Here at Musical U we’re always looking for new and better ways to help you become more musical. Many of us spend hours a day with earbuds in, listening to our favourite music, maybe some ear training exercises to help you improve your skills as you listen, or maybe even an educational and entertaining podcast. This September we’re going to help you combine all three, with a new podcast from Musical U dedicated to helping you improve your skills to better play and enjoy the music you love.
Not sure what a podcast is? See “What is a Podcast?” section below.
For years I’ve been an avid podcast listener and always thought that a podcast could be a great way to help musicians with ear training and developing their musicality. But to do a podcast well takes a huge amount of work, and it wasn’t until now that the time felt right…
Finally we’re ready to do it, and I’ve been contacting all the top names and people I admire most to help us make the show as interesting, entertaining and valuable as possible.
Listen and Learn
The show will be a mix of interviews and teaching.
I’ll be interviewing some of the top names in modern musicality. The people behind the biggest websites and coolest products that help you feel more like a natural in music. We’ll be talking about their own musical breakthroughs and the ways they now help others succeed in their music training.
We’ll also be doing teaching episodes where we tackle a particular problem, such as “how do you know which chords go together?”, “what’s the best way to master syncopation?” or “what’s the point of the circle of fifths?”.
Of course we’ll be keen to hear from you, the listener, about what topics you’d like to hear us cover and who you’d like us to interview.
In fact, we’ve already been asking our email subscribers to give us their input, and providing them with sneak-peek behind-the-scenes info and exclusives. Want in? You can sign up for Podcast Insiders for free here.
Why a podcast?
From our original mobile apps, to downloadable training MP3s, to making sure Musical U works great for our members on mobile, we’ve always been dedicated to providing musicality training that’s flexible and which you can do in short sessions at your convenience.
Podcasts offer us a way to provide you with useful education in moments that are otherwise wasted. Maybe it’s a long drive, a gym session, or an unexpected delay. Any time your ears are free and you have your mobile device and earphones handy, you can listen, learn, and expand your own musicality.
I’m not naturally someone who puts himself out there, so initially, I wasn’t keen to be the voice of our podcast. Not least because I have mental hangups around the way I pronounce my “S”s! After doing monthly live Q&A sessions for Musical U members for two years I feel a bit more comfortable, and as we’re always telling our members, you shouldn’t let your fears of performance hold you back from your true potential. I’m using many of the tactics we teach in our Get Confident module to help me be comfortable and confident hosting the show. We’ll see what feedback we get, but so far I’m absolutely enjoying the chance to talk to amazing people on our interview episodes and hopefully my voice won’t be too off-putting to the listeners…
What is a Podcast?
If you’re not already a podcast listener, you might be wondering what I’m talking about…!
Podcasts are like radio shows that you can listen to on-demand on your computer, smartphone, or internet tablet.
It’s an easy and free way to listen to just the content you are most interested in, at your convenience.
Want to know more? Here’s a great explanation of what a podcast is, and here‘s some handy info on how to get started with them.
Why Listen?
As I said above, the show is going to be a mix of interviews and teaching. The interviews will let you peek inside the lives of successful musicians and music educators, see that they suffered from many of the same insecurities and limitations that you might feel, and learn from the insights that let them overcome them. They’ll also introduce you to new ideas, methodologies and resources to apply in your own musicality training.
The teaching episodes will bring the same kind of high quality tutorials and guides that we regularly publish here on the website to your earbuds in a denser and more convenient form. We might even sneak in a bit of ear training!
The most passionate musicians are always seeking new ways to improve their skills, and we’re hoping that our new podcast will find a valuable slot in your own life, to help you become more musical faster.
How to get the new podcast
The new podcast will be launching at the start of September. If you want to be notified when it launches just sign up for Podcast Insiders:
→ Sign up for Podcast Insiders
Once it’s live we’ll also be adding easy subscribe links to the site here so you can download it in iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Here at Musical U we’re super excited about this new podcast and the chance to bring you some of the brightest minds and most interesting ideas in modern musicality. We hope you’ll join us when we launch the show in just a few weeks!
