Musicality Now

Hello, and welcome to Beatles Month! Today we're kicking off a very special series of episodes where we'll be celebrating all things Fab Four - and particularly diving into all the musicality questions we're so interested in here at Musical U - like what makes a song tick, how to understand what you hear in music, and what are the concrete, practical skills that underlie apparent musical "talent"....

Learning music can sometimes be frustrating. It can feel like you're putting in a ton of effort with very little results to show for it.   But at the same time we all know that persistence is the key to success.   So how do you know when you're being virtuous for persisting - and when you're just bashing your head against a brick wall?   How do you know whether to give up or stick with it?     Sub...

Hey - do you feel like giving up? Is your musical life driving you a bit crazy and you're wondering if you should just throw in the towel?   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 165   Links and Resources • Should I stick with it? - cheat sheet • Hey! Where are you going? • Forget Being Realistic - Do This Inste...

Hey, Christopher here, director of Musical U, and normally your host for the show. But today we have something a bit different for you. Now, I'll apologize in advance if you hear marching band music in the background. It's because I'm in Valencia in Spain at the moment, and they're celebrating this weekend, the Fallas festival and there's literally a marching band proceeding along outside my windo...

If you're pursuing a music dream of any kind, the chances are that there's one big thing standing in your way.   At Musical U we talk a lot about your Big Picture Vision and getting clear on the things you're most excited about achieving in your musical life if everything went perfectly. Your ideal musical future.   This is a powerful idea - but there's a big barrier that often holds people back....

Have you ever wanted to get out there and start performing? Maybe solo at an open mic night, maybe getting involved in the local blues jam, maybe starting or joining a band - or even going out and getting paying gigs as a live performer.   If so, you might have found yourself in the situation many of us do: our skills are up to scratch but we're still not ready. Emotionally, mentally, psychologica...

You can enjoy the process of learning music. You *should*, in fact!   Believing that enjoyment and achievement are mutually exclusive is holding you back from your true musical potential.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 161   Links and Resources • Forrest Kinney and Brent Vaartstra on improving your musi...

Today we're joined on the show by John Hatcher, the founder of Blues Guitar Institute, a website and YouTube channel devoted to teaching acoustic blues guitar with a simple straight-forward approach.   John was the winner of TrueFire's Next Top Guitar Instructor contest and over the last several years has been steadily growing a devoted following of keen blues guitarists. We have been struck by ho...

Have you wished you could improvise, but found the whole thing intimidating, overwhelming, or just a complete mystery?   There's one thing I can tell you, in just a few minutes, that will let you begin improvising today and set you up for continued success.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 159   Links and...

Evelyn Glennie is the world's first full time solo percussionist, whose mission in life is to teach the world to listen. Her TED talk entitled "How to truly listen" has been viewed almost five million times. And if that wasn't remarkable enough, take a peek at the description or presenter bio for that TED talk and you'll discover that Evelyn actually lost almost all her hearing at the age of twelv...

Does the idea of improvising scare you? Have you given it a try but quickly decided you didn't have what it takes?   If so, we would understand. In this episode, we're going to talk about where that fear comes from, how you can overcome it, and how to make it easy to learn to improvise.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Trans...

Let us ask: how do you feel about your singing voice?   We're guessing that whether you consider yourself "a singer" or not, your answer probably isn't "my singing voice is amazing and I am 100% comfortable with how it sounds at all times!"   If you've ever felt unsure about your voice - maybe that's even held you back from trying to learn to sing - or if you are a singer and you're trying to tap...

Playing by ear and improvisation are two of the most sought-after skills in music. The key to learning these skills is to train your ear to effortlessly recognize the relationships between notes - and the answer doesn't necessarily lie in learning intervals! Musical U founder Christopher Sutton talks about the intuitive solfa method for recognizing notes and why it works.   Subscribe For Future Ep...

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Adam Neely, whose YouTube channel is followed by over 600,000 people - and is described as "video essays, lessons and vlogs on new horizons in music and music theory." More informally, we'd say that Adam makes some of the most solid and also thoroughly entertaining videos on music theory out there - and not the "this is a crotchet"-type music theory video...

In this episode, we talk about your musical path and trajectory, encouraging you to think about your Big Picture Vision and how to get yourself there.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 153   Links and Resources • Big Picture Vision worksheet • About the Little "Why" • About Taking A Long-Term Mindset   Enj...

We are super excited to be joined on the show today by Ruth Power, the creator of Piano Picnic - a method for learning to play piano by ear that remarkably manages to teach it in lessons so short and simple they almost guarantee a student will succeed.   We admire and agree with Ruth's perspective and approach to teaching play-by-ear skills so much that when time came to look for a new Resident Pr...

This weekend we had an absolutely phenomenal masterclass with Marc Gelfo, the creator of the Modacity practice app, all about accelerating your music learning.   Marc packed a ton into his masterclass, from highly practical, tactical ideas about how you practice, to some quite deep emotional and mindset guidance. It's no exagerration to say there were a couple of dozen really meaty ideas he shared...

Today on the show we're talking with LaMar Queen, also known as Mr. Q-U-E, the rapper behind Music Notes, a company that's been having great success providing educational rap songs to schools across the U.S.A.   Educational songs aren't a new idea but Music Notes brings a really fresh take to it, and their songs have been shown to improve test scores in non-music subjects as well as encouraging mo...

Today we're joined by Alex Forbes from CreativeSongwriter.com. Alex has over 100 releases to her name including several Billboard-charting singles as well as tracks heard often on the radio and TV. She's taught songwriting at NYU's Steinhardt school and countless workshops and songwriting camps and collaborated with top musicians including Cyndi Lauper. She is the author of "Write Songs, Right Now...

Today we have the pleasure of speaking with someone we've wanted to have on the show since day one, a long-time collaborator at Musical U and at Easy Ear Training before that, Sabrina Peña Young. Sabrina is an award-winning composer who created the first ever original fully-animated opera, Libertaria. We've long been in awe of the range and scale of projects Sabrina manages to take on and bring to...

Can you imagine having the kind of musical mind that can:   - Hear music and effortlessly recognise the notes and chords by ear. - Glance at sheet music, tab or a chord chart and immediately hear in your head how it should sound. - Spontaneously create your own original musical ideas as easily as breathing and share them with other musicians or an audience using your voice or your instrument. - Ju...

We've been talking in this Musicality Unleashed series about some powerful insights and mindset shifts for tapping into your inner musician and transforming how free, confident and creative you feel in music. We've talked particularly about mental models - and how it's a foundation of the right mental models which can set you up for success and turn you into the "natural" musician who can learn ne...

This episode is part of the Musicality Unleashed series. Learn more and get a bonus "cheat sheet" at musicalityunleashed.com. In this episode, we talk about ways of infusing your musical journey with creativity right from the get-go.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 145   Links and Resources •  Discover Y...

This episode is part of the Musicality Unleashed series. Learn more and get a bonus "cheat sheet" at musicalityunleashed.com. In this episode, we talk about the roadblock of musicians thinking they cannot sing because they are tone deaf, and outline the first steps in learning to sing naturally, confidently, and expressively.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | R...

This episode is part of the Musicality Unleashed series. Learn more and get a bonus "cheat sheet" at musicalityunleashed.com. In this episode, we talk about how you can connect the music theory and ear training you're learning with the music you want to play and are passionate about.   Subscribe For Future Episodes! Apple Podcasts | Android | Stitcher | RSS | YouTube   Full Show Notes and Transcri...