My son told me about a Victor Wooten seminar in which Victor teaches young wannabes how he thinks musically (big topic there)

Typically the young 'uns want to learn how to light up the bass neck because they mistakenly think that playing fast is "what Victor does."

In one of his exercises, he plays every note out of key, but he keeps the groove rock solid... and typically the students don't hear a problem. The point of the exercise is to emphasize that for a bass player, keeping the groove is your main job. He assumes you know how to play in key. He doesn't care if you can play fast. But if the bass is in the pocket and synched to the drums, all is well in bass land.