Summer Of Transformation offer re-opened until Friday!
countdown
00Hours00Minutes00Seconds
Could A Forgotten 83-Year Old Method
Hold The Missing Piece To Easily
Becoming A “Natural” in Music?
Everything we ever thought we knew about “talent” in music might just be wrong.

The latest scientific research has proven conclusively that there is no “magic” required to be a talented musician.

In fact it has revealed there is just one crucial difference between the average struggling music learner – and the “talented” greats.

Now music learners are turning to an ancient method of music learning that fills in this “missing piece” and can transform your natural musicality.

You see, although modern educational institutions would have you believe they can teach you how to become a great musician, in reality generally all they teach is instrument technique.

But what about:
  • Playing notes and chords by ear?
  •  Improvising?
  • Creating your own music and expressing the musical ideas that are in your head?
  • ​Being able to look at a piece of sheet music and just sing it directly, or hear in your head how it should sound?
We all know these things are possible.

In fact they seem to come easily to certain musicians.

So what do those “gifted” musicians have that the rest of us seem to be lacking?

You might have found yourself thinking:
“This shouldn’t be so hard!”
… and suspected there’s some secret…

Some insider technique or gift that makes the difference between feeling free, confident and powerful in music – versus feeling like every note is hard work.

If you could just find that switch to flip, everything would be easier.


It turns out that there is one thing which mainstream music education utterly fails to deliver – yet can make that difference and transform any aspiring musician into a confident “natural”.
  • It doesn’t require any innate “talent” or special “gift” for music. But it can make you feel like you have both of those things.
  • It doesn’t require a lot of time. In fact once you put this missing piece in place, you’ll find you seem to have a lot more time for music – because (just like those “naturals”) everything seems to come easily now, as each thing you’re learning just slots smoothly into place in your brain.
  • And it doesn’t matter what instrument or style of music you play, or whether you’ve been playing for weeks, years or decades.
Put this missing piece in place – and you’ll discover a whole new relationship with all the music you hear, love, imagine, sing and play.
Let’s be honest:
Most music learners are struggling.
Even with a good teacher and great resources, it can feel like a gruelling battle to improve in music.

You carefully learn each new piece of music note-by-note in your practice sessions – but then you always feel nervous to go beyond what you’ve carefully practiced and prepared.

You feel limited because you’re prone to hitting the wrong notes or making some other embarrassing mistake when you go out into the “real” world of music.

Add in all the different musical skills and all the activities you want to include and improve in – and it quickly becomes overwhelming.

There’s too much to juggle and just never enough time.

If feels like even the time you do have is somehow being wasted…
It doesn’t have to be like that.
Have you ever wondered why music seems to come easily to some people?

Those musicians who can sing anything, play anything, pick just the right notes in any key, any style, any musical situation…
They seem to have absolutely no fear or nervousness in music.

It’s like they have a deep instinctive connection to music that lets them feel free and do whatever they want to easily.

We’ve all been taught that some people are “talented” or “gifted” – and so when we see those amazing musicians, we assume they just “have it”. They’ve got something we don’t, and those impressive skills are probably beyond us.
Over the last 10 years scientific researchers have dug deep into this question of “talent”.

The conclusion of all the research is clear.

According to Cambridge University’s “Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance” over 100 leading scientists have now studied this topic in a wide variety of disciplines and have all come to the same conclusion:
There Is No Such Thing As “Talent”.
Everything that looks from the outside like a “gift” in fact was built, step-by-step, through hard work and practice.

As Harvard Business Review put it:
“Consistently and overwhelmingly, the evidence showed that experts are always made, not born.”
Sure, some people seem to find it easier to begin with, making us think they’re a “natural”. But that headstart quickly fades away.

None of those musical skills which seem magical, like:
  •  Playing by ear
  •  Sight-singing
  •  Improvising
  •  Jamming
None of those require any special innate abilities...
Every single one of those skills can be learned.
In fact, you might have already discovered books, courses and training which promise to teach you these “inner skills” of music.

But there’s a serious problem which means that trying to learn these skills ends up being hard, slow, frustrating work.

(So hard, slow and frustrating in fact that most musicians give up.)

