The Heartbeat of Musicality (Meet the Team, with Stewart Hilton)

Christopher: Welcome back to the show! Today we have a “Meet the Team” interview with our Community Conductor extraordinaire, Mr. Stewart Hilton. I’m super excited to have the chance to share this conversation with you with the heart of our Musical U community, Stewart, and dive into a bit of his musical backstory.

So, Stewart, welcome back to the show. It’s a while since you were on, I think, it’s a while since we did a team roundtable episode that you would have been on the podcast – well, it’s been a while since anyone was on the podcast to be fair!

Stewart: I think the last time I was on, I wasn’t grey. I didn’t have gray hair. I think I have gray hair now.

Christopher: Maybe I didn’t either! It’s been a while.

So I love to open these conversations with my favorite question, which is, what does musicality mean to you?

Stewart: That’s a good one. I like that.

It took me a while to think about it, and I thought about it a lot on one of my favorite places to think and listen to music, the lawnmower. And I guess, to me, musicality is so much bigger than I think sometimes we all give it credit for because we all have it to some degree, you know, whether or not we’ve taken a lot of courses, we have a music degree, we play instruments, sing, or whether we don’t – we all have it.

I think it’s part of our heartbeat, you know? Right, right in our heart as it beats, it’s got rhythm of some sort. So I think, yeah, we all have it. And that goes from, you know, like, we have discussions on how to do active listening, and we can get into the nitty gritty of all the terminologies, and that is great. And that is so cool.

But we also have, you know, I’ve got friends that they don’t know that, but we can have these discussions about music all the time and talk about artists and guitar players, and I think that’s just as fun as the other things.

I mean, I’ve got, you know, I have friends, they invest tons of money into their stereo systems. It’s ridiculous how much money they put in. No, it isn’t. It’s pretty cool.

They’ve got some great areas to listen to music, and I think that is even a little bit of musicality because I think music is this art form that we all get to enjoy and love. I don’t think it is relegated to any certain group of people.

And I think when those walls come down, we get to really enjoy the fullness of what music is. And that, that’s kind of musicality to me.

I guess if I sum it up like that, that was a. That wasn’t really a sum up. That was like a long up!

Christopher: No, that’s lovely. I love the angle on it, that it’s not about the skill set. It’s about that natural connection to music and appreciation for music and love of music. And, you know, I think a lot of us on the team feel that way, that, yes, we’ve got all of these concrete training modules to develop your musicality and enhance your musicality.

But ultimately, why are we all here at Musical U? It’s that passion for music. It’s that desire to have music be a bigger part of our lives and make the world more musical. So I love it.

Stewart: I mean, yeah, you talk to a stranger, you’re in line somewhere, and you hear a song and they kind of… You can see them kind of nod in their head and they’re like “oh, man, I love that song, it reminds me of this.”

They have these connections and it’s, yeah, that’s just the wonderful of music. And, man, it’s just so much bigger than…

You know, I gotta say, I went to college and, you know, there I was in communications. I started in music went into communications. But, you know, we had some people, I had some friends that were taking music degrees, whether jazz or classical. You had some that we could all talk, and then you had these others that, as they got further into theory, all sudden were like “ah, you’re like a peon”. And I was just like “what’s up with that, man?! We all, we’re all doing music. I know you’re getting into it heavier, but, man, we can still talk.”

Christopher: Well, I think that’s a beautiful glimpse into the attitude you take as our Community Conductor at Musical U. you know, you really embody that inclusive, encouraging, supportive vibe that we go for in our community, and I think it’s something that’s sets our community apart.

It’s funny, I was looking back at my notes. I was curious to see what I’d written when I interviewed you back in December 2015 and your initial impression. But I ended with the question, would you be willing to commit to six months in this role? And here we are nine and a half years later, believe it or not, astonishing!

But you have been that rock that our community is built on, and I definitely want to talk a little bit about that because, you know, anyone who’s listened to the show for a while or is tuned into Musical U stuff has heard me harp on the amazing community we have and the benefits of community and so on, but nobody is more in touch with it has been for a decade, is more entwined with everything that goes on in our community than you are. So I definitely want to dig into a bit of that.

