The Music Lesson & Zen Guitar

I recently finished a book called "The Music Lesson" by Victor Wooten. Though a lot of people haven't heard of him, Victor Wooten is one of the finest bassists in the world. If you haven't heard of him, I'd strongly suggest you check out his work as part of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. In the introduction, he says that a number of people had suggested to him that he write an instructional book to teach others to play as he does, and this was as close as he was going to get. It certainly isn't a conventional music instruction book.

One of Mr. Wooten's key points is that the way music is usually taught overemphasizes the student learning which notes to play. He points out that there are so many other components that make up good music as well, and provides numerous examples to make this point.

The book is written as a novel rather than an instruction book, with the main characters being the author himself as a young man and an enigmatic stranger named Michael who turns up uninvited in his living room and starts showing him things that mainly pertain to music, but also extend beyond that. Each chapter covers some aspect of making music, most of which don't involve which notes to play when. He also emphasizes that each player must ultimately find his own expression rather than imitate anybody else. Reading this really made me think about what I'm doing musically. I'd highly recommend this book to any aspiring musician regardless of their instrument of choice. The section on how to make someone else's solo sound better is worth the price of the book all by itself.

The one reservation I'd have about recommending this book is that the author is heavily influenced by Eastern philosophy. That obviously is no problem at all from my perspective, but at least one review I read objected to what the reviewer called Wooten's "yoga-style philosophy". It's true that the content is steeped in Eastern philosophy throughout, especially in the last chapter or two, but I'd argue that even a musician with a bias in the opposite direction would find enormous value in the quality of the musical content. I wish I could have read this book when I was just starting out, and I will lend it to as many of my musical friends who are willing to read it.

I'm still in the process of reading "Zen Guitar", which is similarly a book addressing various facets of playing guitar specifically, with quotes from a number of well known players. It's not as inspirational or directly useful as "The Music Lesson", but still good stuff, and the sections are brief, making it convenient for a quick reading before performance or practice. I'd also recommend this one, if not as highly.