Music as a Language: Victor Wooten at TEDxGabriolaIsland

 It's true I was born into a band; very literally, I mean that literally. When I was born, my four older brotherswho were already playing music, knew that they needed a bass player (Laughter) to round out the family band. I was born into that role. As I'm older I'm looking back right now,now that I'm called a teacher. When I look back on that,and how I was taught, I realized that I wasn't really taught. Which is why I saythat music is a language; because if you thinkabout your first language, for me, and probablymost of us here might be English, so I'm just going to go with English. If you think about how you learned it,you realize you weren't taught it. People just spoke to you. But the coolest thingis where it gets interesting because you were allowed to speak back. If I take the music example, in most cases, our beginners are notallowed to play with the better people. You're stuck in the beginning class. You have to remain there a few years, until you are elevatedto the intermediate, and then advanced; and after you graduate the advanced class, you still have to go outand pay a lot of dues. But with language, to use a musical term, even as a babyyou're "jamming" with professionals. All the time. To the point that you don't even knowyou're a beginner. No one says, "I can't talk to you until--You got to go over there. When you're older,then I can speak to you." (Laughter) That doesn't happen. No one tells you what you have to say. You're not madeto sit in a corner and practice. You're never even correctedwhen you're wrong. Think about it: when you're 2-3 years old,and you say a word wrong over and over, no one corrects you. If you say it wrong enough times, instead of correcting you,your parents learn your way. (Laughter) And they start saying it wrong too! The coolest part of thatis that you remain free, with how you talk. And so you never have to followthe musical role of learning all these years and then,going and finding your voice. With your speaking voice,you've never lost it. No one ever robbed you of that. And so, when I was youngthat's how I was learning; I was learning Englishand music at the same time and in the same way. So I tell this to people; I usually say,"Yeah, I started when I was two or three." And I say that justbecause that's more believable. But when did you start speaking English? Did you wait until you were two or three? No. You were speaking,I'd probably say, before birth. Whenever you could hearis when you probably started learning it. To me, that's very, very cool,and very very clever of my brothers - my oldest brother, out of the five... I'm the youngest, Reggie is the oldest - He's only eight years older than me. So how he was this smart, I don't know.That's the real question. That should be the real TED talk. How he figured out the ingenious way of not teaching us,younger brothers, how to play! He didn't start meby putting a bass in my hands. No. The first thing they didwas to play music around me from my earliest age that I can remember. 

I can remember living in Hawaii, my brothers would set up,and I can remember seeing a plastic stool. A lot of timeswe'd set up in the front yard where I can see a plastic stool, with a little plastic toy,Mickey Mouse wind-up-guitar, laying on top of that stool. No one had to tell methat that was for me. The same way no one has to tell youwhen it's your turn to talk. You know how to do itand so I knew that stool was for me. I knew that instrument was for me. It had plastic strings on it, you wouldwind it up, and it would play a song. But you couldn't really play it fromthe strings, and it wasn't about that. By the time I was old enoughto hold an instrument, they gave me something to holdJust for the sake of holding something; preparing me for the later years. It wasn't about playing that instrument. That's the mistakea lot of us, music teachers make: we teach kids how to play the instrumentfirst, before they understand music. You don't teach a kid how to spell. Teaching a kid to spell "milk" before they've been drinkinga lot of it for a few years doesn't make sense does it? But for some reason,we still think it does in music. We want to teach them the rulesand the instruments first. But by the time I was about two,and they put that toy in my hands, I was already very musicalbecause I believe you're born musical. Just listen to anybody's voice.Listen to any child's voice. There's no purer music than that. So my brothers somehow knewI was born musical, but they wanted me to be a bass player so when I was old enough,they put a toy in my hands, and they would play.

