Author: musicalitywrld

Christopher: Today we have another episode of Meet The Team, and I’m super excited to introduce a team member from our Admissions Team here at Musical U, Mark Hanna.

We’re going to be diving into a bit about his musical backstory, his role on the team, and his tips on improving your own musicality. Here we go!

So, Mark, thank you so much for joining us on the show today. Say a quick hello to our audience.

Mark: Hi, guys!

Christopher: I have been looking forward to this one because not only are you one of my favourites, and it’s always great chatting with you, I think the Admissions Team is a relatively new part of our team here at Musical U and a lot of people don’t really know what that means and what you guys might do. At the same time, we have lots of people who’ve spent extensive time on the phone with you but might never have put a face to the name!

So I’m excited to have this chance to introduce you.

And as you know, we love to kick off with the big intimidating question of “what does musicality mean to you?”

Mark: Thanks, Christopher. This is always a head-scratcher for me, because I find that when I try to articulate what I feel about musicality, or the word musicality, I overthink it, and it kind of becomes something too convoluted, and maybe I even lose the original meaning of the word.

So when I try to detach myself from what it actually means, I always circle back to something that stems from within, something that comes from inside and is governed or at least accompanied by some kind of emotion.

It can be happiness or joy. It could be pain. It could be love or even anger.

And musicality also, sometimes it’s easier to think of something it’s not. Like it’s not mechanical or robotic. It flows. It’s natural.

Those are some of the associations I get from musicality.

And because it’s something that stems from the inside, I also associate it with something that needs to be uncovered rather than something that’s been gifted to certain individuals. Because it comes from the inside.

It’s innate.

Christopher: Awesome. I love that.

And has that always been your perspective? Or tell us a little bit about how you’ve related to that word over the years, where you’ve come from as a musician.

Mark: Yeah, it ties a little bit into how I got started with music. I just remember growing up, I didn’t grow up in a musical family, so to speak.

Nobody played music or even did a lot of singing. So I always just assumed that people who played instruments, I remember seeing them in school when I was maybe eight to ten years old, and I would just assume certain people were meant to play those things. The guitarists, the bassists. And the recorder that we all play was just to keep us engaged and maybe annoy some people, especially the adults that were in charge of the class. So yeah.

Christopher: I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Mark! Recorder is an annoying instrument?! You just offended a whole lot of professional recorder players in our audience.

Mark: Yeah, unfortunately, we didn’t use them that well and we weren’t really instructed. Anyways, that soprano recorder, that if you play it well, it sounds beautiful, but when you’re just handing it out to a bunch of kids and let them free roam, the results are thereafter.

Christopher: That’s fair. That’s definitely fair! I think I’ve done an episode or two in the past about why piano and guitar are not good starter instruments for kids.

And you know, you’re right. Like giving a kid a recorder, it’s so hard just to make one note sound good. And I got my, one of my kids a tin whistle and found the same thing too. I thought it would be nice and easy for her, but even just like covering up the holes properly with your finger.

Anyway, that’s a conversation for another day! But fair enough, fair enough. You have clarified, we have unoffended the recorder crowd! Continue!

Mark: Yeah. In fact, later in life, I got a recorder again and was able to produce very beautiful sounds.

So it’s definitely not the instrument, it was definitely on us, and maybe how it was approached at that time.

So, yeah, certainly my approach to the word musicality has changed during the years because I just assumed there was really reserved for certain individuals in the past.

Christopher: But at the same time, you persisted with music and you went on to play mostly guitar, am I right?

Mark: Yeah. So here’s where it gets really interesting: I had no idea that I would ever pick up an instrument.

I think I was 17, and just by pure chance, a friend of the family asked me if I had ever considered playing guitar because he was thinking about picking it up along with his daughter, a classmate of mine. So I said, why not?

And I remembered I had this beaten up electric guitar that my brother had given me and it was missing one string. And I went to replace that one string – instead of replacing all the strings like I should have!

And I took that beat-up electric guitar with me and we started playing, you know, the most simple chords and small riffs. And I had friends that could show me a riff or a song here and there.

But yeah, that was the beginning, and, that really captured me and made me really focus on this new world of guitar.

I even convinced my dad to get me an acoustic guitar that could stay in tune and I could start really working on.

And from there, I was just smitten with the idea of especially guitar, and that became a gateway into musicality, so kind of a pure chance for me.

Christopher: That’s awesome. And tell us how your music interests have developed over the years or what you’re up to these days.

Mark: Yeah. So I must admit, I kind of went overboard with the guitar once I just found it, it was like a new love.

I really connected with that Prince song “Guitar” when he says “I love you, babe, but just not like I love my guitar”! And I probably ruined a couple of relationships by just not being present and just dedicating too much of my attention to guitar.

And I remember having to choose between doing my homework or actually playing guitar, and the guitar would win nine out of ten times. So throughout the, especially the high school, college years, I would gig a lot.

I found a couple of bands to play with, one of them being a trio, where we would go out and play gigs almost every week, sometimes every second week, local clubs and bars.

And that’s where I really got thrown into the mix of playing live music and found a great pleasure and great sense of joy of especially playing improvised lines, improvised guitar, and also trying to take care of all the harmonic filler along with one other bass player.

That was one of the great challenges of playing just three people. You have to kind of stretch. And I was suffering a lot rhythmically, which was one of my big weaknesses at the time, along with an untrained ear or uncoordinated ear. So there were a lot of things to do there.

And I think that’s when Musical U, a lot of years after, came into the picture to kind of fill that void.

But my guitar playing went through phases, so I would always play at home, no matter what. It was my therapy. If I had a stressful day at work or doing something else, I would always come back to the electric guitar or the acoustic guitar, sometimes improvise something or come up with song ideas.

I would write songs, write lyrics, but I would never sing them because I shied away from singing, had too many negative experiences with singing growing up, and I thought that, again, I was kind of limited in my beliefs about learning to sing, so I kind of shied away from that.

But I would just love writing music and playing guitar and actually wanted to sing it, but I often had other people sing the songs I wrote.

Christopher: Awesome, yeah.

And I had the pleasure of watching a video of you performing one of your songs recently, a very inspiring track about a seagull! So I have enjoyed the fruits of that labour.

And you mentioned there discovering Musical U. I’m trying to remember, because, as you know, we kind of have two strands to what we do, the musicality side and the superlearning side, and we do weave them together very much. But typically someone comes to us for one or for the other.

