Musicality Now

Do you know what your "North Star" is in music?   If you've ever suffered from "shiny object syndrome", chasing squirrels and going down YouTube rabbitholes, or you've found your musical motivation going up and down like a rollercoaster week by week...   Then let me share one solution, proven by thousands upon thousands of musicians to fix all those problems and more - in as little as five minutes...

Ever seen what other musicians are up to... and felt intimidated? Like YOU could never do that.   And if we're talking about songwriting, composing or other creative musical activities - well, forget about it!   In this clip from Tero Potila's masterclass at Musical U he reveals how to shift out of the "comparison trap" and recognise the musical contribution which you alone can make.     Subscribe...

Tero Potila is a successful songwriter and composer with a string of hits to his name. He recently joined us at Musical U as a Guest Expert, teaching on creativity and collaboration.   In this mini-interview, you'll hear exactly how he went from thinking songwriting took a magical "talent" to discovering that he too was capable of writing great music.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcast...

Christopher looks back on "Beatles Month", when we went deep into the musicality of the Fab Four themselves, uncovering the truth behind their phenomenal career and apparently supernatural "talent".   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 264   Links and Resources • ToneDeafTest.com • SingTrue app • Beatles Mont...

Join Christopher and the Next Level coaching team to discover the latest tips, tricks and techniques you can use to advance in your own musical life.   This time we have:   - Zac sharing the "breakthrough that leads to ALL the breakthroughs"   - Camilo with a nifty AI tool you can use to help with active listening, playing by ear and improvisation   - Andy reveals a surprising way to improve your...

Since 2015 one man has been the heart of the Musical U community, our very own @GtrStu777! In this interview you'll meet our "Community Conductor" Stewart Hilton, who does so much to keep our unique community thriving, and find out a bit about his own fascinating musical journey.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript:...

In this sneak-peek behind the scenes of our forthcoming Musicality book, Christopher shares a framework you can use to start playing more expressively.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 261   Links and Resources • MusicalityBook.com : Register your interest now!     Enjoying the show? Please consider ratin...

What do a zombie cowbell, a matte-black drumhead, and a pink sparkly snare drum have in common?   Believe it or not, they can all make you more musical... Here's how!     Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 260   Links and Resources • Musicality Now: Rhythmic Reconnection (interview with Dave Smith)   Enjoying...

Drummer Dave Smith teaches a powerful stepping-based method for improving your connection to the pulse, your sense of rhythm and your ability to both perform and be creative with different rhythmic patterns.   In this first part of his recent Musical U masterclass, Dave introduces the foundation of his method, with an exercise you can start using right away to improve your own rhythmic chops.   Su...

Ever felt like your rhythm skills aren't quite what they should be - but you really didn't know what you could do about that?   We've found that typically, the rhythm side of things is massively overlooked by music learners. The basics come easily, and then we kind of forget about actually improving our sense of rhythm.   So even though it's a huge part of the difference between an "okay" performa...

Join Christopher and the Next Level coaching team to discover the latest tips, tricks and techniques you can use to advance in your own musical life.   In episode 2 we hear fantastic ideas for contacting your "inner drummer", tailoring your improvisation to match the style of music you're going for, set better goals by thinking about how you want to share your music - and the surprising power of t...

From a Paul Simon dance-off through to scratch DJing and music video production, Zac Bailey has had a journey like no other, resulting in a deep, distinctive and profound grasp of what musicality is all about.   In this Meet The Team interview we speak with Musical U's Head of Member Success, Zac Bailey (a.k.a. @ZSonic) to discover his fascinating musical life and the unusual origin story of his r...

Looking around, most online music education companies follow the "guru" model where you can sign up to be just like the famous player by following in their footsteps.   That's not how Musical U does it.   Why not?   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 255   Links and Resources • Musicality Now: Intimidating –...

In her Musical U masterclass "Performance Secrets From An Industry Insider", Melissa Mulligan (founder of Music Career Mastermind) shared a wealth of insight and experience on what makes for a truly great musical performance.   Whether you're touring world arenas like some of Melissa's clients, or just getting ready to perform for friends and family, this short section of the masterclass has some...

Melissa Mulligan is a vocal coach and advisor to top Billboard-charting artists, and the founder of the highly popular Music Career Accelerator program at MastermindRoad.com.   In this mini-interview she shares her take on "talent" and what really matters in crafting a successful music career or non-professional musical journey.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher...

We had a really interesting comment on YouTube this week, which boiled down to:   "Learning from notation, and the traditional teaching methods worked for me - so why should I change it? P.S. I'm offended that you're criticising what's worked for me and lots of others."   There is a LOT to unpack in this one! Here's my response.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher...

Meet Musical U's Head Educator, Andrew Bishko and discover the fascinating musical background which produced his unique skillset and made him the perfect match for Musical U!   In this interview we dive into Andrew's musical background, featuring piano, flute (classical, jazz and Native American), reggae, Klezmer, mariachi and more. We hear how he gradually learned to play by ear and improvise, de...

Join Christopher and the Next Level coaching team to discover the latest tips, tricks and techniques you can use to advance in your own musical life.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 250   Links and Resources • Gregg Goodhart, "The Learning Coach" • Learn more about Next Level Coaching     Enjoying the sh...

We had a great question from @Lutemann on YouTube this week:  "So I wanted to be able to play on sax what I hear in my head.  I wrote out 60 diatonic patterns (Example: 5, 4, 1, 7, 6, 8). Then I would pick a key and sing these patterns while fingering notes on the sax.  I did this for a couple of months and got no results.  Do you think I gave up too soon?" Here's my answer.   Subscribe For Future...

Dive into rhythmic improvisation in this segment of Jeffrey Agrell's Musical U masterclass on "Exploring Rhythmic Improv"!  In this beginning section, Jeffrey introduces a rhythm vocabulary, using simple hand-drumming as a way to experiment and explore. Then he shows how you can start improvising creatively just by mixing up bits of that rhythm vocab with accents, rests, note length and meter. Not...

We're joined by Jeffrey Agrell, a returning guest on the show, and one of our absolute favourite music educators. Jeffrey has authored half a dozen books providing "games" which serve as a gateway into creativity and improvisation - even for the most buttoned-up, perfectionist classical players!   In this short conversation before his Musical U masterclass on Rhythm Improv Games, Jeffrey shares:  ...

Join Musical U Director Christopher Sutton for a live update on the reboot of our video series and podcast, Musicality Now, including a sneak peek of exciting things to come...   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Stitcher  |  RSS  |  YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript:   Episode 246   Links and Resources Tune in Live on Facebook Tune in Live on Instagram Tune in L...

Scales... Most music learners think scales are just an exercise you've got to do as part of learning your instrument. But did you know there's actually a whole area of ear training dedicated to scales?   In fact there are two! In this clip from the archive of live member Q&A calls at Musical U we talk about these two types of scale ear training and how each can help you.   If you want to get more...

Do you sometimes get the notes wrong when you sing?   At Musical U we strongly encourage every music learner to sing because of the huge positive impact it has on your musicality - but what if you find you just can't get the notes right? Here's a clip from the archive of live member Q&A calls at Musical U where we talk about just that.   Enjoy!     Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | A...

If playing music is like speaking a language, how should we think about harmony, or playing two hands on piano?   We answer that question in this clip from the archive of live member Q&A calls at Musical U. Enjoy!     Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 243   Links and Resources • Musicality Now - About the I,...