DR Strings Presents: Ask Victor Wooten Anything

hey everyone this is victor wooten and that's right with dr strings we asked you that ask me anything and you did you asked me everything so i've got them printed out and i'm finally got a moment to answer your questions so i haven't looked at these in advance let's see what you asked okay question number one this is from i don't know how you say this uh uh evander water does that sound right evarde water i'm not quite sure i think it's as evarde water i don't know but the question is uh what what other than playing bass and teaching music makes victor wooten happy and they say cars cooking sports etc well i guess kind of all of the above i do i don't know much about cars but i like driving them i really love to drive when we were kids uh the us five brothers and our parents and our dog would drive from california all the way to north carolina and virginia three solid straight days no hotels no restaurants we ate bologna sandwiches and cereal and drove uh three straight days and my dad would drive most of the way well i think i picked that up from my dad i love driving i really do love driving i do love to cook but now my wife does most of the cooking she loves it and she's become a really good cook so but i still love to cook i just don't do it as much as i used to i really love sports i don't have much time for it anymore and my body's a little older now i'm 56 so you know i have to take sports a little lightly but what i love doing probably the most other than music in my family and just hanging out with people is getting out in nature as you see i'm sitting on my porch right now and the view out here is beautiful i live in the woods got two bird feeders right there so i'm seeing all the birds come deer come right in our yard and um i just love the outdoors so nature and learning about nature not just being in it but learning about it how to live off the land understanding the bird calls as well as what the birds are saying i love all that kind of stuff so a great question is you know it's good to have other things that you love besides music because when you have a real life when you have a solid fulfilling life then you have something to play music about you have something to express through your music so having a good life is first all right the next question comes from k koopmans k koopman's four what would you say are the best exercises for a basis well i just named the best one i think is the best one and that works for any musician which is to have a life right don't spend your life sitting in a practice room practicing a music an instrument no especially while you're young don't spend all that time in a music room get out have a life right so that you have a story to tell that's really most important in my book but if you want to get good on the instrument there's a bunch of things you can do and i don't really know what's best because it depends on where you want to go with your music right are you a jazz musician are you a classical musician do you want to play in an orchestra do you want to be a soloist are you a vocalist different exercises for everybody depending on what you want to do jazz rock funk might be different exercises but one thing you want to know how to do is hold a steady rhythm and then when you can hold that steady rhythm make it groove and you already know how to do it because you can walk if you can walk you have good enough rhythm right but using tools and practice can make it better so have a really good uh groove the probably if i had to pick one best thing and this would go for any musician is to listen become a good listener if you think about it that's how you learn to talk by listening you didn't sit in a room and practice talking you listened and you imitated so the best musicians in the world uh are recorded right i can go out and listen to ron carter jocko stanley clark marcus miller right i can hear all the great faces so listen to them and uh and you have no choice but to get better yes all right let's see who is this one from this is from uh gerald gerald turf turf off turf loft something like that i hope you know who you are but thank you for this question are you tempted by polyrhythm and non-western scales uh yes and no i don't feel tempted i just like them right i like them you know i we have a lot of skills in our western music but you know just the same way that other countries have different words and it's nice to learn them some of the words are similar some of them are totally different right learning other scales and other musical uh systems very very powerful and you can add it to your own rhythm to your i'm sorry to your own system but yeah i was thinking about rhythms learn these rhythms learn the rhythms of india learn the rhythms of south america of spain the flamenco rhythms but they also use some different scales there so yes i don't feel tempted but you know maybe i do feel tempted i don't maybe i am tempted i just know i like them i like them a lot yes gerald i like them who is this this is the max dude what's up maxdoo77 let's see what you got for me uh what's generally generally i'm gonna learn to speak one day one day i'll learn to speak english what's generally your philosophy or thing you do on overcoming anything that's stopping you from doing something you want to do what am i doing to overcome whatever stopping me from doing what i want to do it depends on who's stopping me right if i want to do something and my wife says no then she's stopping me more than likely i'm not going to do anything to disobey her if she says stop more than likely i'm going to listen first but then i might ask why why is this