Musicality World

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-learn-intervals/
All great musicians rely on their sense of what’s called “relative pitch” to play and understand music. “Relative pitch” is the ability to accurately hear the distances between notes. The core skill of relative pitch is therefore “interval recognition“: being able to tell exactly how far apart a pair of notes are. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-learn-intervals/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/perfect-pitch/
“Perfect pitch” is a common buzzword in the music world. But what exactly is perfect pitch? And is it something you can learn, or is it something you’re either born with or you’re not? https://www.musical-u.com/learn/perfect-pitch/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-can-you-get-excited-about-ear-training/
Ear training is only boring if you’re using methods that don’t suit you. Ear training is (or should be) through-and-through about music: listening to it, enjoying it, understanding it, expressing yourself through it, and loving every second of it. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-can-you-get-excited-about-ear-training/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/when-learning-intervals-be-mindful-of-the-gap/
Sometimes, as we become more familiar with music theory, we start taking the fundamentals for granted. After all, a step is a step, right? In order to really develop your ear, though, it can be surprisingly helpful to look at the basic functions of an interval with fresh eyes. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/when-learning-intervals-be-mindful-of-the-gap/

We were particularly intrigued by ChristineP – a choral singer, jazz/middle-eastern flute improviser, and pianist – who has discovered how much the inner musical skills of ear training, solfa, sight-singing, and audiation touch on every aspect of her varied musical expression. ChristineP also articulates her learning steps clearly in her Progress Journals, inspiring other Musical U community members in their journeys – and we hope she inspires you as well!

ChristineP was gracious enough to share something of her musical life with us, as well has the steps that brought her to Musical U and keep her active in her training:

Growing up, there was lots of music in the house: many records, the radio, my mother’s piano, my sister’s recorder… My father taught himself guitar and clarinet, and I started playing flute in fifth grade. We children joined the church choir, and I played in school band and orchestra.

As a child, I taught myself to play piano using my mother’s method books. Then for many years after high school I didn’t have easy access to a piano. Several years ago I finally couldn’t stand the itch any more so I bought a piano and started taking piano lessons for the first time. I also joined a local chorus, and took a few years of voice lessons. More recently I’ve joined classes in jazz ensemble and middle eastern ensemble (both on flute) at the nearby music school.

I had, sporadically, a total of about a year of flute lessons at school, but otherwise didn’t have formal music lessons growing up. I think I did pretty well regardless, but, in particular, I didn’t have any formal ear training. Listening to music in the way that ear training asks you to do was completely foreign to me. So there’s a kind of aural understanding of what I’m hearing that I’m trying to learn to do with Musical U.

The group Euouae singing “Illumina oculus”, a chant notated in neumes in the St. Gall style.  Neumes are the notation that preceded our modern notation. One might think of them as being less precise than modern notation, but, in fact, they contain a rich expressiveness of their own which Euouae specializes in reading. The passion with which Sven Edward Olmos sings the solo part here (from [1:06]) astounds me.

I’m learning the music for my summer chorus’ concert in August. We’re singing an assortment of American music, culminating with Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.

On Musical U, I’m working on the roadmap for playing tunes by ear using solfa [also known as solfege – Ed.].

I was stuck on aural identification of musical elements: e.g. intervals, chord qualities, whether a piece is in major vs. minor, etc.

On a piano forum that I read, the idea of “audiation” being a help in memorization was brought up frequently. I couldn’t make any sense of this: how could knowing how a piece sounded help me to play it? Eventually, I came to understand that there are actually people who can make the connection from the sound in their head, to what they should play. (And then came to want to gain that skill for myself.)

So then I wanted to understand more about what audiation means. That led me to the Musical U article “The Secret Music Practice Skill: Audiation” – but more importantly, to the Musicality Checklist. I filled it out, and from that became convinced that Musical U could help me with the many musicality skills I want to learn.

The biggest surprise was when I realized I can audiate. I discovered this while working on the major pentatonic scale.

The experience that particularly stands out is discovering that steady work over time has, in fact, increased my ability to work out tunes by ear, and to sight-sing based on understanding solfa.

The experiences and surprises I listed in the previous answer are all due to Musical U, so those are major benefits.

I also found it much easier to learn my chorus music this summer because of my practice with solfa and sight-singing from Musical U.

Beyond specific skills, I have learned how to tailor my musicality training to precisely my own needs, strengths, and weaknesses. From my progress journal:

Some long term goals I have for wanting to improve my musicality include: be able to find pitches precisely when I’m singing, be able to keep track of the form in my jazz ensemble better, have more ideas about what I’m expressing in my jazz flute improvisations.

