A World Of Natural Musicians
We all share a deep, natural connection to music.
Across countries, through the ages, and for every individual on the planet, music is a universal force for connection and self-expression like no other.
Imagine a world where every individual feels empowered to create and express themselves through music – becoming not just a music lover and music listener, but an active music maker too.
A world where it’s self-evident that anybody can learn to sing, dance, play an instrument, and express their own original ideas through music.
A world where “learning music” means more than just learning to play an instrument.
It means becoming a musician.
Unlocking The Potential Of Innate Musicality
Every human naturally has an innate musicality: a capacity for music-making and an ability to understand music instinctively.
This can be actively developed to enable a wide variety of skills. Not only reading notation and playing an instrument, but also creative, expressive abilities such as composing, improvisation, collaboration and playing by ear.
Every music learner is different, and comes to the journey with different backgrounds, strengths and goals – but all share the potential to become a free, confident and creative musician through developing their musicality.
Mainstream music education today focuses almost exclusively on instrument and notation skills and expects the inner understanding of music to slowly develop automatically – or not at all.
OUR MISSION is to put musicality back at the heart of music learning, to enable current and future generations to enjoy their full potential to appreciate, understand, create and express themselves in music.
The Change Needed
Music is a ubiquitous and deeply-loved part of our culture around the world, and most people have the chance to “learn music” at some stage of their lives.
But the sad reality is that the vast majority who try learning music end up considering themselves “unmusical” and no longer take part in any kind of music-making.
If you ask the average adult – including those with music as a hobby – “Are you musical?” the answers are typically negative:
“No, not really.”
“I’m not very good…”
“I can’t sing at all…!”
“Nah, I just play a bit as a hobby…”
“I’m totally tone deaf…”
Most people who pick up an instrument are inspired by a dream of playing freely and confidently, connecting with the inner part of them that loves music so much, and finding ways to express who they are through making music.
Instead, all they receive is training in instrument technique and rote learning of repertoire from sheet music, chord charts or tablature.
When progress stalls and the learning process fails to deliver any of the joyful, creative, expressive experiences they’d hoped for, the average music learner blames themselves, assuming it means they “aren’t talented” or “don’t have what it takes”.
In reality it’s not the student that’s to blame – it’s the system.
When “learning music” is reduced to mean “learning the physical technique of playing an instrument”, we miss out on developing any of the inner skills of truly understanding music.
These inner skills can be referred to as your “musicality” or “instinct for music”. And although culturally we’re taught that such instinct is a “gift” that you either have or you don’t – the reality is that all these skills are learnable.
This has been proven conclusively by modern scientific research on the topic of “talent”, and confirmed by over a decade of experience helping music learners develop these inner skills here at Musical U.
We believe there are two big changes needed to transform the world of music learning into one in which every music learner is able to reach their true full potential as a musician.
①
We need to change the cultural understanding of what it means to “be musical”.
Moving from the idea of innate “talent” to seeing the true reality: that every single person has the capacity to become just as capable and musical as the top musicians they admire.
②
We need new, better solutions for teaching the “inner skills”.
Solutions that are so easy, enjoyable and effective that they naturally become a core part of every music learner’s journey.
These two changes will take time… but every step forwards with each of them moves us closer to a world where every person’s true musical potential can be realised.
The People Behind This Mission
This mission has been at the heart of our work at Musical U for over a decade but it’s not just us who care deeply about this.
We’re continually finding individuals, organisations and projects which seek to bring about this same vital change in music education. You can find some of these showcased on our Friends page, and many more featured on our free show, Musicality Now.
This isn’t a top-down campaign. We believe the kind of widespread changes needed can only happen with a grassroots movement behind this mission, where every music learner and music educator is contributing to the change.
Whether it’s a local community band director including improvisation in his rehearsals…
A church choir conductor encouraging newcomers and showing them how to match pitch and develop vocal control…
An instrument teacher including ear training from lesson one and helping their students relate it to the instrument technique…
Or the at-home music learner using online musicality training as part of their D.I.Y. music education…
Every time musicality is put at the heart of learning music we take a step forwards towards the vision of a more musical future.
At Musical U we are pursuing this mission through our three primary activities:
1. Developing innovative online training solutions
for adult learners and supporting them to succeed in unlocking their true musicality.
2. Spreading the core message of this mission.
That any person is capable of feeling and acting like a “natural” in music.
3. Collaborating with other music educators.
Individuals and organisations who share a passion for this same mission.
You can learn more about each of these three activities on our About page.
Get Involved!
If you feel a connection to this mission and you’re inspired to help support it, there are a range of ways you can get involved.
The mission is furthered any time you:
Here are some specific suggestions for music learners and educators:
Actions for music learners
Explore over 200 free episodes...
of Musicality Now featuring inspiration and education from the world’s leading experts.
Learn from others...
Make use of musicality resources provided by other dedicated music educators featured on our Friends page.
Discover the opportunities...
for improving your own musicality by taking the quick, free and easy Musicality Checklist.
Inspire others...
by sharing your own musicality journey so far by becoming a guest in our Pathways interview series.
Encourage friends...
and family members to explore their musicality by sharing this page or other resources like those listed above:
Actions for music educators
Teachers Program
At Musical U we offer a dedicated Teachers Program to provide teachers with free access to our training materials for use with students. Contact us for details.
Let's collaborate!
We are always eager to collaborate with passionate educators who care about this mission, please get in touch and let us know what you’re up to!