thing stopping me is it me who's stopping me or if someone else or some other thing is stopping me i want to find out why but the first thing to do is listen listen to the why and then that'll help you solve the why but if it's some desire that you want or maybe you're nervous or shy or whatever um ask yourself why why are you nervous why you're shy and be honest right in many cases we're nervous and things on stage because we haven't really prepared enough that's one reason we might be wanting to stop ourselves because we're we're unprepared just really prepare and know yourself know your skill and your craft know your instrument and then you'll be less nervous sometimes we get shy or nervous because of what we think other people will think right people came to if you're playing music people came to see the real you and if you're like me the real you makes mistakes so don't be afraid of making mistakes people pay to see you do that um in other cases excuse me in other cases we may not know why what's stopping us but then if something is stopping you take a break right maybe just go and do something else and come back to it and then still see if something is stopping you but the main thing is to figure out what is the why what is the why and many many times we'll just find out that i'm just lazy that's why i've been trying to learn spanish since i was about six and i've been lazy but i'm finally learning it now finally doing it i can ask for orange juice and then i know how to ask for the bathroom after i drink the orange juice two important things i can ask that in spanish anyway good question uh who was that that was the max due the max dude now we have coddle warren cotty cottle coddle warren all right are there memorable experiences where you know you positively influenced a young expiring musician or musicians yes yes i'm fortunate that i get to teach a lot it's a really really good feeling that you know that you can inspire someone and i've been running music camps now for 20 years for 21 years now actually and we get to inspire people not just me but all the instructors we get to inspire people all the time but here's something to to to think about cody carl caudle mr warren mrs warren whoever warren here's something to think about you are always inspiring people okay but you can always you can also inspire someone to do something or you can inspire someone not to do something right but you can't go through and go through life without influencing influencing is another word for inspiring we just think of inspiring as something positive that's going to make me want to do something good but you can inspire people to to do something good by not doing what you're doing right if you're just going around mumbling and cursing and having a bad day that's inspiration to me because you're showing me how not to act so we don't want that kind of inspiration right so we want to inspire people to be the best they can be and the best way to do that is being the best you can be right and then you use the best you are to help inspire people to be the best they can be so yes i get a chance to do that daily because i'm a dad right and as parents we make mistakes but we're always trying to inspire our kids to be their best which should be better than the parents right i don't want my kids to grow up as good as me they need to surpass me and it's the same with you right don't become as good of basis as me become better than me and you do that by becoming yourself fully becoming yourself right that makes sense all right crispy water wow what a concept crispy water that's inspiring hmm i don't even think i ever thought about crispy water what is crispy water crushed ice hmm wow listen i oh i heard a good bird i don't know if you could hear it trying to see if it comes back could have been a hawk could have been a blue jay sometimes a blue jay is a little bit more harsh sounding but a hawk has a big sound but they're similar and i know we have a hawk i think it's a red shouldered hulk that lives out here and i get excited to hear him anyway i got inspired for a second okay crispy water that's inspiring what are some of the ways you warm up before a show what are some of the ways you warm up before a show well my first thought is that i've been warming up for 50 years for the show so i should already be warm i should be so i like that attitude because if i don't get a chance there goes again the bird if i don't get a chance to pick up my base before a show my mental uh my mental uh attitude is that i'm already ready i'm ready and if i don't get to warm up before the show i'll warm up by through the first few songs i won't do all my crazy stuff i'll just relax because it doesn't take much warming up to to play a solid groove right in many cases it doesn't you don't have to warm up to walk you go out and take a walk i don't have to warm up first the walk is the warm-up the walk might be the walk the warm-up for my running so when i'm playing bass i'm just going to take it easy like i'm walking and then i'm going to speed that up unless you you know it's interesting i'm hearing some bird alarms and then i'm hearing other birds get quiet so i think the bird i heard was a hawk because sometimes the other birds the smaller birds will either send a short alarm a small alarm and then they'll hide because they don't want the big hawk to eat them so i'm hearing a few bird alarms and i'm also hearing some of the sounds i hear some insects but i'm hearing the bird sounds go down so anyway anyway where were we crispy water um but if i'm going to warm up um i'd like to warm up my whole body before a show literally up my whole body sometimes you'll see my