Hmmm, that’s a hard question! I’m still working on the first roadmap that I chose, so in that sense my plans haven’t changed.

I find myself thinking about musical skills differently than when I started. With the encouragement and support at Musical U, I’m starting to feel like I’m exploring my own journey in musicality, rather than just learning things because someone else says I should.

The post Musical U Member Spotlight: ChristineP appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/musicality-meansknowing-instrument-inside/
Regardless of where you are on your musical journey, a key part of musicality is knowing your instrument. By truly developing your musicality and skills, you can know your instrument inside out and discover a new world of incredible musicianship and performance. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/musicality-meansknowing-instrument-inside/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/solfa-transcription-practice-exercises/
Wish you could write down the music you hear? If you’ve been following along with our Solfa and the Score series then you’ll know that solfa is a powerful framework for easily translating the sounds you hear into notes on the page. https://www.musical-u.com/learn/solfa-transcription-practice-exercises/

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/4-ways-spice-scales/
Scales can be a real sore spot for musicians but they don’t have to be. There are a variety of ways you can make scales more interesting to practice. This can let you get the benefit of scales practice – without the boredom! https://www.musical-u.com/learn/4-ways-spice-scales/

The answer is to find someone who’s been around, and who moves with the times. Someone like Cliff Goldmacher – a Nashville industry insider with a 1000 + song catalog who’s collaborated with the likes of Keb’ Mo’, Ke$ha, Lisa Loeb, and Mickey Hart.

Last time we spoke, Cliff offered a fascinating view into his professional songwriting and collaboration process. Then – since Cliff has thrived through 25 + years of extraordinarily rapid change in the industry – we wanted to know more about what it takes to be in the music business today.

I look at this like a sliding scale: there’s talent and there’s work ethic.

Where it’s all talent and no work, you have to be at the super-duper genius level. This rarely works. Where it’s all work and no talent – this rarely works either. But anything in between starts to work pretty well.

If your work ethic at least matches your talent level, you’ve given yourself an opportunity.

Now, you don’t have to be Kurt Cobain, you don’t have to be Lady Gaga – you have to have talent. At some point talent becomes the least common denominator.

Last time we talked about that second-year hump in Nashville. One of the things that made that second-year mark in Nashville so daunting, for me, was the realization of how many people had talent. Like, all of a sudden I realized, “Oh. Oh wow. All right. If talent becomes the least common denominator, how am I going to set myself apart now?”  Like, if I don’t have the kind of talent that just makes people say “Well, it’s a no brainer.”

And by the way, for every Kurt Cobain, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of artists who don’t have that kind of talent, but with the right amount of effort can have a career. Whether it’s at his level, that only has partly to do with your talent and your work ethic. That’s also the planets lining up.

As far as skill set, it starts with this mindset: if you want people to pay for it, you have to think of it as a job. It’s not just, “I’m really good at this thing so the world is going come find me.” You have to work for this.

I saw a quote the other day that I absolutely loved:  “A lot of people don’t recognize opportunity because it comes disguised as hard work.” And it’s a lot of work. It’s not romantic work. There is nothing romantic about figuring out people to send your songs to. Nothing romantic about that. Romantic is writing the song, and that’s a great motivator. That’s the part that gets you up out of bed in the morning, but the other stuff is what keeps the lights on. You’ve got to do both.

An attorney friend of mine used this big fancy term and I love it: disintermediation. In other words, it went from the record labels as the ones that made all the decisions about what the public at large heard. Then all of a sudden, with the advent of social media and the internet, the playing field became completely leveled.

Anybody, now, can write a song and the next day have it available for worldwide distribution. That’s a miracle, but the noise level has gone up infinitely.

The opportunities utilize the same sort of old fashioned skill sets like marketing, like hard work – the opportunities are there for the people who aren’t just throwing their music out there and hoping it will stick.

Like, figuring out some sort of an angle and doing a video. I’m thinking of an example that comes to mind immediately: OK Go became famous not because their songs are good, which they are, but because their videos are these miraculously elaborate things where they’re on and off treadmills or doing human size Rube Goldberg machines and things like that.

They found a way to rise above the noise not just with their music, but with their marketing.

In a large part that is what has to happen now since everybody has the opportunity to get their music out to a wider audience.

Yeah.

