One of my all time favorite discussions about learning music is Anthony Wellington's "Four Rooms", an appendix clip from "Victor Wooten's Groove Workshop" DVD (Hudson Music).
The copyright owners and occasionally block the clips, so I also copied the transcript
(cleaned up the "likes" and "you knows" etc)
Anthony Wellington's "Four Rooms"
---
For me, when I think about getting better on the instrument, or learning how to play the instrument, I like to think of it [as] awareness. And for me, there are four levels of awareness, especially as it applies to getting better on the instrument.
"Unconscious Not Knowing"
So, for me, that first level is what I like to call "Unconscious Not Knowing." Unconscious: that's when you don't even know what it is you don't know. It's ignorance, but not ignorance in a bad way, like the way that children are ignorant to world crisis... It's a blissful state, it's a blissful state. Also, you can think of playing air guitar: you've never seen anybody play air guitar without smiling. It's the same thing. So, for me, that first level of awareness, "unconscious not knowing," is like when a kid first gets a guitar or bass for Christmas. You know he's just standing in the mirror where they're strapped on not even really worried about the notes or playing in the right notes just looking in the mirror and smiling.
"Conscious Not Knowing."
Then, after they've had that bass for a couple of months or weeks, they start jamming with friends or they sign up for lessons and the instructor starts to point out all these things that they don't know, they enter into that next level awareness, what i like to call "Conscious Not Knowing." Conscious Not Knowing: now you've been made aware of everything that it is you don't know, and that's not a blissful state. You got to think about all these things, you got to practice, and you got to learn, and unfortunately a lot of musicians who are hobbyists end up in that level of awareness they never get past that. And like i said, it's not a blissful state.
"Conscious Knowing"
But the people who tread on who get these modes, pentatonics, and arpeggios down, [get] to that next level... And i call that "Conscious Knowing" Conscious Knowing that's when you're very aware of what it is you're doing: you know these modes, and you know these pentatonics, and you're thinking about them while you're playing. This is probably the area that most good musicians stay, their whole career, at that level. That's also not a blissful state, because you're always aware of what it is you're doing while you're doing it. But a lot of good musicians end up in that state.
"Unconscious Knowing"
And then, there's this fourth level of awareness... that i call "Unconscious Knowing." Unconscious Knowing: that's when you know what it is you know so well, that you don't even think about it ... it's just ingrained, it's intuitive, and that's that level of awareness where people like Victor, Stanley, Marcus, Chick Corea and Dennis Chambers... that's where they live all the time! That's where they reside. And that's a blissful state!
Only 2 Blissful States
So if you really think about it, there are only two blissful states, or levels of awareness, with this. That's the very first one "Unconscious Not Knowing," and the very last one "Unconscious Knowing." So, once you get out of that first level, the only way to get back to a blissful state of playing music is to take it all the way through.
No Walls
That seems like a daunting task, but I believe that, no matter what it is that you know, no matter how big or how small, you can know it unconsciously. If all you know is a major scale, you can know that major scale so well, that you don't have to think about it anymore. So it doesn't have to be a daunting task. I kind of equate it to ... a house. Imagine a house with four rooms, and these four rooms are those different levels that i talked about. But, the thing with this house is: it doesn't have any walls! At any point, you can freely walk from one room to the next. You just have to not be scared to walk to that next room. You can even see this next room. You can see all these great musicians in those other rooms. You just have to be willing to take that chance because that's a that's a beautiful room to be in in that house.
Thanks
The copyright owners and occasionally block the clips, so I also copied the transcript
(cleaned up the "likes" and "you knows" etc)
Anthony Wellington's "Four Rooms"
---
For me, when I think about getting better on the instrument, or learning how to play the instrument, I like to think of it [as] awareness. And for me, there are four levels of awareness, especially as it applies to getting better on the instrument.
"Unconscious Not Knowing"
So, for me, that first level is what I like to call "Unconscious Not Knowing." Unconscious: that's when you don't even know what it is you don't know. It's ignorance, but not ignorance in a bad way, like the way that children are ignorant to world crisis... It's a blissful state, it's a blissful state. Also, you can think of playing air guitar: you've never seen anybody play air guitar without smiling. It's the same thing. So, for me, that first level of awareness, "unconscious not knowing," is like when a kid first gets a guitar or bass for Christmas. You know he's just standing in the mirror where they're strapped on not even really worried about the notes or playing in the right notes just looking in the mirror and smiling.
"Conscious Not Knowing."
Then, after they've had that bass for a couple of months or weeks, they start jamming with friends or they sign up for lessons and the instructor starts to point out all these things that they don't know, they enter into that next level awareness, what i like to call "Conscious Not Knowing." Conscious Not Knowing: now you've been made aware of everything that it is you don't know, and that's not a blissful state. You got to think about all these things, you got to practice, and you got to learn, and unfortunately a lot of musicians who are hobbyists end up in that level of awareness they never get past that. And like i said, it's not a blissful state.
"Conscious Knowing"
But the people who tread on who get these modes, pentatonics, and arpeggios down, [get] to that next level... And i call that "Conscious Knowing" Conscious Knowing that's when you're very aware of what it is you're doing: you know these modes, and you know these pentatonics, and you're thinking about them while you're playing. This is probably the area that most good musicians stay, their whole career, at that level. That's also not a blissful state, because you're always aware of what it is you're doing while you're doing it. But a lot of good musicians end up in that state.
"Unconscious Knowing"
And then, there's this fourth level of awareness... that i call "Unconscious Knowing." Unconscious Knowing: that's when you know what it is you know so well, that you don't even think about it ... it's just ingrained, it's intuitive, and that's that level of awareness where people like Victor, Stanley, Marcus, Chick Corea and Dennis Chambers... that's where they live all the time! That's where they reside. And that's a blissful state!
Only 2 Blissful States
So if you really think about it, there are only two blissful states, or levels of awareness, with this. That's the very first one "Unconscious Not Knowing," and the very last one "Unconscious Knowing." So, once you get out of that first level, the only way to get back to a blissful state of playing music is to take it all the way through.
No Walls
That seems like a daunting task, but I believe that, no matter what it is that you know, no matter how big or how small, you can know it unconsciously. If all you know is a major scale, you can know that major scale so well, that you don't have to think about it anymore. So it doesn't have to be a daunting task. I kind of equate it to ... a house. Imagine a house with four rooms, and these four rooms are those different levels that i talked about. But, the thing with this house is: it doesn't have any walls! At any point, you can freely walk from one room to the next. You just have to not be scared to walk to that next room. You can even see this next room. You can see all these great musicians in those other rooms. You just have to be willing to take that chance because that's a that's a beautiful room to be in in that house.
Thanks
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