Today we're talking with Katie Wardrobe, the founder of Midnight Music - a site we've followed for several years because it is the go-to place to learn about cool new music tools and websites and insights on how they can be used in music education.

Katie runs hands-on workshops, presents regularly at conferences in Australia and overseas and she offers online training and support to music teachers all over the world through her music technology professional development online community - the Midnight Music Community.

She is also the author of Studio Sessions, a keyboard and technology program for middle school students and the host of the weekly Music Tech Teacher podcast.

One thing we've always admired is how Katie is always able to find interesting and creative ways to use new music websites and apps for real practical teaching purposes. We loved having the chance to pick Katie's brains on how to best use music tech in education, as well as learning a bit more about her own background and what led to her having such a creativity-focused perspective on technology in music education.

In this conversation we talk about:

• How growing up as the daughter of two music teacher parents impacted her early music education, and whether she believes it was nature or nurture that led to her becoming a music teacher herself.

• Her opinion on whether easy music-making technology reduces (or even removes) the need for spending time learning music in the traditional way.

• Her top suggestions for free online tools you can use today to develop your musicality in fun and interesting ways.

This conversation is packed with useful ideas for self-taught musicians and music teachers alike, and you're going to come away with at least one (but probably several) cool new ideas for using technology in your musicality training.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 038

Links and Resources

• Midnight Music

• Music Tech Teacher Podcast

• Book: Studio Sessions

• Ultimate Free Music Tech Resources Guide 2017

• Groove Pizza online drum sequencer

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Many musicians shy away from singing. They think that they don't need it, or that it serves no purpose for them. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth - regardless of what instrument you play, learning to sing will improve your audiation skills, express musical ideas in a new way, write songs without needing to hash out the exact melody on your instrument, and fine-tune your sense of pitch.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 037

Links and Resources

• Interview: Davin Youngs

• Interview: Brent Vaartstra

• Interview: George Bevan

• Learning to Sing in Tune

• Why Every Musician Should Sing

• Learn to Sing with Musical U

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Can you imagine a room full of non-singers trying to sing, all together, completely improvised?

You're probably imagining total unmusical chaos, right? You might be surprised by what's possible...

Today we're talking with Davin Youngs, founder of Davin Youngs Voice, Chicago Circle Singing and the VOXUS Experience. Davin is a remarkable singing educator and although (as you'll hear in this episode) he doesn't much care about pedagogy for the sake of pedagogy, he does actually have a fascinating, unusual and in my opinion wonderful approach to helping people learn to sing and express themselves with their voice.

In this conversation we talk about:

• How group improvised singing can work even if the participants aren't trained to improvise - or sing!

• Why focusing on what "sounds good" is not necessarily the right way to improve as a singer.

• How someone who grew up as a natural singer ended up specialising in helping those who don't feel natural at all to find their authentic voice and start expressing themselves through singing.

We were really happy to have the chance to speak with Davin and learn more about his innovative projects. There were a ton of useful insights and ideas in this conversation, whether you consider yourself "a singer" or not.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 036

Links and Resources

• Davin Youngs Voice

• Circle Singing

• VOXUS Experience

• Jeanie LoVetri's Somatic Voicework

• Bobby McFerrin's Circlesongs Workshop

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What is "active listening" - and should you be doing it?

Musicians often make the mistake of thinking that "ear training" is just about specific concrete skills like recognising intervals or learning to adjust EQ bands on a mixer by ear.

But actually there's one big-picture skill that's possibly more important than all of those - as well as providing a great opportunity to put those skills to use. And that's active listening.

Learn more about what it is and a number of ways you can start doing it yourself, today, in this episode.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 035

Links and Resources

• Interview: Why and How to Learn Music Theory, with Matthew Scott Phillips and Jeremy Burns

• Article: How to hear more in the music you love

• Article: Close your eyes to open your ears

• Article: The #1 activity for every musician

• Article: Audiation, the secret music practice skill

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Today on the Musicality Podcast, we have two guests joining us on the show: Matthew Scott Phillips and Jeremy Burns, who together host the Music Student 101 podcast, a terrific show that dives deep into music theory in a way that makes it easy to understand, as well as covering other topics like music careers, different instruments, and tips for bands.

Matthew and Jeremy are based in Birmingham, Alabama, and although they studied some of the same courses at university together, their musical lives have taken them in quite different directions. Matthew is the award-winning composer of over 70 instrumental and vocal works in a wide range of musical styles, and is now a professor of music at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Jeremy runs Area 47 Sound, where he has recorded sound for commercials, documentary, film, national news, and prime time television. He's also a bassist, performing live with three bands.

We're regular listeners of the Music Student 101 podcast and often recommend it to people who ask us how they can brush up on their music theory - so we were really delighted when they agreed to come on our podcast and share their own experiences and insights.

In this episode we talk about:

• How music theory and ear training have played a part in two quite different music careers - one into academia and composing, the other into performance and live sound recording

• The big mindset shift you need to make learning music theory fun and successful

• The core skill that underlies having a good ear, and bridges the gap between musical ear training and audio ear training

And we ask them the very blunt question: Is there a point to doing a music degree?