band if i have my brother uh joseph and when anthony when anthony wellington used to travel with me joseph and anthony are really into boxing right my brother joseph doesn't box i know anthony boxes some but they'd be backstage shadow boxing it looks like in push-ups looks like we're about to play a sports game and they're just warming up for the show but think about this mr mrs crispy water you don't just play with your hands you play with your whole body your whole being your mind so why not warm up your mind relax your mind get in the mindset i find out that if my mind is there my body will follow right but i like to warm up my whole body jumping jacks running in place push-ups things like that right but i definitely get my mind in place and usually i get my mind in place by feeling the gratitude of getting to do what i love you know but i don't warm up too crazy even if i'm playing the bass i i take my time and uh i think my doggy wants to say something to everybody say hi yeah she just wants to get pet that's what she likes that's nala wants attention right now anyway let's get back to this ask me anything let's see what else you ask jack plays the bass of course you do jack i can tell by your email address jack plays the bass if you weren't a musician what would you do instead um that changes you know what what i wouldn't do if i didn't play bass if i right now i love to play the bass but i also use it to to put my kids to college to pay the bills um for a while though like right now on the pandemic if if i could make enough money to take people out into nature right take you on a day hike or a weekend or a week or a two-week thing where we just stay in the woods and learn together like we heard birds a minute ago right let's pay attention what are they saying right sometimes birds are singing for pleasure but they're usually making sounds to relate to each other or to send messages the birds are the eyes and the ears of the forest of the of the world they they see it from above and they tell us what's going on and most of us don't don't know what's going on right but in the old days you say hey grandma how did you know that and grandma would say oh little birdie told me right we all thought that was faith no that's real the birds are always speaking to us in many cases they're talking about us right so i love to get out in the woods and just learn together and share what i know and learn what you know i think that would be my number one thing that i would do um if if i wasn't playing music all the time right and i don't get a chance to get out in nature as much as i'd like to but i do live outdoors and it's beautiful out here let's see who's next uh that was jack plays the base so this is hey it's edwin hey it's edwin hey edwin it's victor edwin says i can't seem to increase the speed of my double thumbing how can i be as musical and fast like you're double thumbing uh your answer is in the question be musical right and most music doesn't need fast double thumbing so why are you learning it ask your friends who don't play bass what are you looking for in a bass player and i guarantee you none of them zero none of them will say i need you to double thumb really fast no one will say that so why are you learning it now there are good reasons for learning it but your reason might just be because you saw me do it it's not a good enough reason right if you have music to play then you'll learn to do it if you have music to play that needs double thumb and you'll learn it for example i mentioned earlier that i'm learning spanish in spain mexico's latin america they know how to roll their r's little kids two-year-olds three-year-olds can do it i can't do it right but if i go there and move there for a couple of months and i have to do it to speak i'm gonna learn to do it right now i don't really need it you know i can speak to you in spanish and you probably don't need me to roll my r's but over there they do so when i have the need it'll come so the first is have the need but the real answer really the other real answer is to practice it slowly just practice it slowly put on a metronome so you know how fast or slow you're going and then next week speed it up but always do it to a song don't just sit there and you know move your fingers like you're just practicing walking or practicing swimming but you're not even in the pool yet right play some music but get it out of tempo that you can groove with it and then every week speed that up main thing is have a reason for it okay don't just do it because bass players like it bass players don't hire bass players right bass players will get you fired if you learn all the stuff i do you get fired right a singer a horn player keyboard player they just want you to play a solid groove and i'm sure they don't want double thumbing but learn it anyway because it is fun anyway let's see muted bass ah muted bass okay i can't seem this oh that was muted bass ah that was muted bait muted bass asked about the speed of the double thumb okay i got it mixed up so muted bass that last comment was for you actually it was for everybody but muted bass practice slowly all right so jack plays the bass see i missed that one if you want a musician oh i did get that one hey it's edwin oh hey hey it's i'm all screwed up today okay slow down see i was talking about slow downs breathe all right jack plays the bass said if you weren't a musician what would you be instead i answer that i'd be leading people through nature hikes hey it's edwin said what are the secrets for getting a good groove to build off what are the secrets to getting a good groove to build off whether it be at drums bass etc and it says