Paris is a budding producer and multi-instrumentalist who had become mystified by the attitude many people seemed to have for music, that “you either had it in you or you didn’t”. He would watch musicians performing and wonder how they were able to just get on stage and play with such confidence and presence in the moment. Wanting to explore his own creative side, he sought an answer, a step-by-step method to unlocking his desire to play music. 

Upon his initial sign-in to the site, Paris says he was delighted to be greeted by the team and dove straight into his music learning. He was able to set goals and see the course work laid out in a sequential manner. Having real human interaction within the membership was a big deal for him, and helped to inspire years of learning and developing his musicality. 

Paris calls Musical U the “center of the musicality universe, a virtual encyclopedia of knowledge”. He says he’s now able to speak in a musical language and communicate freely with other musicians and his instrument teachers. This holistic approach to his music learning has given him the confidence to play with others, continue to learn new styles of music, and to find true happiness as a musician. 

Shirley describes herself as a lifelong caretaker, raising many children and caring for foster children. Her house was always a musical house and she was delighted to see the children grow and develop musicality as part of their upbringing. But she was so busy caring for the family that she never had the opportunity to explore her own musical side. Retirement opened up a new chapter and she was able to join a local choir and began to thirst for more knowledge about her newfound passion for creating music. 

She said she was drawn to Musical U because of the passion for music that Christopher had. It matched her own! While she initially found the site overwhelming, the Musical U team was able to guide her in the direction that she wanted to take and give her the support that she needed. The clear breakdown of the modules allowed her to review skills that she had already gained while setting a foundation for more difficult and complex music learning as she continued her journey.

Since joining Musical U, she’s made steady progress toward her goals and still revisits previous training to refresh her skills. She’s become more confident in her singing and reflects on her thoughts about playing music with the community. She says that perhaps the most surprising aspect of Musical U was how kind the community is - she’s never heard a single negative word from anyone on the site. 

Min grew up and lives in China, where she attended primary school and received a basic music education. But she never had the opportunity to play the piano and had a passion for exploring the instrument in her future. After beginning her professional career in the legal industry, she took a leap of faith and purchased her first piano and began looking for a teacher. To her surprise, most of the teachers in her area scoffed at the idea of someone her age just beginning their music education. She was told she was “too old” to learn music and should stop immediately. But she persisted. 

After making a new years resolution that 2019 was the year she was going to learn music, she stumbled upon Musical U. She loved the structure that Musical U provided to her music education. She’s now able to improvise and play songs by ear, which has greatly increased her repertoire and ability to play songs for her friends.

The biggest breakthrough for Min was the idea that solfa can be used throughout her musical life. In China, solfa is primarily reserved only for primary school music, and isn’t practiced much outside of school. Solfa has been instrumental in providing Min with a musical foundation that can be used in nearly any musical situation she finds herself in. Min is also immersed within the Musical U community and loves to converse with like-minded adult musicians. She says that Musical U is the “best thing that has happened to her this year”.

Cathy has been playing instruments and singing in local community orchestras for several years with her husband. She’s been taking vocal lessons and recently switched from soprano to alto his local choir. When a new director came to their choir, she realized that she had to expand her musical knowledge to be able to learn the new repertoire more quickly. 

Cathy remembers joining Musical U as “my husband was out of town one weekend and that’s a dangerous thing”! She had been receiving the free content from Musical U for some time, but decided to see how much more she could gain with the membership. For her, it wasn’t just the material that was helpful, but seeing how things work together in music which has been enriching. 

She says that being a member of Musical U has greatly helped her develop into her new role as an alto. Singing in harmony has never been one of her strong points, but she’s now able to do it with more confidence and can hear how her vocal line fits into the harmony of the song. The positive encouragement from the community, in addition to having a sense of ownership over her own music learning continues to push her to developing her musicality.