I was trying to remember which of them you came to us for originally, because you dived into both. But can you remember?

Mark: Yeah, it’s actually interesting. I first caught wind of Musical U because there was something talking a little bit about the active listening part, which was kind of my gateway, along with the Foundations, which turned out to be Living Music because I went for the whole package. And that’s the real first experience.

It was actually, instead of doing the sensible thing and going to the Spring season, I ended up going to Winter season because it was about to start a live one. And that’s where I got my feet wet.

And I was amazed because I knew a lot of the so-called theory behind it. But the way we do things in Winter and the way it was presented meant that I was connecting my ears to things. I was experiencing the sounds. I wasn’t just reading about them or understanding them intellectually, I was actually experiencing.

So I had my first “aha” moment where I could tell just by the sheer mood if we were going left or right in the circle of fifths. And that was an “aha” moment. It was like, okay, so I’m not tone deaf, I can actually hear these things.

Christopher: That’s awesome. And just for a bit of context, for anyone who doesn’t know, the Winter season of Living Music is focused on the circle of fifths, but as a gateway to really all of theory relating to pitch. So keys and scales and chords as well.

And it’s funny that you dived in there. It’s not typically people’s first choice, because it can seem a bit intimidating, but I’m glad you had that experience because that was our exact goal, is to actually make it really playful and exploratory and fun. And I’m relieved because some people might have turned the other way. Awesome. Cool.

And I mentioned at the beginning, the Admissions Team is probably a little bit mysterious to a lot of people because obviously our main membership, you can just come and sign up and become a member. Talk a little bit, if you would, about your role on the team, what you do in the Admissions Team.

Mark: Yeah, it’s a really interesting and exciting role I’ve gotten here at Musical U with the Admissions Team because we have this wonderful coaching program, which, to be fair, isn’t all that old, I think it’s a couple of years in. And it’s amazing. It’s just an amazing opportunity to work very closely with a musical expert at Musical U, so one of our fantastic coaches.

I’ve learned so much from them personally, and here our applicants and the future members of Next Level have the opportunity to work very closely with one of them, to work on something specific that they want to achieve. And that’s what I love about Next Level. It’s such a personal program that is tailored to what you want to achieve in music and things you might have already decided is impossible, outside your reach, and then that becomes the possible.

And that is one of the most amazing thing about the Next Level.

So my role is trying to find the best match. That’s it.

That’s the most precise way I would describe it. Find people that were a good fit for the program and where I can see that the program is totally aligned with their goals.

So I have these quite long interviews, it can easily be 90 minutes or sometimes even a couple of hours of conversation just to make sure that there’s a good fit and that I understand what this person, this musician is trying to accomplish.

Christopher: Awesome. Yeah, well put. And I think, you know, it’s probably clear from Mark’s manner, but when he says it might be a two hour conversation, this is not a grueling two hours, where we’re drilling you with a light shining in your face! You know, it can run that long just because there is so much to talk about.

And in those conversations, and I’ve done some of them myself as part of that Admissions process, it’s really just such a fun opportunity to go deep with someone on their musical background and what they’re up to and, like, their deepest dreams in music and then talk a little bit about the program and whether it would be a fit and figure out together, is this the right opportunity?

And you and Nic together do such a great job of that. I think our coaches are regularly praising you both for just finding these incredible people and really making sure that the people coming into Next Level are set up for total success in the program.

And you also have the opportunity sometimes to talk to new members coming in, right?

Christopher: Yeah. So, a while ago, I think you really saw the need for new members to kind of hit the ground running when they got into our regular memberships and just to try to help them focus on what will give them the best bang for their buck.

Like, how will they progress as quickly as possible without feeling overwhelmed by the riches that they’re embarking in? There are so many options, and we don’t want people to get lost in “that program, or should I do this?” And then they hop from one thing to the other, and they don’t really get the full benefit of either.

So having this conversation with new members on what to focus on, but also to identify if there is something else we could offer them. Sometimes just pointing them to a specific masterclass in our masterclass section is just what they need to overcome something very specific. And some have even considered doing something else, like taking a program where they can get a little more support. But the main focus is just having that personal, welcoming touch and help them get the most out of the program.

And those conversations are equally fascinating, even if they’re on the shorter side.

Christopher: Absolutely, yeah.

And it’s not something we can do for every new incoming member! But I think typically at the moment when people sign up for an annual plan, we include it as a special welcome. And I think it just, as you say, we always try and make the site as easy to use and DIY as possible.

But to get to talk to a human being for 20 or 30 minutes and really get that personalised guidance – clearly, with the raving feedback we get about those calls, shows how much of an impact it has for people. And, yeah, for my part, I just, you know, you said I had the idea. I think it was just that I saw how good you and Nic were at connecting with people and guiding them. And I was like “I kind of want to give this to everyone!” And we can’t quite do that, but I’m really pleased we found a way to slot that in and get more people that kind of assistance.

So what would be your favourite thing to do in your role at Musical U?

Mark: It’s such a hard question to answer because I think it’s the interaction with our clients, especially people that apply for Next Level, where I have really a better chance to get to know them. I think one of my favourite moments is when they realise that you don’t need permission to become a musician or somebody who has musicality. It’s a choice that you make.

It’s not something that is governed or controlled by any external source or power, you can choose to become a musical person or uncover that innate ability. And when that dawns on people, the amount of joy, the amount of confidence that they exhibit after making that realization, it just makes my role that more enjoyable, because I can see that these limiting beliefs that I’ve held myself about myself and about others are starting to dissipate, and they just allow themselves to feel that joy that comes from and that freedom that comes with becoming more musical.

So that would be one big thing.

Christopher: Awesome, yeah.

It’s funny how quickly things get deep for some people at Musical U! And particularly in the context of the Next Level. But, you know, we all care about music so much, and our dreams matter so much to us, even if we’re not ready to acknowledge that yet, that, as you say, when people have that shift to starting to really allow themselves to believe and allow themselves to step into that greater opportunity, it’s incredible to see it. Like it’s genuinely life-changing for them.

And you are someone who’s had the chance – I should have found the number beforehand, but – you’ve probably spoken to 100? 200? Probably 200-plus people at this point in your role in the Admissions Team and those welcome calls, as well as having been a member of Musical U yourself.

And so I’m curious to know what would be something strange or unusual or a little bit left-field that you found is really impactful for people in developing their musicality and helping them along that musical journey. If you could offer one tip or technique or some suggestion.