ps i met you earlier this year at the jazz festival in folsom ah very cool well good to see you again i remember that folsom i think wasn't i there with steve bailey and greg bissonette i think anyway jack plays the bass the secrets to getting a good groove is to dance okay is to dance here's the thing when a song comes on that makes your body move your body doesn't have to ask any questions your body takes over not your mind where do i put my first my foot to start dancing right we're not we don't think that we don't dance to the key of the song we're not dancing to the changes right this song's an e flat oh i better get up and dance no we don't do that our body instinctively moves so that's my two main criterias for playing or more accurately to figure out what to play i ask my body what does the groove say is it a ballad do i want to hold my wife close or do i want to break dance do a windmill and spin on my head or start pop locking you know is that what i want to do my body knows immediately my brain has to ask questions what key is this in what note is this what's the core too much thinking just dance your dance work dancing you don't have to know how to dance well right that's the cool thing about dancing your body just moves right so let your body tell you what the groove is and that is easy oh i mentioned two criteria that i use one is is i dance i let my body tell me what the groove is but then when i figure out what to play i let my mind sing what would i sing over this right that's how i come up with melodies and things like that what would i sing or even solos make them singable right easy easy when you're going to go sing something you just start singing you're washing dishes driving the car your song comes on you start singing you don't say oh what key is this oh this is too high oh no it's low it's b flat i only sing in b nah you just do it just do it you know how to groove all right where am i let's see that was uh hey it's edwin i did muted bass he wants to pick up speed for some reason figure out why and then it'll get better this one says ward photo ward photo okay what is your most treasured recording you own wow the most uh treasured recording right now i have some recordings of my parents voices those are definitely treasured but also we found my brothers and i found a recording of a demo we made back in the 80s in the mid 80s and this guy that we basically we found a guy who had maybe the only remaining copy of it and my brother rudy who's sadly passed away too young who played sax he played two sexes at a time uh alto sax and a c melody most of you don't know about a c melody sex but he played them two at a time and he was our horn section so we're playing james brown earth winning fire chicago i'm a soul man in harmony right so anyway i have we found this recording that that i have and it has a demo we did and rudy's on it and we were young and man we were good wow so it's amazing to find this recording so at the moment because that's the freshest one that i have that's the most treasured one it feels like it but i i'd give that up to keep the recordings of my parents voices oh my goodness and that's one of also the reasons i put them on my records not only are they so wise and they're all saying things you need to hear but there's i just want to have records of their voices and i want my kids and their kids to have records of their grandparents and great parents great grandparents voices right so those are some of my most uh treasured recordings i've got to go teach a little bit um basically i'm just going to listen to some people play and make comments steve bailey and myself are going to go do that so i'm going to take a break and i'll come back and answer some more of your questions i thank dr strings for putting this together a great string company and even more they are great people what does dr stand for you how about do right let's do right right now and i'm gonna do right and go to my class i'll talk to you later all right thank you for your questions okay i'm back all right you probably didn't even know i went anywhere maybe with the magic of editing and all that stuff this is just a continuation but i went and taught a class all the way from tennessee i was teaching a class in spain we're not really teaching but listening to people playing making comments and i'm going to give you a piece of advice i could tell that the percussionist didn't know the lyrics to this beautiful ballad i could tell she didn't know and so i asked her did you know the lyrics and she said no it's a mistake right imagine scoring music to a movie and you don't know what the movie's about how can you score good music for a movie if you don't know what the movie's about you need to know what every scene is about what the dialogue is about it's the same in a song it's the same in a song if the song's three minutes long we need to make a three minute movie out of that song and if you're playing bass keys drums whatever know the lyrics know the lyrics okay enough of that let's see what is the next question the last question i think was uh that was from war ward photo okay so this one is from really what real really riley r-e-i-l-l-y riley dot nat okay and riley says what do you do to protect and care for your hands and wrists um it starts with taking care of my whole body again i said earlier that i don't just play with my hands play with my whole body my mind and i've also found that wherever my mind is my body usually follows but you want to eat healthily you want to exercise you want to do do some great wrist exercise tai chi and and aikido have a lot of gentle exercises that you can do for the different wrists and