 I would just bounce up and downand strum along, too. But the coolest thing about it, again,is it wasn't about the instrument. I was learning to play musicnot an instrument. And I continue that hopefully today. Again, what I did knowwas I knew what it meant when my brother opened up his high hatat the end of a four-bar phrase. Or I learned these phrasesversus that phrase. The same way a baby knows what it means when the mother raisesthe pitch of her voice versus the father lowering the pitch of his. You know these things, and even though you may noteven understand what the word means. And so you're learning all these things. By the time a baby can speak a real word, they know already a lotabout the language. So I was learning music the same way. By the time I had the instrumentin my hands, I was already very musical. When I would turn about three years old, Reggie took two strings offof one of his six-string guitars. He took the two high strings off,and that became my first real instrument. So Reggie actually started teaching me to put my fingerin certain places to produce notes to songs I already knew. I wasn't starting from the beginning.I was musical first. Now, I just had to putthat music through an instrument. And looking back on it now,I realize that's how I learned to talk. It wasn't about learningthe instrument first. Who cares aboutthe instrument you talk with? It's about what you have to say. I've always musically maintainedmy own voice. I've always had something to say. And I've learned how to speakthrough my instrument. So if we think about a couple of things not being forced to practice,not being told what you have to say - I'm speaking English again -not being told what you have to say. When the teacher teaches youa new word in English, she has you put it into a sentence;in the context, right away. A music teacher will tell youto go practice it. Practicing works but it's a slower processthan putting it into context. And we know that with English. And so this was the way I learned. 

As I grew older, about five years old,we were actually on tour; the five of us. We were fortunate enoughto be able to tour opening for a great soul singernamed Curtis Mayfield. So if I was five years old,my oldest brother was only 13. But when I think about it,we could speak good English at that age. Why not music? So I've always, since then, approachedmusic just like a language, because I learned itat the same time and in the same way. The best part of it all is I've maintained somethingthat little children are born with. And that's freedom. A lot of us are talked outof our musical freedom, when we are first given a lesson. Because we go to a teacher, and the teacher rarely ever finds outwhy we came in the first place. A lot of times,that kid playing that air guitar where there's no right or wrong, it's not about the right or wrong notes,it's not about the instrument.

 They're playing because it feels right. It's the same way and reasonthat you sing in the shower. Or when you're drivingto work; you're singing. You're not singingbecause it's the right notes or you know the right scales, you're singing because it feels good. I spoke to a lady at breakfast who said, "I'm Ella Fitzgeraldwhen I'm in the shower!" (Laughter) And of course she's right! So why does that changewhen someone outside starts to listen? That freedom becomes lostas we grow and as we learn, and we need to finda way to keep that freedom. And it can be done! It's not gone forever. A kid playing air guitar will playwith a smile on their face. Give them the first lesson,the smile goes away. A lot of times you have to work for your whole musical lifeto get that smile back. As teachers, we can keep that smile,if we approach it the right way.

 And I say approach it like a language; allow the student to keep the freedom. As I got older, a little bit older, and my brothers and I startedto tour and play a lot, my mom would ask a questionthat I never understood really until I got much olderand had kids of my own. My Mom would ask us boys, and she was saying,"What does the world need with another good musician?" Think about that. And I'm saying music,but insert your own career. What does the world need with you? It really made me realizethat now, as I've got older, music is more than just a language,music is a lifestyle. It's my lifestyle. Don't get me wrong: I'm not talking aboutthe lifestyle a lot of musicians lead. Because we can look backat our musical heroes of the past and realize that they werehuge successes in music, but just as huge failures in life. I could name a few of them,but I don't want to upset anybody; but if we think about our heroes,a lot of them were like that. I think our parents werepreparing us for something that we didn't know at the time,but I think she could see ahead. 