Mark: This is probably one of the hardest questions to answer, because obviously everything inside Musical U is like, we have a bounty of tips that will help, including the superlearning techniques. And every time we have a masterclass that shows a little bit, little tip that we can provide, like taking short breaks when you’re practicing.

But I think it has to be, for me, still really making use of audiation. Making use of something that you don’t necessarily think will work, like kind of visualising yourself playing.

And I know it because when people try it, our members try it, or when I do it, it just makes everything more accessible. And also, I find that one of the main issues that a lot of music learners mentioned to me on these calls is I try to learn these things, and before I learn them and try to learn something else, I forget this first one, or I can’t seem to memorise.

I have a bad memory. I’m probably getting too old for this. And it’s often just the way they learn things.

Oftentimes we’re caught in this mass repetition cycles. We’re just practicing things over and over again. It’s not really conducive to memorising things. That’s not how the brain works.

So I can just mention, just as an example, I had to learn ten songs in the autumn over a span of two weeks, joining a new band, and to not play the riff A and song B, but kind of keep things separated in my mind. Visualising myself playing this in my head over and over again, along with actually doing the practical application of our superlearning techniques that we find on the page, allowed me to learn these and never have to bring any sheet music, any chord diagrams, just bring my guitar, show up and know the songs like they were my own.

That’s where we want to get to. And then you can also start experimenting and changing things up.

Christopher: Fantastic. Really great tips there. And I love that you connected audiation with both the memorising and the singing.

You know, when we were writing the audiation chapter for the musicality book, I was really keen to spell out those two things in particular because, you know, one of those really common breakthroughs for people in the membership is when they’re working on learning to sing. Just the simple idea of, you know, you play a note, you’re going to try and replicate, and then before you go to sing it, just take a second, hear it in your head, imagine yourself singing it, and now sing it. And it’s just like almost immediate effect every time, fixing the intonation.

And as you say, memorisation, that mental play and that mental practice is just phenomenal. So thank you. Really awesome tips people can take away and try in their own music making.

Mark, thank you so much for joining us on the show today! I know it’s just a quick mini-interview, but it gives people a glimpse. And as I said, especially for those who’ve talked to you at length, I’m sure they’re excited to hear more about your own musical background and story and for anyone in our wider audience to get that sense of what the Admissions Team are up to and what they’re doing and what it might mean to book a call with Mark or with Nic.

So thank you so much. Any parting words of wisdom for our audience today?

Mark: No, just that if you’re considering applying for Next Level and you were, that we expect something from you, I’ll just say that I can’t count the number of emails I’ve had from persons that looked into it, and it didn’t turn out to be a fit, but they just wanted to send me a message saying that they really got a lot of out of that interview, the clarity that they got.

So it’s never a waste of time. We always make sure that you get something from it, and in a way, it inspires you to keep on going, and it will help your motivation. But it also, it’s always just a pleasure for me, the highlight of my day is connecting with people all over the world who have this common interest.

Christopher: 100%, yeah.

And we get a lot of those comments about both you and Nic on the Admissions Team. I don’t think people would realise that even though it is a next level Admissions call and it’s part of the application process, whether they go for it or not, whether it turns out to be a fit or not, the chance to speak to an expert like yourself, who’s talked to so many people and really unpack your musical life and your journey and where you’re trying to get to it is invaluable, I think.

And that’s part of why I wanted to take a little bit of it and put it in that welcome call for new incoming members.

Thank you so much, Mark!

I’m going to be back tomorrow with our next episode. We have a fantastic Coaches Corner episode to wrap up the week.

That’s it for this one. Cheers! And go make some music!

If you’ve been hearing about this new Musicality book and wondering what exactly it’s going to cover, your wait is over!

Today I’m going to go through the book chapter by chapter and share with you exactly what you’ll find inside.

It has been so exciting seeing so many of you registering early interest in the Musicality book over at musicalitybook.com

Thank you to everyone who’s signed up there so far. It’s been really fun for me to share these little sneak peeks into the book with you on these “Inside The Book” episodes.

And I just want to say thank you for all of the excitement and support. It has been an enormous project. In the first “Inside The Book” episode, I talked a bit about that, how this has turned into a mammoth thing, and I’m so eager now to get this epic book into your hands.

This one here, this is my first preview copy. We’re actually working on the real cover design right now this week, and I don’t think it’s going to be as black as this! I don’t think it’s going to be as plain as this. But I won’t say any more, just that now we’re hoping to have that design.

Actually, I might do a survey of you guys once we’ve narrowed it down to a few options. I would love to get everyone’s feedback and make that decision together, but stay tuned for more about that.

I can’t wait to see what the actual book is going to look like. If you go to musicalitybook.com right now, today you’ll see the mock-up of the book cover, but it’s not actually going to look like that. Depending on when you watch this episode, though, the real cover might be live, that page might have it, and I’m excited to see it myself.

With all that being said, I know that a lot of you who are excited for the book have also been really curious to know more about what is going to be inside, particularly if you’re a longstanding member of Musical U or you’ve been following our stuff for years.

You might be curious, like “why a book? What’s in the book? How’s it different? What is it going to do for me? How is it going to help me?”

And this week we’ve been working on the pre-order page for the book. And depending on when you watch this episode, that may already be live at musicalitybook.com.

Right now, there’s just a very simple page with an email opt-in to learn more about the book, but we’re going to have the pre-order page up. I’m not going to say when, but very soon!

As I wrote the little synopsis for each chapter to go on that page, I found myself getting more and more excited, and it made me want to share that with you today, sooner rather than later, so that you’re going to know exactly what you can expect when this book is released.

So in today’s episode, I want to just run through that chapter-by-chapter breakdown for you and share with you a little bit about exactly what’s in each chapter of the book.

So let’s jump on over to that. And here we go.

So kicking off, as we tend to do, with an introduction. And in the introduction chapter, you’ll learn about where this book came from, the extensive experience of the full Musical U team and author Christopher Sutton’s (that’s me!) own journey from frustrated music learner to discovering how to unlock his own true musical potential through musicality training.

You’ll also get guidance on how best to go through the book, depending on your personal goals and priorities.

And just to say, because we’re not peeking into that chapter, I’ll say it as a side note here. I think I mentioned actually in the first “Inside The Book” episode, it was tricky.

With the first draft of the book, when we first put it together, it felt really dry and textbook-like. And it took me a while to realise it’s because when we’re at our best at Musical U, we’re doing things in a really personal way. And I realised actually, this couldn’t be a dry textbook. It had to have some of that personal energy, some of that storytelling, some of that explanation on a personal level of where all of this stuff came from.

