Victor Wooten on Music as a Language: Monday YouTube Fix

Victor Wooten is one of my heroes and this video is awesome.  In under five minutes, Victor touches on the importance of embracing mistakes and of playing often.

Warning: You are going to need to watch this video twice.  He is narrating over a video of him performing Amazing Grace and the performance is stunning.  I inadvertently blocked out all of the speaking the first time because the playing is so gorgeous even though I clicked on the video to hear him speak!

Rest assured, the message is just as good if not better than the playing.

Enjoy!

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/victor-wooten-music-as-a-language Music is a powerful communication tool--it causes us to laugh, cry, think and question. Bassist and five-time Grammy winner, Victor Wooten, asks us to approach music the same way we learn verbal language--by embracing mistakes and playing as often as possible. Lesson by Victor Wooten, produced by TED-Ed.

How Playing An Instrument Benefits Your Brain: Monday YouTube Fix

"Playing a musical instrument engages practically every area of the brain at once."

This less than five minute video digs into the neuroscience of both listening to and playing music.  Why is it that we're always having to save school music programs from the chopping block?!

Enjoy!

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-playing-an-instrument-benefits-your-brain-anita-collins When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. What's going on? Anita Collins explains the fireworks that go off in musicians' brains when they play, and examines some of the long-term positive effects of this mental workout.