Category: videos

New musicality video:

We know for certain is that music lessons help propel kids further in many aspects one might not assume are remotely connected to learning to play music. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/6-benefits-of-music-lessons-for-kids/

Somewhere in the world, there is a child picking up a saxophone for the first time and learning to play. Perhaps he or she falls in love with the sound of the instrument, the feel of the keys and the mouthpiece perched between their lips, and longs daily to feel the weight of the horn slung around their neck as they belt out their scales, hoping one day to play some jazz, blues, or even rock music.

Maybe after years of devotion, practice, passion, and grit, they evolve into the next coming of Charlie “Bird” Parker. Perhaps instead they simply lead a full and fruitful life, forever loving to play music for its sake while their path takes them in a more conventional direction.

Music Lessons:

1. Build Confidence
2. Bolster Brain Power
3. Boost Social Skills
4. Cultivate Patience and Discipline
5. Encourage Creative Self-Expression
6. Improve Memory

Get the Infographic here!: http://www.musiciansbyte.com/music-lessons-benefits-infographic/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/6-benefits-of-music-lessons-for-kids/

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6 Benefits of Music Lessons for Kids

New musicality video:

Audiation may be a strange and unfamiliar word, but it means something you probably do every day: hear music in your head.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/audiation-and-singing-resource-pack-preview/

Learning to harness this skill and develop it can benefit you in a wide variety of ways on your instrument. Taken a step further, learning to sing what you hear or audiate creates a valuable bridge between your mind’s ear and what you play.

As Resident Pro for piano Sara Campbell points out in her video, pianists sometimes struggle because their fingers are so far from their ears! Bridging the gap through audiation and singing can help you gain the “instinct” for which notes your fingers should be playing.

Including:
– Audiation: What is it? How can you do it? And most importantly, how can audiation be useful for pianists?
– Audiation and singing exercises that you can use to sharpen your skills.
– Demonstration of specific ways to use your voice while learning to play a song by ear on the piano.
– Tips, tricks and cool stuff you can do with singing and audiation.
– MP3 Practice Tracks for singing exercises based on scales and tunes.

From simple scale-based exercises to more advanced song-based practice, Sara explains a step-by-step method to make singing and audiation an easy and natural part of your piano practice and gradually build that inner sense of where the right notes live on the keyboard.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/audiation-and-singing-resource-pack-preview/

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Piano: Audiation (Resource Pack Preview)

New musicality video:

Audiation may be a strange and unfamiliar word, but it means something you probably do every day: hear music in your head.
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/audiation-and-singing-resource-pack-preview/

Learning to harness this skill and develop it can benefit you in a wide variety of ways on your instrument. Taken a step further, learning to sing what you hear or audiate creates a valuable bridge between your mind’s ear and what you play.

If there’s a bassist who’s truly free of the improvisation-by-numbers that traps many musicians it’s Steve Lawson, and in this month’s video tutorial he explains how singing can be the key to getting there yourself:

Including:
– Why sing every exercise you do on bass.
– Different ways to practice singing and audiation using scales, including a Dorian mode example.
– How this leads to you improvising in a whole new way.
– Example songs and basslines you can practice with.
– Using your voice to help you figure things out by ear.

Finding the right notes by ear becomes much easier when you use audiating and singing as stepping-stones and the more you practice with the exercises Steve teaches, the sooner you’ll be able to play the right notes first time, every time.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/audiation-and-singing-resource-pack-preview/

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Bass: Audiation (Resource Pack Preview)

New musicality video:

When it comes to playing by ear and improvising, the major pentatonic is a perfect place to start. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/major-pentatonic-guitar-bass-piano-singing

The major pentatonic scale is one of the most useful and universal, and has the advantage of being easier to learn and use than the full major scale most musicians start with.

In this month’s Instrument Packs at Musical U our four Resident Pros taught easy, practical ways to put the major pentatonic to use on guitar, bass, piano and when singing. Building on our training modules which teach members to recognise the major pentatonic scale and each of its notes by ear, as well as last month’s Resource Packs on Beginning Improvisation, these new tutorials help make the connection to instrument skills and practical use of the pentatonic when playing and creating music.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/major-pentatonic-guitar-bass-piano-singing

The major pentatonic pops up in basslines across a variety of genres and that makes it a powerful tool for the bassist who wants to improvise, write their own lines, or play basslines by ear. Steve Lawson dives deep into the several different ways you’ll encounter this scale being used – and shows you how to get familiar with them all – through fun and creative playing exercises.

Including:

– Where you’ve heard the major pentatonic before on bass.
– The useful connection between the pentatonic and the chords of a key.
– Different ways to play through the notes of the scale to internalise its potential uses.
– Finding the root note in different positions of the scale.
– Using certain notes as “pivot” notes in your riffs and lines.
– MP3 practice tracks to experiment with the major and minor pentatonic in different keys and styles.