But before we do, we’ve had a little bit of your perspective there and your answer to what does musicality mean to you? But share a little bit of your musical backstory. Where have you come from as a musician? How has that journey gone over the years?

Stewart: It’s a, it’s a long… It’s not a long journey. Well, I guess it is. I’m in my fifties now, but it started young.

My dad, he loved jazz. My mom loved country, so I was always around, there was some sort of music going on, even as a little kid, because my dad was listening to Dave Brubeck. And let’s see, the Four Freshmen, Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton.

So those were playing as I was a kid. But then as I got older, five, I got into the Partridge family and the Monkees, and the music drew me in. So there was already things going on then which, including getting my first guitar.

It was a Partridge family guitar. Didn’t really work well, but I got my first guitar. Then from there I got older and was introduced to the band KISS when I was in fifth or 6th grade.

And that definitely heightened my, my rock and roll inner core.

Christopher: Did you ever do the makeup? Are there photos of you in full cat makeup?

Stewart: There are. There are, yeah. Yes.

Christopher: Can we include them with the show notes?!

Stewart: I can find, I’ll do a hunt. I think there are some that are available, but, yeah, there’s a Halloween we dressed up. My mom even made. I was Ace Frehly, of course.

Um, so I had the, uh, this would have been what? KISS Alive Two would have been it. Um, so she had, she made kind of like the outfit that Ace had. And we did the makeup and went out and then also we went and saw KISS on their dynasty tour, which is when they went a little disco. But, uh, my friend and I, our moms took us because we were too young to drive and all that. But he had the Gene Simmons makeup on and of course I had the Frehly makeup on, so there, yeah, they’re probably pictures somewhere.

But as time went on, I did start guitar then and, yeah, so that went on for a little bit, but then I, you know, as being a kid, I also have this sideline that most of our team knows and some of our members of liking speed. So I was racing somebody on a bicycle down a hill, wiped out, bashed up my knee in my arm and my guitar lessons went to the back end for a while, but then I got into Led Zeppelin and that kind of spurred on and I started playing in bands, probably in high school. I did also start trumpet, so I played trumpet starting in about fifth or 6th grade, so that went on.

And then, yeah, bands in high school. And then through college I went from Zeppelin to also The Who and Skynyrd. And then probably late high school is heavy metal. Turned into one of those metal heads with long hair. Oh wait, I still kind of have long hair.

Christopher: You had quite a stint there as a metal guitarist, right?

Stewart: Yes. Yeah, we played through the late eighties, had a band. We actually recorded a full length tape. There is some stuff on YouTube, a couple tunes that somebody somewhere has transferred into digital.

And then in the nineties I had a Christian progressive metal band and that went on for eight, nine years. And we had a few tapes that we put out, did some touring, did a lot of ministry type stuff with kids that came from broken homes, which was something I will always look back with fondness, being able to help these kids out and being there, which is the connection that music can have.

It can make these connections with people for something even bigger. And it’s neat to look now on Facebook I see some of these now adults, but they were kids then and they’re having these great lives and it’s wonderful to see.

So from that I got into a band called the Void, the Christian band was called Weeping Prophet and then the Void we were around for three years, did some covers, did some originals, put two CDs out. And then, uh, I kind of went dry for a while as I was dealing with some personal issues, which we’ll have to kind of do at some point, and then got into a band called… oh, I met my wife!

That’s a big one. And took a break. And that’s okay in music, to take a little break, focus on something more important. My wife was very important to me, so we really wanted to kind of focus in. I was very busy at that time because I was playing at church, running sound at church, very busy.

Even though I was taking a break when I was doing stuff, I was constantly running sound. So we did that and a little later had another group. We played a while, also did some ministry, did some homeless shelters, put out a CD.

It was the first CD we fully. I got to fully produce and record. The bassist and I kind of were like the producers of it, but I just had a blast doing that and doing the mixing and adding little touches of personality here and there, and also having guitars sitting around going, oh, you know, I don’t like the tone of this on that song, but I bet this one would sound really good. So that was quite fun. And then.

And then that’s around the time, a little bit later, that I ran into Mister Christopher Sutton.

