Hi, this is Christopher Sutton, the Founder and Director of Musical U, and I’d love to share with you what’s new in Musical U this month.
You can watch the video below or read on to learn more.
Instrument Packs Preview
This month we had two major additions to Musical U. The first was the unveiling of our new Instrument Packs for guitar, bass, piano and singing. These instrument packs are a way to bridge the gap between the core skills we teach in Musical U training modules and the actual activity of applying it all on your instrument.
This month we introduced our Resident Pro for each instrument, and released our first resource pack for each one too, on the topic of beginning improvisation.
Let’s have a look inside the piano pack. So as you can see here, the heart of each instrument pack group is a dedicated discussion board where people who play that instrument can get together, talk about the specific questions they have around how to improve on their instrument, and how to apply what they’ve been learning inside Musical U.
It’s also the home of the Resource Packs. Let’s take a look at the first one on beginning improvisation. Each resource pack includes a 10-minute tutorial video on a particular topic, a quick reference guide to accompany that video and explain everything you need to now, and a set of audio tracks that let you practice both with and without your instrument.
The quick reference guide that accompanies each instrument pack video provides all the extra information you need to recap what was in the video and apply it when you sit down to practice. Here for example we have some tips and tricks that were mentioned in the video, an explanation of what’s in each of the MP3 practice tracks and all the score and keyboard diagrams you need to start improvising on piano.
Of course, as with all our training inside Musical U, there’s also a dedicated discussion so that members can ask any questions they have and get personal help and feedback.
We’ve been really excited to introduce this new feature at Musical U, because it’s something members have been asking for a lot: more hands-on guidance for applying all of the core training on their instrument.
Workshops and Masterclasses
The other big change inside Musical U this month was the addition of a new area in the discussion boards for Workshops and Masterclasses. Back in January we ran a popular workshop on “musical success”: how to get more results from your training. Then this month we ran our first official Musical U Masterclass, inviting expert Tommy Darker to present on the topic of networking for musicians. Tommy gave a fantastic presentation and Musical U members now have access to that recording, almost an hour long, going deep into this topic and providing real insights and guidance on how to make the most of your time for networking effectively. As you can see along with the video we have some more information and as always the chance to talk with other members and get any help or advice you need on this topic.
So those were the two main changes inside Musical U this month: the introduction of our new instrument packs for guitar, bass, piano and singing. And the release of the first resource pack for each of those, and the addition of a new area of the discussion board dedicated to the workshops and master classes we’ll be running in the months ahead.
