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Musicality Now — Music
Musicality Now

Ever wondered why some people seem to have a gift for music? Have you wished that you could play by ear, sing in tune, improvise and jam? You are in the right place.

Musicality Now is a mix of interviews and teaching, featuring some of the most inspiring and insightful musicians and music educators, talking about how to learn the core inner skills you need to feel like a “natural” in music and enjoy freedom, creativity and confidence.

Topics include: Playing by ear, Singing in tune, Jamming with other musicians, Having a good sense of rhythm, Writing your own music, Writing notation, Improvising a solo, Talking intelligently about music, Understanding Music Theory, Clapping in time, Knowing your instrument inside and out, Tuning your instrument by ear, Reading notation, Sight-reading music, Playing from a lead sheet, Performing live, and Playing multiple instruments.

Musicality Now is brought to you by Musical U (musical-u.com), the leading provider of musicality training online. Learn more and get shownotes at musicalitynow.com.

Copyright: © Copyright 2017 Musical U (Easy Ear Training Ltd.)

Latest Episodes:

177: The Roots of Greatness, with Scott Devine (Scott's Bass Lessons) May 07, 2019

Show notes

You are tuned in to the very first episode under our new name - formerly The Musicality Podcast, this show is now called simply "Musicality Now" which we think better captures the spirit and variety of the show and where we'll be taking it in the future.

When we made the switch to video back in January we were delighted to have our first interview be with Sabrina Peña Young, someone we know well and who has deep insights, which made for a long and fascinating converation.

We're excited now to kick off this new incarnation of the show similarly, with a particularly meaty episode that is going to have a big and positive impact on your own musicality journey.

Our guest today is Scott Devine, the man behind Scott's Bass Lessons, the #1 website for learning bass guitar - they have over 650,000 YouTube subscribers, and have trained over 25,000 bassists to date. If you play bass, then you know Scott - he'll be all over your Facebook, your YouTube, and there's a good chance you're already a member of the Academy site where they provide extensive training, masterclasses and live calls with a faculty of the top bass educators in the world.

In this conversation we talk about:

• How spending six months at sea transformed Scott's bass playing.

• The simple piece of advice that immediately put an end to Scott's umming and ahhing over what to study next in his own bass learning.

• And, after talking to, interviewing, and studying with dozens upon dozens of the world's top bassists and musicians, the one thing Scott has learned they all have in common - and (spoiler alert) it's not "talent"!

Scott also gives a fantastic mini tutorial on a particular bass technique, walking basslines, which is something that's really valuable to understand, whether you play bass or not - you're going to hear these everywhere, and after today's conversation you're going to understand how exactly they're put together.

There is a ton packed in here and you guys are in for a treat…

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 177

Links and Resources

• Scott's Bass Lessons

• Scott's Bass Lessons On YouTube

• Scott Devine's Bass Picks

• All Things Vocal, with Judy Rodman

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176: How to Hear Like A Musician May 02, 2019

Show notes

Hello and welcome back for part two of this special on active listening and how to hear like a musician. We're joined by Andrew Bishko from the Musical U team.

In part one we tackled the "what": What is active listening? What does it mean to have a musician's ear? And in this part we're going to follow that up, assuming you're already super excited to know about active listening by talking about the nitty gritty of how to do it.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 176

Links and Resources

• The Musician's Ear

• Productivity Academy Episode 22 - Mindset or Mindfulness - Setting The Stage Internally With Christopher Sutton

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175: What it means to Hear Like A Musician Apr 30, 2019

Show notes

Have you ever wondered whether trained musicians simply hear music in a different way to you? Well, it turns out they do. And in this episode we're joined with Andrew Bishko, to talk about what exactly that means, and how it can help you. Stay tuned!

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 175

Links and Resources

• The Musician's Ear

• About Active Listening

• How to Stop Doubting and Start Performing, with Brent Vaartstra

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174: The Musicality of the Beatles Apr 25, 2019

Show notes

We have come to the end of Beatles Month here at Musical U and in this final episode I'm going to recap the major learning points from each of our expert guests and share the major running theme that seemed to be at the center of the Beatles' phenomenal story - and what you can learn from that. Stay tuned!

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 174

Links and Resources

• DeconstructingTheBeatles.com

• Mattblick.com

• Clarion Faculty Profile for Dr. Scott Kuehn

• AaronKrerowicz.com

• KennethWomack.com

• HardDaysNight.net

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173: How To Be The Beatles, with Hard Day's Night Apr 23, 2019

Show notes

Welcome back to Beatles Month!

