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Top 10 Musicality Now Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Musicality Now episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Musicality Now for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Musicality Now episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
098: Today's Music Industry and Finding Your Fans, with Todd McCarty (Heat on the Street)
Musicality Now
08/14/18 • 48 min
Today we’re joined by Todd McCarty of the Heat On The Street blog where he shares insider insights on the music industry and how to find fans for your music.
You might be wondering why we're discussing music industry stuff here on the Musicality Podcast, where we normally focus on the music side rather than the business side of being a musician. Well, we're not suddenly making a shift to focus entirely on career topics, but we were really keen to feature Todd on the show because we know that a lot of musicians, particularly hobbyists, would love to get their music heard - but are either intimidated or overwhelmed by the modern landscape of music publishing. Streaming services can in theory provide immediate listeners - but may not. And record labels are still doing what they did in the 1950s - or are they?
We wanted to ask Todd about the real story behind the successes in the music industry and what the opportunities are - not for the rare "talented" virtuoso, but for the passionate amateur musician who just wants to get some fans.
Todd was a professional drummer who went on to act as tour manager and promoter, run a record label and be a Senior VP of Sales at Sony Music. He has several platinum and gold sales awards to his name and so he's certainly a man who knows what it takes to make it in the music business.
In this conversation we talk about:
• Todd's own background as a professional drummer and how a pivotal audition hammered home an important lesson about the music business
• We find a polite way to ask Todd: What's the point of record labels these days?
• And he reveals the one thing that musicians get absolutely backwards when it comes to getting fans
Todd has a refreshingly clear and frank perspective on the music industry, something that can all too often seem confusing and overwhelming, and he provided some really big insights and mindset shifts that we know will help you, whatever stage you're at in getting your music out there.
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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 098
Links and Resources
• About Teachers, Coaches, and Mentors
• 35 Ways to Make Money with your Music
• How to Get Followers on Spotify
• Sign up for the Heat on the Street mailing list
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07/17/18 • 57 min
Recently on the show we did an episode on something called the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (LCCOTO) with Andrew Bishko from our team. Andrew introduced me to this when he wrote a tutorial about the Lydian scale for our website, and in the process of putting that article together we came across a man called Andy Wasserman, one of just a handful of people in the world who is fully trained and certified to teach the Lydian Chromatic Concept.
So we were really keen to invite Andy onto the show to share a bit more about this - but as you’ll be hearing, Andy is actually a highly remarkable musician, composer and educator and we could have easily done a whole series of interviews with him!
Andy is a professional pianist, composer, arranger, performer and producer, in genres as diverse as Jazz, World Music (meaning West African, Asian, Middle East, Native American, Latin & Afro-Cuban, South American), Fusion, Funk, Hip-Hop, Electronica, Blues, New Age, and Gospel. You will have heard his music on TV and radio. And he’s had a fascinating journey to become the musician he is today.
We tried to reign ourselves in and focus on just a few topics, so in this conversation you’ll be hearing about:
• The four music mentors that helped Andy become the musician he is today, and the specific impact each had
• Andy’s view on talent and what we can learn from paying attention to the music that resonates with us
• And of course the Lydian Chromatic Concept created by his mentor George Russell, renowned composer and recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant. It’s a framework for understanding music, which Andy has spent decades helping to develop and teach.
It's a bit of a mouthful of a name, but as you'll hear the Lydian Chromatic Concept is, in a way, quite simple - in the sense of being fundamental and universal. It’s not something we could ask Andy to actually teach in a podcast episode like this but we talk in depth about what the Concept is, the way it can transform how you hear and play music, and how to go about learning more about it if you want to experience that transformation for yourself.
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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 090
Links and Resources
• Andy Wasserman Official Website
• Piano Lesson City: Andy Wasserman’s online one-on-one custom private lessons via webcam
• Andy Wasserman’s YouTube Channel
• All About Jazz website’s Andy Wasserman page
• Jazz Monthly Interview of Andy Wasserman
• George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept Tribute page at AW.com
• George Russell Official Website
• Official LCCOTO website and Forum (Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization)
• Jazz Profiles: Six articles on life, career, and music of George Russell by Steve Cerra
060: Follow Your Ear, with Dave Isaacs
Musicality Now
04/03/18 • 58 min
Today we’re joined by Dave Isaacs, a man known as the “Guitar Guru of Nashville”. Dave has been teaching music for over thirty years and provides online courses at JamPlay.com. Dave is also a performing artist, releasing ten CDs of his own and continuing to perform with an Americana trio called Renfree Isaacs.
