Questions about Musical U
If you have a question before joining Musical U please take a look below and see if we have an answer for you.
Can’t find what you’re looking for? Just get in touch and we’ll be happy to help. You can also use the Live Chat button on this page.
General Questions
Is Musical U right for me?
Musical U is designed to help a very wide range of people become more musical. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s right for absolutely everybody.
- If you are solely interested in passing exams – then Musical U probably isn’t the right fit.
- If you are a professional musician who can already play anything you can imagine, fluently and expressively – then our training material isn’t quite designed for you. You’d still be very welcome in the community, mind you!
- If you hate talking to people and you’re determined to learn in isolation without any help, guidance or assistance along the way – then good luck! But Musical U is not for you.
… But if you love music and you want to become more musical, then the answer is “Yes! Musical U is right for you.”
At Musical U we welcome musicians of all abilities, from complete beginners who can’t yet play an instrument or sing, through to accomplished instrumentalists and singers who are looking to develop their musicianship and gain a “natural” freedom in music.
Note: The minimum age for Musical U membership is 16 years old. (There is no maximum!)
What if I’m just naturally unmusical?
We don’t believe that’s possible! As long as your ears are fundamentally working (which you can check here), you are capable of developing your musicality.
Many of our students start off fearing they are “unmusical” or just don’t have the “gift” they need to become a musician. In every case, we’ve been able to help them develop their musical skills and realise they are perfectly capable of realising their musical aspirations.
Will this work for my instrument?
The short answer is: yes.
At Musical U we focus on the “inner skills” of musicianship. That means things like recognising notes and chords by ear, imagining music clearly, understanding the music you hear, and knowing how to express your musical ideas. These concepts and skills all apply perfectly to every instrument.
Although we don’t teach the instrument specifics (e.g. how to play a C Major chord on your instrument, or how to improve your fingering) you will be able to take what you learn in Musical U and apply it directly on whatever instrument you play.
In fact, this is one of the major benefits of developing your musicality: that you will find it easy to pick up new instruments and quickly learn to play them too. This is because you begin to actually understand what makes music work, and those core truths are the same for guitar, piano, saxophone, violin, … just about everything!
Will you teach me to play an instrument?
No.
At Musical U we focus on the “inner skills” of musicianship. We feel there are plenty of websites, products and tutorial videos dedicated to teaching you how to play an instrument – and far too few resources for teaching the real skills of musicality!
With the resources inside Musical U you can learn these fundamental skills of being musical, and then apply them on whatever instrument(s) you play. And of course the community is there if you want to talk about the instrument specifics and how to apply your newly-learned skills on your instrument.
I’m a parent/teacher. Can I use this to teach?
Yes, you are very welcome to – but please keep in mind that Musical U is primarily designed for individual self learners rather than multiple people sharing an account.
Musical U provides dozens of in-depth training modules, and you can certainly use these to teach your children or students.
However the system is designed so that your Musical U account represents one person’s musical training. This means that if multiple people use the account then the quizzes, achievements and progress tracking won’t quite work as intended. Likewise for participating in the community: it will be a bit confusing unless you decide that only you will post in discussions!
If you keep these things in mind then Musical U can work very well for teaching:
- Your member account represents you as the parent/teacher.
- You use the progress tracking only loosely.
- You can use all the material and resources from training modules in your own lessons.
How it Works
Will I have to scramble to keep up with others?
No, it’s up to you how fast to go.
Musical U is designed to be a fully personalised training system, meaning that you can take every module at your own pace. There’s no deadline to complete the exercises. If life gets busy or you need to take a few days off – no problem! You just continue again when you’re ready.
Do I need to download everything?
No.
Many of the modules inside Musical U do provide downloadable training resources. However, there is no need to download everything: you can use the training modules directly through our website using your browser.
Do you offer in-person tuition?
Musical U is an online education provider, so we don’t offer any in-person tuition.
Do you provide certificates or accreditation?
We do not currently issue certificates, diplomas or other accreditation for Musical U modules.
However there is detailed progress tracking inside the site so that you can see clearly what you are achieving through your training.
What’s Inside
What exactly is included?
