Category: Uncategorized

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/4-things-we-learned-about-teaching-music-from-dylan-welsh/
He may only be 21, but Dylan Welsh already carries a very impressive resume. We spoke to Dylan about his approach to teaching, the key to musical improvisation, and how to make traditionally dry topics such as music theory exciting and engaging. Here are four things we learned: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/4-things-we-learned-about-teaching-music-from-dylan-welsh/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/5-things-guitarists-dont-hold-back/
If there is one skill that guitarists should develop more than anything else, what would it be? Most people will tell you things such as rhythm (great answer, but not correct), dexterity (good, but not right) or maybe theory (agree to an extent). But the one thing guitarists should truly focus on is something which no one will tell you. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/5-things-guitarists-dont-hold-back/

After 1945, classical composers opened our ears to new sonic realms when they intentionally broke down the outer limits of the very definition of music. Pieter Schrevens breaks down a highly-produced Tame Impala tune and rebuilds it with an acoustic guitar, his voice, a loop station – and a bunch of old TVs.

The Drooble team shows you where to find help in breaking down your own music and making it better early in your career.

And Musical U rebuilt its dashboard interface from the ground up so members can more easily find and access every aspect of their training.

Breaking Down to the Source of Music

How far can you break down the act of creating music?

Music has its very beginnings inside us, with a secret process known as “audiation” – aka “hearing music in your head.” Audiation is actually a skill that can be grown and developed into a powerful invisible musical tool. Our Resident Pros have designed this month’s resource packs around one simple resource that unpacks the mystery of audiation and makes it work for you.

Musical U’s ever-growing abundance of resources can prove overwhelming. That’s why we’ve completely redesigned our old member homepage into a new member dashboard, which fits all the most important stuff on just one screen. Even if you’re not a member yet, learning about this new dashboard will give you a clear breakdown of the musical riches awaiting you inside Musical U.

Learn more about our new dashboard and how to develop audiation in What’s New in Musical U: July 2017.

From Breakdown to Cover-up

As the successful indie rock band Tame Impala set their sights on the dance floor they increased their level of looping and production, as well as stretching beyond the old three-minute song forms, including thumping dance breakdown sections.

Cover artist Pieter Schrevens also loves to loop. But rather than pouring on electric guitars, drums, and synths galore, he breaks down his elements to acoustic guitar covering both strings and percussion, his voice, and a single keyboard sound, broadcasting his loops on stacks of old TVs.

Enjoy this fabulous cover of an epic song, and learn more about looping in Before and After: Covering Tame Impala.

With so many digital recording platforms available, it can seem tough to pick which is best for you. Why not start with the one that comes with the Mac Computer: GarageBand? The software also incorporates live loops for your creative music projects. The GarageBand Guide has this tutorial to using live loops that should get your imagination started:

Looping in a studio or at home is one thing, but what about ways that you can incorporate loops into live musical performance? Certainly, you don’t want to need your laptop just to perform? Thankfully, the industry understands this, and has created several convenient pedals that can easily allow you to start looping today. Music Industry How To analyzes the 7 best looping pedals on their blog.

Most of the time, we think of looping as something that the musician will do only by themselves, as a way of replacing other band members. But music is a social activity, and collaboration with other musicians is a wonderful experience! Find creative ways to incorporate looping into a duet with this post from Looping Live.

What duet would be complete without some percussion? Wait… you don’t have a drummer? Not a problem! By incorporating percussive techniques into your guitar playing, you can loop your way to rhythmic sweetness. Get started with this video from Guitar Control:

Breaking Down the Classical Tradition

After 1945, classical composers pursued a dizzying array of musical styles, techniques, and experiments. George Crumb extracted new sounds by pushing conventional instruments to their limits and beyond. Edgard Varèse pioneered experimental electronic music, seeking ultimate control over the sounds in his compositions. And John Cage gave the control of his music up to the performers, and even chance sounds in the environment. The classical music of the late 20th century breaks down the limits of what we even define as “music”.

Open your ears to the sound pioneers in Exploring Classical Music: The Modern Era, Part 3: Post-1945.

Music was changing rapidly in the post-war period, as artists experimented with new sounds and techniques that would have never been previously imagined. John Cage broke all the rules when he unveiled the prepared piano. Jesse Myers explains the process of setting up the prepared piano according to the instructions left to us by John Cage.