And so originally, I wasn’t going to be the named author of the book, and it was all going to be written in kind of the abstract. But as it’s developed more in that direction, it’s become so much more vivid and enjoyable to read, I think.

And so I’m excited to be the author. But to be clear, it says in that Introduction chapter just how much credit is due to the entire Musical U team. Not just the current team, but team members in the past, and everyone who’s contributed to our stuff over the years. So I just want to highlight that although I’m named as the author here, this project, this book has come from the extensive experience of so many people, not least our head educator, Andrew Bishko, and everyone on the Education team.

So hat-tip to them. And just to know, even though it’s written in my voice, it is very much a team project.

So then, on to Part I. The book split into three parts.

In part one, we cover six fundamental topics and skills. These are the foundation on which everything else is built.

Get these right and everything will flow more easily. Without these, everything you do in music will be far harder and slower than it needs to be.

And just to say, as a side note, when looking at the table of the contents for the book, it kind of gets more and more exciting as you go, I think. So we start out with these kind of broad foundational skills, and then by the end of the book, we’re getting into the really juicy stuff, like improvising and writing songs and so on. And that is the natural progression of things in terms of explanation and building on each other.

But something else that’s mentioned in the introduction, when it says here, you’ll get guidance on how best to go through the book.

We really carefully designed it so that it’s as flexible as, you know, our longstanding members will know we love to make our training.

We know that not everyone wants to start at step one and go through step-by-step to step 100. Not everyone wants to cover every topic.

And so we’ve actually managed to write the book in a way that you can really pick and choose. So Part I covers these foundational skills, and they’re things we do recommend everyone skill-up on because they make everything else easier and faster.

But just for your awareness, I’m going to run through, like 18 or 19 chapters here. You don’t need to read them all in order. You can really select what’s most exciting to you, what’s most appealing. And then, of course, they do cross reference, and if you do go through it from a to z, you’ll get the most out of it. But it’s definitely a book that you can dip into, pick and choose, and come back to multiple times to fill in other pieces for yourself.

So:

Chapter one, Musicality.

We begin by exploring what musicality means. We all have some understanding of what’s implied by that word and what it means to be very musical or to have great musicality.

But if we are to develop our own musicality, we need to define exactly what we mean by that word and the specific ingredients which contribute to having greater or more advanced musicality.

Through sharing a range of definitions from a variety of musicians and music educators, we paint a picture of what musicality can be. This is then distilled down into 15 specific skills, ranging from playing by ear through having good rhythm, singing in tune, creating your own music, reading notation, understanding music theory, and more.

We introduced the concepts of “The Complete Musician”, Three Musical Cores, and the H4 Model Of Complete Musicality, equipping you with an easy and clear way to both assess your current musicality and clearly define what your ideal future musicality would be.

Chapter two, Musical Mindset.

It’s clear from working with tens of thousands of adult music learners that developing the right mindset for music learning is one of the highest-leverage things you can focus on. The average adult learner is constantly tripping themselves up with limiting beliefs, misconceptions, and wide ranging lack of clarity about their musical journey. With the right set of mindsets, anything becomes possible for you.

In this chapter, you’ll set your “Big Picture Vision”, which becomes your north star, guiding everything you do in your music learning going forwards. You’ll discover the four Pillar Beliefs, which run through everything we do and teach at Musical U, and how each one of them can empower you as a musician.

We debunk the “talent myth” once and for all, to make sure you know with certainty that anything you’ve dreamed of in music can indeed be possible for you. And we introduce four special mindsets you can adopt, which each remove blockers and limitations and ensure you keep moving forwards quickly and joyfully in your music learning.

Chapter three, Audiation.

The first of the practical skills we cover is the ability to vividly imagine music in your mind’s ear. When you can conjure up clear and detailed music in your head, it becomes a powerful and versatile tool to be used throughout your musical life.

In this chapter, you’ll learn about this important skill, the myriad ways it helps you in different areas of music, its connection to musical memory and to singing, and you’ll learn the three levels of audition ability and how you can develop each in turn.

And quick side note here. Anytime I talk about audiation publicly, I feel like I need to kind of acknowledge and wave to the Music Learning Theory crowd. People who follow Edwin Gordon’s approach.

He coined this term audiation, and I just want to acknowledge there is a particular definition of audiation and a particular way of teaching audiation in that realm, in Music Learning Theory that is very structured and detailed in a particular way.

We do it a bit differently at Musical U. We’ve come to find that treating that word as just the auditory equivalent of visualisation is really helpful for people to just know “it means imagining music in your mind”. And we’ve come up with our own ways to gradually develop your audiation ability.

So I just want to say, even though we’re using that word, which some people are a bit possessive of and protective of, no disrespect or shade to how that crowd use the word and what they do, we do it a bit differently.

And in this chapter, we’re talking about audiation as that general idea of imagining music, and then we break it down in our own way and show you how to learn it and get more sophisticated with it.

Chapter four, Singing.

Singing is every human’s first instrument, and although most musicians don’t necessarily consider themselves to be “a singer”, and the prospect of singing can stir up a lot of emotional resistance, we found that singing is a universal accelerator for your music learning.

Fortunately, there is no need to become the next Pop Idol superstar! The level of singing ability required to reap the significant benefits is far lower than you might imagine. In this chapter, we present the four reasons you might currently think you can’t sing or are even “tone deaf”, and walk you through a clear and simple series of exercises to start getting comfortable with your singing voice “as a tool”. You’ll learn to comfortably, confidently, and reliably sing in tune so that you can start using singing throughout your music, learning to improve your results and bring musical ideas out from inside you directly.

So we did two previous episodes of “Inside The Book” coming from that singing chapter, I’ll put a link to those in the shownotes to give a little sneak peek of what’s covered there if you want to know more about that one in particular.

Continuing then with the Part I chapters.

Chapter five, Active Listening.

The next foundational skill is active listening, the ability to dissect and decipher music you hear, understanding each component and how they all fit together. When you develop this skill, music comes to life in a whole new way. Not only can you increase your musicality solely through listening to music, you enhance your ability to create, play, and perform music yourself.

In this chapter, you’ll learn more about the benefits of active listening and the simple approach we’ve developed of “listening with a question in mind”. Along with the 4-dimensional Active Listening™ framework, which makes it easy to analyze any music you hear in as much depth and detail as you wish. Through a series of exercises and question lists, you’ll be guided through practicing active listening using any music you are learning, or even your favorite tracks.

