by Aubrey Aikens
Personally, Valentine’s Day has always been an opportunity to explore what love means beyond the limitations of the traditional romantic connotation. I am fortunate to have been able to foster an intimate relationship with art, and I enjoy taking this time of year to remember the people who have taught me about how music can help me grow.
When it comes to bass, I always envisioned the bass as a backup and secondary instrument when I was a kid. That all instantly changed the second I heard Victor Wooten – Bassist and five-time Grammy winner – play for the first time. It was his song “U Can’t Hold No Groove” that I checked out first, and the combination of technical prowess and variety in timbres of sound he produced from one four-stringed instrument blew my mind.
I became truly obsessed with Victor’s music shortly after that first listening experience, devouring his discography and finding just about every YouTube video I could find of him. I’ve seen him four times in person and every experience was unbelievably inspiring, and having met and shaken hands with him, he seems like a very genuine and down to earth person that could easily have a huge ego— but he does not at all. His philosophies and writings on music are really profound in my opinion, and I believe anyone trying to learn an instrument or improve an instrument should watch his Ted Talk “music as a language”— see for yourself!
He teaches is that music is a powerful communication tool–it causes us to laugh, cry, think and question. “Music is a language. Both music and verbal languages serve the same purpose: they are both forms of expression. They can be used as a way to communicate with others, they can be read or written, they can make you laugh or cry, think or question and can speak to one or many. And both can definitely make you move. In some instances, music works better than the spoken word because it doesn’t have to be understood to be effective.”
Victor Wooten asks us to approach music the same way we learn verbal language–by embracing mistakes and playing as often as possible.
My earliest musical memory is listening to my Mom playing piano at home. As a stay-at-home Mom, she was in charge of raising four sons – not an easy task to say the least. Despite the demands on her throughout the day and night, she managed to escape to the living room to play the piano and sing. This is where I developed a love for the “standards” or songs from the “Great American Song Book” as Tony Bennett often described it.
For the past few years, I’ve been fascinated by the idea of remote music lessons, since it removes a lot of the geographical, financial, and social stressors associated with in-person learning. With all of the positives, however, comes skepticism and a fear of the unknown. Musicians often feel a pressure to compete with computers, rather than working in tandem with them, and I feel that might be a reason why the transition between online and in-person music lessons has been a challenge.
January is a great month! It’s the first one of the new year – a fresh start. I think it’s safe to say that we’re all excited to turn the page on 2020 and start this new chapter of our lives. It wasn’t easy to find a silver lining over the past 9 months or so but we did. Our instructors and members collaborated on a wide range of music because we did not want our inability to be together to stop our ability to connect with one another. This is why we exist: to support one another’s musical journey. Whether it is in person or virtually, the music never stops at Altered Stage!
We’re dedicating the month of January to our favorite first albums – music that opened our minds and hearts to a new artist and a new experience. Every artist feels they have something unique to say and perhaps even a new way of saying it. And that’s exciting! It keeps music alive and evolving, which in turns enhances the human experience. It’s these artists and albums that we celebrate this month. The ones that rocked our world when we first heard them and the ones that we still listen to today.
I made a Spotify playlist of songs from my favorite debut albums. I admit it’s a lot of music but I had so much fun putting it together – the songs brought back so many great memories. I remember when I first heard each and every one of them – whether it was one of my brothers’ records, on the radio, in a record store or on MTV. These have stayed with me and will be with me for the rest of my journey.
Over the course of the month, our members will record their own versions of their favorites and we’ll post them to our YouTube channel. I’ll be highlighting some of my top favorites over the course of the month in future blog posts. In the meantime, we’d love to hear about yours. What debut albums blew you away?