As always Steve brings an extensive knowledge of bass history and a creative mindset to learning the practical skills, making this a far more interesting and valuable tutorial on the major pentatonic than the traditional purely-theory-based way of teaching it. Get your Motown groove on!

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Bass: Major Pentatonic

New musicality video:

GRAPH! Ear Training is so frustrating!
https://www.musical-u.com/learn/ear-training-possible-impossible/

Don’t worry if you’ve struggled with intervals. You’re certainly not alone, and it will be possible for you to learn. Here are some recommended changes to your musical training and you’ll soon be making clear progress towards that goal!

Last week, Musical U received a question from someone who’d been using our ear training exercises and felt frustrated that they weren’t making faster progress. In fact, they’d reached the point of despair, wondering if it was actually even possible for them to learn intervals.

They said: “I’m starting to suspect that I have a brain that simply cannot comprehend the distance between notes, no matter how hard or for how long I try. Have you ever encountered anybody with “music dyslexia?” Is there such a thing?”

Maybe you can relate to this. There are probably areas of your own musical training where you’ve wondered “do I have what it takes to learn this?”

It’s a question I’ve heard a lot over the years, in different forms.
– “Is ear training even possible for me?”
– “Are my ears broken?”
– “Maybe I’m just not musical”

I certainly know that feeling. When I was learning music at school I would ask myself this kind of question often. The self-doubt returned later on when I began doing ear training.

Since then I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to help thousands of email subscribers and hundreds of members inside Musical U with their ear training, so I can tell you with confidence: you are not alone in wondering this!

I can also tell you: Yes, you can do it.

Now I know you’re probably thinking “How do you know? My situation is different. Maybe I actually am musically handicapped.”

Let’s specifically discuss the question of interval ear training – but most of what we’ll be talking about applies more broadly to all areas of musicality training.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/ear-training-possible-impossible/

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Is Ear Training Impossible?

New musicality video:

The major pentatonic scale is one of the most useful and universal, and has the advantage of being easier to learn and use than the full major scale most musicians start with. When it comes to playing by ear and improvising, the major pentatonic is a perfect place to start.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/major-pentatonic-guitar-bass-piano-singing

In this month’s Instrument Packs at Musical U our four Resident Pros taught easy, practical ways to put the major pentatonic to use on guitar, bass, piano and when singing. Building on our training modules which teach members to recognise the major pentatonic scale and each of its notes by ear, as well as last month’s Resource Packs on Beginning Improvisation, these new tutorials help make the connection to instrument skills and practical use of the pentatonic when playing and creating music.

Pentatonic scales are popular among guitarists due to their versatility for improvising solos over a wide range of chord progressions. The trouble is that most guitarists end up feeling stuck and limited, playing solos which sound and feel robotic, time after time. Dylan Welsh reveals a fresh approach that can help you break free of those constraints and get to know the pentatonic scale in a deep and meaningful way on guitar:

Including:

-What is the Major Pentatonic? What makes it different from the regular Major scale?
-Three ways to practice the scale to really internalise it all across the fretboard.
-How the major and minor pentatonic scales are related.
=Why and how to sing along as you practice the scale.
-Practice MP3s for the scales in two keys, plus some call-and-response exercises to practice playing pentatonic riffs by ear.

Getting “fretboard freedom” is a goal for many guitarists and in this tutorial Dylan teaches a versatile and effective approach which not only teaches you where to find the notes across the whole neck but also forges a strong connection between your fingers and your ears, allowing you to find the notes you imagine in your mind or hear in the music you that want to play by ear. Although the focus is the major pentatonic (and that’s a great starting point), in fact, Dylan’s method can be extended across any type of scale.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/major-pentatonic-guitar-bass-piano-singing

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Guitar: Major Pentatonic

New musicality video:

The major pentatonic scale is one of the most useful and universal, and has the advantage of being easier to learn and use than the full major scale most musicians start with. When it comes to playing by ear and improvising, the major pentatonic is a perfect place to start.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/major-pentatonic-guitar-bass-piano-singing

In this month’s Instrument Packs at Musical U our four Resident Pros taught easy, practical ways to put the major pentatonic to use on guitar, bass, piano and when singing. Building on our training modules which teach members to recognise the major pentatonic scale and each of its notes by ear, as well as last month’s Resource Packs on Beginning Improvisation, these new tutorials help make the connection to instrument skills and practical use of the pentatonic when playing and creating music.

Building on the easy and accessible approach to piano improvisation taught in last month’s Resource Pack Sara Campbell shows how the major pentatonic can be a great way to explore easy piano improv. Through a mix of clear finger-pattern exercises and great-sounding improvisation exercises, Sara shows how you can quickly and easily master this valuable tool.