"What does the world need with another good musician?" So we're practicing all these hours. We turned our whole houseinto a music room where all the neighborhood, allthe state-wide musicians would show up. We would practice, my parents would spend moneythey didn't have to make sure we hadthe next newest instrument. Every Christmas,Santa would bring the newest thing. What was that about? Was it just so that we could make money? So that we could stand on stageand bask in the glory? I realize now, that it ismuch more than that. Music is my lifestyle. And now as I'm going intoreally studying music, so that I could share it withother people in a teacher's role, I realize that there's a lotthat we can learn from music and apply to our lives. To be a good musician,you have to be a good listener. Doesn't matter how great I amas a bassist, or any instrument. Doesn't matter how great I am. We can put five of the world'sbest musicians on this stage. But if we're greatseparate from each other, it's going to sound horrible. But if we listen to each otherand play together, individually, we don't haveto be as great, and it'll sound much better. I was invited a couple years in a rowto go to Stanford, in California, and put together a musical teamto address the incoming freshman class. And we were able to use musicto give them an idea what the next four yearsof their life might be like. It was fun using music to do itbecause music is a way that I can talk about anythingthat could be kind of touchy: politics, racism, equality,inequality, religion. I can do it through music,and I'm still safe.

 We were able to picksomeone out of the audience who'd never played an instrument before. Usually, it was a female; have her come up,we'd strap a bass around her neck, and then I would get the band playing. And as soon as the band starts playing, that person starts doing this. (Laughter) And I say, "That's music!" If you listen to that bass,like any instrument in a music store, when it's sitting there,it doesn't make a sound. So if you want music to comeout of that, you have to put it there. And that groove that's in your neck,you just have to put it in the instrument. So I just had herwith her left hand squeeze the neck - because everyone knows howto hold an instrument, that's not new - squeeze it and then, letyour right hand dance, on the string. She starts bouncing on that note,and the band kicks up around her. All of a sudden, she's a bassist. More so, she's a musician. A dancer never has to ask questionsbefore they dance. A singer doesn't usually have to askwhat key are we in. Musicians have to ask too many questions. So what that taught me is that, "Wow! Because we're great,she doesn't have to know anything." (Laughter) And all of a sudden, anyone who wereto walk into the room and see this band with this newcomer on stage, no one would knowwho was the newcomer. So that let me know, "Wow! If I use my greatness in the right way,it can help others rise up quickly." And the coolest thing aboutthat whole thing in Stanford is she got to take the bass home! (Laughter) I saw her recently,she is still a bassist so that's great.

 Listening is a great musical keythat we can use for life, working together, of course, being greatto help other people become great. When people put you up on a pedestal, don't come off the pedestalacting like you're humble. Stay up on that pedestal, because if they put you therethat's showing you how high they can see. Stay there and pull them up. And they'll grow fasterthan if you come down. So we're going to help these peoplebecause we're great. In music, usually, I'm not greatuntil you say I am, anyway. They say,"He's won all these Grammy's." I can't win anything without you all. Another thing my momalways taught us is, "You boys are already successful. The rest of the worldjust doesn't know it yet!" I didn't understand that then,but I really, really do now. Really quickly, before I get out of hereI just want you to think about this: If I were to play two notes,Let's say I play a C; - just want you to use your imagination - if I play a C and a C-sharpright next to each other, it'll probably soundlike those notes clash; "Wrong!", "Bad!" But if I take the C up an octave, play the C-sharp and the C again. All of a sudden, it sounds beautiful. Same two notes. That C becomes a major seventhto the C-sharp which is a key element that makes a chordalmost too beautiful, too nice sounding. So how can the same two notessound bad and clash in one instance and beautiful in another? Just take that to life. When we see something bad,or awful, or horrible in life, maybe we're just reviewing itin the wrong octave. Maybe we could change our perspective.

 Actually, if you seesomething that's wrong, you should knowthat you're seeing it in the wrong octave and find a way to change your viewpoint. Or to use a musical term -change your octave. Countries make bombswith the goal of hurting people, instilling fear, killing people,proving a point. Countries, governments blessthe bombs before they're sent. This happens from the top-down,the government down. This is our answer. Makes me realize that the solutionmay have to come from the bottom-up. Is anyone working on a bombthat makes people love you? Maybe a cupid bomb? I believe we already have it. It's called Music. And every country hastheir own version of it. And it works. It brings people together. You don't have to knowa thing about it to get it. It's a language. It's a lifestyle. And it can save the world. My name is Victor Wooten. I'm a musician. And I hope you'll joinme on the battlefield.