Christopher: So we’ll pick up that Musical U story in a moment, but just share a little bit of what you’ve been up to musically in the nine and a half years since, because you’ve been playing actively, you’ve been doing a lot of music.

Stewart: So, yeah, about the time Musical U happened, I also got a call from a friend who had been touring for years, doing shows as a tribute artist.

So he did Elton John, Billy Joel, a disco show, an eighties show, and a show, a tribute to Rascal Flatts, the country band. And he had toured all over with this show, and he was needing a guitarist, so he called me up and said, hey, man, I thought about you, would you, we really need a guitarist for a gig. Can you at least do this many songs? So I did that many, plus a couple more.

And after that, he said, would you asked if I’d be interested in doing more? And I said, heck yeah.

At that time, Musical U was just getting going, so the extra avenue of income was great.

And, yeah, it turned out, I think I played with them for, what, five, six years, and we would tour the east coast. And it was. It was a challenge because that was definitely.

I never thought that would be something that I could do, but there I was, and he threw a lot of challenges at me because we didn’t practice. There was no band rehearsal, so everything I prepped was literally on my own, and that really kind of put the pressure on. But, man, I loved it.

I loved it. It was really neat. But I had to be open to some constructive criticism while we were on the road. Like, hey, you know, this. This part was a little off. Can you check that? And I was like, okay, thank you, and hit it.

But, yeah, he kept me busy.

Christopher: So that was the era when you were doing the weekly update from the back of a van on a laptop, right?

Stewart: It was also the era of people thinking that I was a bot, the Stewbot, which I believe originated because, you know, we’d be on the road and at all times of the day, you know, so we’d be on a road going to a show during the day, and then we’d finish up and we would either be heading home or do another place that we were going to play. So it’d be, like, overnight. So I think people were like, does this guy sleep? He must be a bot.

So, hence, “the Stewbot” came to to be a term in Musical U history.

Christopher: And I think you wrote a couple of really good articles for our site around that time, too, about life on the road. I’m going to link to those in the shownotes. It’s been while since I read them.

Stewart: Oh, those were fun. Those were fun, uh, writing those, because it, uh, yeah, there’s the image we have of being on the road, and then there’s the reality of on the road. And, uh, yeah, there’s some tough times. There were some scary times.

Yeah, you get on back hilly roads because the highway is closed and you smell brake pads burning up as you’re going up down hills, your life flashes before you!

Christopher: Cool, and take us back to those early days at Musical U. Then, when you first joined the team, it was as our Community Conductor, the role that you have held and mastered in the nine and a half years since. What was it like when you first joined the site?

Stewart: I was excited. It was really neat what you were doing. I was totally sold on your mission statement. You know, the whole thing of proving the whole your tone deaf thing false resonated with me because, you know, there’s been a lot of people I would meet that seemed to believe that, and I would listen to them.

I’m like, doesn’t sound tone deaf.

And as we went on, it was just great to watch these, watch our members come in and take that and roll with it, that they’re not tone deaf, that they have this ability to do music.

I mean, I saw some of it when I would teach guitar. I would get people that, you know, they’d have guitar teachers that, oh, you can’t do this. You’re not able to do this because of this, this and this. And I’d get them in, I’m like, well, let’s work on this. Let’s see what we can do. So we would work on their hand, you know, where their hand was on the guitar, and we do all these different things, and that’s fine. They know they’re playing music and they would be so excited.

And I saw the same thing at Musical U, and, yeah, to this day, I just love watching that.

And the membership, it’s a big thing, but, yeah, it also, as you know, we were smaller in number, so all of our roles tended to be… We did a lot of things back then!

You know, we’d have, I remember the big Thanksgiving sales we would do, and my wife and I would go out on good Friday, and I’d take the computer with me. Cause I was like, “we’ve got a ton of greetings! I need to say hi to some people as they’re coming in”.

But it was fun. It was exciting to watch that growth as we went through those first years.

Christopher: Yeah. And it was really fun for me to watch you dive into it, I guess. Cause, you know, people will hear me talk a lot about community and hype up our members. And I love, I genuinely love our community. I love our members.

