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. http://musicalitypodcast.com/51
Today we’re joined on the show by Vincent James, who is the co-founder of an organization called Keep Music Alive. They organize two big music holidays each year: Teach Music Week and Kids Music Day. http://musicalitypodcast.com/50
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.
Listen to the episode: http://musicalitypodcast.com/50
Links and Resources
KeepMusicAlive.org: http://keepmusicalive.org/
KidsMusicDay.org: http://kidsmusicday.org/
TeachMusicWeek.org: http://teachmusicweek.org/
“So Many Things“, by Vincent James: https://www.amazon.com/One-More-Night-Vincent-James/dp/B0001E5H0I
88+ Ways Music Can Change Your Life: http://88waysmusic.com/
Interview with Sara Campbell: http://musicalitypodcast.com/14
Let us know what you think! Email: hello@musicalitypodcast.com
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.
Listen to the episode: http://musicalitypodcast.com/49
Links and Resources
Interview with Brad Davis: http://musicalitypodcast.com/48
Arranging for Songwriters: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/arranging-for-songwriters-nashville-guitar-guru/
Enjoying The Musicality Podcast? Please support the show by rating and reviewing it! https://www.musical-u.com/podcast-review/
Let us know what you think! Email: hello@musicalitypodcast.com
Musical U has exciting news that we can’t wait to share with you! This March we will be exploring improvisation. Discover the new articles, podcasts, and modules that we are preparing in this preview of Improv Month. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/whats-new-musical-u-february-2018/
Hi, this is Christopher Sutton, the Founder and Director of Musical U, and thanks for joining me for this look inside what’s new at Musical U this month.
We’re actually going to do something a bit different this time though. If you’ve watched one of these videos before, you know that normally what I do is I run you through the new modules and resource packs and all the goodies we have inside Musical U that are new this month. But today I started doing that, and I was looking at our great new resource packs for syncopation and for swing rhythm, and I was going to talk about our Fireside Chat, the new feature where members get to talk directly with the team. This month, we had a great one on performance, and I was getting psyched about that.
But then I got totally sidetracked, because this week March starts, and March is Improv Month at Musical U.
It’s a new thing we’ve put together where we’re going to theme the month all about the topic of improvisation, and I decided what I wanted to do with this video was actually just bring you guys up to speed on all the great stuff we have going on this month for Improv Month.
You can watch the video below or read on to learn more!
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. http://musicalitypodcast.com/48
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!
Listen to the episode: http://musicalitypodcast.com/48
Rhythm is rarely random – instead, it follows an underlying structure to give the song a certain flow, a structure called meter. In meter, depending on which beats are emphasized in a bar, completely different rhythms and “flows” can be created. Let’s look at how this works! https://www.musical-u.com/learn/about-meter-in-music/
Listen to the episode:
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/about-meter-in-music/
Links and Resources
Interview with Jeremy Dittus: http://musicalitypodcast.com/46
About Grid Notation: http://musicalitypodcast.com/39
What is “the beat”?: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/speaking-rhythm-beat-really-mean/
Playlist to get you started on recognizing meter: http://musl.ink/measuresplaylist
Let us know what you think! Email: hello@musicalitypodcast.com
First described as “swing” during the heyday of jazz as the popular dance music in the 1930s, patterns of uneven rhythms can now be found in many styles of pop, jazz, rock, country, blues, and more. But how do you learn to swing rhythm when it seems to be more like a feel or an art rather than something that can be clearly notated?
http://musl.ink/respackswing
In this month’s Instrument Packs Musical U’s Resident Pros for guitar, piano, and bass “do the math” on swing rhythms, with videos, PDFs, and MP3s that line out structured sequences of exercises to get you up and swinging.
http://musl.ink/respackswing
Learn more about Musical U Resident Pro Dylan Welsh:
https://www.dwelshmusic.com/
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwelshmusic
→ Learn more about Instrument Packs with Resident Pros
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/introducing-musical-u-instrument-packs/
First described as “swing” during the heyday of jazz as the popular dance music in the 1930s, patterns of uneven rhythms can now be found in many styles of pop, jazz, rock, country, blues, and more. But how do you learn to swing rhythm when it seems to be more like a feel or an art rather than something that can be clearly notated?
http://musl.ink/respackswing
In this month’s Instrument Packs Musical U’s Resident Pros for guitar, piano, and bass “do the math” on swing rhythms, with videos, PDFs, and MP3s that line out structured sequences of exercises to get you up and swinging.
http://musl.ink/respackswing
Learn more about Musical U Resident Pro Steve Lawson:
First described as “swing” during the heyday of jazz as the popular dance music in the 1930s, patterns of uneven rhythms can now be found in many styles of pop, jazz, rock, country, blues, and more. But how do you learn to swing rhythm when it seems to be more like a feel or an art rather than something that can be clearly notated?
http://musl.ink/respackswing
In this month’s Instrument Packs Musical U’s Resident Pros for guitar, piano, and bass “do the math” on swing rhythms, with videos, PDFs, and MP3s that line out structured sequences of exercises to get you up and swinging.
http://musl.ink/respackswing
Learn more about Musical U Resident Pro Sara Campbell: https://sarasmusicstudio.com/
Have you ever heard of Dalcroze? It’s an approach to music learning that’s often discussed alongside Kodály or Orff, but until this interview we must confess that it’s one we didn’t know very much about. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/more-ways-of-knowing-music-with-jeremy-dittus/
We spoke with Dr. Jeremy Dittus, the founder and director of the Dalcroze School of the Rockies in Denver, one of the most prominent Dalcroze schools in the US, and asked him about his own experiences learning this approach and how (and why) he teaches it now.
Jeremy has been a lecturer in piano, theory, and solfège at the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory in Cleveland, he has taught undergraduate solfège, piano, and composition courses at the University of Colorado at Boulder, as well as eurhythmics and solfège at L’Institut Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva, Switzerland and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. At the Dalcroze School of the Rockies, he now leads a team providing Dalcroze Eurhythmics and Dalcroze Rhythmic-Solfège courses to ages 4 through 14, as well as popular adult classes.
In this conversation we talk about:
– How “reading between the lines” of sheet music, Schenkerian analysis, and Dalcroze training all helped transform Jeremy into the musician and educator he is today
– What exactly “Dalcroze” is and how each of its five components can benefit a musician
– How and why Dalcroze uses both the fixed and movable do systems of solfege
– How Dalcroze can enrich a musician who’s learning in the traditional way, and why walking past a Dalcroze classroom typically means seeing a room full of adults smiling, moving and having fun
We found this conversation really illuminating and it inspired us to learn more about Dalcroze training. We hope you find it just as enlightening!
Listen to the episode: https://www.musical-u.com/learn/more-ways-of-knowing-music-with-jeremy-dittus/
Links and Resources
The Dalcroze School of the Rockies: http://dalcrozeschooloftherockies.com/
Videos of Plastique Animée: https://www.dalcrozeschooloftherockies.com/plastique-animee/
Video of Eurythmics class: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6vfU373TgU
Website: Dalcroze USA: https://dalcrozeusa.org/
Book: “The Perfect wrong note” by William Westney: https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Wrong-Note-Learning-Musical/dp/1574671456/
Let us know what you think! Email: hello@musicalitypodcast.com