Transcript of Wooten’s TEDx talk:

Well, thank you very much. And it’s true. I was born into a band. Very literally, I mean that literally. When I was born, my 4 older brothers, who were already playing music, they knew that they needed a bass player to round out the family band.

And so I was born into that role. As I’m older, I’m looking back on it now, now that I’m called a teacher. When I look back on that, and how I was taught, I realize that I wasn’t really taught. Which is why I say that music is a language. Because if you think about your first language, for me and probably most of us here, it 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 thing is this is where it gets interesting. Interesting is you were allowed to speak back. If I take the music example, in most cases, our beginners are not allowed to play with the better people.

You’re stuck in the beginning class. You have to remain there a few years until you elevate into the intermediate, and then advanced, and after you graduate the advanced class, you still have to go out and pay a lot of dues. But with language, to use a musical term, even as a baby, you’re jamming with professionals. All the time. To the point that you don’t even know you’re a beginner.

No one says, I can’t talk to you until you you go over there. When you’re older, then I can speak to you. That doesn’t happen. No one tells you what you have to say. You’re not made to sit in a corner and practice.

You’re never even corrected when 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. And they start saying it wrong too.

The coolest part of that is you remain free with how you talk. And so you never have to follow the 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 because when I was young, that’s how I was learning.

I was learning English and 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 2 or 3. And I say that just because that’s more believable. But when did you start speaking English?

Did you wait until you were 2 or 3? No. You were speaking, I’d probably say, before birth. Whenever you could hear is when you probably started learning it. To me, that’s very very cool, and very very clever of my brothers, who are my oldest brother out of the 5, I’m I’m the youngest.

Reggie’s the oldest. He’s only 8 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.

It’s how he figured out the ingenious way of not teaching us younger brothers how to play. They didn’t start me by putting a bass in my hands. No. The first thing they did was play music around me. From my earliest ages that I can remember, I can remember living in Hawaii, and my brothers would set up, and I can remember seeing a plastic stool.

A lot of times we’d set up in the front yard, but I could 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 me that that was for me. The same way no one has to tell you when it’s your turn to talk. You know how to do it. So I knew that stool was for me, I knew that instrument was for me, and it had plastic strings on it.

You would wind it up, and it would play a song, but you couldn’t play it from the strings. And it wasn’t about that. By the time I was old enough to hold an instrument, they gave me something to hold, just for the sake of holding something, preparing me for the later years. It wasn’t about playing that instrument. That’s the mistake a lot of us music teachers make.

We teach kids how to play the instrument first, before they understand music. You don’t teach a kid how to spell. Teaching a kid to spell milk before they’ve drank a 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 rules and the instruments first.

But by the time I was about 2 and they put that toy in my hands, I was already very musical. Because I believe you’re born musical. Just listen to anybody’s voice, listen to any child’s voice. There’s no more purer music than that. So my brothers somehow knew I 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. So I would just bounce up and down, and strum along too. But the coolest thing about it again is it wasn’t about the instrument. I was learning to play music, not an instrument. And I continue that, hopefully, today.

Again, what I did know was I knew what it meant when my brother opened up his high hat at the end of a 4 bar phrase. Or I learned these phrases versus that phrase. The same way a baby knows what it means when the mother raises the picture of her voice, versus the father lowering the picture of his. You know these things, even though you may not even understand what the word means. So you’re learning all these things.

By the time a baby can speak a real word, they know already a lot about the language. So I was learning music the same way. By the time I had an instrument in my hands, I was already very musical. When I turned about 3 years old, Reggie took 2 strings off of one of his 6 string guitars. He took the 2 high strings off, and that became my first real instrument.

So Reggie actually started teaching me to put my finger in certain places to produce notes to songs I already knew. So I wasn’t starting from the beginning. I was musical first. Now, I just had to put that music through an instrument. Looking back on it now, I realize that’s how I learned to talk.

It wasn’t about learning the instrument first. Who cares about the instrument you talk with? It’s about what you have to say. And so I’ve always musically maintained my own voice, I’ve always had something to say, and I’ve learned how to speak through my instrument. So if we think about a couple of things: not being forced to practice, not being told what you have to say when I’m speaking English again, not being told what you have to say.

You know, when a teacher teaches you a new word in English, she has you put it into a sentence, into context, right away. A music teacher will tell you to go practice it. Practicing works, but it’s a slower process than putting it into context. And we know that with English. And so this was the way I learned.

And as I grew older, about 5 years old, we were actually on tour, the 5 of us. We were fortunate enough to be able to tour opening for a great soul singer named Curtis Mayfield. So if I was 5 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, approached music just like a language because I learned it at the same time and in the same way. The best part of it all is I’ve maintained something little children are born with. And that’s freedom. A lot of us are taught out of our musical freedom when we’re first given a lesson. Because we go to a teacher, and the teacher rarely ever finds out why we came in the first place.

A lot of times it’s 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 reason that you sing in the shower. Or when you’re driving to work, you’re singing. You’re not singing because 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 Fitzgerald when I’m in the shower. And of course, she’s right. So why does that change when someone outside starts to listen? That freedom becomes lost as we grow and as we learn, and we need to find a way to keep that freedom.