But I’m an introvert. I hate chit-chat. I hate small talk. Like, if you have an ear training question for me, I’m all about it! But like, greeting people on the site, that is not my cup of tea!

And I knew we needed to because, you know, the value of the community is in that peer-to-peer learning and the kind of concrete, tangible stuff. But the true value is being surrounded by other passionate music learners and feeling like they’re your friends and your family.

And quite honestly, like, that’s a vibe and a culture I don’t think I could have created myself. Like, it’s just not my personality type. And in the very best possible way, I think you’re the opposite of me in all of those regards.

And so you came in and you were able to kind of connect people and introduce people and greet people as they came in. And I think the thriving community we’ve ended up with at Musical U, that is remarkably different, I think, from any other online music education site, is a lot down to you and that attitude you brought and all of the legwork in the early days when, you know, people weren’t talking to each other very much on the site.

Stewart: Well, I remember you, you had, I forget if it was the first couple years and we were moving along and you’re always, you know, the one thing I love about you is you’re always looking, how do we build? How do we build? So we brought in someone, I think, to look at the community and how it was going and see if there were any tips or all that.

And I remember he looked and he’s like “You guys are doing it”.

And it was just funny. And I felt, I felt it was a bit of encouragement and inspiration for me. Like, oh, okay, what I’m doing is working and I’m going the right direction for sure.

Christopher: And it’s a tricky one, you know, just to touch on the business side, I guess, for a second. Like, it’s one of the things in business that’s really hard to do, not just because it’s a human thing and a soft skills thing and a communication thing, but because so much in business, you can track it and you can put numbers on it and you can measure it and you can put systems in place.

And so much of the community stuff is a bit intangible. And yes, you can tick the boxes of, are we doing the right things to support the community and respond to people and so on. But a lot of it is kind of between the lines and the little bits you do here and there to make sure everyone’s happy and having a good time and succeeding. And, yeah, as you say, you know, that validation was great.

And then we saw in the numbers – I noticed, are you wearing your thousand member t-shirt today? Oh, yeah. Turn around, give us a view.

This is a t shirt…

Stewart: I don’t know if I should show it. It’s got a hole in the back.

Christopher: We’ll overlook the hole. This is a t-shirt we had printed in the team when we hit 1,000 members for the first time. That was a big milestone.

Like when we launched, we had about 100. And over the next two or three years, we grew to a thousand. And obviously we’ve grown way beyond that at this point.

But that thousand member milestone, I remember being a really big deal. I think I bought my U-Bass as my, like, my little reward for us having accomplished that. But those t-shirts were to commemorate it.

And that early period, I think, was so different, wasn’t it? Like zero to a thousand? It was a certain thing. It took a lot of pushing from you. Not in a bad way, but, like, it took a lot of energy from your side to really get things thriving.

Stewart: I think we all did, we were all, like, really kind of pushing. We were all in there.

Christopher: Yeah.

Stewart: Yeah, you, myself, Andrew, I don’t remember who else. There’s a couple others involved, and the names are kind of disappearing.

But I know through that time, we had this one member who has become a big part of our team was Zac, who we were, he and I did a lot of socializing online and in some of the forums or the boards, and it’s kind of cool to see how that kind of transpired and where that brought him.

Christopher: Definitely, yeah. And I think over that period, I guess, like, 2018 till now, what stands out to me is just how many superstar members have emerged over that period.

You often make reference to the fact that these days, you don’t have to start a lot of discussions on the site the way we did once in a while to get people talking like it is fully self sufficient, thriving – whether we like it or not!

And there are, like, a whole host of keen members who are just in there supporting each other and encouraging each other on and really, you know, keeping that community spirit alive.

Stewart: Well, it’s. It’s really kind of a blessing when, you know, I’ll see a question and then, you know, maybe I’m doing a bunch of different things during the day, and I’ll come back later and I see one of our other members of the site answered the question, and I’m like, well, that’s great. I didn’t have to do anything. This is exactly what we want.

We love to see that type of community, and it’s, as you said, you know, they do a lot in the community boards on their own. They come up with their own discussions, and, you know, back when we started, I was always trying to come up with different ideas and topics and, and that, and it’s, it’s been a while since I’ve had to do one because they’re always popping up on their own.