Experimentation with the piano has continued in the throughout the years, as artists were liberated from tonality and pre-conceived notions of normality in musical composition. This development has allowed the full scope and versatility of instruments to be explored to this very day. The Italian composer Mario Mariana performs his “Suite for (un)Prepared Piano” that will challenge your assumptions about piano literature:

Ambient music got its start during this time period, as artists like Varèse explored sonic landscapes. But, this was only the beginning of this emerging musical genre. Ambient Music Guide has assembled this list of notable new ambient music released in 2016.

Even if you are not enthralled by 20th Century Classical Music, there is a very important lesson that we can all take from John Cage and many of the other influential composers of this time: the importance of silence in music. Yes, the “The Sound of Silence” is not just a wonderful song, but a wonderful concept! Keyboard Improv expounds on what Mozart first stated, “The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.”

Why to let someone else break you down…

You’ve been wailing away in the garage for some time now, and you’ve finally done it – you’ve come up with the next Big Thing. But how do you really know how good you sound… or not?

When you’re first starting out in your music career, feedback from others is a crucial tool for your growth and development. But where do you find someone who will tell it like it is – without making you want to go home and burn down that once-paradise-of-broken-dreams (aka your garage)?

The answer is… depends. There are several ways to get that crucial feedback, and each of them has their place. One way is Drooble – an online social platform for musicians that enables its users to search for and connect with other musicians from all over the world. The Drooble team knows a lot about feedback, and share their insights in 5 Ways to Get Early Feedback in Your Career.

Taking that big step and actually asking for people to listen to your music can be a frightening moment. But there are so many things that you can learn from this process – if you are prepared for it! 6 AM Group provides some suggestions on how to get the most from feedback.

Getting feedback for your music is very valuable to your musical growth, and will allow you to focus your efforts to continue to progress. But, it should be reciprocal. Splice has published 5 tips on how to give constructive musical feedback to your peers.

Asking for input online used to seem so easy… until everyone was online! Now, with so many choices to place your music and so much competition, how can you get followers and new fans? Devumi gives expert advice at getting started in social media.

For many artists that are trying to gain exposure into the industry, networking and submitting their music to influential blogs is a very viable method. However, it’s not as easy as just sending an email or Facebook message! To perfect your pitch, and ensure that your songs are received by those that you want to listen, HipHop Speakeasy provides these helpful tips.

Breakdown to Breakthrough

Of course, the biggest obstacle to receiving helpful feedback is the terror of reaching out and asking for it. Taking that first step will help you break down the fear.

The post The Music in Your Head, A Loopy Impala Cover, Weird Classical, and Got Feedback? appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/practical-value-music-theory/
Why should we learn music theory? Some see the value in knowing more than they do, but may be intimidated by the topic or may not understand the way music theory enhances what they’re capable of as writers, players, or performers. So if this describes you, this article lays out a strong case for an understanding of theory, with a few provisions. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/practical-value-music-theory/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/ultimate-guide-to-interval-ear-training/
Musicians are often told they should “learn intervals”. But why? What is so important about intervals – and if you do want to learn them, how exactly do you do interval ear training? https://www.musical-u.com/learn/ultimate-guide-to-interval-ear-training/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/21st-century-music-careers-with-susan-de-weger/
As Notable Values Susan de Weger healed her own broken musical identity, she re-examined the whole music education and career system. In the process, she discovered that following her own path meant blazing the trail for others to create a new paradigm for 21st-century music careers. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/21st-century-music-careers-with-susan-de-weger/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/every-voice-deserves-heard/
Dr. Daniel K. Robinson believes that “It is the birthright of every human being to sing.” His greatest passion has become helping others claim this birthright. Over the past two decades, while maintaining his own performance career, Daniel has instructed thousands of voices: from beginners to touring professionals. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/every-voice-deserves-heard/

Hi, this is Christopher Sutton, the Founder and Director of Musical U, and I’d love to share with you what’s new in Musical U this month.

You can watch the video below or read on to learn more.

This month, we implemented a fantastic new member dashboard to help you find the most important stuff within the site for you and also released the new Resource Packs for our instrument packs, this month on the topic of singing and audiation. Let’s dive in.

New Member Dashboard

Inside Musical U, there is a wealth of training material, discussions and all kinds of exciting stuff. After a week or two as a member, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed and you remember all kinds of interesting stuff that you’ve seen – but it wasn’t always easy to find your way back to the most important things.

So this month we totally revamped the member homepage and replaced it with more of a “dashboard”. The idea is to try and fit all the most important stuff on just one screen.