Including:

– Major Pentatonic Scale basics: how to figure it out in any key.
– Two Pentatonic Scale warmup exercises to help you get familiar with all 12 pentatonic scales.
– A fun boogie-bass improvisation exercise.
– Various patterns you can use to explore the sound of the pentatonic.
– A handy tip for knowing when to use the pentatonic to improvise.
– MP3 practice tracks for the warmups and improvisation exercises.
– Quick reference sheets for the two warmup exercises showing the scales in all 12 keys.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when considering improvisation on piano or how to master scales across all 12 major and minor keys. Fortunately, Sara knows exactly how to crush that barrier and make learning pentatonic improv fun, easy and effective from the very beginning.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/major-pentatonic-guitar-bass-piano-singing

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Piano: Major Pentatonic

New musicality video:

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/what-is-kodaly-and-how-does-it-relate-to-ear-training/

There are almost as many approaches to learning music as there are musicians. Every teaching style has a philosophy behind it, and this philosophy influences what is taught and how it is taught. The interactive, collaborative, and highly kinesthetic Kodály method of learning music was developed by Hungarian composer and educator Zoltán Kodály in the early 20th century. It combines several powerful techniques for developing the core skills of musicianship.

Because it focuses on the expressive and creative skills of musicianship (rather than the theory or instrument skills) the Kodály approach is very closely related to the world of musical ear training.

In fact, it could arguably be seen as an approach to ear training, since it is primarily your musical ear which Kodály develops.

Let’s learn more about what Kodály can do for you.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/what-is-kodaly-and-how-does-it-relate-to-ear-training/

Though originally designed with young children in mind, the principles of Kodály are universal. Musical U has many free solfa resources. You’ll also enjoy these free Kodály-style rhythm and syncopation exercises.

There is a worldwide network of organizations that are promoting the Kodály method today. For more information about Kodály music learning and to find a class near you, visit:

• The Organization of American Kodály Educators
• The British Kodály Academy
• The International Kodály Society

The Kodály method is for everyone; musicians of all levels and walks of life can find something in this spirited and hands-on approach to learning music.

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The Kodaly Method

New musicality video:

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/major-pentatonic-guitar-bass-piano-singing

The major pentatonic scale is one of the most useful and universal, and has the advantage of being easier to learn and use than the full major scale most musicians start with. When it comes to playing by ear and improvising, the major pentatonic is a perfect place to start.

In this month’s Instrument Packs at Musical U our four Resident Pros taught easy, practical ways to put the major pentatonic to use on guitar, bass, piano and when singing. Building on our training modules which teach members to recognise the major pentatonic scale and each of its notes by ear, as well as last month’s Resource Packs on Beginning Improvisation, these new tutorials help make the connection to instrument skills and practical use of the pentatonic when playing and creating music.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/major-pentatonic-guitar-bass-piano-singing

With our singing Resource Packs we’re always keen to help our singers develop their vocal creativity and feel more free and confident in what they sing. This month Clare Wheeler introduced the major pentatonic in a way that makes it feel immediately familiar and manageable, leading smoothly and easily into some great ad-libbing improv exercises, building on last month’s creative warmups.

Including:

– How to work out the major pentatonic scale from any starting note.
– Three examples of songs with pentatonic melodies.
– How to start by singing pentatonic melodies by ear and using that as the basis for improvising.
– Why learning the major pentatonic gives you the minor pentatonic too.
– MP3 practice tracks for the major and minor pentatonic and two backing tracks to practice singing melodies and improvising over.

It’s easy for singers to make the mistake of thinking scales are just an exercise to be used when warming up before singing real music. Clare shows why scales can actually be the key to freedom and confidence in creative singing and how to use the major pentatonic as a great way to get started with them.

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Singing: Major Pentatonic

New musicality video:

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/12-ways-to-be-a-better-improviser/

Improvisation is a wonderfully fun musical activity but it can be challenging to learn. Here are twelve effective ways you can develop and improve your own ability to improvise music.

You can download a handy printable version of the 12 ways to become a better improviser by clicking here: https://www.musical-u.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/12-ways-to-be-a-better-improviser.pdf

Now whatever instrument you play, genre you prefer, or level you have reached, let’s dive into the twelve ways you can become a better improviser!

1. Start From the Beginning

2. Nurture an Attitude of Fun

3. Focus on Fundamentals

4. Redefine “Mistake”

5. Hear It Before You Play It

6. Listen Back

7. Play Slower to Improve Faster

8. Play the Long Game

9. Make Improvising a Game

10. Blank Slate Not Required

11. Avoid Isolation (Sometimes)

12. Be Brave

Whatever stage you have reached in learning to improvise, I hope that one or more of these tips helps you to push yourself further and become even better. Remember: keep pushing your comfort zone, and keep it fun!

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12 ways To Be A Better Improviser