And it can be done. It’s not going forever. A kid playing air guitar will play with a smile on their face. Give them their first lesson, the smile goes away. A lot of the times, you have to work for your whole musical lives to 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 started to tour and play a lot, my mom would ask a question that I never understood really, until I got much older and had kids of my own. When my mom would ask us boys, she would say, 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 realize that now, as I 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 about the lifestyle a lot of musicians lead.

Because we can look back at our musical heroes of the past and realize that they were huge successes in music, but just as huge failures in life. I can name a few of them, but I don’t want to upset anybody. But if we think about our heroes, a lot of them And I think our parents were preparing 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 house into a music room where all the neighborhood, all the statewide musicians would show up. You know, we would practice. My parents would spend money they didn’t have to make sure we had the 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 stage and bask in the glory? I realize now that it’s much more than that. Music is my lifestyle.

And now, as I’ve gone in to really study music so that I could share it with other people in a teacher’s role, I realize that there’s a lot that we can learn from music and apply to our lives. To be a good musician, you have to be a good listener. It doesn’t matter how great I am as a bassist or any instrument, it doesn’t matter how great I am, we can put 5 of the world’s best musicians on this stage. But if we’re great separate from each other, it’s going to sound horrible. But if we listen to each other and play together, individually, we don’t have to be as great.

And it’ll sound much better. I was invited a couple of years in a row to go to Stanford in California and put together a musical team to address the incoming freshman class. We were able to use music to give them an idea of what the next 4 years of their life might be like. It was fun using music to do it because music is a way that I can talk about anything that could be kind of touchy: politics, racism, equality, inequality, religion. I can do it through music, and I’m still safe, you know?

But we were able to pick someone out of the audience who’d never played an instrument before. Usually it was a female have her come up, we 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. Right? 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 come out of that, you’ve got to put it there. And that groove that’s in your neck, you’ve just got to put it into that instrument. So I just had her with her left hand squeeze the neck because everyone knows how to hold an instrument. That’s not new.

Squeeze it, and then let your right hand dance on the string. And 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 questions before they dance.

A singer doesn’t usually have to ask, What 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. And all of a sudden, anyone who were to walk into the room and see this band with this newcomer on stage, no one would know who 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 about that whole thing at Stanford is she got to take the bass home. And I saw her recently, and she’s still a bassist, you know. So that’s great. So listening is a great musical key that we can use for life, Working together, of course.

Being great to help other people, great. When people put you up on a pedestal, don’t come off the pedestal acting like you’re humble. Stay up on that pedestal. Because if they put you there, that’s showing you how high they can see. Stay there, and then pull them up.

And they’ll grow faster than if you come down. Right? So we’re going to help these people because we’re great. And in music, usually, I’m not great until you say I am anyway. You know, they say, Oh, he’s won all these Grammys.

I can’t win anything without you all. But another thing my mom always taught us is that you boys are already successful. The rest of the world just doesn’t know it yet. I didn’t understand that then, but I really, really do now. So, really quickly, before I get out of here, I want you to think about this.

If I were to play 2 notes let’s say I play a C just going to use your imagination if I play a C and a C sharp right next to each other, it’ll probably sound like 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 7th through the C sharp, which is a key element that makes a chord almost too beautiful, too nice sounding. So how can these same two notes sound bad and clash in one instance and beautiful in another? Let’s take that to life. When we see something bad or awful or horrible in life, maybe we’re just viewing it in the wrong octave. Maybe we could change our perspective.

Actually, if you see something that’s wrong, you should know that 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 bombs with the goal of hurting people, instilling fear, killing people, proving a point. Countries, governments, bless the bombs before they’re sent.

This happens from the top down, the government down. This is our answer. It makes me realize that the solution may have to come from the bottom up. Is anyone working on a bomb that makes people love you? Maybe a Cupid bomb.

I believe we already have it. It’s called music. And every country has their own version of it. And it works. It brings people together.

You don’t have to know a 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 will join me on the battlefield. Thank you.

✱

Don’t think about the bass, think about the drums

I asked him to take the attention off the bass, and you heard it get better

If you overthink something you can already do, you’ll do it worse

If a policeman asked you to walk in a straight line, you’ll stumble even though you’ve been walking all your life

The music is in him

But if he puts his attention in the instrument, it doesn’t…

As soon as we take his attention off of that and we put his attention where the music is, now he’s playing on with someone… his playing totally smoothed out

The tempo does not waver, because his imaginary drummer doesn’t waver

Things got a hair quieter- not as much as I had hoped, but when you’re talking with someone you don’t yell at them

To hear that drummer he has to pull back a little

It didn’t take practice, it barely took time, he’s playing with perfect timing without practice, because it’s already there

You’ve spent your whole life learning and listening to good music

What’s stopping us from playing

It’s that you’re thinking of an instrument 

There’s no music in the drums or in the bass, it’s in you

You’ll play music better the same way you communicate better

If you don’t have people to talk to, you imagine. That’s what kids do.

Kids learn much quicker than us because they have imagination

I’m never alone, so I’m not nervous, because I’m with a friend

My timing is good, and I don’t care what you think

If you want to play with groove, play with people that groove