things like that warm up basically just warm up your whole body not just your hands not just your fingers but there are different stretches and things like that you can do but eat healthily think healthy speak healthily and your body will follow that very very good question and very very important very very important i like that okay so now this is miles underwood i was going to say underwood but i think it's underworld miles underworld i hope that's your real name because i love that i know a lot of people named underwood i know a great basis named christian underwood but my underworld man i love i hope that's your rule now i changed my name victor what underworld victor underworld victor underworld does that work should i change it that maybe that'll be on the my questionnaire i'm going to ask should i change my name to victor underworld anyway uh miles underworld mile says i'm about to release a solo base record would you want to hear it much love from miami come visit and do a show here when things clear here's the thing miles now there are a lot of solo-based records when i was younger and when i did my first one there weren't rather than asking would i want to hear it why don't you make sure that it's something that i need to hear okay it's more important right be make it really worthy make it different and the best way to do it is to put your voice into it tell your story what is it that you have to say right in other words like if you did a record of my cover songs or you know i probably wouldn't want to hear it because i've already said that you know one of my favorite speakers is dr martin luther king but you wouldn't buy a record of me saying dr martin luther king's speeches he's already said it you want to hear what i have to say and all your heroes if i'm one of the people you like you like me because i don't sound like anyone else you like me because i'm saying what i have to say and all your heroes are that way you play bass i know you like jocko stanley marcus flee and if you mention any of those people they don't sound like anyone else they sound just like themselves so i'm gonna uh point the question back at you mr underwear world um you're asking me do i want to hear it and i'm asking you do i answer that one i'm sure it's going to be great i'm sure it's going to be great all right this is ir basis does that mean like i am a basis or i are a basis hmm i don't know either way i get it ir basis says hey victor what can we do to try to be more present in the moment oh that's a good one without worrying about being present in the moment in music or life uh no if you when when you're in the moment guaranteed you're not worried if you're worried you're not in the moment okay being in the moment means there's no problems think about it problems exist in the future or the past even right now we have a pandemic we're afraid of the coronavirus if you are afraid of getting the coronavirus you know what that means it means you don't have it right you're not afraid of getting it if you have it already once you have it you're afraid of the next step maybe having to go to the doctor being on a ventilator maybe even death but when we worry when we're fearful that means what we're worrying about or what we're fearful about hasn't happened yet right so that's a beautiful sign to get worried and go oh i'm worried about the future the past right now the present is fine so being in the moment means there is no worry so you don't have to do anything not to worry when you're in the moment the issue is how do you get in the moment here's an exercise for you to practice do this a few times a day minimum twice but maximum however many you want stop whatever you're doing and just say what am i missing and just as i said that i see a carolina chickadee come up to to my uh bird feeder i see some leaves falling the leaves are gorgeous right the chicken he went up to this branch of this almost dead uh um uh oh shoot shoot dogwood tree wow this oh no that branch the dogwood tree is dead this is a branch from an oak tree that's looks like it's coming from the dogwood anyway but i'm noticing all this stuff just because i stopped but here's the beautiful thing when i stopped and noticed what was happening now i didn't worry about anything i didn't think about you know my wife's out riding a bike is she okay you know it's a new bike she hadn't ridden in years is she okay i didn't worry about that there's an election coming up who should i vote for oh no this that i didn't worry about any of it i just noticed the beautiful leaves falling the beautiful carolina chickadee right i hear other birds and see now because i did it i can go right back to it i see the hammock through the trees that's my neighbor's hammock that's i can barely see through the trees right being in the moment takes all your worry and fears away right practice it stop a few times a day and ask what am i missing and don't just look listen feel what does it feel like take your shoes off and your socks off right and walk let your feet fill the ground it's a beautiful thing to do i have a great teacher named uh richard cleveland he's one of my nature teachers and he runs a school called man i can't think of the name of his school but his his email address and website is lovethearth.com love the earth he's in western north carolina around asheville and he teaches but he also teaches uh nature at my camps and he's the one that told me that he told all of us that stop a few times a day and ask what am i missing i'm telling you that puts you in the now i'll give you another one kenny werner kenny werner wrote a great book called effortless mastery and the way he gets people into