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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:

057: Improvising with Structure and Phrasing Mar 22, 2018

Show notes

When speaking, we use phrasing to emphasize ideas, capture our listener's attention, and tell a story. The same holds true in music, and more specifically, in improvisation! Learn how to use phrasing to add structure, interest, and musicality to your improv.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 057

Links and Resources

• About Improvisation

• About Improvising Rhythm

• About Improvising with Scales and Chords

• How to "Just Play", with Nick Mainella

• How to Improvise for Real, with David Reed

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056: Tell Your Own Story, with David Wallimann Mar 20, 2018

Show notes

In this episode we're speaking with David Wallimann, who has one of the most popular guitar channels on YouTube with over 100,000 subscribers there. As always when we're interviewing an expert in a particular instrument, we recommend staying tuned even if you don't play that instrument - because very little of what we cover is really instrument-specific.

As well as his popularity as a guitar educator, David is a composer and recording artist who has collaborated with the likes of Dweezil Zappa. And as you'll hear in this episode, he is just a lovely down-to-earth guy whose perspective on learning music and improvising is refreshing and seriously perceptive. David has his own guitar courses available at GuitarPlayback.com as well as a free Music Theory DNA course for guitarists at GuitarInfusion.com - something we suspect you'll want to check out after hearing him describe it in this episode.

In our conversation we talk about:

• How to break free of fretboard patterns and "improvisation by numbers" with a counterintuitive exercise.

• The big problem that puts people off music theory and the surprising impact it can have on your musical creativity.

• The huge benefit you get from putting ego to one side and embracing your own uniqueness in music - both for improvisation, and for your musical life in general.

We loved chatting with David and are really glad to feature his unique perspective as part of Improv Month. As you'll hear us say in this episode, we do think that guitar players tend to have a very particular relationship with music theory and with improvising - but David's take on it all is something that would be valuable for any musician to take on board. We certainly hope you'll enjoy hearing about it.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 056

Links and Resources

• David's website

• David's YouTube channel

• "Self-Taught Musicians Suck?" video

• Courses on Guitar Playback

• Free "Music Theory DNA" course

• Note2Self: "I Love This!", with Lisa McCormick

• Doubling Down on Your Craft, with Brad Davis

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055: About Improvising with Scales and Chords Mar 15, 2018

Show notes

Many musicians stick exclusively to improvising with scales, leaving them feeling frustrated and creatively stunted. This episode reveals how to integrate the idea of chord tones and harmony into your improv to really tell a story with your playing!

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 055

Links and Resources

• Interview with Improvise For Real's David Reed

• About Improvisation

• Patterns and Playgrounds

• About Chord Tones

• About Finding Chords in Scales

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054: How to Improvise For Real, with David Reed Mar 13, 2018

Show notes

Today we're excited to welcome on to the show someone we were particularly hoping to feature as part of improv month: David Reed, the creator of Improvise For Real.

You may have heard of this popular method for learning to improvise and it's one of the few we feel is totally aligned with the ear-led approach we recommend at Musical U and which we've been talking about on this podcast lately.

In this conversation we talk about:

• David's own musical beginnings and two big pivotal moments - one which let him finally really enjoy the learning process and the other which involved totally reframing his mindset about how music fit into his life.

• We discuss the traditional approaches to music education and to learning improvisation - and the limitations these ultimately place on musicians.

• And we talk about how learning to improvise the right way can be like the difference between blindly following directions versus using Google Maps to immerse yourself and explore the world you're navigating in rich, clear detail.

This episode's going to be particularly useful for two groups of people. Those who feel like improvisation is kind of a side-topic, and are not necessarily particularly interested in it. We think you're going to discover you may have dramatically underestimated how learning to improvise could help you in music.

And those who are interested to improvise, and have maybe tried one or two ways before - and found themselves a bit bewildered or disappointed by the experience. David does a fantastic job of describing how learning to improvise should be and how rewarding and straight-up fun it can be if you approach it in the right way.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 054

Links and Resources

• Improvise For Real

• The Rhythm of Success, with Steve Nixon

• How to "Just Play", with Nick Mainella

• An Ear for Jazz, with Brent Vaartstra

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053: About Improvising Rhythm Mar 08, 2018

Show notes

Rhythm is an under-appreciated component of music - and we're here to put it in the spotlight for improvisation month! Learn all about improvising a rhythm, how to do it, and the musicality benefits it yields.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 053

Links and Resources

• About Improvisation

• About Active Listening

• More Ways of Knowing Music, with Jeremy Dittus

• Ella Fitzgerald's "One Note Samba"

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52: How to Just Play, with Nick Mainella (10 Minute Jazz Lesson) Mar 06, 2018

Show notes

Today, we have the first of our interview series for Improv Month here at Musical U. To celebrate the launch of our new improv Roadmap that helps you learn to improvise from scratch, we've put together a month packed full of material all about improv.

In our first episode for improv month, we talked about how to approach learning to improvise and how it's something core and fundamental to any musician, it can take on many forms across many genres.

At the same time improvisation is something that is most commonly associated with jazz music in particular. And so we were keen to kick off improv month talking to someone who's expert in how you learn to improvise jazz.

Nick Mainella is the host of the "10 Minute Jazz Lesson" podcast which really lives up to its name! As a jazz fan but not a jazz musicians ourselves, we have been really enjoying listening to this show and we would highly recommend it for anyone who's interested in learning to play jazz.

The way Nick discusses improv on his show was so well aligned with the way we teach it at Musical U we knew we had to have him on the show, and we wanted to start improv month with this interview because as you'll hear, so much of learning jazz improv is in fact applicable to any genre and style of improvising.

