“Music is…?”
That’s the seemingly simple question Grammy Award-winning bassist Victor Wooten posed to roughly 800 district middle- and high-school students, and the general public, during a Harvest Music Festival-sponsored musical masterclass held in Officers’ Square on Sept. 12.
The open-ended question was designed to get all attendees to think deeply. But simple, it was not.
“Life,” “love,” and “magical” were some of the student responses. Wooten’s answer?: “Exactly!”
The masterclass, which also featured Wooten’s multi-talented brothers—guitarist Regi, keyboardist Joseph, and drummer Roy, all members of the Wooten Brothers band—was designed to teach students that music can be many things to many different people. The class encouraged students to enrich their lives by embracing music, as either listeners, creators, or both.
“We try to let them know that we started right where they are,” said Wooten, a five-time Grammy winner who has been named one of the top 10 bassists of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. “So, hopefully we’ve moved them closer to doing something great with their lives.”
The students were a receptive audience, especially the student musicians in attendance.
“I love Victor Wooten’s playing. I love how creative he is. I’m a fan,” said Fredericton High School Grade 12 student Elias Flores, a bassist. “My main takeaway was music not being for work but being for play.”
Enjoy yourself
Life lessons on the importance of simply enjoying music were interspersed with instruction in the technical aspects of playing music. The focus on enjoying music resonated with Flores and many of his fellow students.
“He first learned how to play and didn’t like the rules and stuff. That’s how it happened for me,” said Pietro Taveiraboza, a Fredericton High School Grade 12 student who plays guitar. “My father taught me how to play and like it, then I learned the rules and theory and everything later. So, I connect that kind of learning with me.”
The Wooten Brothers’ musical achievements are impressive: Victor and Roy are founding members of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and Joseph is the keyboardist with the Steve Miller Band. But their roles as educators and mentors, while maintaining high-profile music careers, are equally impressive.
When not touring with the family band, Regi is a music teacher in Nashville; Joseph founded the non-profit “I Matter, You Matter!” organization, providing mentorship and scholarships to youth, and aid to the homeless and veterans; Victor runs the Victor Wooten Center for Music and Nature, a music camp that uses “a unique mix of nature studies to help each student realize and reclaim their ‘naturalness,’ not only in music, but also in life,” according to its website; Roy is an educator, filmmaker, and inventor of the “Drumitar” and the “RoyEl” keyboard.
“One thing about music is you never have to retire,” said Roy. “In sports, right when you’re getting good, you have to retire. With what you’re learning now [in music], you could carry it for a lifetime and you can do it for a lifetime, if you want to.”
This point hit home for George Street Middle School Grade 8 student Duncan Christie-Woodcock, a pianist: “I just thought it was really inspiring how he talked about how anyone can learn music and how he learned it at such a young age. You don’t have to stop doing music, like some athletes will have to stop.”
Wisdom in the groove
The Wooten Brothers brought more than sage life advice to the event. As expected, they also played music, beginning their presentation with a jazz-funk workout. Throughout the talk, they played snippets of Wilson Pickett’s “In The Midnight Hour,” The White Stripes’ “Seven-Nation Army” and Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People,” all of which got some students dancing, before finishing with a John Coltrane-inspired groove.
Victor also gave the music-theory fans a brain teaser by challenging them to recite an A major scale. He then recommended they download a random-number-generator app to learn scales out of order: “Spelling [can be] hard because the letters are not alphabetical, they’re mixed up. So, when you learn a scale, learn it in any order. Learn it in random order.”
“The mark of a great leader is that we inspire,” Victor told students. “Keep asking questions and stay curious.”
Wooten Wisdom
On lack of musical inspiration: “When you don’t feel inspiration, go live some life. When you’re feeling uninspired, go live some life.”—Joseph Wooten
On the support he received from his family growing up: “Regi was not the older brother who’s beating up his little brother. He’s the older brother who’s holding up his little brother.” —Victor Wooten
On instruments and their players: “All instruments don’t make a sound. Just listen to the organ right now, listen to the drums right now, the guitar. They don’t make music, people make music. So the instrument that means something to me depends on who’s playing it.” —Victor Wooten
On distractions: ““Don’t let all the news and all the politics distract you from writing your music, from doing your song, from practicing your art that can develop over a lifetime. OK? Cool? Alright! ”—Roy Wooten
On the ‘One’: “The drums provide both the floor and the framework.”—Roy Wooten
