“Music as a Language” — Victor Wooten
The best five-minute video I’ve ever seen about learning anything
Everyone can learn a new language — even if they’re older or were hopeless in school.
Everyone can learn music, even if they don’t think they have a single musical bone in their bodies.
Everyone has the ability to learn. It’s not magic.
Sometimes I forget how to do it, that’s all.
Victor Wooten, a five-time Grammy Award-winning musician, bassist, and teacher, illustrates the best way to learn in just five minutes.
Here are my notes:
Languages are about expression — It is used to communicate with others.
Like music, humans use language to laugh, cry, think and question.
If music is a language, languages… are languages, too! The principles Victor Wooten uses to learn music also helps me learn new languages.
I hated learning in school.
I thought school was hard, boring and a waste of time. I was always scared to say the wrong thing in class. I was afraid that my classmates would think I was stupid.
Victor reminds me that I was actually a successful learner when I was little. I actually mastered a new skill without pain or fear — when I learned how to speak my native language.
I was a baby.
I spoke incorrectly, but I was allowed to make mistakes. The more mistakes I made, the more my parents smiled.
They thought I was cute.
“Animal with big ears — Wabbit, wabbit!”
I didn’t learn to speak by going to school a few times a week. I didn’t go to class and practice pre-written dialogues. I didn’t have homework, either.
Most of the people I spoke with weren’t beginners — they were fluent speakers! I didn’t just speak with other babies. I was allowed to talk with “professional” native speakers (adults and older kids).
I was allowed to make mistakes.
I was encouraged to make mistakes.
I didn’t get smacked in the head or shamed for saying “wabbit” instead of “rabbit”. People just thought I was an adorable little marshmallow!
I was jamming with language experts (native speakers) from the moment I was born.
I was allowed to play and have fun with the language.
Nobody looked down on me.
Nobody said I was a “beginner”, “intermediate” or “advanced” language learner — I was just another human being, trying to communicate.
I was having fun. I was playing with language, making language — from the very beginning.
How can I apply Victor’s lessons in my own language learning?
- When I’m a beginner at a new language, I’ll embrace mistakes instead of correcting them — Like a child playing air guitar, there are no wrong notes in music, or in life.
- Allow myself to play and communicate with native speakers on a daily basis. Don’t worry about being a “beginner” or “not good enough”. Just have fun.
- Play more than practice. The more I play and enjoy using the language, the more I will practice on my own.
- Having fun is more important than studying — If I have fun, I will want to study more. If I only study, I might lose interest in the language and I’ll give up.
- Language comes from me, the learner. It does not come from the material, textbook, or class. I will take responsibility for my own learning. I will remember that the purpose of language is for expressing myself as well as communicating and connecting with others.
- A language works best when I have something interesting to say — Live more and have more life experiences! As Ernest Hemingway says:
“In order to write about life, first you must live it.”
— Ernest Hemingway
- A child learns a language for years before they even learn the alphabet — too many rules from the beginning will just slow me down. I’ll stop over-thinking about the “best” way to learn a language and just start!
- Expose myself to the language as often as I can: Consume lots of fun, interesting comprehensible input (listening and reading)!
