Tal Wilkenfeld says music is about living life consciously and evolving

Sometimes when I listen to a musician perform I wonder to myself, “How did they get so goddamn good?”

And sometimes–if I meet said musician in my capacity as a music writer–I’ll just flat out ask them how they got so goddamn good.

I did it with guitarist Guthrie Govan last year, and last week I did it with bassist Tad Wilkenfeld, who you may recognize from all those YouTube videos with Jeff Beck where her playing just blows you right away.

Last Wednesday Tal called me up from the road while on the tour that brings her to Vancouver’s Biltmore Cabaret this Thursday (October 13), and we had a nice little chat.

At one point I asked her if she had to lock herself in a room for eight hours a day to get so goddamned good, but that was definitely not the case. 

"No, quite the opposite," she replied. "I learned how to teach myself everything within a half-an-hour period a day. I just got used to that, growing up and doin' everything I need to do in about half an hour. I think most of the practice that a musician does is in their head, you know--it doesn't have to be with the instrument. And it's actually I think better to practice in your head without your instrument than with your instrument, because you develop a very very good sense of your fretboard by mapping it in your head as opposed to mapping it with your fingers.

"But music for me is not this technical pursuit," she added. "You try to evolve as a human being and figure out what you want to say as a human being, to the world, filtered through an instrument. So it's mainly about living life consciously and evolving, and then having your instrument with you."

For more from Tal Wilkenfeld--including how she hooked up with Jeff Beck, and the highlights of her career so far--see the story in this week's issue of the Georgia Straight.

Read it on paper for that old-school "do it in your head" vibe.