Dave wrote a terrific guest post on song writing and arranging for the Musical U website last year and we were keen to pick his brains on songwriting advice - but in this conversation we also go deep into his own journey as a musician, the interplay of theory, instrument skills and your musical ear, and how he discovered the improviser’s mindset.
Dave shares:
• The trick to breaking into improv if it’s always seemed intimidating, and how he discovered this almost by accident.
• His two big tips for songwriters looking to improve.
• What causes many musicians to stall or plateau after learning for a few years, and how you can best tackle that and get moving again.
Dave has had a particularly interesting journey as a musician and it’s left him with true wisdom when it comes to the right mindset for teaching and learning music. We hope you’ll find this conversation as enlightening and inspiring as we did.
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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 060
Links and Resources
• Arranging for Songwriters, with Dave Isaacs
• Making Music with Ease, with Gerald Klickstein
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03/06/18 • 55 min
Today, we have the first of our interview series for Improv Month here at Musical U. To celebrate the launch of our new improv Roadmap that helps you learn to improvise from scratch, we’ve put together a month packed full of material all about improv.
In our first episode for improv month, we talked about how to approach learning to improvise and how it's something core and fundamental to any musician, it can take on many forms across many genres.
At the same time improvisation is something that is most commonly associated with jazz music in particular. And so we were keen to kick off improv month talking to someone who's expert in how you learn to improvise jazz.
Nick Mainella is the host of the "10 Minute Jazz Lesson" podcast which really lives up to its name! As a jazz fan but not a jazz musicians ourselves, we have been really enjoying listening to this show and we would highly recommend it for anyone who's interested in learning to play jazz.
The way Nick discusses improv on his show was so well aligned with the way we teach it at Musical U we knew we had to have him on the show, and we wanted to start improv month with this interview because as you'll hear, so much of learning jazz improv is in fact applicable to any genre and style of improvising.
In this conversation we talk about:
• Nick's own upbringing and what he did to compensate for *not* having a natural ear for music.
• The specific exercises he finds most useful for learning to improvise.
• One powerful memory he has that helped set his mindset right for improvisation for years to come, and which he passes on to his students if they're at all shy or nervous about improvising.
• And why someone who wants to play jazz might actually be best served by first studying the blues.
It was so much fun to talk to Nick about jazz and improv and he dropped several really valuable nuggets of wisdom in this conversation - simple things that you can go away and apply yourself and really benefit from.
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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 052
Links and Resources
• The 10 Minute Jazz Lesson podcast
• 60 Days to Crushing the Blues course
• The Riff Everyone Plays Wrong
• About Active Listening podcast episode
• About the Power of Solfa podcast episode
• The 10 Minute Jazz Lesson podcast: Learning Vocabulary
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044: All Things Vocal, with Judy Rodman
Musicality Now
02/06/18 • 55 min
Today we're speaking with Judy Rodman of judyrodman.com and the All Things Vocal blog. Judy went from being a professional jingle singer in the 70s to getting a recording contract as a singer and having a Billboard #1 song, to writing songs and having one of them become a #1 hit for Leann Rimes, to now being an in-demand vocal coach in Nashville and the creator of the All Things Vocal blog and podcast.
With that incredible career, it would be easy to assume Judy has a gift, or that she relied on natural talent. But as you'll learn in this conversation, it wasn't smooth sailing and it was a particular mindset that allowed Judy to have such success in so many different arenas in music. It's also abundantly clear from this conversation that Judy has soaked up an incredible amount of learning along the way and excels in sharing that expertise in a clear and valuable way for her students.
In this conversation we talk about:
• What it was that let her succeed again and again as she pivoted her music career through the years
• The two areas she recommends beginning singers to focus on and specific exercises to help with both
• The number one most important thing to focus on as a singer if you want to improve and have a good-sounding voice
• How studio singing differs from singing on stage
• A clever device that can help you past that feeling of thinking you sound odd or bad when you hear yourself on a recording
There is a ton packed into this conversation and whether you've never sung before, you sing and want to get better, or you're already performing on stage and in the studio, there is going to be something valuable for you to take away, and we know you're going to want to immerse yourself more in everything Judy offers to help singers.