Chapter six, Superlearning.

Over the past 20 years, the academic research into the neuroscience of learning has proven conclusively that seemingly-gifted musicians who learn significantly faster than everyone else, are simply practicing in a different way.

In this chapter, you’ll be introduced to the specific superlearning techniques for music practice, which let you learn and memorise music at up to ten times the normal speed. These are often strange and even counterintuitive, but when you start to practice in this way, you can make dramatically faster progress with even less practice time.

These techniques work for absolutely anybody, and once you’ve adopted this very different way of practicing, it will accelerate everything you work on in music for the rest of your life.

So that is Part I of the book, and hopefully you could appreciate, as I talk through those foundational skills, how much these will impact everything else, how far reaching they are.

You know, just to recap: that clear understanding of what musicality is, what it means to you, and what you aspire to achieve in your own musicality. Without that, you’re just wandering lost in the wilderness.

Musical mindset – it’s not a sexy topic, it’s not one most people would think to study, but it is the difference maker, particularly for adult learners, where we come with all of this baggage, psychologically and emotionally. There are these simple mindsets you can adopt and simple things you can do to really make sure you keep moving forwards fast.

And then audition, singing, active listening, and superlearning. Basically all of the stuff in Part III of the book where we’re getting into things like playing by ear, songwriting, performing, and so on, all of those come so much easier and faster if you’re baking in those four kind of “power tools”. If you’re using the super learning techniques to get more out of every minute you spend practicing. If you’re listening to really develop a sophisticated ear for everything you’re hearing and playing. If you’re singing as part of your music practice, even if you’re focused on playing an instrument. And if you’re audiating, if you’ve got ability to conjure up music really vividly and in detail in your mind. Hopefully you can imagine how each of those four make everything else go much quicker.

So Part II of the book, then.

In Part II, we explore the process of ear training and introduce a set of “building blocks” you can use to rapidly develop your musical ear. As you gain proficiency with these building blocks, leveraging the fundamental skills covered in Part I, you will unlock all of the skills explored in Part III of the book.

So this Part is kind of the bridge. It’s where we put in place the kind of nitty-gritty building blocks, really like the concrete, specific ear-related skills that enable you to do all of the practical stuff you’re probably most excited about being able to do.

So, chapter seven. We begin with a chapter on Ear Training.

Because the phrase “ear training” comes with a lot of baggage for most musicians, and even those who’ve studied the topic at university or conservatory level and passed all the requirements, still typically report dissatisfaction and disappointment with what they’re actually able to do with their musical ear.

And just side note, this was a surprise to me, in that I kind of discovered ear training and ventured into that world, really by myself in an isolated way. The Internet wasn’t what it was. I wasn’t studying at conservatory. And I thought it was just me.

I thought it was just me who was getting really good on paper at interval recognition or solfa or rhythm skills, but then really still couldn’t improvise or play by ear or do very much with it. I thought that was just, you know, me again lacking talent.

But over the years at Musical U, it’s been fascinating just how many people come to us who are graduates – I won’t name names – but, like, graduates of some of the top music schools in the world. And they’re like “I hated ear training. I passed all the tests. In theory, I got good at it. I still can’t improvise. I still can’t really play by ear”.

And so just to really underscore that point, like, this is really common, and that was the point of this chapter, really, because if you do it in a different way, you can completely avoid that pitfall.

So in this chapter, we present the Integrated Ear Training™ approach, which not only lets you develop concrete skills faster and more enjoyably, it also ensures that every step forwards you take in ear training results in real, practical abilities you can benefit from in your everyday musical life.

Chapter eight, Relative Pitch.

Everything you want to do by ear related to note pitches can be done by developing your sense of relative pitch, including naming or playing notes and chords by ear, choosing notes when improvising, transcribing music by ear, and more.

In this chapter, we cover the difference between relative pitch and absolute (or “perfect”) pitch, and how relative pitch enables you to accomplish anything pitch-related you want to. We introduce the idea of a pitch contour and explore how the three building blocks covered in subsequent chapters allow you to refine this contour by recognizing notes and chords by ear. Finally, we explain a step by step process for finding the key of any song or piece of music by ear.

And I suppose I should explain. Maybe we should update this text a little bit. But if you’ve never come across that term “relative pitch”, you’ve probably heard of perfect pitch, maybe absolute pitch. Relative pitch is just interpreting note pitches relative to the key or relative to other notes. It’s all about the relationships between note pitches rather than the absolute letter names.

So you’re thinking in terms of solfa or intervals or chord numerals, like the Nashville numbering system, or you might know the Roman numeral system for chords. It’s all about those relationships.

And this chapter talks a little bit about how the beauty of that is it matches how our ear actually interprets note pitches. That’s how we understand music we hear, and it is music to us. If we could only hear in absolute pitch with no sense of those relationships, music would be nonsense to us.

And so relative pitch, I think some people kind of see it as a “lesser than” compared to perfect pitch. You know, perfect pitch is this weird magical ability some people seem to be born with. But actually, it turns out relative pitch lets you do everything you want to do.

And there’s a whole section in that chapter about “can you learn perfect pitch?” (The short answer is “no, not really”) But you don’t need to, because relative pitch lets you do everything you’ve probably been dreaming of.

So I might update that text a little bit before this goes live, just to spell out what we mean by relative pitch.

So then on to the first three building blocks, which are the pitch-related ones.

Chapter nine, Solfa.

Solfa, also known as solfege or the do-re-mi system for naming notes, isn’t just some cute idea from The Sound Of Music. In fact, it’s a way of thinking about the notes of the scale, which perfectly matches how the ear naturally hears musical pitches.

In this chapter, we explore the benefits of solfa, how it works, and provide a learning sequence and a set of exercises you can use to gradually develop a robust ability to recognize notes by ear and produce them with your voice or on your instrument.

Chapter 10, Intervals.

Although intervals are often start with ear training, they are in fact one of the most challenging and confusing topics when taught in the traditional way.

In this chapter, we we’ll introduce a simple and natural way to approach learning interval recognition, explore how it relates to and can be combined with solfa, and present a learning sequence and set of exercises you can use to gradually develop a robust ability to recognize different intervals in music.

Chapter 11, Chord Progressions.

Intervals and Solfa can both be used directly to help you recognise chords and chord progressions by ear, but dedicating some attention specifically to developing your ear for harmony will produce much faster progress.

