[ddots-l] Short Book Review: The Music Lesson. A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music, by Victor L. Wooten
- From: Chris Smart <csmart8@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: midimag@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2013 20:37:53 -0400
Hi.
I'm halfway through reading Victor Wooten's loosely biographical
novel, The Music Lesson. A Spiritual Search for Growth Through
Music, and thought I would post my thoughts and reactions.
First, cudos to Victor for making the audiobook version interesting
and engaging. Different people voice the characters, music
punctuates the proceedings, and occasional sound effects give the
whole thing a sense of place, rather than just one person reading
in a vocal booth.
Some people claim this book changed their lives. I won't go that
far, but there is a lot of good stuff here, especially on learning
about all the elements of music, not just the notes, and on what it
means to be a musician. Wooten's made up unconventional teacher
character named Michael shares a lot about what it means to be a
musician who happens to play a particular instrument, not just a
guitarist, or bassist, or drummer etc. There's a lot of good stuff
here, from how to accompany a soloist, to how to get a crowd on
your side, to some really good metronome exercises. You have to
mine the narrative for these nuggets though.
If, like me, you are a rationalist, much of this book will seem
like new age mumbo jumbo. Apparently, even inanimate objects like
rocks have emotional vibes which you can receive if you are merely
open enough to receive them. If you love that sort of thing,
you'll love those parts of the story. If you can suspend your
disbelief, you may find those parts of the book entertaining.
I almost stopped reading at a couple of points. For example, the
section where Wooten's ficticious teacher Michael, while
blindfolded, proceeds to locate and name correctly several CD's in
Wooten's vast collection. I'm sorry Victor. But those shiny discs
do not store then emanate emotional "vibes". I can't buy that, and
I'm a blind guy with a large CD collection. Believe me, I wish I
didn't have to put Braille labels on all of my CD cases, and could
just intuit the artist and title info from across the room.
Does Victor really believe this stuff? Who knows. From his DVD's,
he certainly is a warm, compassionate and talented teacher, and
nobody can argue with his expressiveness on the bass and cello. At
the very least, this book is entertaining, and contains some useful
truth for musicians. If you want a version of Kenny Werner's
Effortless Mastery, but with twice as much new age bafflegab, this
book may indeed be an epiphany.
Chris
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PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE!
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