the now he says to notice just notice that you're breathing right don't change your breathing don't start breathing differently differently just notice that you are breathing and when i i just notice puts me in the now that same place by stopping and listening to and recognizing what's going on what am i missing when i notice that i'm breathing again don't change it it'll change on its own if it needs to but just notice it put you right there so that's also a good warm up for whoever asked how do you warm up before a gig what am i missing or just notice that you're breathing that's a very very good question mr or mrs underworld i like that oh no that was ir basis i am the ir basis yeah that was your question good good one ir basis okay martin martin salem i think it is my eyes are getting bad as i get older martin sailing i think that's s-l-s-a-l-e-n i think anyway says when you are frustrated with music or your emotions are frantic how do you tether yourself back down to earth good question and i just gave you two good answers for that notice your breathing like effortless mastery kenny werner start also by reading his book effortless master how to be a master effortlessly right we can be a master of the moment right and a master just means you're the best you can be most people think mastering is being better than everyone else there's no way to be better than everyone else i can't be better at you than better than you at being you right so you want to be the best you can be which means you can be the best you can be in a mo in the moment master the moment so that's one of the things but also uh when i'm frustrated i i look at the whole picture right maybe i'm nervous about a gig but i look at the outcome what happens if i mess up tonight probably nothing right and a lot of times frustration comes because i'm not prepared enough what can i do about the frustration maybe our bus broke down and like we you know we got to get to a gig tonight i start to get frustrated because i don't see the answer when i don't see the answer i answer the questions that i can in other words if i can't tell how we're going to get our bus to the next gig because it's broken down what can i do and i remember this happening on a bus when we broke down one of the first things i did when i realized i don't have an answer but we're going to have a good gig tonight we still have seven hours drive our bus is broken i know we're gonna get there we're gonna have a good gig i started there so because i don't see the answer basically i know i'm about to see a miracle literally i'm about to see a miracle or a magic trick and there's always an answer to the magic trick there's always an answer to the miracle i just don't know what it is there's an answer to how we're going to get to this gig tonight seven hours away i just don't know what it is to me that's exciting so what i do is i start uh taking care of what i do know when i was on a tour bus that day i went and made my bed in the bunk i knew it was unmet made it was unmade but that's something that i could do that's something i could make better i went and made my bed when i came back literally i sat down and i saw a piece of garbage it was just a crumpled up napkin from from somebody on tour probably me i saw it on the floor i picked it up and i threw it away so i'm making the bus better on the inside even though i know it's not going to travel i still made things better because other people don't need to see garbage i don't need to see my my my whether i see my unmade bed or not i made it better but then when i did that my life got better all of a sudden the pieces of the puzzle came together the short story is that we got to the gig and we had a great game right but i did something that made life better what made me it ended up making me less frustrated and my answers came to me it's like life rewarded me for making life better so that hopefully that helps you there uh martin and i'm gonna move on to i don't know what this says charles c h a r l charlie oh i'll learn to read one day charlie d m that's what it says charlie dm says as a basis do you have any dreams to fulfill of course i have dreams to fulfill i have a dream every night when i play and that's to make you happy right if you're at the show i want to make you happy and because it hasn't happened yet it's a dream right so that's one of them but yeah i know what you mean i still have things i want to do yep i'm working on a i've written a new book and i'm working on the audio book right now so i look forward to getting that out in february and having people read it and hopefully learn from it lots and lots of dreams i have four kids so of course i have dreams what they're going to turn into and all of that stuff yes something you haven't done yet but you are working to do if so what is it so that's a couple of things i told you about the new book i also wrote a second concerto for electric bass and orchestra now i wrote it but i've got to learn how to play it right my hands don't really work that well right now i have i'm i'm dealing with a thing called dystonia uh which makes the hands really respond weirdly and so uh my dream is to is to get rid of that so that my hands come back so i'm like a beginner again which is kind of exciting so dreams of working through that so many dreams lots of dreams spending more time in nature getting all these questions answered that's a dream because i haven't done it yet but it's fun i remember when annika and uh mark from dr said they you know wanted to do this ask me anything i'm like yeah this would be fun and i said i don't want to see the questions in advance i just want to know i just want to see