In this chapter, we’ll explore the topic of chord progressions from a relative pitch perspective, relating it to our solfa and interval building blocks and covering the most common chord progressions and how to start recognizing and playing them by ear.

And just a side note, you might be wondering at this point, you know, we’re talking about exercises and learning sequences. It’s been one of the most challenging parts of writing this book is figuring out what and how to provide in terms of practical exercises.

Because in the context of Musical U membership or our courses, everything’s multimedia and it can be very much, you know “listen to this, answer a question”, “listen to this, here are some examples”.

And obviously in a book, in a printed book, we can’t do quite that same thing!

But we’ve come up with some really elegant workarounds and ways to let you improve in a practical sense purely with the book in your hand.

So it’s not about a whole ton of notation and lots of, you know, go play this on your instrument. We’ve really taken advantage of some of the techniques we developed in our eat training material at Musical U, which are very practical and very exploratory.

And it means each of these chapters genuinely can help you master these skills, even if you’re not a member and even if you don’t have access to our more kind of interactive multimedia resources. So I’m really excited for how that’s going to work.

So those are the three chapters on our pitch building blocks.

Then chapter 12, The Beat.

Underlying all musical rhythm is the beat or pulse of the music. Musicians tend to take this for granted, but that frequently results in a weak connection to the beat or an inaccurate ability to keep the beat.

In this chapter, we’ll explore different ways of connecting with the beat so that you have a reliable inner metronome and accurate ability to synchronise with or create your own musical beat.

This is an awesome chapter, I’m really excited that we have that chapter before we move on to rhythm. Just to dedicate a whole chapter to the beat, I think is so powerful. And we’ve been seeing more and more at Musical U how that is overlooked and missing for people.

They’re so focused on the rhythms or not even thinking about the rhythms, so focused on the pitches, playing the “right notes” that actually the notes aren’t quite at the right time, and their sense of that inner metronome, that steady pulse, is not quite there.

And so that chapter, I think, is going to be really impactful for people.

Chapter 13, Rhythm.

A musician’s ear for rhythm is typically more capable by default than their pitch skills. For example, more musicians can clap back a rhythm they hear than could sing back or name a series of note pitches they heard. However, rhythmic accuracy and an ability to deeply understand and be creative with rhythm is a significant part of what sets a great performance apart from a mediocre one.

In this chapter, we’ll explore both the beat counting and rhythm syllables approaches to developing your rhythmic abilities, enabling you to sight-read rhythmic notation easily transcribe rhythmic patterns you hear and tune into your instinct for rhythmic creativity.

Then on to Part III.

In Part III of the book, we use the foundational skills and building blocks from Parts I and II to enable several musical abilities typically associated only with “talented” or “gifted” musicians: improvising freely and creatively, playing music entirely by earning writing or composing your own distinctive and satisfying music, playing with powerful expression and performing in a way that connects deeply with your audience.

Side note there, that makes it sound a little bit like there’s no payoff until you get to Part III – that is absolutely not the case! In fact, if you only read Part I of the book, the superlearning chapter alone would transform your musicality forever and your musical progress forever. If all you took away from part one was audiation or active listening or mindset. Any of those Part I chapters can have a life-changing effect. So don’t think that you need to wait until Part III to start feeling talented or gifted. But Part III is where it really starts to get exciting, I think.

Chapter 14, Improvisation.

Musical creativity is mysterious to many and often over-romanticised, making it hard to know whether you have what it takes to be creative or how to develop your musical creativity. Perhaps the epitome of this is improvisation, being able to conjure up your own great-sounding music on-the-fly. The traditional methods of teaching improvisation based on strict rules and patterns or some memorised “vocabulary”, they provide the illusion of creativity, but result in samey-sounding solos and little of the self expression and fulfillment that truly free improvisation can provide.

In this chapter, you’ll be introduced to the Expansive Creativity™ framework for unlocking your natural creativity. Through the concepts of “Constraints and Dimensions” and musical “Playgrounds”, you’ll be able to gradually start expressing your own musical ideas, sounding great, and feeling creative from day one and leading to total musical freedom. With the “Play-Listen, Listen-Play” feedback loop you’ll become your own best teacher, letting you have fun improving your improvising day by day.

Chapter 15, Playing By Ear.

If you have ever felt trapped on the sheet music or frustrated by always needing to run off to find the notation, tablature, or chord charts to be able to play something new, learning to play by ear can provide a wonderful and exciting escape.

In this chapter, you’ll learn the Play-By-Ear Process™, which transforms playing by ear from a magical all-or-nothing ability into a clear spectrum – from “figuring something out note by note” through to being able to play something easily and correctly immediately when you hear it. Leveraging the building blocks of Part II, you’ll discover how to tackle any and every part of a piece of music so that whether you want to just play the tune, or the bassline, or the chords, or the full arrangement, you’re ready and able to do it.

Chapter 16, Songwriting.

To write a song that stands the test of time – or even just something you wouldn’t mind letting other people hear – can seem out of reach to the average music learner. Our love and reverence for the great songwriters and composers of history can make it seem futile to even try to write something ourselves. And yet, if you’ve ever dreamed of writing your own music, you’ll know it’s a dream that’s hard to ever let go of.

Building on the same Expansive Creativity™ framework introduced for improvisation, and introducing song specific concepts such as lyrics and musical form, in this chapter, you’ll be led step-by-step through writing your first music and learn to gradually develop and refine your creations into something uniquely yours and which you’re proud to share.

Quick side note there, we’re calling it “songwriting”. The chapter is a bit focused on songs specifically, but hopefully you can imagine all of the same skills are at play to compose. So if you think of yourself more as wanting to compose music, this is all absolutely applicable, too.

Chapter 17, Expression.

We all know the difference between a dry, robotic, lifeless performance and music that’s played truly expressively, moving the listener with each and every note. Or do we? What exactly does it mean to “play with expression”, and how can you learn to do it?

In this chapter, we’ll use the same 4-Dimensional framework introduced for active listening to practice shaping a note and series of notes in each of the possible ways. You’ll develop your ear’s sophistication for appreciating and understanding all the expressive choices being made in the music you hear. And you’ll also develop your own instinctive ability to make those same choices on-the-fly any time you play or perform. You’ll learn to understand and speak the language of emotion in music, empowering you to play with deep, moving, personal expressiveness.