Christopher: Yeah. And I think it’s… it’s something I’m glad of in retrospect, when we decided your job title of Community Conductor, it was from this vague idea I had that it would be cool if we all had music-related titles, like, rather than the generic team job titles.

And “Community Conductor” was an effort in that direction, and we didn’t really follow through on that. But I’m always glad we chose that because you know, the traditional name for that role would be “community manager”. And that’s just, it’s just not the spirit you bring to it.

You know, you’re not there to “manage” the community. You’re not there to keep them in line.

And, you know, I often say to the team, we’re so blessed that the culture we’ve created makes it very light in terms of any of that.

You know, there’s a lot of online forums or other education sites where there is a community aspect where they’re constantly having to, like, delete comments and moderate comments and kick people out and, like, have harsh words with members. And, like, we just, we have so little of that, right? Because people coming in, just see, oh, this is, this is the kind of environment I’m in. This is a supportive group. It’s not elitist. People aren’t going to, you know, turn their nose up if I get the answer wrong or ask a question, and I’m not going to get shouted at or made fun of. Like, it’s just, it’s such a different vibe.

Stewart: And what I would say, even, man, as you’re talking, I’m thinking, boy, you know, over the time I’ve been here, we could probably count on a couple hands how many times we’ve actually had to, like, have somebody leave, you know?

And when you think about that as a whole, over that long a time, nine years, that’s pretty good. And there’s even a few where we had to have little, like, side discussions. Like, you know, this isn’t really where you have, say this or this, and they’ve caught on and they’ve been great.

And then there’s the other thing. Being a international site, we’ve also, like, found the interesting mode that certain words in certain countries mean different things, which has always kind of blown my mind. And it’s been an interesting learning curve, but it’s also been great because people really seem to understand that, too, and give each other a little grace when something might get said. They’re like, oh, it’s okay. Sure, yeah.

Christopher: And that’s exactly it. You know, nine and a half years, or coming up on ten years, tens of thousands of members. And it really is “conducting” that you do.

It’s like gently leading people in the right direction, gently moving them a little bit this way if they go off track.

Stewart: When Adam was here, we always jump back and forth that at some point I will find a railroad conductor hat for a picture. I found one which we turned into a joke, and it was like at a kid’s place. And it was like this tiny little hat that we’ve made kind of into a funny meme on the team site, but that’s the only one I found as of yet.

Christopher: Something for the future! So that’s probably given people a good sense of the kind of stuff you do at Musical U. And one thing we haven’t mentioned yet is the weekly update, which is a big deal for our members. Talk a little bit about that. It’s something that a lot of our keenest members look forward to every week.

Stewart: That is one of my favorite things. It has, not only has it been fun writing, but it’s been really enjoyable learning from it because it gives you the sense, especially when I would write about different musicians in history, which I probably should do a little bit more than I have, because I really focused on songs because we got into songwriting. So I was really focusing in on how songs came to be.

But the stories, there’s no, like, there’s no set way for songs for one to become popular. There have been so many interesting stories as to why a popular song turns out to be that way. And even the great entertainers of our time, where they came from, how they got to. Where we got to know them.

You know, you think of names like Elvis and Dean Martin, Dolly, man, you could go on and on with all the big names, but their stories are inspirational because some of them came from very hard places. And it just shows that, you know, you put the time and effort in. You never know what’s gonna happen.

I mean, so I don’t even think they knew what was gonna happen in their lives. You know, they’re just like, I like doing music. I’m gonna go play and record, and next thing you know, they’re like, international sensations.

Christopher: And it’s a great example of how you bring your own GuitarStu777 vibe to everything you do. So, the weekly update, for anyone who doesn’t know, every – used to be Friday – every Saturday, we send out an update that goes out by email and in the discussion boards to all our members, really.

It was originally to highlight member successes. It was kind of to give a high five to people on completing modules and earning awards and all of that good stuff, and then to highlight some of the discussions that had been going on in the site.

