The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music

Read this with an open mind; take what makes sense to you; leave the rest for another day. There's a lot here.

Most people reading this probably know that Victor Wooten is a bass player best known for his supernaturally fast and technical slap-style chops: he plays complex passages faster than most people can even think or hear them, with a kind of contrapuntal rhythmic intensity, that creates a sort of polyrhythmic, polyphonic impression of music moving faster than the speed of thought, while still sounding like funky, danceable grooves that anyone can get down to.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.

i've been a professional musician for a long time. i've always loved victors quirky bass-madness, and his approach to the instrument as well as his ability to create what the music calls for- weather that be unparalleled unaccompanied virtuoso electric bass solos, or straight 8ths under a funk groove. first and foremost, i feel compelled to say, with love, that victor as an author, is not too great. pretty bad actually. however, the content of the book is excellent, and i highly recommend it to every bass student i teach. (weather they're studying arco and are aspiring orchestral musicians, or jazz nerds, or rockers, ext ext). He addresses important musical concepts, and does so tastefully. this is NOT a runthrough of how to do his tricks, and even though i knew it wasn't and wanted nothing like that, i understand that some people did want and/or anticipate that from victor wooten writing a book about music. also i must note, he does try to make this book about MUSIC and not necessarily about the electric bass, however i don't know if a flutist would find it as useful as a bassist would, since it sort of does revolve around the electric bass being his instrument. that said, i do think that any instrumentalist would be able to use all of the information in here just as much as an electric bass player- after all, its concepts, not bass-specific etudes or anything like that.his approach to using the character "michael" i thought was pretty cool, especially since he says that he's going to say what he wants through a fictional character so he does not need to defend any of his statements. i always viewed michael as sort of the personification of "music" itself, or perhaps the way we (or i atleast) viewed great musicians when we first had an interest in music- the way that what they could do with their instrument made them almost god like, and it was uncomprehendable how they could do it. creating the music-teacher superhero like figure was pretty tasteful, and worked for his purposes of getting the points across.to me, reading the book really did not provide me with any new information, because these are ideas i've been teaching and practicing for years- but i knew that going in. even for the professional musician, its still a worthwhile read. for the passionate hobbyist, this book can work wonders. if taken to heart it can make the difference in what i consider a hobbyist musician to a professional. thats basically what he's getting at, musical maturity, and the qualities that are desired in the highest musical environments, from well-paid wedding bands to orchestras to jazz quartets.in short, victor wooten may not have ever studied literature all that much, but certainly he has studied music, and this book reflects that. highly recommended.

I read a lot of the reviews before I bought this book and am aware that lots of readers like it, but for me the book just did not do it. I was not expecting, or even wanting, an instruction manual on how to play an instrument (in my case guitar), and am up for learning about how a musician can develop a bettering more holistic feel for their craft, but this whole story about Michael's visit, etc. seems just too hokey and contrived, and the lessons he imparts are just not ready all that deep.

I have been an admirer of Victor Wooten's playing for some time, technical mastery and all round musicianship for some time. I saw this book listed on here and thought, lets see what he has to say. Well, although some of the story is quite 'out there' in a good way, the lessons are solid and remind you that music is not all about flashy techniques, or the best/latest gear, its about enjoying what you play, and having something to say, musically. I read this book just before I attended a four day Jazz playing course and almost everything in this book (not the crazy characters, although there are plenty of those in Jazz!) rang true. Buy it, read it, and just play!

The book was interesting as it contained a different perspective on how music is formulated, delivered and received. A bit slow in places but on the whole the story was lovely and the best bit was the ending. A very easy going, stress free read. Probably not for everybody but if you are interested in other people's perspectives on music then it might be ok for you.

If you had ten stars, I would have given it the whole ten. This isn't just a book about music, this is about life skills. This is one of the books I got hooked to in no time, not only because it was written by a musician and I'm a music-mad person. What hooked me was how the topics that appear to be about music are very well relating to life and how to master it.

This is a book that challenges the very way we think and feel about music, and opens up an entirely different view that could radically change how we play, listen, and experience not just music but life itself!I always knew music was more than a series of notes, but at last someone has put it into words....