, almost dismissive attitude towards practice, technical exercises, and so on. Instead, "The Music Lesson" is a story told as a series of parables, musical life-lessons taught to the narrator by a sequence of semi-mystical characters whose reality is left ambiguous... It is written as an autobiography of sorts, but the main character is not Victor Wooten, it is instead the almost supernatural figures who pop in and out of the life of a young bass-player struggling to "make it", and who answer questions he never even thought to ask. Reading this book, one gets the impression that Victor Wooten is some sort of clumsy beginner, rather than the premier virtuoso of his instrument.
The book is structured as a sort of "Pilgrim's Progress", with Victor Wooten as a kind of vanishing everyman, struggling to learn the ways of music, led by a series of semi-mystical teachers through vast, philosophical (and often dubious) concepts of math, physics, etymology, nature, morality, and science. This "music lesson" sometimes seems to be a lesson in everything BUT music, but it all turns back to music, and every chapter will make you a better player, even if you disagree with it or find fault with the science.
The book is written as a factual narrative, but it is hard to know what to believe, in a historical sense. Wooten weaves myth and magic together with practical life-lessons in a way that makes it difficult to untangle dreams from reality. New-age-y and mystical concepts are freely interwoven with practical tips, but this is not a "flaky" book. It is emphatically a music lesson, as the title suggests.
It is remarkable how much an absolute technical master and virtuoso is able to teach, without a single fingering exercise, practice-regimen, or anything of the sort. Aside from the chapter-headings, there is not a single note of printed music in the book, it's all purely conceptual. It is also remarkable how little ego there is in this book: it's not a book about Vic Wooten, best bass-player alive, it's a book about Vic Wooten, student and beginner, trying to make progress.
If you are reading reviews of this book, stop reading and buy it.
This book is built out of beautiful easy-to-follow story, between a holistically musical person and a normal music player that is boxed by the way music is run mostly in this world.
Bottom line: how to live the Music, not only technically play the music.
Recommended to everyone, not only musicians.
While the "authenticity" of Castaneda's books are still in question (the scare-quotes are because what is authentic does not always have to be factual), "The Music Lesson" is clearly a vehicle for Wooten's philosophy of what music is and what it takes to have a meaningful, sustaining relationship with it. And don't get me wrong. Wooten isn't trying to pass this book off as fact, evidenced by his words on page vii: "WARNING: Everything in this book may be all wrong. But if so, it's all right!"
The Music Lesson is also a first person narration about a master teacher who appeared Wooten's house one day, oddly dressed, acting even more oddly, challenging the narrator to question his assumptions. Throughout the book this teacher--Michael--and a couple other improbable teachers, push the narrator toward a deeper understanding of Music and Art by way of many situations and adventures. The book is cleverly constructed around 12 "bars" (chapters), with a prelude up front and a coda at the end. The chapters are named after musical elements touched on in the chapters: groove, articulation, emotion/feel, rhythm/tempo, tone, listening, etc.
It's an easy read, and I enjoyed the book. I did find some of the dialogue stiff and not particularly believable. Turn on your suspension of disbelief, for sure. Had this been fiction or an attempt at magical realism, I would've stopped reading, but it was Wooten's intent that kept me turning pages, and I applaud him for that. Especially satisfying for me was the end of the book and the way he brought things full circle.
While The Music Lesson won't give you many specifics about what to actually do when you practice, the book does contain a lot of food for thought and a way of relating to music that resonates with my own experience and philosophy. If you haven't read it, go check it out of the library or buy a copy. Let me know what you think.
Check out my blog on practice, [...]
or my books:
Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music (Volume 2)
Sound the Trumpet: How to Blow Your Own Horn
All About Trumpet BK/CD
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If you do like, do read Illusions...