Today we have the distinct pleasure of talking with not one but four Beatles experts! Mike Muratore, Frank Muratore, John Auker and Patrick Gannon, the members of Hard Day's Night.

Hard Day's Night is rated among the top national Beatles tribute groups performing today, a full catalogue touring Beatles Tribute act focusing on performing songs exactly as the Beatles themselves did. The band has performed on national television, at America's top Beatles festival, and at the Beatles' own Cavern Club in Liverpool, England.

We were eager to find out what goes into being one of the top Beatles tribute acts in the world and how the four members of the group think about the musicality of the Beatles.

We talk about:

• What exactly the band would do to learn a new Beatles song note-perfect • How performing as the Beatles compares to playing in a non-tribute band • And we ask, as four people who've studied and played the songs of the Beatles more carefully than almost anyone - why do they think the Beatles have had such a lasting impact over time?

It was really cool to hear about how each member of the group came to love the Beatles and perform in Hard Day's Night, and how thoughtfully and carefully they approach their work in performing as the Fab Four. There's a lot to be learned here about musicianship that goes way beyond tribute bands or Beatles specifics - so please enjoy!

This is The Musicality Podcast, and you're tuned in to Beatles Month at Musical U.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 173

Links and Resources

• HardDaysNight.net

• Hard Days Night on Facebook @HDNTribute

• Hard Days Night on Twitter @hdntributeband

• Hard Days Night on Twitter @hdntribute

• Hard Days Night on YouTube

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172: The Story of the Fifth Beatle, with Kenneth Womack Apr 19, 2019

Show notes

Welcome back to Beatles Month!

We're joined today by Kenneth Womack, author of a two-volume biography of George Martin: the label head and record producer who worked with The Beatles from the beginning of their recording career and was so instrumental to their success that he is often referred to as "The Fifth Beatle".

Ken's two books were amazing to read and tell a familiar story from a perspective that was completely new to us, so we were really excited to talk with Ken and learn more about the role George played - and the conversation fully lived up to our high expectations.

We talk about:

• The similar background and particular blend of two character traits which George had in common with the four members of the band

• The surprising state of The Beatles' original songs when they met George, how he reacted to them, and how they managed to salvage a very inauspicious start!

• And what changes George made to their songs after the height of Beatlemania that is perhaps the reason they are still so renowned now, fifty years on.

Preparing for this interview really made us realise really made us realise just how little we'd known about the part George Martin played in the trajectory of The Beatles and just how pivotal he was to their great success. It really casts a new and interesting light on it all, and we hope you'll enjoy learning about it as much as we did.

You're tuned in to Beatles Month at Musical U.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 172

Links and Resources

• KennethWomack.com

• Kenneth Womack - "Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, The Later Years, 1966–2016"

• Kenneth Womack - "Maximum Volume: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, The Early Years, 1926–1966"

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171: The Simplicity and Sophistication of the Beatles, with Aaron Krerowicz Apr 16, 2019

Show notes

Welcome back to Beatles Month!

Today we're talking with Aaron Krerowicz, the one and only full-time Beatles scholar who focuses specifically on the music of The Beatles. Meaning he dives deep into the lyrics, the chords, the notes used in melodies - all the stuff that musicians are perhaps most hungry to hear about but is quite rarely discussed in such a dedicated way. This was a super cool conversation.

We know you're going to be itching for more from Aaron so you'll be pleased to hear he's written several short, easy-to-read books, and published a ton of bite-sized videos on the topic too which you can find at Flipside Beatles.

In this conversation we talk about:

•The special way in which the music of the Beatles is "sophisticated" - and when that all began

•How the Beatles learned from and re-imagined the music of the time to create their most remarkable songs

•And what we can learn from looking at which of the group wrote each song, and the way the music and lyrics relate.

Plus: Aaron shares a quite shocking statistic about the apparent overnight success of the Fab Four.

Aaron brings a unique perspective to analysing The Beatles and I know you're going to enjoy this conversation just as much as we did.

You're tuned in to Beatles Month at Musical U.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 171

Links and Resources

• aaronkrerowicz.com

• Flip Side Beatles

• Aaron's Beatles Minute videos

• Aaron Krerowicz - "The Beatles & The Avant-Garde"

• Mark Lewisohn - 'Tune In"

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170: The Message in the Music of the Beatles with Scott Kuehn Apr 11, 2019

Show notes

Welcome back to Beatles Month!

Today we're talking with a Beatles expert who also happens to be a member of Musical U. As a Professor of Communications at Clarion University, Scott is trained in the study of semiotics: the meaning within media such as pop music.