them so i can answer them spontaneously so that was like a dream it wasn't like i kept it in my mind the whole time but it was exciting but i do have many many more dreams and you're gonna get to see some of them all right so let's see who is this this is uh m-p-i-s-m-p-a something 97 i can't really tell what it if it spells anything and it's written really small anyway but it says how do you promote your music well one of the things is you you do it for me if you hear me do something that you like you go and you tell your friends or you share it on spotify or whatever that really helps i really appreciate that really really do but nowadays a lot of it is done on social media if i have something musically i want to say or talk about i might post it on social media um even today i posted something that i want to go to tonight ron carter i'm sure it won't be tonight when you see this but ron carter is going to be online teaching how to produce a jazz record great basis ron carter has played on more jazz records than any other basis any other basis alive or dead he knows how to do a jazz record so i'm going to be watching that tonight so social media i believe is the best way these days um and you know what even better than that is is being someone that people should listen to be really really good and be really authentic lead a good life my mom would tell us boys treat life right and life will treat you right yeah so life knows more than us so if you lead a good life life will take care of all the things you need but you do have to pay attention and we do have to act right i can't just sit here in my rocking chair and expect to have a career you know i've got to do things but you'll know what to do when you lead a good life because life will give you opportunities so i believe social media is a big one right right now there's a great way to put out there but be aware and be careful be discerning be aware of what you're posting on on social media we put everything up there and everything doesn't need to be put up there the reason being is that if you want a job whoever's going to hire you is already looking at your social media page they're looking at who your friends are which posts you've liked or disliked all those things you say that you think no one's watching people are watching and even if you erase it it's still there if you know how we can go back and find what you deleted so don't even say it right only strive to make things better right and you may not be making things better if you just tell how bad your day is okay go tell a tree a tree won't talk back right and a tree's a good listener right but even more than just complaining about it ask for help if that's what you really want ask for help and even in the asking the solutions will come right but be aware of what we post on social media but that is a good way to reach out to people and the thing is that we all have equal opportunity when it comes down to that all right simon simon wood right simon david greenwood that's what it says simon david greenwood i think simon was asking what my favorite bass guitar in the world to play um whatever i'm playing right now i'm going to make it my favorite because you want to hear you don't care which bass i'm playing you just want to hear good music so whatever you're playing you want to make that your favorite let's see who is this mason i can't tell what this says i think it's mason uh mason h n e prude i can't tell anyway he says um victor how culturally and musically important are the almond brothers thanks uh that's a question for you to answer right for my answer they're very important or else you wouldn't be asking the fact that you know about it means they have something to offer and something to learn from even if you don't like them but i love them right one of my favorite musicians in in all of life is a is a young guitarist named derrick trucks right derrick trucks would not be here without the almond brothers so like or dislike the allman brothers they produced derek trucks right one of uh you know david uh derek trucks uncles in the band you know his relatives he's production of that so he grew up with that which makes him uh who he is so every piece of music every band you know some kind of way influence is another band even the bad ones so i think that uh the allman brothers are very very important culturally and musically i wish you could see these leaves falling in the woods right here so beautiful it's so amazing anyway uh let's see what's next this one says uh who is this this is mess good m-e-s-s-s-o-o-o-d massoud what do you think about musicians being oppressed in iran um i don't know much about musicians being oppressed in iran but i've heard about musicians being oppressed in other countries including this one and i don't like it but it also shows you the power of music why would they oppress it if it wasn't powerful good or bad there's power in music right so being a musician we want to be the best we can be to get the word out that's going to make people in the world better right better but there are precedent in impr uh oh oppressing i'll tell you i'm going to learn to speak one day they are oppressing music in certain ways um and in many ways we don't pay attention to how they're doing it but imagine you know music is not in schools the way it used to be right music's free so we don't uh you know it's not as worthy as it used to be i'm not even gonna go into that but that's what my next book is about the spirit of music but i don't like the fact that that music isn't is oppressed anywhere especially in iran um but you know do your do your job to to work towards uh solving that issue make it