Yeah I made that word up. Victor Wooten is fantastic and the only way to describe his bass playing is with made up words (I tried to explain it to people on the ride home). But anyway, Tonight’s interview was more than I expected it to be. It was an interesting look on how the brain relates to music at different ages, levels of experience, etc. There was also a lot of interesting talk about the relationship between music and language. I personally use the same type of analogies when explaining music to my less musical friends. I agree with what Wooten said about how it’s important to immerse yourself in music rather than take it note by note. I find what he was saying about baggage and practicing minimizing nerves as a factor interesting. Music is an internal art form. If you are weighed down by emotions and problems, the art suffers. When it comes to performing, like Wooten said, it sounds better when you let go of all of that baggage and get over your performance jitters. I love when the emotional aspects of music come together with scientific studies. I found it really cool that Mr. Levitin went into the statistics about how parts of your brain shut down when your improving. This went hand in hand with Wooten’s idea of relaxed playing. I couldn’t understand all the neuroscience behind what Levitin was saying even if i tried, but when he simplified it and I could see it reflected in Wooten’s playing I started, at the simplest level, to get an understanding of how the brain works when it comes to music. I hope this gets commented on because I got into a discussion with some people on the train ride home about getting into music later in life. It was my understanding from the lecture that, while it’s easier to start in music from a younger age, it’s possible to learn an instrument proficiently if you know how to go about learning music. Any thoughts? While your commenting enjoy some wonderful Wooten here.
Contact Information
Professor: Edward Smaldone
Edward.Smaldone@qc.cuny.eduITF: Maggie Dickinson
Email: maggie.dickinson@gmail.com
Office Hours: Monday 1-4pm, Tuesday 2-5pmCategories
Article Sources
Blogroll
I definitely appreciated tonight’s lecture. The relationship between music and the mind is certainly a fascinating one, and I think deserves a lot of attention and discussion. My favorite piece of the presentation was Wooten’s explanation of the importance of silence and of his ability to capture the audience’s attention through rhythmic freedom. These are both elements you may not necessarily think of when discussing music, but they are absolutely crucial to a great performance and I think that was displayed wonderfully this evening.
All I wanted to do as I sat through this interview was go home and practice my flute. I longed to pick up my instrument and try to apply everything that Wooten was saying about playing music. Personally, I got a lot out of this presentation. As a music major myself, I could really relate to everything that was discussed. While Dan and Wooten were talking, I could recall comments that my private flute teacher tells me constantly. Comments such as “Think about the line, not the individual notes”, or “Imagine this was being played on a cello…ok now a violin…a trumpet…someone is singing it”. And once I play something really musical, my teacher will always ask “Ok, now what did you do to make it sound like that?” My response is always the same: “I’m really not sure! I just felt it, like that’s the way it is supposed to sound to me.” I really enjoyed learning about some of the oversimplified science of what is going on in the brain while listening to or learning music. I loved how the two speakers brought up the point that the listeners long to be a part of the music, to engage in it in some way. When a performer can actually get to that point, where the audience is fully captured, and feel a part of the music that they themselves are not actually playing, then is it a great musical performance. I’m definitely glad I went to this lecture!
I am not musically inclined at all. I can play one song on guitar. I’ll probably show it to all of you tomorrow in class. But seriously, I disagree that everyone has the capacity for perfect pitch. I didn’t ever have it.
I can apply everything Victor Wooten said to enjoying music. I enjoy music with a lot of the same emotion it takes to play it…. I think. I mean, that tribal instinct to dance or bop along whenever you hear a good song, I feel that. So I can’t be so musically stunted right? Practically everyone in my family has played an instrument. Mom plays piano and everyone plays drums. I’m the black sheep of the family. I have no idea what that proves, but oh well.