After attempting “ear training” or studying up on music theory, it doesn’t seem like we’re any closer to these amazing skills we were craving.

So we come back to the idea of “talent” and decide we just don’t have what it takes…
What’s hidden from view is:
There’s actually a systematic problem with modern music education.

It puts music learners at a huge disadvantage.

And we don’t even realise it.
We all know that learning needs to be a step-by-step process.

But:
What if the process you’ve been given actually has a step missing?
And what if that “missing step” isn’t just any old step – it’s the first step…
Imagine you wanted to build a skyscraper.

Where would you start?

Probably not with the roof.

Probably not by laying bricks.

In fact, if you started with those later steps you’d find everything you built had a tendency to collapse.
Collapsing tower
It would be incredibly hard to make any progress.

However hard you worked, however quickly you put new pieces in place, it would seem like you were frantically rushing – but getting nowhere.

Why?

Because you need to start with the foundation.

Without a foundation, any other steps you try to take will be much harder than they need to be.

Without a foundation it can seem like every new piece is a bit random and disjointed. It’s hard to make sense of it all.

Without a foundation it can feel like you’re perpetually struggling without making progress, like you’re back at square one again and again.
Without the right foundation you’re just wasting your time.
But put the right foundation in place, and it becomes easy to build on top.
Strong building
You can even enjoy the process – because every step you take actually moves you forwards.
So what does that have to do with musicians and “talent”?

Well, the scientific research has shown that “talented” musicians are different from the average struggling music learner in one key way:
So-called “talented” musicians have
“more sophisticated mental representations”.
Put simply: they understand music in a different way.

And that makes sense, right? Because we can see that they experience music and can express themselves in music in ways that show their brain is clearly tuned in to how music works in a fundamentally different way than we seem to.
It seems like they just have a “musical mind”.

But here’s the fascinating thing:
“Sophisticated” doesn’t mean “Complicated”.
In fact, it turns out that what can transform a musician into feeling like a “natural” isn’t a vastly complicated mental model packed with music theory and extensive decades of instrument practice.

What matters is:
Having the right foundation
of suitable mental models.
You don’t need to understand every detail of all music in full complexity to start playing by ear. Or improvising. Or sight-singing directly from notation.

What you need are mental models for understanding music in a way that matches up with the tasks you’re trying to do.

Think about it:

What’s the difference between you and those great “natural” musicians you admire?
It’s not their level of instrument technique.
Sure, that can be impressive – but flashy technique is only going to wow an audience for a minute or two. After that, you better have something more substantial to keep them enthralled.

It’s not the instrument technique that makes us look at a musician and think “Wow, I want to be like that“.
Flashy guitar
It’s the ease, the confidence, the freedom, the creativity that they seem to embody.

Pick any instrument, any style, any musical situation, and one of those “naturals” is going to dive in with enthusiasm and fit right in.

Again:
It’s not about mastering your instrument.
  •  Ella Fitzgerald wowed the world with her “One Note Samba” – literally using just a single pitch. Did it take incredible vocal technique? No. It took an incredible understanding of rhythm and how to use it.
  •  Beethoven’s Fifth (“da da da duuuh”) is still remembered two centuries later. Did he require an in-depth mastery of any instrument to do that? No, he just needed an incredible understanding of what would work musically.
  •  And ask any harmonica player if Bob Dylan’s harmonica technique is any good – and you’ll get a strongly-worded “NO!” But his understanding of what to do with the harmonica to make compelling music? Well in that, he is truly world-class.
So:
If it’s not instrument technique that makes for a “natural” musician, what is it?
The biggest piece that lets them feel free, confident and creative in music: mental models.

It’s their understanding of music that sets them free.
Musical mind
That instinctive grasp of what’s going on in music and how to participate, modify and conjure up music from scratch that we all crave.

The good news?

You can learn these new mental models – and they can be fast to put in place.

Once you put this new foundation in place, everything else comes quicker and easier than it ever could before.

And the even-better news? This isn’t about scrapping everything and starting again.

It’s about taking the time to fill in the foundation, so that all the skills you’ve already been working on finally “click” into place.
So what is that foundation?
What are the mental models that make you feel like a natural in music?
How can you develop the musical mind of a “natural” musician?
“How is that musician so incredible?!”
I’d hear people respond by saying simply:
“Oh, they’re Kodály trained.”
The first few times I heard it I was curious – but I didn’t really think much about it.