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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 044
Links and Resources
• All Things Vocal blog and podcast
• Power, Path & Performance course
• Singing in the Studio course
• Here We Are, Judy’s album with her husband
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09/11/17 • 49 min
Have you felt limited in music, or intimidated by creative tasks like playing by ear and improvisation? Have you wondered if the musicians who can do those things could always do them – or if they somehow learned? You might be surprised by the answer! In today’s episode we discover how a positive attitude and the right “toolkit” can equip you to find your own creative freedom in music.
Today we’re joined by Natalie Weber, founder of the popular MusicMattersBlog.com, a site devoted to inspiring creativity in music education. Natalie has studied music since the age of 7 but it was only later on that she broke free of the sheet music and found the kind of creative freedom which she now shares with students of all ages and levels in her independent piano studio and with music teachers worldwide on Music Matters Blog.
Natalie writes regularly to share lessons from her own piano studio and also keeps right up to date with all the interesting developments from other websites and music educators. Topics on the site range from highly practical guides and suggestions for covering topics like rhythm or ear training in lessons, through to app reviews and conference reports to share the latest goings-on in the world of music education.
We interviewed Natalie for our site back in 2011 so it was high time we caught up again!
In this episode we talk about Natalie’s own journey from being a note-reading pianist to finally breaking free of the sheet music. How that took a combination of practical techniques and a big mindset shift about what it means to make music.
She shares two pivotal experiences that totally transformed how comfortable she felt making music out of nothing and now inspires the creative approach she takes in her own teaching and leadership of other music teachers around the world.
You’re going to hear how important it was that she had a positive attitude in her own music learning – really inspiring if you want to expand your own musicality.
Also: would you guess that Natalie’s new course on music theory and reading sheet music was actually created in partnership with two people who struggled with that the most...
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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 002
Links and Resources
- Music Matters Blog
- 2011 Interview with Natalie
- For the Love of Music course – Special Offer! Save $10 with discount code MUSICALU
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093: About Frequencies in Music, Part Two
Musicality Now
07/26/18 • 7 min
In the second instalment of our series on frequencies in music, we discuss the two major reasons why frequencies matter, and how sound can be understood, defined, and manipulated in terms of its frequencies.
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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 093
Links and Resources
• About Frequencies in Music, Part One
• Interview with Jeremy Fisher
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120: Audiation and Thinking Music, with Professor Cynthia Crump Taggart (Gordon Institute For Music Learning)
Musicality Now
10/30/18 • 43 min
Today we’re joined by Professor Cynthia Crump Taggart, the President-Elect of the Gordon Institute for Music Learning. You might have heard that name “Gordon” in the world of music education as associated particularly with audiation, and in fact Edwin Gordon developed a whole approach to music learning which is called, simply enough, Music Learning Theory.
We had been keen to invite a Music Learning Theory expert onto the show for a while because we’ve covered some of the other “biggies” in terms of music education methodologies that really cultivate musicality, like Kodály, Dalcroze, and Orff, and we also talk a lot about audiation at Musical U, a word that Gordon himself invented.
So we were delighted when Professor Crump Taggart agreed to come on the show and this conversation was really fruitful and fascinating.
We talk about:
• Her own musical upbringing and her first experiences learning from Edwin Gordon himself
• The slightly imprecise way we tend to use the word “audiation” at Musical U and what it should really be used to mean
• And the two simple activities Professor Taggart recommends if you want to incorporate Music Learning Theory into your own life as an adult musician.
This was a super cool glimpse into both the history and roots of Music Learning Theory, as well as the practicalities of what it does and how.
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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 120
Links and Resources
• Jump Right In: The Music Curriculum Grades K-6
• Music Play: The Early Childhood Music Curriculum
• The Gordon Institute for Music Learning
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216: Pathways - Sharilynn Horhota
Musicality Now
12/18/19 • 78 min
Today we’re excited to share another Pathways story with you! We are joined by Musical U member Sharilynn Horhota. Before her engineering career and three children, Sharilynn was headed towards becoming a professional flute player. Now she has returned to the flute in a surprising way.