In this conversation we talk about:

• Nick's own upbringing and what he did to compensate for *not* having a natural ear for music.

• The specific exercises he finds most useful for learning to improvise.

• One powerful memory he has that helped set his mindset right for improvisation for years to come, and which he passes on to his students if they're at all shy or nervous about improvising.

• And why someone who wants to play jazz might actually be best served by first studying the blues.

It was so much fun to talk to Nick about jazz and improv and he dropped several really valuable nuggets of wisdom in this conversation - simple things that you can go away and apply yourself and really benefit from.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 052

Links and Resources

• The 10 Minute Jazz Lesson podcast

• 60 Days to Crushing the Blues course

• The Riff Everyone Plays Wrong

• Donna Schwartz Music

• About Active Listening podcast episode

• About the Power of Solfa podcast episode

• The 10 Minute Jazz Lesson podcast: Learning Vocabulary

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051: About Improvisation Mar 01, 2018

Show notes

March is Improvisation Month here at Musical U, and what better way to kick off than with a crash course in the subject? In this episode of the Musicality Podcast, we share how to (and how not to!) improvise, the far-reaching benefits of this skill, and how it ties into the creative essence of being a musician.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 051

Links and Resources

• About Transcribing Music

• About Chord Tones

• Improvisational Playgrounds

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050: Unleashing Inspiration, with Vincent James (Keep Music Alive) Feb 27, 2018

Show notes

Today we're joined on the show by Vincent James, who is the co-founder of an organisation called Keep Music Alive. They organise two big music holidays each year: Teach Music Week and Kids Music Day.

In 2017 they partnered with over 600 music school and retail locations to help celebrate Teach Music Week and Kids Music Day by offering free music lessons and holding other community events including open houses, student performances and instrument donation drives.

Vincent and his wife Joann are also authors of a book called "88+ Ways Music Can Change Your Life" which features over 100 inspirational music stories from around the world, including a number of celebrities.

And as if that wasn't enough, Vincent is also the man behind LoveSongs.com, writing custom love songs on request.

In this conversation, we was keen to find out more about the musician behind these three fascinating and impressive projects. We talk about:

• The book "88+ Ways…" - what inspired him to take on such an ambitious project and how it came about. I also ask Vincent to share two of his favourite stories from the book.

• His experience writing custom love songs for couples and his advice to all budding songwriters.

• The two nationwide events he's organised, partnering with over 600 music schools and stores across the US, to promote music learning.

And Vincent shares the biggest lesson that comes through all of these projects and successes which you can apply to your own musical life.

We've really loved reading a story or two from 88+ Ways each day recently, it's a great way to stay aware of and inspired by the incredible power of music in our world. Between the stories Vincent shares in this conversation and the events he has coming up in 2018 that you can get involved in, you're going to come away from this one feeling uplifted and inspired too.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 050

Links and Resources

• KeepMusicAlive.org

• KidsMusicDay.org

• TeachMusicWeek.org

• "So Many Things", by Vincent James

• 88+ Ways Music Can Change Your Life

• Interview with Sara Campbell

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049: About Arranging Music Feb 22, 2018

Show notes

Arranging music is not nearly as complex as its name may lead you to believe - if you've ever plunked out the chords to your favourite song on the piano and sang along, you've already done it! In this episode of the Musicality Podcast, we discuss the elements involved in arranging music, and why you (yes, you!) should take a whack at it.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 049

Links and Resources

• Interview with Brad Davis

• Arranging for Songwriters

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048: Doubling Down on Your Craft, with Brad Davis Feb 20, 2018

Show notes

Today we're talking with Brad Davis, a guitar icon in the world of country and bluegrass music. As you'll hear on this episode, Brad has had an amazing career. As a go-to stage and session player in Nashville he's played on Grammy-winning albums and worked with artists like Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Earl Scruggs, Emmy Lou Harris and Johnny Cash. He's also an artist in his own right, recording critically-acclaimed albums under his own name and writing songs that have been recorded by well-known artists like Tim McGraw and Billy Bob Thornton.

With that resumé you might be expecting a lot of swagger and pride - but Brad is one of the most down-to-earth and humble musicians we've had the pleasure of meeting. We found that really inspiring.

This episode is a bit longer than most because there was just so much to learn from Brad. We talk about how he got started and what it took to rise rapidly through the ranks and perform with some of the biggest names in the world. How he was forging his own path from the beginning and how to do that without getting lost and stalling out like so many who try to go their own way do.

He also shared a lot of killer insights for the guitarists in our audience, like

• How and why his "double down up" guitar technique can be like adding a second language alongside the traditional "down up" technique. Don't miss the videos we'll have in the shownotes to see this in action!

• How he's able to hone in on exactly the right region of the strings for his right hand to bring out the best sound on any guitar.

• Which of your two hands is the most important to train on technique - and even as a busy recording artist and record producer he's still doing this 15 minutes every day himself.

The conversation is quite a blend of guitar specifics and deep insights on career and collaboration in music - so if you're not a guitarist yourself please don't be put off - and in fact if you pay attention, a lot of Brad's comments about guitar can be highly instructive for any musician.

Oh, and don't miss Brad revealing the embarrassing nickname he earned around Nashville - and why!

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 048

Links and Resources

• Brad Davis's website

• The Rhythm Pick Pattern

• The Double-Down Up Technique

• The Brad Bender device

• Brad's bluegrass tribute to George Jones

• Brad's YouTube channel

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