But it kept coming up. Over the years in my work on musicality training I kept hearing mentions of this approach that seemed to hold almost legendary status…
Hi, my name’s Christopher Sutton.

I’m the founder of Musical U, the leading provider of musicality training online.

And I have a confession to make…
Christopher Sutton
You see, Musical U has now helped well over one million musicians worldwide to learn the “inner skills” of music. The skills that can enable you to play by ear, improvise, and express yourself freely in music.

But I discovered we were actually falling short of how much we could help people.

We were equipping people with tools and skills which helped them, yes.

But it was a bit like laying bricks or putting tiles on the roof – before you’d secured the foundation.

I had always assumed that since people came to us with the basics of instrument playing or music theory under their belt, we could take the foundation for granted…

But that stuff is not the foundation.

Sure, it’s presented as being the starting point, in pretty much every music lesson and course around the world – but it doesn’t actually equip musicians with the mental models they need to really succeed.

While we were able to help our students and members at Musical U – it always felt a bit like building on quicksand.

So eventually I decided that I had to find out what this Kodály thing was all about, because clearly it was deeply tied to this subject I was so passionate about: unlocking the “inner instinct” for music.
It turned out that this “Kodály method” was created in the early 20th Century in Hungary, where it quickly became the official music education method throughout the country and delivered amazing results for everyone who used it.

Its creator, Zoltán Kodály, was invited to America to lecture at Stanford and even had statues erected in his honour.

But, for reasons of politics and history, this method mostly stayed hidden away and never really broke into the mainstream…
Zoltán Kodály
I sought out one of the top instructors in the UK and took some private one-on-one lessons – and it was really interesting.

I remember in my first Kodály lesson, I found myself thinking “this is all very basic…”

Because I knew notation, I was comfortable singing, I’d done a lot of ear training.

And we were starting from the very beginning.

But in the course of that lesson I was given some new mental models for all those familiar concepts – and I came to realise this was a whole new way of approaching music.

By the end of that first lesson I’d done some impressive things with those simple concepts that were quite different from anything I’d been able to do before.

I came away thinking
“Oh, wow – this is actually really fundamental and powerful”.
It took me a while longer to click that this wasn’t just an alternative to what I knew already – in a lot of ways it was the missing foundation that all the other stuff should have been built on.

Later I went on a 3-day intensive course where I was surrounded by Kodály instructors and students.

And that was fascinating because I got to see the impact Kodály training has.

These people ranged from amateur musicians, to teachers, to professional musicians playing in national orchestras…

Now if you’ve ever been in situations where musicians get together to learn or perform you’ll know – there’s often a lot of competitiveness and one-upmanship. There’s a lot of insecurity on display.

But on that Kodály course the atmosphere was completely different to that.

These people all had an ease and delight in music.

The skills and viewpoint that Kodály training was equipping them with – it just let them enjoy music.
Happy musicians
It was remarkable. And exciting.

And it wasn’t just an attitude – these people could do some seriously impressive things, in terms of collaborating, creating, playing by ear, singing, and more.

But what stood out most was that having the new mental models that Kodály training equipped them with let them feel a confidence and ownership in music that just made it all a joy.
Once I’d seen this I knew we had to somehow incorporate the Kodály approach into what we provide at Musical U.

Because although Kodály training is well-proven and extremely effective, it’s still mostly hidden away…
Musical U
You can find instructors or courses for in-person training here and there.

But there was no convenient, affordable, instant-access way for people to get Kodály training.

So we started to adopt parts of the Kodály approach in our online training at Musical U…

And each new thing we borrowed from the world of Kodály quickly had a massive positive impact on how effective our training system was.

