Musical U has announced that its long-running podcast and YouTube channel “Musicality Now” will relaunch in a new daily livestream format, to celebrate its 250th episode and over 1.5 million episode downloads and views since launching in September, 2017.
Established in 2009, the London-based company has made a splash in the music education world through its unique focus and product offering. Rather than specialising in the instrument lessons offered by most music-learning websites, they instead focus exclusively on the “inner skills” of music. These include playing by ear (without the need for sheet music), improvising creatively, jamming with other musicians, performing with confidence, singing in tune, and having a great sense of rhythm.
These kinds of skills are generally assumed to require an innate talent or “gift”, but over the past 15 years Musical U has pioneered methods which make it fast and easy for anybody to learn them. A key part of their methodology is to leverage the latest scientifically-proven “superlearning” techniques which allow a musician to progress up to 10 times faster than normal with each practice session.
Musical U provides online training for adult music learners, rated an average of 4.8 stars out of 5 in public Google Reviews, and their methods have been used successfully by over 30,000 musicians around the world over the last 15 years. Their products and methods have previously been featured in the New York Times, Classic FM and Total Guitar magazine.
The Musicality Now podcast is rated 4.6/5 stars in the iTunes podcast directory based on listener reviews, and features a mix of interviews with world-leading musicians and music educators, and educational episodes more akin to a lesson.
Past guests have included the late Professor Anders Ericsson (the pioneering researcher on musical “talent”), Jermaine Griggs (founder of the popular music website HearAndPlay.com), Scott Devine (founder of the #1 bass education site ScottsBassLessons.com), Gerald Klickstein (author of The Musician’s Way) as well as a range of Grammy-award-winning artists and other luminaries in the world of music education.
Originally launched as an audio podcast, in January 2019 the show expanded to a video format, publishing new episodes on Musical U’s YouTube channel.
After a temporary hiatus, the show has now been reinvented in a new daily live format, streaming live on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, and publishing new audio and video episodes daily.
“I’m so excited to relaunch the show in this way.” commented Christopher Sutton, Director of Musical U and host of the podcast, “Our members and followers have been constantly asking when new episodes would be out—and with this new format, we’re not just back, but back with a bang! I’m having a blast streaming each new episode live, and being able to share musicality insights with our audience on a daily basis can provide a huge boost to their musical motivation and momentum.”
Sutton is a graduate of Cambridge University, U.K., and the Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary, University of London. He founded Musical U in 2009 after finding the traditional “ear training” methods for musicians powerful but frustratingly hard to use. He has written for Making Music Magazine and Total Guitar magazine, as well as appearing frequently as a guest on music education podcasts.
He is the host of the Musicality Now podcast, where he has interviewed well over 100 leading experts, and published more than 150 “solo” episodes, as well as leading discussions with other members of the Musical U team.
Musicality Now is streaming live, Monday through Saturday each week. More information and instructions on subscribing on all major platforms is available at MusicalityNow.com
About Musical U
Musical U is the leading online provider of musicality training, helping average, everyday musicians to develop the kinds of musical skill which most people think take a gift or talent. These inner skills include playing by ear, improvising, jamming, having great rhythm, singing in tune, performing with confidence, writing and composing music, and more.
