Author: Musicality

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/why-youre-not-making-progress-instrument-fix-it/
It’s so frustrating. As a musician, you desperately want to make progress on your instrument. You put in hours in the practice room, working your fingers (or lips) until they’re raw.

And by the end of practice, you feel like you’ve made progress.

But then something happens…

You come to the practice room the next day, and it’s as if you didn’t practice at all. As if your brain has forgotten everything you learned.

It drives you nuts. Makes you want to quit.

We’ve got some really good news. The struggle is real. Every musician encounters it. Every musician finds themselves losing the progress they made in the practice room. The problem isn’t you…

In this post, we’re going to propose a better, different way to practice that will produce more measurable results and prevent you from losing so much progress.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/the-top-10-reasons-to-do-ear-training/
Ear Training will make you a better musician.

It is something that musicians tend to either:

Do, reluctantly,
Maybe because their music course or instrument exams require it.
or
Ignore completely.
Thinking it’s completely separate from instrument learning,
associated with music theory, or for expert musicians only.

But ear training is something which should be core to every musician’s development from the very beginning—and not just “because some teacher said so!”

All those soft intangible things which distinguish an average musician from a fantastic and inspiring one – they’re all in the ear!

In this article we share 10 powerful reasons to make ear training part of your music learning.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-write-a-song-even-if-you-dont-know-music-theory/
You CAN write songs without music theory!

If you’ve wished to write your own incredible songs but felt held back because you don’t know music theory, fret no longer.

In this article we’ll show you how you can write your own songs even with zero theory knowledge.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/5-reasons-every-guitarist-should-learn-intervals/
Have you wondered how some guitarists seem to just know what notes to play?

They can pick out a tune by ear, play along with a song they’ve only just heard and improvise killer solos without any need for sheet music, tab, or fretboard patterns.

How do they do it?

The answer is that they have a well-trained musical ear, and by doing simple ear training exercises on guitar you can hone your own ears in the same way.

Here are 5 reasons every guitarist should learn intervals

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/how-to-approach-ear-training/
College ear training classes in aren’t always perfect.

In this article Joseph DuBose shares his experience with a professor left him frustrated and bewildered.

However, personally experiencing a horrible approach to teaching ear training has helped him to discover some basic principles that have helped him to not only make up lost ground, but to continually develop his musical ear.

Read on to learn from Joseph’s experience and avoid ear training frustration.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/why-and-how-to-develop-your-minds-ear-for-music/
Wish you could transcribe that crazy guitar lick?

Or spout out pages of music like a modern day Mozart?

Learn how to transcribe music and develop your mind’s ear through ear training and audiation.

Don’t know how? Musical U will get you started!

Click to discover the why and how of ear trainging!

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/singing-in-english-tips-for-esl-singers-and-coaches/
Why sing in English?

From Mexico to Japan, the amount of international performing artists that are singing in English might surprise you.

Although time and regular practice can allow ESL singers to become proficient in a non-native language, learning how to sing without an accent can be incredibly challenging and even costly.

In this article we share some benefits of singing in English as well as some tips to make it much more accessible!

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/listen-to-les-part-1-the-gibson-les-paul/
What do you know about Les Paul?

Ask a guitarist to name five famous Les Paul players and you’ll probably get Slash, Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend and Joe Perry… and maybe Ace Frehley, or the late great Gary Moore.

There’s plenty of players to choose from: a quick look at the Gibson website reveals that just amongst the models currently on sale there are 23 signature edition Les Pauls!

In this series we’re going to explore the life of Les Paul: the only man to be in both the Inventors and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and hopefully demonstrate why he is the greatest example in history of musicianship and innovation acting in perfect (multitracked!) harmony.

We’ll start with a look at the classic Gibson “Les Paul” guitar, and Les’ role in its creation.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/musicality-means-playing-from-a-lead-sheet/
Sometimes you’ll see musicians take out a big book containing literally hundreds of songs – or pass around a single sheet containing a whole song.

How is that possible when traditional sheet music can span several pages just for one piece?

The answer is they’re using lead sheets.

Being able to play a song just from a lead sheet or “fake book” is an important skill of musicality.

Check out this article and learn what a lead sheet is, and why and how to use them.

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/jazz-chords-made-easy/
Playing jazz seems from afar as daunting as it is amazing.

Have you ever wondered how you could ever get in on something that… complex? Difficult!

Do you feel like you don’t have the time or the talent to ever get to do that?

Jeffrey Agrell joins us to say, “It Doesn’t Have to be as Hard as it Sounds!”

In this post Jefferey makes jazz piano chords easy!