But there were some aspects of Kodály that we couldn’t just “bolt on” to our existing training.
So we decided to go “all in”.
To put together something brand new, based on Kodály principles, and designed specifically to deliver the firm foundation you need for your “musical mind”.
“How Fun! Made me feel like a kid again.”
– Bob G., Foundations course student
Bob G.
“Ok what magic is this?”
– Jean-Loup R., Foundations course student
Jean-Loup R.
Can you imagine having the kind of musical mind that can:
  • Hear music and effortlessly recognise the notes and chords by ear.
  • Glance at sheet music, tab or a chord chart and immediately hear in your head how it should sound.
Musical Mind
  • Spontaneously create your own original musical ideas as easily as breathing and share them with other musicians or an audience using your voice or your instrument.
  • ​Just sit down and play for your own pleasure, relaxation and creative fulfilment.
  • ​Sit in on jam sessions or gigs with any group of musicians with no prior preparation required because you know you’ll have something solid to contribute.
A musical mind that feels capable and confident in any musical situation – because you understand instinctively how music is put together?

The kind of musical mind that makes learning new things in music is a breeze – because everything just connects together and makes sense.
Presenting:
Foundations of a Musical Mind
A 6-Week Course From The Leading Provider Of Musicality Training, Using Kodály Principles To Equip You With The Mental Models That Let You Feel Like A “Natural” In Music.
Foundations of a Musical Mind
This 6-week course provides day-by-day instruction and exercises which start from the very beginning and train you to:
  •  Recognise note pitches by ear
  •  Recognise rhythmic patterns by ear
  •  Write down the score notation for music you hear
  •  Sing or imagine music in your head directly from score notation
  •  Improvise your own musical ideas
Each week a new module uses specially-chosen songs to:
INTRODUCE
Learn the new musical material which will be used to teach this module’s concepts.
EXPLORE
Start to play around with the musical elements to get an instinctive feel for how they work.
DISCOVER
Clear explanations of the key concepts behind these musical elements, enabling you to establish your new mental models.
EXTEND
Go beyond the musical material used so far and see how these new ideas impact other music you know, including creating your own musical ideas.
PRACTICE
Independent exercises let you test your new knowledge, understanding and abilities.
Every week rounds off with a Q&A Call Recording where Anne answers common questions and provides additional explanation on key points from the week’s material.
“Great course. Easy to understand.”
– Alejandro C., Foundations course student
Alejandro C.
"Unexpectedly easy to follow, took less time than I expected and I learnt a lot and enjoyed it.”
– Aliki K., Foundations course student
Aliki K.
  •  The course material is all provided at your convenience online and compatible with any modern internet device.
  •  Each module is broken into bite-sized chunks that make it easy to see your progress.
  •  It’s designed to require just 15 minutes per day, and the timing is flexible so that you can fit it around a busy schedule.
  •  Drawing on the principles of the Kodály approach, Foundations of a Musical Mind provides song-based learning – meaning that all musical concepts and skills are taught through actual musical material. You learn a song, and from there you explore its various dimensions to acquire a deep understanding of how the music works.
  •  It is also a multi-sensory approach, so that you learn to relate the notes your eyes see on the page, to the notes your ears hear, to the pitches and pulse you indicate with your hands, to the musical ideas you express with your voice. By approaching the same ideas from multiple angles it becomes much easier to internalise the new mental models and make them a core part of your personal understanding of music.

Meet Your Instructor, Anne Mileski


Anne Mileski specialises in making music learning purposeful, sequential and joyful.
Anne Mileski

Featured Image Headline

She is the founder of Anacrusic.com and host of The Anacrusic Podcast where she is a leading voice in modern music education.
Anacrusic
Anne holds a Masters of Music degree in Music Education from Southern Methodist University and is a Kodály Teacher Trainer. Her teaching is informed by a wide breadth of experience and knowledge of best practices. As well as being Kodály Certified she has qualifications in all the other major musicianship methods including Dalcroze, Gordon Music Learning Theory and Orff-Schulwerk.
“Anne is very skilfully leading us through these stages. Providing us with scaffolding to support our learning and giving it to us in manageable, bite sized chunks”
– Marion A., Foundations course student
Marion A.
“Thanks for the Q&A earlier today. There were lots of useful and interesting tips in the call – thank you again.”
– Susie G., Foundations course student
Susie G.
Over the 6 weeks of the Foundations of a Musical Mind course you’ll discover:
  •  The powerful "solfa" model for naming notes by ear.
  •  How to sight-sing music or imagine it in your mind from the score.
  •  A systematic way of using your hands to help you internalise note pitches.
  •  The "rhythm syllable" model which lets you immediately translate rhythmic patterns you hear into the corresponding notation, and vice-versa.
  •  The relationship between pulse and rhythm, and how to always keep the two connected.
  •  How to improvise your own musical ideas based on a song.
… and much more!
By the end of the 6-week course you’ll be able to instinctively make the connection between every note you hear, read, write, sing and play.
Case Studies
Watch:
Charlie A.