We have our member profile. If we click through, we can view or edit the information that’s shown to other members about us and our musical life. On the profile page, you can see what instruments someone plays, what kind of skills they’re working on, their favourite genres of music, and all of the training they’ve done inside the site, as well as finding a link to their progress journal, where you can learn a lot more about how their training is going.

Then we have the news section, which is where we put any important updates about the site, as well as linking to our most recent weekly updates. Our community conductor, Stewart, always does a great job of making these fun and interesting every week. He has a real knack for pulling out fascinating music trivia and music history that brings life to these weekly updates, but it’s also a chance for us to just celebrate all of the member accomplishments in a given week.

Then over here on the community box, we have links to all the new discussions since you last visited the site. That’s quite a handy one if you just want to catch up on what’s been going on. You can also go straight to all the discussions you’ve started, the ones you’re following, or the ones you’ve just been involved with. If I take a look here, I should get a list of all the discussions I’ve contributed to inside the community.This is an easy way just to get back into the discussions you were having with other members. You can also see the recent activities, what members have been up to. Here’s one of our team members, Andrew, getting involved in the discussion for the Approaching Improvisation module, for example.

We also made it super easy to just pick up with your training. This part shows the most recent module you were working on and the most recent lesson. So you can go straight back into the last lesson you were working on inside Musical U and pick up where you left off.

Then just down below, we have links to your training plans. We have a very flexible planning system inside Musical U to help you figure out which training modules to use and how that integrates with the rest of your musical life. Here are easy links to view those training plans and edit them if you need to and then a link to your Progress Journal. As I said before, this is kind of your home to keep track of how your training is going, share with other members any insights or questions you have along the way, or get help from the team should you need it.

Then here we have the modules list. This is handy because you can take a quick look and see how you’ve done on the quizzes for a particular module and just at a glance see which ones are in progress and you can click to resume that module and finish it up.

Then finally, we have a box for the Instrument Packs. If you’re on an Instrument Pack membership for guitar, piano, bass, or singing, this is where you’ll find a link to that. That leads neatly onto our next big update in Musical U this month…

Resource Packs: Singing and Audiation

Our Instrument Packs in Musical U are a way to bridge the gap between the kind of core listening skills we really focus on and the day-to-day instrument practice you’re probably already doing. They give you an easy, concrete way to connect up those two worlds and put into practice the kinds of skills we teach at Musical U, such as playing by ear, improvising, and having freedom and creativity on your instrument. Here in the guitar pack, you can see there’s various discussions going on but there are also the Resource Packs released every month.

The latest one is for audiation and singing. Audiation is the skill of imagining music vividly in your head. Obviously, this is powerful for improvisation, so that you can just imagine something and then play it directly on your instrument. It’s also great for playing by ear and memorization and all kinds of other musical skills. The topic of this pack was “audiation and singing” and how you can use those two to really connect to your inner instinct for music with what you’re actually doing with your fingers on the guitar.

As always in our Resource Packs, we have a tutorial video of about 10-15 minutes. Then we have a quick reference guide with the top-line important stuff from the video to remember it by and any tab or detailed instructions you might need for the exercises. Then we have a few audio tracks to help you practice those exercises.

We won’t dive into the videos now but we do publish preview videos for every Resource Pack now on our YouTube channel. If you’re interested to get a peek inside and see what’s been going on in these Instrument Packs, please do head on over to YouTube where you can take a look at the Resource Packs for audiation and singing that came out this month.

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Thank you for joining me for this look at what’s new inside Musical U this month. We have our new snazzy member dashboard, which, based on feedback so far, is really helping people feel more organized and find their way around the site a bit more easily and goes straight to stuff that interests them most. We also have an exciting set of new Resource Packs for our instrument groups on guitar, piano, bass, and singing to help you use audiation, the skill of imagining music in your mind, to be a more free and creative musician on those instruments.

Thanks for watching and I hope to see you inside soon!

The post What’s New in Musical U: July 2017 appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/5-key-skills-musical/
Becoming a musician means much more than just learning to play an instrument. There are a wide variety of skills involved in learning to become a capable and versatile musician beyond mechanical abilities and understanding music theory. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/5-key-skills-musical/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-pick-the-perfect-song-to-fit-your-voice-5-tips/
In these heady days of universal musical access, singers can choose from a dizzying range of musical styles to sing. Singing in different genres can increase your vocal abilities and opportunities, but how do you know which styles best suit your own voice? https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-pick-the-perfect-song-to-fit-your-voice-5-tips/