better for other people but whether anybody hears the music that's in my head you can't stop it i'm musical anyway whether you let me express it with my base i'm musical anyway and i can still benefit from but i hope that problem gets solved uh music and musicians should not be oppressed in iran or anywhere okay so now we have dead bone dub dead bone dub huh i don't know what that means but dead dead dead bone dub i'm reading that right anyway dead bone dub says do you like metal music yes i do easy answer what group do you like the most i don't like any group the most right i don't like any of them the most but i like metal music and i have something something to learn from all of it it's so funny that people have been hiring me to play metal and there's a great record coming out little uh soon called octovision that i played some bass on on a few tracks so did billy sheehan and it's it's written by a friend of mine from armenia and uh you know our mania is going through some troubles right now some battles and i don't know why we think we have to fight each other over what reasons but uh anyway this guy hova hova oliverian is a great guitarist and a friend of mine so i played on some of his prague metal stuff i also did you know i've gotten a chance to play with michelangelo and nitro and some of the prague metal bands and i love the music i love it a lot of my friends play bass or guitar in those bands and i know some of the drummers too but uh i love all of it but no i don't have a favorite but yes i love metal music all right the last one i believe is l i drums i think it's li or ti again my eyes are a little bad it might be ti drums i'm not sure but i'm gonna guess this person's a drummer how would you suggest motivating yourself to practice when you don't want to i've been far more interested in playing music than practicing lately i agree with you the best way to learn anything is by doing it not practicing it you didn't learn to speak english by practicing all day no one said go to this room and practice if music if if if english is your first language you learned it by doing it but the thing about learning the language is we let the babies we let the beginners jam with the pros right babies talk to adults we don't force babies to learn from other babies so in music yeah play and if you know you have to practice i like to play practice i make exercises that allow me to play if i have to practice scales or modes i put on a drum beat if i got a funk gear coming up on the weekend i put on a funk beat and i make my i make my skills funky if it's a swing gig coming up i do my skills and i make them swing so there are always ways of practicing in a musical way and as a teacher we need to figure out how to do that my brother was the best at that is still the best at that but that's what i try to do i'm the same i don't like the practice i don't know any kid that likes to practice think about a kid with a video game they don't want to practice it they just play and they get better by playing right you learn to swim by swimming you're practicing is done in the pool not on the side of the pool you don't stand on the side of the pool and and do this no no you get in the pool and do it so turn on the music even when you're practicing play a groove turn on the music and then when there's a problem with the groove work on the rudiment you work on you practice a little and then you put it in the groove even when you're learning a language you learn a new word you don't sit there and say that word over and over right you say it a few times then you start to use it but practicing is important a lot of people hear me say that and they think i'm saying don't practice no you do practice but don't practice more than you play right think about it if you want to do something do it and when it's not going well you practice to make it better but you practice a little play a lot anyway that's my method and it seems to have worked for me you figure out what works for you you listen to people like me but you figure out what works for you thank you for asking me anything i hope we can do this again maybe next time i'll ask you some questions no i'm gonna ask you a question right now what is music to you fill in the blank music is right fill in the blank right and i already can guess that you're gonna say something beautiful music is life music is unity music is everything music is breath music is special music is freedom whatever you say but whatever you do say that's what you should be playing okay here's what i know you won't say you won't say music is theory music is practice music is rudiments music is double thumbing all the questions i get that's not music these are tools when i ask you what music is you won't even name your instrument because you know that your instruments not music right these beautiful words when you think about what music really is that's what you should be playing okay that's what we should be teaching that's what we should be practicing all the other stuff is necessary we need rudiments we need theory we need instruments but those are tools those are tools that help us express music but most of us we put the tools first and we all forget that we're supposed to be playing music right so whatever word you say music is play that teach that and be that then your life will be grand then you won't have to ask me questions anymore you'll know it all and then we'll be asking you questions much love to you from d r strings and victor wooten d r and v w peace i'm out

Channel: DR Strings

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Length: 50min 22sec (3022 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 11 2020