Case Study: Charlie A.

Charlie is a lifelong musician who plays the trumpet and sings. While not formally trained in music theory, he has been an active performer for many years. He’s been a member of Musical U for some time, having joined because he wanted to become a better performer. After 8 months he says he’s glad he joined because it’s helped him understand music more, especially through ear training.

He found that he didn’t really have a full understanding of what he was trying to learn, like there was something that was missing. Then “along came the Foundations course”. He liked that the promotional videos teased that this course was something that would impact all of the things that he was trying to learn as a Musical U member. As he puts it: “This is a way of getting back to the roots of music where you can fill in the gaps of your hearing, fill in the gaps of your melodic understanding, and bring yourself up to a better set of fundamentals in your musical life.”

This course has helped him see the “mind’s ear” in a different way. He says he now realizes that there are different pieces to his music knowledge and its the pieces that make up the whole of a musician. This has enabled him to realize that the pieces of music he plays all have a tremendous meaning and it’s up to him as the musician to interpret that meaning in his performance. The course also opened up new meaning to the word “improvisation” that has greatly expanded his understanding of how (and why!) to improvise.
Christine P.

Case Study: Christine P.

Christine is a flautist, pianist, and singer. She shares that she had always thought of the way you learn to sing was by hearing the tune played to you, and the way you learned to play music on an instrument was by reading the music.

The thought of just being able to look at the notes, and know how the music was supposed to sound was completely foreign to her.

It wasn’t until she was in her forties that she realized that were all these other musicians that could “audiate” from the page, that this was something that people could just do. She says “The idea of ‘fundamentals’ of music, of being able to understand how music is put together at a very basic level and how to know, either by listening to music or by reading it on the page, to understand what that means really at a deep musical level, really appealed to me.”

For Christine, the course was about learning to hear music. Learning to recognize patterns in the sounds and relations between notes in a way that lets me work things out by ear much easier than just “This note, this note. Nope, that’s wrong. This note, this note. Nope, that’s wrong.” She says that the community aspect – learning that you’re not alone in this, and that other musicians were going through the same thing that you’re struggling with – was “so freeing”.
David W.

Case Study: David W.

David was never “a musician” even though he has always appreciated music as a listener. From a young age, he was told that he couldn’t sing, which has resulted in him forever avoiding singing in front of people. Before the course, he was careful to never sing or express his inner musicality in front of other people.

He was interested in Foundations because he had heard of Kodály before starting the training. He thought it seemed interesting, and a way to finally break through the many barriers that had been placed in front of his musical development in the past.

“I’m self employed and heading toward 60. I’m starting to think about how to wind down slightly. I do think maybe I’ll have a bit more time, maybe I would like to do a bit more than just listen to the music and increase my understanding of things. I’m a lifelong learner.”

He is continuously interested in pursuing this, even though it has eluded him up until now. He appreciates that this method has allowed him to “see the melodic contour of music”. And, best of all, the singing material included has resulted in him starting to sing for the first time ever. Overall he says that he has made tremendous improvements in his musicality and looks forward to continuing.
Zac B.

Case Study: Zac B.

Zac has been playing music his whole life, including multiple different instruments before discovering his love for DJing and production. What he likes the most about his musical journey is that he’s been able to use a variety of instruments and didn’t have to focus on just one. In the same way he likes to explore various genres of music and takes a holistic approach to listening to and learning music.

He says that enrolling in the Foundations course was a gut reaction for him. He had been a member of Musical U prior to enrolling and said he has really came to love this approach to learning music. So when he heard about Foundations he was immediately excited and says didn’t need to give the decision much thought.

Since going through the material, he’s discovered that this has created a new way for him to fully internalize music and the music is able to flow more naturally from him. Music theory became fun, and learning all the various techniques and exercises was “fun, easy, and amazing”.

