The Music Lesson – No Instrument Required
This site’s intent is to bring you an appreciation of fine musicians and how they have influenced music in the past and are doing so now.  The site is also about how we learn music, how we can speed up the process, how we can improve on what we already know too.

Every new artist is a reflection of those before them as well as a development out of their own unique experiences. Although every post on here has been about an individual, it would be amiss if we didn’t at times tell you about something we feel is worthwhile reading and learning, so here it is – this month we would like to point to one book that is so hard to put down, it is simply called “The Music Lesson.” This book was written by Victor L. Wooten, a bass player virtuoso. But, note, this book isn’t addressed to bass players, it is addressed to everyone. Notice I didn’t say to every musician, but really anyone, as long as they want to reach within themselves and find the musician inside.

The title for this book could have been called “The Unwilling Student,” because Victor wrote it as a series of discussions that he had with a musical genius that he met in life, that appeared in his life for several days and left his mark on Victor’s playing. He left this mark even though Victor thought this person was very strange and unusual and seemed at first to be making statements that contradicted everything he ever learned from his teachers along, with anything that had made him a pretty good bassist already.

“The Music Lesson” is the kind of book that reads like a novel and so even someone that really didn’t consider themselves a musician could enjoy it. And of course for those that do think of themselves as musicians that want to get better, then it will be an even greater treat, because it doesn’t teach you bland rudimentary theory, in fact it claims not to teach you anything, but rather lets you absorb examples that are stated and see how absolutely right on they are. You will be able to read an interesting story and have it change your concept of what makes music musical.

If you’d like to appreciate music for being more than just notes, then you will find yourself absorbed in “The Music Lesson”.  In this book music is described as being made up of many elements. Each element is explained, so that you see how it can fit in your playing and why it deserves to be a part of every true musician’s makeup.

Victor Wooten proves that he is not just a great player that plays with Bela and The Flecktones, but he’s someone that has a great deal to say about music and can help everyone possessing an inquisitive spirit grasp. You may start out being a skeptic or an unwilling student yourself, but not for long!