Music as a language TED VIDEO - Victor Wooten

“Music as a language” by Victor Wooten

           Victor Wooten is an American bassist whom I have admired since I started playing bass guitar at the age of 12. I was inspired by his playing of the bass guitar and his unique sound.

I realized most people who listen to music as a hobby tend to pay more attention to the vocalist or guitarist of a band. People are somewhat familiar with the bass guitar, they are not very knowledgeable on how it is played.

The classic or acoustic guitar produces high and clear sounds, while the bass guitar produces lower sounds which people often find difficult to hear while listening to a song. This is generally true, but the bass can also produce sounds that other instruments can’t. Victor Wooten, who is one of the best bassist in the world, shows this very well.

           I’m sure that many of you who are reading this and just saw the video above are impressed with how cool the bass is. This is the reason I have been playing the bass for the past three years.

           What I mainly want to talk about on this post is the Ted Talk above in the video called “Music as a language” by Victor Wooten. He suggests that music should also be learned in the same way as we learn language. When we are learning our first language, we were allowed to make mistakes. The more mistakes that we made the more our parents laughed at our cuteness. We can easily see babies using language improperly in terms of its proper usage and grammar. Growing up, we often spoke with other proficient speakers. However, as we became teenagers, we could speak our native language fluently. Did we have to learn all of that complicated grammar?

 

                No.

If we draw a parallel to this kind of learning in terms of music, we can say we learn through jamming. Jamming in music is like improvisation in that you express what you are feeling in that moment through playing our instrument. Music should be learned in this same natural way. Instead of learning to read and play written pieces of music in each stage of a strict curriculum, young musicians should have more chances to perform with professional artists even though they can make a lot of mistakes. Fundamentally, it is because music is like a language. Music can be used to communicate with other people. We can express our thoughts and feelings through music. In a way, as we have the right to speak freely, we also have the right to play instruments freely.

After watching this video, I was deeply inspired by Victor Wooten, and I was able to understand music closer to its original meaning. I realized that music has no rules. Every sound can be music no matter how you play. I will pursue music in many ways as I can.