We did a previous “Inside The Book” episode peeking into that chapter, so I’ll put a link in the shownotes to that one if you’re curious to know more. I share that 4-Dimensional framework and some ideas for how you can start exploring that.

Chapter 18, last, but certainly not least, Performance.

What does it take to put on a truly memorable and moving musical performance? We know it’s more than just overcoming stage fright and managing to play the right notes, but it can be hard to get further than that.

In this chapter, you’ll be introduced to the three C’s of the Performance Free-Flow™ framework, which enable you to connect deeply with the music, with your instrument, with other musicians, and with your audience. All spellbinding performances are making use of each of these three C’s: Connection, Conversation, and Creativity. Through simple ideas and exercises, you will develop your own skills with each of these and discover how to put on spellbinding performances of your own each and every time.

And finally, a Conclusion chapter.

We wrap things up with a recap of what’s been covered and suggest a process you can use to continually review and improve your musicality going forwards, moving you closer and closer to your musical dreams each day.

So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed that run-through. That is the full table of contents for the Musicality book, and I hope you enjoyed getting a little preview of what’s in each and every chapter.

I would love to know which of those chapters sounded the juiciest and most exciting to you! Leave a comment whether you’re on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or if you’re on the audio podcast, drop me an email hello@musicalitynow.com. I would love to hear which of those chapters you’re most excited about.

Coming up next, we have our “Meet The Team” episode with Mark Hanna on our Admissions Team here at Musical U. I’m excited to have him with us tomorrow. If you are part of our live crew, just a heads up, that one is going to be two hours later than normal. It’s going to be two hours later than our normal time for these livestreams. So heads up on that. And then wrapping up the week with our next Coaches Corner episode. It’s a really good one. I’m psyched to share that with you on Saturday.

Until then, cheers! And go make some music!

Hey, are you a robot?

If you’re anything like me, you are sick and tired of answering those CAPTCHAs online, where you’re presented with a grid of images and you have to identify every one with a bicycle in or something.

And sometimes it’s easy, and sometimes it’s like “Well, that one has a handle, like a bit of a handlebar in. Does that count?”

And you click through, and then it gives you new images, and you go through, and you go through… and you start to second guess yourself. And you start to wonder “maybe I am a robot?!” right?

But what I want to talk about today is being a musical robot. What that means, how to spot it and what you can do about it.

So, I had a funny moment yesterday working with my daughter on piano. And I’ll just say, I seem to be coming up with a lot of examples with my kids recently, and I am not the kind of person who goes on and on about their kids normally. But I realised it’s because, you know, if you tune into our Coaches Corner episodes, our Next Level coaches share all of these amazing anecdotes and examples from their day-to-day coaching with a range of clients.

And I very intentionally did not put myself on the roster as a coach. And if you think that’s odd, please check out the previous episode “I am not your guru”. That’s one of many reasons I am not one of our Next Level coaches.

But it means that a lot of my day-to-day experience with teaching musicality and helping people understand actually these days is with my two kids. And so I hope you’ll forgive me for all of the examples of my kids!

But this was an interesting one because I was working on piano before school with my 8-year-old, and she did something that I see musicians do all the time, and I used to do all the time.

And it really reminded me that I wanted to talk about this topic because it’s such a biggie for a lot of people. And if that question of “have you ever felt like a musical robot?” hit home with you, I hope what I’m going to share today will really help you understand what’s going on and what you can do about it.

So, my daughter was working on that song from Frozen, “Do you want to build a snowman”. And she was doing what is totally normal in the piano world, which is to assume a position with your fingers, and your fingers are in a certain spot related normally to the scale or the key of the piece.

And what I watched her do was start to just really mechanically think about which fingers to twiddle, in which order. And I could watch as she stopped reading the notes on the page, and she clearly wasn’t listening, and she was just thinking about it’s this pattern of fingers.

And that’s not in itself a bad thing. That is part of learning piano fingering, and it’s fine.

But the danger and the trap and this real issue of becoming a musical robot is when that’s ALL that’s going on, right?

And so, you know, obviously not to criticise my daughter, she’s eight, and I’m there to teach her, but I kind of stopped her, and I was like “okay, hang on, hang on. Can we sing this phrase? Can you sing to me how it’s meant to go?” And just kind of got her back in touch with listening and thinking about the notes she was playing.

And it’s funny, this topic of being a robot. I feel like in the current age of burgeoning AI, there’s this whole other side topic that we’ll probably have to cover on another episode around, you know, artificial generation of music and the role of musicians in an age where computers can generate realistic sounding music on the fly.

There’s been a really interesting discussion going on in the members website about that topic, and whether it’s good or bad or how it affects the songwriting or composing you do, and so on. So I think we’ll probably cover that in a whole separate episode.

But just to say, I think it’s front of mind for a lot of people these days is, you know, what is the significance of our humanity or the soul in creativity and the uniqueness we bring as humans to this art, which until kind of now, was only really done to a proficient level by human beings.

And at the same time, this idea of being a musical robot has been with us from the beginning of Musical U and even before that, in Easy Ear Training, because in a nutshell, it’s the problem we most help people with.

You know, when we talk about musicality, it very much is the polar opposite of being a musical robot.

And a lot of people who come to us, when they talk about what they’ve been doing and how it’s been going, what they’re describing is someone who is really just feeling a bit unmusical, and they feel like they’re going through the motions and they’re getting the notes right, but they don’t actually feel like they’re bringing music out from inside them. And so we’ve been talking about this for a long time, and you know, what It looks like in practice is you sit down and you’re probably learning only from notation. You’re not using your ear very much.

The epitome of this these days drives me crazy. Again, a topic for another day. But you know, the instrument-learning apps.

And to be clear, I’m a big fan of apps. I love technology. But a lot of the current apps to help you learn an instrument are very robotic.

It’s like “when this light goes on on the screen, press this button with your finger” without any concept of how the music should sound or how to bring expression to it, or the kind of music you’re trying to make.

Anyway, just to say this has been a longstanding problem, now made worse with the instructions-on-screen apps that are essentially turning you into a music playing robot.

And we all know instinctively that’s not what music’s about, right?

And yet, when you learn purely from notation or a YouTube tutorial that’s showing you exactly where to put your fingers on guitar each and every moment, it’s so easy to lose sight of the actual music.

And that’s what was happening with my daughter. And it’s what happens to day after day for so many of the musicians who find their way to us at Musical U until they introduce the musicality side of things.

And so the result, unfortunately, is really a significant factor in why so many musicians, adults in particular, give up on music.