One of the biggest breakthroughs was that musical ideas began to make more sense and connect. He was able to take musical activities that seemed to be separate before, and incorporate them all into his musicality.

Zac notes that other courses tend to separate composing, improvising, rhythm, singing, etc… but this course combined them in a way that he had never experienced before.

Going forward he’s learning ways that he can be more productive in his music practice. While it may seem counterintuitive to do more steps when learning music, or slow it down, he says these extra steps to learning music get a musician to their end point much faster than the way he had been learning.

Full Disclosure: We were so impressed with Zac’s contributions through the discussions in the course that we’re pleased to say we have since invited him to become a member of the Musical U team and help provide support to future members and course students. Zac purchased the Foundations course as a regular customer and provided this feedback and case study video before any employment was discussed.
Steve L.

Case Study: Steve L.

Steve has a long and varied musical background. He had a negative experience in primary school that made him decide that maybe music wasn’t something for him, even though he enjoyed it. As an adult learner, he’s found learning to be intimidating and disjointed. In his life generally he’s already a very technical person, but he ran into problems when he was trying to connect these various skills he learned about to his actual instrument.

Nothing was able to fill the gap between learning musicality skills and actually creating music.

Steve saidthat the Foundations course seemed to say all the things that he had been searching for. A way to internalize music and just be able to know it. “Forget all the theory and the technical chops, to actually be musical”.

As he started the course, he was at first surprised by the simplicity of the songs. But as the course developed he was amazed at just how musical these very simple songs were. And by stripping away the complexity of the music he was able to discover more about phrases, melodies, and rhythms in a way that had never been possible before.

Moving forward, Steve says he’s learned that you can take this method and techniques to get information from any music, and that this process of learning and experimenting with music is something that’s going to stay with him.

One of the major benefits that he discovered was learning music by actually playing with it, rather than staying within technical definitions. Everything in music had seemed circular for him, as everything was defined in terms of itself or another technical concept. He’s now discovered that music theory is just a way to describe the music, and is still important – but not the starting point for him any more. Learning all of the concepts and songs was more of an experience, and he’s finally been able to experience the music in a way that he never had before.
Ian H.

Case Study: Ian H.

Ian is a retired music school teacher who had been playing music his entire life. He’s a great believer that everything in music can be taught, and that musicianship is something that is accessible to all learners. He came to Musical U and the Foundations course because he had always wanted to follow up on his musicianship training.

Since joining MU, Ian has been impressed by the systematic way that musical learning is approached. The Foundations course appealed to him because it was built around the methods of Kodály, which he was already familiar with.

He saw the course as a way to refresh his existing knowledge and kick himself back into action. Ideally, to be able to teach aural skills to his students. After years of teaching and having the answers right in front of him at all times, he saw this as an opportunity to challenge himself, improve his skills, and go further.

Ian shares that one of the most enjoyable aspects of the course was that he was encouraged to listen to music in a progressive way, building upon the musical ideas without becomign overwhelmed. 

“This is a structured method that is not only useful while learning in the course, but can be applied to everyday music and practice sessions. It makes more music accessible, even if it’s not something that they thought they could handle. It’s a very empowering method that will enable the learner to become better than the teacher at some point.” 

As a music teacher, this was always his goal and he finds great joy in his students progressing to the point where they no longer need his instruction.

Ian says “Whatever the skill it is that you want to pick up, you need to develop listening skills, you need to develop musicianship skills. And Musical U and Foundations of a Musical Mind are very good at giving you the foundations and the confidence to go ahead and do that.”
PLUS: This Week Only Get Four Exclusive Bonuses!
BONUS 1:
Singing 101
Singing 101
Part of the power of the Kodály approach is in using your voice to train your ears and internalise the new mental models.

Not a singer? No problem. You only need one singing skill, and that’s the ability to “match pitch” i.e. sing in tune.

With the Singing 101 module you’ll learn exercises that will have you quickly singing in tune so that you can make full use of the 6-week training course. (and if you want to go on to develop a rock-star voice and audition for X-Factor – well, that’s up to you!)
Value: $39
BONUS 2:
An Ear For Keys
An Ear For Keys
In the course you’ll discover a new mental model for pitch which makes it easy to recognise any note from the scale.