Sharilynn has been sharing her journey on her Musical U Progress Journal. The Progress Journal, or PJ, is a system we use inside the Musical U site for members to share their progress, ask questions, and get feedback and support from the Musical U team and Musical U community. Sharilynn has made fantastic use of her PJ so we had some sense of her interesting backstory and all the cool activities she’s been up to - but as you’ll be hearing, Musical U is just one part of all the resources she’s been drawing on and all the ways she’s been stretching herself since returning to flute.
In this conversation we talk about:
• How studying Alexander Technique in Finland let her feel much freer in her playing and opened up her sound
• The specific resources and exercises that have helped Sharilynn start to improvise, and in a way that feels like she is truly expressing herself, rather than just improv-by-numbers following chord tones.
• And the two clever variants on traditional exercises, scales and long notes, which she now gives her flute students to help them improve faster and enjoy practicing more.
Part of the intention with this Pathways series is to share stories of music learners who are perhaps more relatable than the world-leading experts we’re so fortunate to have the chance to interview here on the show. But we’re not sure Sharilynn quite fits that bill, because as you’ll discover, she is one seriously impressive music learner! You will surely find a lot to relate to in her story - and pick up some handy ideas and pointers that you can apply in your own musical journey.
Have you picked up useful ideas or techniques in your own musical journey so far that you think could inspire or help others on their path of exploring their musicality? Get in touch by dropping an email to [email protected]! We are always looking for new guests for Pathways and would love to share your story next.
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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 216
Links and Resources
• The Complete Guide to The Alexander Technique
• Musicality Now - Explaining the Musical Ear, with Aimee Nolte
• Musicality Now - Making Improv a Game, with Jeffrey Agrell
• David Reed - Improvise For Real
• David Reed - Sing the Numbers
• Musicality Now - How to Improvise For Real, with David Reed
• Brent Vaartstra - Learn Jazz Standards
•
07/31/19 • 72 min
Today’s interview is among the most fascinating we’ve had on the show to date. We’re joined by Dr. Josh Turknett, the neurologist, best-selling author and musician behind “Brainjo” - a music-learning methodology which originated on banjo but applies across all instruments, and which is designed to leverage modern scientific insights on how the brain actually learns.
At the Brainjo Center for Neurology & Cognitive Enhancement Josh tackles the question “Is it possible to take any ordinary adult brain and turn it into the brain of a musician?” - and finds strong evidence that the answer is a resounding “Yes!”
He is also the host of the terrific Intelligence Unshackled Podcast, which focuses on how to optimise the health and function of the brain, including its capacity to learn and change itself.
If you’ve ever wondered how exactly the brain learns new things, or whether your music-learning process is really dialed in to help you learn as quickly and enjoyably as possible - you are going to absolutely love this one.
In this conversation Josh shares:
• A completely new way to think about how you’re spending your music practice time
• An explanation of how to use visualisation to help you improve faster - and when exactly to do that visualisation.
• The “labyrinth technique” to focus your practice time on what will deliver the biggest impact.
We also talk about how playing by ear on banjo is - and isn’t - different from other instruments, how playing complex music by ear actually works, how the adult brain compares to the child’s brain for learning - and a whole lot more.
You will come away with several new ideas that change how you think about your music learning.
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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 195
Links and Resources
• The Immutable Laws of Brainjo
• The Immutable Laws of Brainjo - Why Anyone Can (and should!) Learn To Play By Ear
• The Immutable Laws of Brainjo - The Secret To Staying Motivated
• The Immutable Laws of Brainjo - The Advantages of Having an Adult Brain
• The Immutable Laws of Brainjo - The Most Important Skill You Probably Never Practice
• Intelligence Unshackled Podcast
• Intelligence Unshackled - Why You Should Embrace Your Ineptitude
• David Epstein - “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World”
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FAQ
How many episodes does Musicality Now have?
Musicality Now currently has 318 episodes available.
What topics does Musicality Now cover?
The podcast is about Training, Learn, Skills, Music, Play, Listening, Podcasts, Education and Songwriting.
What is the most popular episode on Musicality Now?
The episode title '244: Q&A: I sometimes get the notes wrong when I sing - what can I do?' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Musicality Now?
The average episode length on Musicality Now is 33 minutes.
How often are episodes of Musicality Now released?
Episodes of Musicality Now are typically released every 2 days, 1 hour.
When was the first episode of Musicality Now?
The first episode of Musicality Now was released on Sep 8, 2017.
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