And he's taken this lens of analysis to the music of the Beatles and specifically in the "Beatlemania" years of the early sixties when teenage girls would scream and faint at concerts and TV performances - to find out what exactly the band did that produced such extreme reactions. And how they carried that on throughout their career in ever-changing ways.

In this conversation we talk about:

• The combination of music and visuals that led to Beatlemania and the specific techniques the Beatles used to stoke that hysteria

• Whether the Beatles did all these clever things instinctively and subconsciously or if it was an intentional, conscious process

• And how the Beatles' use of musical elements to support the message of the lyrics changed over time through the five distinct eras of their music that Scott identifies

We love when an interview on this show provides a new way of looking at or listening to music, and we think you're going to enjoy the little "homework" exercise Scott sets at the end of our conversation as a way to open your mind and your ears to what made the Beatles so effective and so successful.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 170

Links and Resources

• Alan Pollack "Notes on …" Series

• Scott Kuehn on Facebook

• Clarion Faculty Profile for Dr. Scott Kuehn

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169: Writing Songs the Beatles Way, with Matt Blick Apr 09, 2019

Show notes

Welcome back to Beatles Month!

Today we're joined by Matt Blick, who is the man behind the Beatles Songwriting Academy, a website dedicated to analyzing every single Beatles song to learn what makes them tick.

Since founding the site in 2009 Matt has written over 500 detailed posts on what he's learned from studying the songs of the Beatles - and he's written over 300 songs himself.

You see, unlike some song analysis websites you find, Matt's site is particularly notable for being very practical in its focus. Although it's fascinating to read his posts purely for interest, every one is written with the active song writer in mind, to inspire and guide them to better and easier song writing, inspired by the principles used by The Beatles themselves.

In this conversation we talk about:

How The Beatles could obey and break the conventional rules of songwriting so expertly if they never learned music theory.

Some specific ways The Beatles modified chord progressions to be more effective and distinctive in their songs.

Matt also shares what actually causes writer's block and how to fix it.

We also talk about the ways Matt has benefitted from all his Beatles studies in his own songwriting, including specific examples of songs he's written using particular principles he learned from the Fab Four.

You're tuned in to Beatles Month at Musical U.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 169

Links and Resources

• Mattblick.com

• Beatlessongwriting.com

• Matt's "Be-altetudes"

• Ticket to Write 1: Use the flat 6 (bVI) chord in a major key song

• Ticket to Write 33: Subvert a 12 bar blues by altering the chord sequence

• Ticket to Write 67: Repeat Verse 1

• Ticket to Write 24: Repeat words and sentence structures

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168: How the Beatles Came to Be, with Scott Freiman Apr 04, 2019

Show notes

Welcome back to Beatles Month!

Today we're talking with Scott Freiman, the creator of Deconstructing the Beatles, a series of uniquely revealing multimedia presentations about the composition and production techniques of the Beatles. Scott has spoken about the Beatles to sold-out audiences, on college campuses and for companies around the USA. He skillfully draws on original multitrack recordings to reveal exactly how the songs we know and love were put together, drawing out new and fascinating insights about the Beatles and their music.

Scott is also a professional composer and distilled some of the songwriting lessons he'd learned from the Fab Four into a terrific online course, "Learn the Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles". It's a great resource even for those who have no aspirations to write songs themselves but just want to understand music better.

As a composer himself he said that what the Deconstructing the Beatles project really showed him was how much work went into this music that we know and love. Just how creative the Beatles were and how that creative process happened, step by step - not just individually but collaboratively.

That's what we dig into in this interview: If these songs didn't magically spring into being overnight, what were the elements that made the band so unusually able to consistently write incredible songs that have stood the test of time. Scott has fantastic insight and there's a ton to learn here for song writers, composers and for musicians and music fans as well.

We talk about:

• The development and growth the Beatles had already gone through as musicians before their recording career began

• How his training as an editor has influenced how Scott sees their music and how the Beatles themselves combined editing with experimentation

• One specific technique you can listen for in any music but which the Beatles utilised in new and unusual ways.

There's some really instructive and inspiring ideas in this conversation that you will benefit from in your own music making and music listening. And it will make you hungry to go watch Scott's full presentations and maybe check out his songwriting course.

You're tuned in to Beatles Month at Musical U.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 168

Links and Resources

• DeconstructingTheBeatles.com

• Save 10% on any Deconstructing The Beatles presentation with coupon code: DTBFRIEND

• Qwire, revolutionising music licensing

• Learn the Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles

• About Active Listening

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