Well, you’re reminding me of something  – now, it’s not enough to try and get a song on an artist’s album, right? Because albums are starting to almost fade into obscurity. Now, you have to have the song that they release as a single or nothing – no one will ever hear it…

Those other songs don’t go along for the ride anymore because people can download or stream individual songs, right? Do you know what that’s like? That’s like the 45s from the 1950s.

On one level, brand new model. On another level, there’s nothing new under the sun.

I bring that up because it’s extremely important to remember at the end of the day there are certain things that will always apply. What will always apply is hard work. What will always apply is figuring out a way to market or find an angle for your style of music, what it is you’re doing.

The way that things have probably most obviously changed is that the income streams have broadened and lowered. There are many more ways that you can make money for your songs now. If you get a song on YouTube and it has a million views and there are advertisers, you’re getting paid a piece of that action. Or that you get an album of yours on Pandora and it starts to get some spins. With SoundExchange, which is the company that monitors that and pays out songwriters, all of a sudden you’re making income there too. That’s great.

The problem is mechanicals, meaning the actual physical sales of CDs or cassettes or vinyls – all of that has dropped dramatically. So there are many, many more opportunities to sell your music and all of them pay much, much less. That’s probably the biggest change that I see at this point.

But I’m pretty much an inveterate optimist. I feel like this stuff is gonna shake itself out. Right now, you hear a lot of people screaming, there’s a lot of wringing of hands about the fact a song is played a million times on Spotify the guy gets eight cents or whatever the case may be. I’m not saying this is a problem, but this is also not set in stone.

I work on the board of an organization called NARAS, which is the National Academy of Recording Artists and Sciences, and they are the ones who are in D.C. lobbying for improved copyright law and for better rates for streaming. They’re also the folks that do the Grammys. This is a big organization. In the same way that movie people thank “The Academy”, this is “The Academy” for music. I can tell you that there are a lot of very committed people doing a lot of hard work to improve this scenario, but it’s slow going and people need to be educated.

For young songwriters thinking about doing this, still first and foremost, do it because you love it. Do it because you love it, and, second of all, don’t despair. There are good people working hard to make sure that this resolves itself in a reasonable way.

If you are moved to write songs if you are moved to do what you are doing, I don’t care who tells you they don’t like it, I don’t care whether you hear that more than you hear anything else. If you love what you’re doing and feel like you’re improving and you’re being true to your vision, then what it really takes is willing to continue to do this in the face of all that (at the worst) criticism – but more commonly, apathy.

I wrote songs for 15 years before a major label artist recorded one of my songs. That’s a really, really, really long time to wait before the industry says to me, “Hey, we think you’re ready.” Now, I knew personally how much I had improved from the time I moved to Nashville or wrote my first song, to the time that I got that song recorded by an artist on a major label.

I knew in my heart that I was improving, but it’s really hard to tell someone at a cocktail party what that means when you’ve got nothing to show for it, in the eyes of the larger world. Really, what it takes, if you want to know the truth – and this is where I’m going to sound like a broken record – you just have to keep working. If you are willing to work in the face of that kind of slow process or downright discouragement, then you have what it takes.

I keep coming back to this too, but it’s just so important. And I’ve mentioned this in some talks that I’ve done, and it’s a little bit crass. But I think it really drives the point home: writing songs only for the money is like getting married only for the sex.

What I mean by that is, essentially, “Look. If you do make money, that’s great.” And we all have that as a goal. I’m not going to lie to you – I have to make a living at this too. But the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning and the thing that makes me so excited when I’ve written new songs is that I love writing songs.

It’s not that I wrote something and I think, “Oh good, there’s my rent for next month.” I don’t look at it that way, and maybe I should, but I don’t think like that.

So if there’s any piece of advice I would leave your listeners with is you better be doing this because you love it.

Yep.

That’s exactly it.

The more things change…

The music business continues in its current state of rapid change and innovation. But the commitment to doing what you love, hard work in both the music and business sides of the equation, and old-fashioned marketing savvy remain the core of a successful musician’s skill set – putting the opportunity – and responsibility – squarely in your court.

The post The Music Business: What’s Changed, What’s Stayed the Same, with Cliff Goldmacher appeared first on Musical U.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/the-sound-of-new-indie-music/
We live in a very interesting time. Let’s take a look into what goes into contemporary music production today, where the scene came from, which techniques are being implemented and what has become part of the arsenal of a modern day music warrior.https://www.musical-u.com/learn/the-sound-of-new-indie-music/