And I forget how early it was, it was fairly early on, you just started writing a little intro that would share something interesting, and that intro grew and it grew, and it’s now probably half the update! But it’s always this fascinating glimpse into music history and like you say, the stories, you probably didn’t hear of the behind the scenes. And I know it’s something our members really look forward to for that kind of fascinating mix of trivia and inspiration. It’s really cool.

Stewart: Well, and I never know who’s listening, but then all of a sudden somebody doesn’t get it and then we get emails.

Christopher: Exactly!

Stewart: Where’s my weekly update? And it’s like, wow, that felt pretty good. Okay, they are reading. This is good.

But, yeah, like I said, it’s just neat reading that history. All the, you know, all the different ways of songs coming to be and even out of mistakes, you know, even songs that some of the artists thought ain’t gonna be anything.

Like, I just wrote about Phil Collins, and “Against all odds”, he had, he had two albums he put out while he had that song because he didn’t think it was any good. And then all of a sudden the movie came out and he thought, wow, that might work. And they had asked him to do a song, so he changed a little bit of it and that song was huge hit, but he didn’t think it was going to be anything for two albums. He left it off.

Christopher: It’s crazy. So would you say that’s your favorite thing to do at Musical U or what would be the highlight for you and your week’s work?

Stewart: I would say there’s two things.

One is definitely that, and the other thing is being in there with the members, seeing them thrive and, you know, you know, man, like, we have a “wins” thing within our team that we share, and reading those wins of people that are just doing things they never thought we, they could is one of my favorite things to see.

I just love that we’ve had some, you’ll know the name Jamie W, you got David Wright also, I mean, now there’s a bunch of them, but, you know, when they came in, they weren’t, they didn’t know… And now it’s like many years past and they’re doing things they didn’t think they could do. And that is just, I mean, it blesses all our hearts. You know, it just. It’s amazing, it’s great.

Christopher: Absolutely, yeah. That “wins” channel in Slack. I don’t think our members know that we do that. We mention it sometimes, but, you know, someone will post a triumph in the discussion boards just to share their joy.

And of course, the team will respond there and give them a high five, but we also screenshot it and we put it in our team communication platform, Slack, and we just all kind of celebrate, and it encourages all of us along day to day.

And that’s something else where just as the site has grown, that the pace of those wins coming in, like, there’s so many every day now, and it’s just like, you know, you really get to see that impact it’s having on people’s lives.

Stewart: Yeah. And it’s, well, and I guess taking it around, it’s been fun also sharing, you know, as a Community Conductor, I try to remember that I’m also a member in certain ways. So to share kind of my own what’s going on in my musical life.

And that’s been a lot of fun because I think it’s. It’s been teaching moments, not just to me, but I think to the others. And they kind of read, but they also, they become me. They’ll say things of encouragement and inspiration, you know, like, if I’m dealing with certain things, like looking for band members or we’re in a. You know, working on a recording thing, and they have, like, an idea.

I mean, man, they’re like, fast. Hey, have you thought about this? Hey, did you…? Man, oh, man, I really love this.

And that’s kind of. It’s kind of neat. It’s a, like, a little revolving bit of inspiration and encouragement.

Christopher: I love it. Awesome. And I’ll wrap up with a more nitty gritty, practical question for you:

Can you share some kind of strange or counterintuitive or surprising tip or trick or technique for increasing your musicality, for becoming more musical? Something weird that works?

Stewart: Well, I got a story with that because, you know, I’m a story guy, and then I’ll get into that, because this last year, I did something on a whim since we moved. We moved three years ago from Ohio to Tennessee, which meant a lot of changes within my musical life.

So the tribute shows, I don’t do those anymore, although I am getting to do a fly date in August out to Seattle, Washington. So if anybody’s watching, let me know. It’d be great to see you.

But, yeah, it’s changed a lot. So I’ve done a lot more, like, home-based recording and little projects, and I’ve done a few bands here and there and working on a new one.

But last December, myself and two friends back in Ohio did a makeup of “What Child Is This?” And it was just fun, and I shared it.

Well, one of our members sent it off to a friend of hers that’s in the music industry. He made a couple comments in his thing. He loved it. He was like, wow, that’s really good.

And he said, does this person ever thought about trying stuff in film and TV for, like, music? I think there’s licensing, syncing. I’m still learning all this as we did have a podcast with a guy who was great, and I’ve met him, but, yeah, so we’re going to actually try that, including with the song we recorded last December.

