Musicality Now

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Dr. Don Greene, one of the world's leading experts and practitioners of performance psychology. In his 30-year career Dr. Greene has coached more than 1,000 performers, including top-tier symphony musicians and Olympic gold medalists

Today we’re talking with Caroline Whiddon, the co-founder of Me2/Orchestra, the world's only classical music organisation created for those with mental illnesses and the people who support them. The mission of Me2/Orchestra is to erase the stigma surrounding mental illness, including addiction, through supportive classical music ensembles and inspiring performances.

Today we’re speaking with Joseph Alexander, the man behind Fundamental Changes, the leading publisher of guitar books on Amazon with over 100 titles in their catalogue and over 150,000 copies sold last year. Joseph's own backstory is a really interesting one and reveals some great insights about learning effectively in the modern era, whether self-taught or with a teacher.

For this episode of Musicality Now, we turned the tables on our usual format. Adam Liette, Musical U Operations Manager is taking over for our normal host, Christopher Sutton – and Christopher is our guest! If you’re listening to this show, you know the benefits of a great musical ear. But how do you get there? If you, like many others, find ear training hard or frustrating, you won’t want to miss this conversation.

Today we are welcoming back Dave Isaacs, “The Nashville Guitar Guru”! We interviewed Dave on episode 60 of the show, where we talked about his own musical journey from aspiring classical guitarist to learning improv, switching to playing popular styles including country rock, teaching. He shared his major lessons learned as a musician and music teacher, which he shares at Nashville Guitar Guru.

Today we’re talking with Nick Bottini, a career and performance coach who has worked with high performers from around the world including child prodigies, competition winners, rock stars, and elite music college students. Nick is the author of Just Play: The Simple Truth Behind Musical Excellence, a best-selling book which challenges the current thinking on performance psychology and offers a fundamentally different way of thinking about the experience of learning music and how to achieve our full potenti

Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Robert Emery, a concert-pianist turned conductor and Musical Director. He’s worked at venues from London's Royal Albert Hall to the Sydney Opera House and with some of the top names in the world of music such as the UK’s best-selling classical artist Russell Watson and Stewart Copeland, drummer from The Police. He’s also the host of Backstage with Robert Emery, a new podcast featuring behind-the-scenes interviews with star musicians and top-level performers

We’re joined by Hulda, Grace and Sophia, The Quebe Sisters, a progressive western swing band that have been blowing people away and winning fiddle contests from an early age - and have been growing a large and devoted fanbase ever since. They have been featured in Musical U tutorials on harmonic ear training because of their unique style of three-voice fiddle playing as well as vocal harmony

Today on the show we have the pleasure of interviewing one of our favourite people in the world of music education, Jeffrey Agrell. He has pioneered a game-based approach to learning improvisation and written 9 books on the topic, including “Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians” which by itself features over 500 games you can use to learn to improvise in an easy and enjoyable way

Have you heard of the Circle Of Fifths? If you're like most musicians you have heard of it, you've probably read about it, you maybe understand it, you haven't yet memorised it and you only know one thing it's useful for. The result: you're not actually using it anywhere in your musical life

What does “Musicality” mean? Naturally we have our own ideas here at Musical U but a recent survey revealed that maybe we’ve actually missed the mark a bit… In this episode we share exactly what “musicality” means to our Musical U members - and what it could mean for you.

When we think of music learning, we often think of the really hard work that goes into learning any instrument. Or that our goals are a long way off and will take years of dedication just to get there - But, what if we took the approach that the simple process of learning music is fun and filled with enjoyment? In this special rewind episode of Musicality Now the Musical U team discusses Ease and Joy in Music Learning.

Today We’re speaking with Matthew Ellul, the man behind School Of Composition, an online resource for anyone who wants to learn to compose music, offering free tutorials as well as eBooks and personal tutoring for aspiring composers

When you see an incredible musician - are you inspired? Or are you intimidated? Believe it or not, this reaction is not something that happens to you - it’s something entirely within your control, and flipping from one to the other can have a massive positive effect on your musical life.

Have you been losing your enthusiasm for learning music? Or perhaps you’re loving it - but don’t seem to be making much progress. Believe it or not, both of these can stem from the same root problem. And it turns out the famous painter Leonardo da Vinci has the solution for you...