What Is Groove?

By Elijah About a month ago, I attended a weeklong trip to Wooten Woods, a music and nature camp in Tennessee.  Grammy award-winning bassist Victor Wooten, who helps the students learn how to become better musicians, hosts the camp.  We focused on many aspects of music, but I felt like the purpose of the camp is to teach people what groove really is, and how to apply it, not just in music, but also in life. I learned that groove is being able to work with anything and everything around you. Applied to a musical setting, this would mean communicating with your band mates, listening to them, and playing with them. In a non-musical setting, this would mean communicating with the people around you, listening to the people around you, and working with the people around you.  I think most people, including myself, feel like groove only applies to music, but once I learned how to apply groove to how I go about my day, I started to look at things differently.

1. What do you think groove is in terms of music?
2. Did you think that groove could be applied in everyday life?  How?  If not, why?
3. Do you agree with my idea of groove as being able to work with your surroundings? If not, what do you think it is?
4. Do you think most of the pop music that you hear has groove?
5. For me, the most important aspect of music is groove.  What do you think is important in a song?