If you've ever questioned the usefulness of music theory or a music degree - or wondered if they're things you're missing out on, this conversation with Matthew and Jeremy is going to provide you with some real wisdom and insight.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 034

Links and Resources

• MusicStudent101.com

• Berklee Online

• Who's On Your Ear Training Team?

• Active Listening Tutorial

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Chords sometimes referred to with numbers, and chord progressions as a series of numbers, such as I-IV-V or 1-4-5. Find out what these numbers mean, how to build chords on any note in any key, and how you can use this to write unforgettable songs!

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 033

Links and Resources

• Turning Ordinary People into Musicians, with Casey McCann(interview)
• Note2Self: "I Love This!", with Lisa McCormick(interview)
• Making Ear Training Fun, with Steve Myers(interview)
• Finding the Notes Yourself, with Sara Campbell (interview)
• Seriously Enjoyable Music Learning, with Shelle Soelberg(interview)
• A Toolbox of Musical Understanding, with Scott Sharp(interview)
• I-IV-V Chords in Major Keys
• The vi-IV-I-V chord progression
• The Circle of Fifths
• Podcast Episode: The Power of Solfa

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Today we're speaking with Casey McCann, founder of Eclectic Music and The Little Middle School in Atlanta. We had the pleasure of meeting Casey in person recently and found her to be such a kindred spirit in the way she thinks about music education and the importance of empowering musicians with ear skills and musicality from the outset.

Talking with her was so enjoyable that we knew we had to have her on the show, and share some of her ideas and insights with you too.

Casey is the founder of Eclectic Music which offers music lessons and classes to musicians of all ages, and The Little Middle School, a small private academic program for ages 11 to 14. Casey believes that anyone can learn anything, as long as they have the tools and guidance.

She especially enjoys working with students who have struggled in the past and helping them to find success. At Eclectic Music, they have the tagline of "Turning ordinary people into musicians", which we love. And she's also incorporated musicality training into The Little Middle School's academic program, something we talk about in this conversation.

As always, we were keen to dig into Casey's own early music experiences and how she developed her musicality before starting to help others to do the same. We talk about:

• The key insight about guitar and music theory that let her immediately have new freedom playing piano

• How she was able to start playing songs by ear, even without formal ear training

• Why at her school they let students pick each day what instrument they want to play rather than expecting them to pick one and stick with it for weeks or months

There are a few really key insights in this episode as well as a refreshing and powerful philosophy on approaching music learning in general. We loved having the chance to speak with Casey again and we think you're going to really enjoy hearing her perspective and seeing how it can impact your own musical life.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 032

Links and Resources

• Eclectic Music

• The Little Middle School

• Kodály: A Musical Language

• The Benefits of Do-Re-Mi, also known as solfège

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Transcribing music ensures that it can be replicated again and again by different musicians while still maintaining its melody, rhythm, and dynamics. It's a beautiful thing, and picking up the skill of transcribing can do wonders for your musicianship! Here, we discuss how to tailor your transcription style to your instrument and your goals, and share some hidden benefits of learning to put music to paper!

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 031

Links and Resources

• Steve Nixon interview episode
• FreeJazzLessons.com
• Learn transcription
• Tips for transcribing music

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Today we're joined by Steve Nixon of FreeJazzLessons.com, one of (if not the) top websites for playing jazz piano - though actually it covers some non-jazz material too, and if you're thinking that jazz means "advanced", this episode is going to set you straight.

Although Steve specialises in piano, pretty much everything we talk about today applies across all instruments, and most of it is highly relevant outside of jazz too, so whatever instrument and genre you play, you'll get a lot from this conversation.

Steve has an impressive background as a musician and music educator. After graduating from Berklee College of Music, he played over 1,800 gigs as a professional pianist in over 17 countries around the world, performing with Grammy Award-winning artists such as Koko Taylor and Buddy Guy.

He's taught over 14,000 piano lessons and created FreeJazzLessons.com, the largest jazz piano education website in the world, which reaches over 60,000 students each month.

In this conversation we talk about:

• Steve's opinion on the importance of musical talent versus hard work and how much each has contributed to his own enormous success

• His philosophy on improvising - and a cool trick for how you can make your improvisation sound more interesting, even with just a single scale over a single chord

• Plus the importance of rhythm skills and three great tips for how to develop your own sense of rhythm

And if you're starting to think about getting called on to play Christmas music this year, you won't want to miss what Steve shares about making the same-old Christmas tunes feel fresh and exciting for your audience.

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 030

Links and Resources

• FreeJazzLessons.com

• Course: Zero to Hero

• Course: Jazz Improvisation Super System

• Preview videos for Jazz Improvisation Super System course

• Course: The Christmas Jazz Piano Super System

• Steve's Inner Circle program

• Steve's interview on the Learn Jazz Standards podcast

• The Musicality Podcast: Finding Chords in Scales

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Approaching your music practice with the best goals, intentions, and instructions unfortunately isn't enough. If you want your practice to pay off, it's important to develop good practice habits and stick to them. On this episode of The Musicality Podcast, we start you off with four simple habits you can work into your routine!

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Full Show Notes and Transcript: Episode 029

Links and Resources

• Interview with David Andrew Wiebe

• Music Entrepreneur HQ

• New Music Industry podcast

• Christopher Sutton's interview on LearnJazzStandards.com

• Music Student 101 podcast

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