After recommending Victor Wooten’s book, The Music Lesson to a friend, I read it again and I'm so glad I did. In this article I’d like to share one of his many important observations - the 10 elements that make up music. They are all intrinsically linked, but thinking about each element individually and staying aware of how much attention you give them might influence your playing in a very positive way. It sure did for me.
The 10 elements are: notes, articulation, technique, feel, dynamics, rhythm, phrasing, tone, space, and listening.
While NOTES is the first item in the list, it’s often massively over emphasised. While notes are obviously important there are other elements that are as, if not more, important. Notes can be subdivided into harmony, scales, tonality…