Here is the full list of training modules currently available inside Musical U:
Planning
- Planning For Success
- Ear Training Essentials
- Training Planner
- Musicality Check
- Get Confident
- The Music Habit
Pitch
- Ear Expansion: Pitch
- Tone Deafness
- Finding the Key
Intervals
- Ear Expansion: Intervals
- Learning Intervals
- Interval Recognition 1
- Interval Recognition 2
- Introducing Intervals
Melodies
- Ear Expansion: Scales
- Scale Recognition
- Melody Practice: Major Pentatonic
- Scale Degree Recognition
- Phrasing and Structure
- Harmonic Tension and Release
Chords
- Ear Expansion: Chords
- Chord Recognition: Triads
- Chord Recognition: Triad Inversions
Chord Progressions
- Ear Expansion: Chord Progressions
- 3-Chord Songs and the 4-Chord Trick
- Chord Progression Recognition
- Progression Practice I-IV-V
- Progression Practice I-IV-V-vi
- Basslines I-IV-V-vi
- Popular Progressions
- Classic Chords
Rhythm
- What is Rhythm?
- Connect with the Beat
- Tempo and the Beat
- Speak Rhythms
- Rhythm Practice
- Read Rhythms
- Universal Rhythms
Playing By Ear
- Start Playing By Ear
- The Play-By-Ear Process
Improvising
- Approaching Improvisation
- Improvising Melody
- Improvising with Chord Tones
- Improvisation Practice
Singing
- Match Pitch
- Vocal Control
- Good Voice
- Start Solfa
- Score to Sound with Solfa
- Score to Sound Practice
Roadmaps
- Play Melodies By Ear (Intervals)
- Play Melodies By Ear (Solfa)
- Play Chords By Ear
- Learn to Improvise
- Get Rhythm
- Learn to Sing
If you have an iPhone or iPad, your Musical U membership also includes the full versions of the best-selling apps RelativePitch, Chordelia: Triad Tutor, Chordelia: Seventh Heaven and SingTrue.
All members also get:
- Access to the Community area for help, discussion and support
- Personalised feedback and help from the Musical U team
- Invitation to the monthly live Q&A webinar
Is there a free trial?
Due to the way Musical U integrates educational material, interactive training and personal support we can’t offer full “trial” versions of modules.
However you can see preview material for each and every module here and each Roadmap here.
How is this different from Easy Ear Training?
Easy Ear Training has published hundreds of free tutorials, along with a range of apps, eBooks, training albums and online courses. Since 2009 over 1 million people have improved their ears for music with Easy Ear Training.
With Musical U we’ve taken the very best of that material and integrating it into an environment which makes it vastly more powerful and effective. Musical U adds interactivity, goal-setting, progress tracking, and support from the community and experts, to provide a solution that really delivers results.
At Musical U we’re also broadening the mission to help you with every aspect of becoming musical. Although ear training and listening skills are still core, Musical U offers a wider range of resources to help you become musical in every way.
We believe so strongly that this is a dramatically better way to help people become more musical, the existing Easy Ear Training products are now gradually being retired to focus all our efforts on Musical U and providing its members with everything they need to reach their full musical potential.
What if what I want to learn isn’t covered?
Then we want to hear about it!
We are continually working to improve and add to the training material offered inside Musical U, and our priorities are guided by the community.
Inside the site you’ll find our current poll on what topics to add next, and several ways you can request any additional training resources that you need.
Of course we can’t guarantee to provide everything that anybody asks for – at least not immediately! But we are committed to doing everything we can to meet the needs of the community and continue to develop the most useful and effective resources to help the members of Musical U.
If I join now, will I have access to future modules as they’re added?
Yes.
As new training modules are added to the site they are made available to all current members of Musical U.
Plans and Payments
How do I pay?
You can purchase Musical U membership through our secure order form using a credit or debit card (Visa, MasterCard, or American Express) or with a PayPal account. By linking your PayPal account to your bank account or topping up your PayPal balance in another way it is possible to pay without having a credit or debit card.
Your membership is then automatically renewed each month using the same payment method. If you need to update your credit card details or change payment method you can do this through the account management page inside Musical U or contact our support team.
What if I don’t like it?
We guarantee that you will!
No kidding – if, within your first 30 days, you find that Musical U is not helping you then just let us know and we will refund 100% of your membership payment.
After the first 30 days, you may cancel your membership at any time and you won’t incur any further charges. You can do this easily through your online account management page or by simply emailing us at [email protected].
How do I cancel / get a refund?
You may cancel your membership at any time by following these simple steps.
What is the best song ever?
Ooh, good question! Maybe this one? Or this one?
Okay, we don’t know. Marc With a C is pretty great though.