Music is a Language

I've heard Victor Wooten say many times that "music is a language". Here are his own words from the DVD Victor Wooten: Groove Workshop, as published by Hudson Music:

My name is Victor Wooten, and I'd like to start by thanking you for joining us here today. Today we are going to take a look at music -- and an extra-ordinary look at music. And what I mean by that is it's going to be a little bit different. And why do I say that? Well, to me, music is a language, and I haven't met a musician yet that didn't agree with that -- that music is a language.

So, that brings me to the question: "What is a language?" A language is a way to communicate something. It's a way for me to explain to you what I'm thinking or feeling, it's a way for us to converse. We can share ideas through our language.

But, if you think about that, what's most important is not the language, but having something to say. Having something to convey is what's most important. Right? So, music to me does the same thing. It's a way of explaining, displaying, putting out our emotions, and having someone else understand or feel them. Okay? So music and language -- let's start from there that they are one in the same.

Now, we have to think about how did we learn our first language, which for me is English. Alright? I learned English at a very, very early age, and here's the interesting thing. I never practiced it. We never practice English, and were never taught English. We were exposed to it, and we were freely given the opportunity to explore the language.

At about age two, in English, I could already improvise. I didn't have to read what it is I wanted to say - actually, I couldn't read at all. I didn't know any English theory. I never knew what a noun or pronoun was until I was probably five or six years old. I didn't know any scales, meaning the alphabet -- not at two -- but I could speak freely. I could converse with people much greater then I was at that language. And actually, that's how I got so good at the language. Because when I was a baby before I could even say a word, I was forced and allowed to speak with professionals.

Now, let's look at this other language that we call music. We don't allow that in music. The beginners are put into a beginning class. For the most part we're not allowed as beginners to play, and perform, and converse with the professionals. We're told we're beginners. We were never told were beginners in English -- no one ever told us that. In English, if we were a beginner and we said something wrong, we were actually praised for it - to the point where our parents would start saying things wrong with us. If we developed our own language, our parents would learn it -- we wern't forced to change. So, we were always allowed to feel good about however it was we chose to speak, which allowed us to have, and to speak with our own voice.

Now in music after many, many years of playing, we have to try to find our own voice. That's one of the reasons that I say we approach music backwards. We teach music backwards. We think about music backwards. If music truly is a language, I think we should really treat it as one. That's we we're going to do here today.

We're going to treat music like a language and we are going to explore it in a way never before done, never before seen on video. So I hope you are willing to take that journey with us. It's going to be different and it's going to challenge you, but don't we need to be challenged? I think so.

(credits to Anthony Wellington, Joe Sanchez and the other bass players, and everyone involved in the video shoot)

If you're ready to take this journey -- you're ready to go down along different road. Down the rabbit hole, we might say. Going to take the red pill or the blue pill? Here we go, let's do it.

© 2008 Hudson Music, LLC.

Reproduced with permission from the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.