So that was kind of a really neat surprise, and it was from one of our members that kind of has spurred this whole idea on.

So back to your question about, you know, a surprising, weird technique. And I’m going to go back to it. You’re not going to believe I’m going to say this, but it’s listening to music while working and mowing the lawn.

Since we moved, our lawn has become much larger. But even back in Ohio, I did this, and we talked about visualization as a part of your practice routine. You know, so you don’t have an instrument, but you can still visualize where, you know, for me on guitar, I can visualize where my hands are.

So I would listen through our set list while mowing or doing work. And it sounds weird, but I can visualize kind of my parts and what I was doing and, and, man, it really helped. And it also got the songs kind of cemented in my head, you know, because a lot of times when we learn something we’re immediately trying to learn, I like to kind of let it soak into me and just listen to songs over and over before even touching a guitar because I want to get the feeling of how it goes.

So that’s been kind of my surprising thing.

And then the other thing is I, as the team, and even our members know my musical listening goes all over the place. So, you know, progressive metal, hard rock, southern rock, even easy listening country, you know, old rat pack stuff.

And I love all that. And it’s been interesting to see how that infiltrates my writing and music ideas that pop out. I remember the one funny time I had with one band I was in.

We got together and I had this guitar idea, and I start out, and they’re like, man, that thing is ferocious. Where did you come up with that? What do you listen to? And I’m like, I don’t know if I should tell you guys that, like, oh, no, seriously, man, this is just this thing. This song is just crazy. And I’m like, the Statler Brothers Christmas album. They’re like, what? And I’m like, you asked!

So you don’t know where your influences are coming from and what, how they’re going to affect how you do. So it’s kind of cool.

Christopher: That is super cool. There were so many things there that I feel like we could do a whole other hour on!

You know, you talked about visualization. You talked about mental play, like that rehearsing in your mind how you would play it. You talked about listening broadly and how that all feeds into your kind of mental library of musical ideas.

And, yeah, I think, you know, that, that core point that you can improve your musicality, you can develop your musical abilities when you don’t have your instrument in hand. It’s become such a core part of how we approach things at Musical U.

I had a great example with my daughter on the piano just yesterday, and I need to be careful not to go into a rant here about these apps that try and teach you piano by showing you things lighting up on the screen.

But the bottom line was like, she was having trouble playing something, and we just stopped. I had her sing it, and then we sung it with solfa, and then we came back to it and she could play it. And, you know, she didn’t need to improve her fingering. She just needed to understand in her head how the music was meant to go.

And I love that, you know, mowing the lawn or whatever your “empty” time might be. To actually use that for your musical development is surprising, but absolutely really works.

Stewart: Oh, and speaking of singing, I mean, like, that’s one thing that has happened over the time of Musical U, it’s got me to try something.

So I always tried to stay away from it, but, yeah, in that time, I picked up trying to do harmonies, right? I’m doing harmonies, but I’ve also used it in my, you know, when I’m learning songs because, you know, I’ll hear a part and I’m like, oh, and I’ll sing it back and then go put it, get it onto the guitar, and I’m like, okay, this works really good. Why have I not, why didn’t I think about this, say, 9-10 years ago? But, man, it really helps. And that’s a Musical U thing.

So sing!

Christopher: Sing! If you’re not already, sing! We’ve got plenty of episodes and material to help you get past that idea of thinking you’re not “a singer” and we’ll put one or two in the shownotes for sure.

Stewart, thank you so much. This has been a real pleasure for me, and I’m sure for everyone watching and listening to get this glimpse into the man behind the username GuitarStu777 that we see everywhere around the site.

Thanks so much for taking the time. Any parting words of wisdom for our audience today?

Stewart: Just keep enjoying music. Don’t let anyone say you can’t, because you can.

And just enjoy, as we say on the site, enjoy the journey.

Christopher: Beautiful. Love it. Thanks so much, Stewart.

We’ll see you on the next one tomorrow. I’ll be back with Coaches Corner, episode three.

Stay tuned for that. I’ll see you there!

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