Because after day after day and week after week of getting the notes right and seemingly making progress, you’re left feeling a bit unnatural, a bit unmusical, and you start to question whether you’ve got what it takes.

Because even when you make progress on paper, you’re not feeling any more like a music-maker, you’re not feeling all that much more musical.

So, you know, coming back to that AI idea, people, I think, are really starting to question, what is the spark? Like do we think there is a difference between very convincing AI-generated music and a human being creating the music? Is it going to end up being indistinguishable? And if so, what does that mean for us as musicians?

But whether or not you have an opinion on that question, purely for yourself in your music making, I think this should always be front of mind: “what am I bringing to the music? How am I bringing my humanity, my personality, my unique sense of music and my instinct for music, how am I bringing that to the music?”

Because I think if you stop and ask yourself, you know, why am I learning my instrument, why am I trying to get better on guitar, on harmonica, on mountain dulcimer, whatever it may be. Why am I doing it? It’s almost certainly about self-expression, whether you’ve thought of it in those terms or not.

I think what drives us to pick up an instrument or start to sing or start to compose music in the first place is our love of music. And that doesn’t come from an intellectual place, right? It doesn’t come from wanting to tick boxes and pass grade exams and get the answers right.

It comes from that passion for music and that deep connection to music. So, yes, we want to get the notes right. Yes, we want to have proficient technique, and, yes, repetition is essential for learning and improving.

But really, we’re in it for the emotion, right? We’re in it for that deep feeling and that connection. That word “connection” comes up all the time at Musical U, that sense of connection to music, to other people, through our instrument.

And something we talk about quite a lot, is blurring the line between practice and performing.

Because the really painful thing that a lot of musicians stumble into is they practice robotically, mechanically. They kind of improve, in a sense. And then they go to perform, and it feels really lifeless, and it feels like they’re just trying to pass a test.

And we know that’s not what makes for a spellbinding performance, right?

In our Supernatural Performance course, or the Performance chapter of the forthcoming musicality book, we talk about connection as this central part of what makes for a great performance.

And we want to blur the lines between practicing and performing, because one way I like to put it is “if you practice like a robot, you’ll play like a robot”.

We somehow think that if we practice mechanically and robotically and we get all the answers right, then when it comes time to perform, we’ll magically bring this amazing performance out.

But actually, if we’ve never practiced doing that, if we’ve never thought about expression in the practice room, if we haven’t focused on that connection to music and the emotion of it and what we’re bringing to it as a human, we’re never going to play like that when it comes down to the wire.

So my challenge to you today, if any of this resonates, if you’ve ever felt a bit mechanical or you feel like you’re just going through the motions, or you feel like a robot, my challenge to you is when you next sit down to play music, when you next sit down to practice, even when you just sit down to listen to music: are you really there? Are you really present? What are you feeling? What emotions are you connecting with, and how are you connecting with that music in a human way and bringing your own humanity to it?

If you go back to a previous episode, we did an Inside The Book on expression, and talked about some of the ways you can bring emotion to music. Like, in a very practical sense, what could you be doing in the practice room to learn to play more expressively? Or if you’re a member of Musical U with access to The Fountain, you’ll find the Expression And Emotion course in there.

And it really helps you understand, in practical terms, what does it mean to play with expression.

And, you know, hopefully, it’s clear this isn’t just a philosophical question. Yes, we could have a whole debate about AI and what it means to be human, but really, this is about the motivation for music and making sure that your music-making is based on what really matters to you.

Because I’m willing to bet it’s not just, you know, “passing the test” in music. If you really focus on this emotional feeling side of it, and if you’re really being present in your music making, not only will you feel much more fulfilled and expressive and satisfied and joyful in your music making… What’s fascinating is that we’ve also discovered, through combining our superlearning material and our creativity frameworks at Musical U, we’ve come up with this approach called Creative Superlearning.

What we found is that if you do that, if you focus on the creativity and the expression, you’ll actually learn a lot faster, too. Because, you know, so much of the superlearning material, so many of these techniques, are based on the idea that if you do things robotically, if you do them mechanically, if you just go through the repetitions, going through the motions, as it were, your brain switches off. And that’s not a coincidence!

You know, the art of learning – it’s an art. And it’s something that you need to bring creativity to, and you need to bring mindfulness to and be present for.

So, yes, repetition is important, but it turns out if you always repeat things in exactly the same way, the brain’s like “oh, yeah, we’re just doing this again. I don’t need to pay attention”.

So through bringing creativity to it, and to put it another way, bringing that humanity to it, with each and every repetition, you actually keep your brain in that fast learning mode.

So it’s not an either or choice. It’s not “I can, you know, be very intellectual and mechanical about it and get the answers right and improve on my instrument OR I can be artsy-fartsy and, you know, philosophical and try and bring emotion to it”. These two go hand-in-hand.

And if you want to make the fastest progress and feel the most fulfillment, you really need to lean into this humanity, this expression, this playing with feeling.

So that’s my question for you today.

Where are you currently being a robot in your musical life? Where are you just going through the motions? Where are you, you know, feeling virtuous for putting in the reps and being diligent about your habit of practice, but actually your brain is switched off.

If you’re in that spot right now in any particular area, chances are you’re not making that much progress. Your motivation is starting to wane. You’re starting to feel a bit fed up. You’re starting to feel a bit unmusical.

And if you identify that, what are you going to do about it?

Hopefully some of the ideas I’ve mentioned today give you some new inspiration.

You know, really, it can be as simple as: okay, I know I need to practice this session. I know I need to put in the reps to help my fingers do what they’re going to do. How can I make it interesting? How can I keep my attention really present? How can I make this fun and different to the way I did it yesterday?

And when you start to ask those questions, when you start to challenge yourself to do it differently each time, to be creative, to be exploring rather than just repeating, that’s when you’re going to unlock the greatest satisfaction, the greatest fulfillment, the greatest expression, and the greatest progress.

Hopefully that hit home with you.

Let me know in the comments or you can email hello@musicalitynow.com. I would love to hear both:

A. Your thoughts on AI and creativity and humans and music. And
B. Where have you been a robot in your musical life? And what could you start doing about it that would help unlock this greater fulfillment, greater humanity, greater expressiveness and greater progress for you?

That’s it for this one. I’ll be back next time with a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of our new musicality book. I’m really excited to share that with you. You can learn more now at musicalitybook.com. That’s going to be our next Inside The Book episode, coming up next.

Cheers! And go make some music!