But what if you don’t know what scale or key is being used in a certain musical situation?

With An Ear For Keys you get a 65-minute video walkthrough showing you specific techniques and processes you can use to quickly and easily identify the key of any song or piece of music by ear.
Value: $29
BONUS 3:
The Slowdown Shortcut
The Slowdown Shortcut
One of the biggest challenges in applying musicality skills is that often our new abilities work fine with slow, artificial, one-note-at-a-time examples – but “real” music or actual musical situations require us to respond much faster.

To bridge this gap and get your skills up to speed it can be helpful to practice with real music – but slowed down.

With this bonus 1+ hour of training you’ll be shown in detail how to use three free software tools to slow down any music you want to practice with, so that it matches your current skill speed.
Value: $29
BONUS 4:
Instrument guides
Instrument Guides
As your musical mind develops, naturally you’ll want to pick up your instrument and put all your new skills to use!

We’ll be providing handy cheatsheet-style guides for the most popular instruments so that you can immediately make the connection to your instrument and real playing tasks.
Value: $19
Total Bonus Value: 
$115
Imagine how your musical life would be transformed if you had the kind of musical mind that you always thought required “talent”.
  • No more confusion and frustration in your music learning.
  • No more feeling overwhelmed, or like you’re just wasting your time.
  • No more painful struggling to learn things that deep down you know should be as easy and natural as music itself.
  • Instead imagine having the musical mind that just instinctively understands every note, rhythm and chord you hear.
  • Imagine having the musical mind that lets you confidently and intuitively collaborate with other musicians in any situation.
  • Imagine having the musical mind that makes all your musical activities (and even music practice and learning) simply a joy.
In just 6 weeks, for the price of a cup of coffee per day, that musical mind can be yours.
100%
GUARANTEED
We are so confident that you’ll love this training course and be delighted with the new foundation it provides you that we are covering it with a 90-Day 100% Money-Back Guarantee.
NEW!
RESULTS GUARANTEE
We know it takes a bit of a leap of faith to try something new. You might be hesitating, wondering "Will I really get the results you're hoping for?"

We know that you can - so we're adding an additional form of guarantee, to help make sure that you do.

If you show up and do your part (meaning you use the course materials and are willing to ask for help when you need it) then we will do everything we can to get you the transformation you signed up for.

✔ If you have a question or need something explained, we'll be right there with you in the course discussions every day.

✔ If that didn't resolve it or you need something demonstrated, come along to the Weekly LIVE Q&A Call and get on-the-spot help from the team.

✔ Still struggling? We'll do whatever we can to get you there, including jumping on a 1-on-1 video call to coach you through it.

We want you to enjoy the kind of musical transformation that hundreds of Foundations students have already - so we've set up this new guarantee policy to make sure it happens.
So if you’ve ever felt like learning music was harder than it should be…

If you’ve yearned for those free, creative, expressive skills of the “natural” musician…

If you’ve felt held back, or like you just “didn’t have what it takes”…

Or if you’ve worried that it might just be too late for you…

Ask yourself: have you been missing the foundation you needed?

The foundation that provides the mental models which make it easy to learn even the most impressive musical skills.
Put that new foundation in place – and see the transformation on every aspect of your musical life.

“Thanks for a very fun and interesting course! It has changed the way I see sheet music from being unnecessary and tedious to being intuitive and useful. I look forward to continuing practising!”

– Max O., Foundations course student
Max O.

“Exactly what I needed – because knowing something intellectually is totally different to hearing it. [This] feels totally different.”

–  Jean R., Foundations course student
Jean R.
Buy Now And Here’s Everything You Get:
Foundations course
  •  Six Weeks Of Training Based on Kodály Principles
  • ​Day-By-Day Instruction, Featuring Video, Audio, Text and Exercises
  • ​Downloadable MP3 Audio And Worksheets
  • ​Q&A Call Recording For Each Module
  • ​Flexible And Convenient Online Access 24/7
  • ​Unlimited Personal Support And Guidance
  •  Bonus 1: Singing 101 (value: $39)
  •  Bonus 2: An Ear For Keys (value: $29)
  •  Bonus 3: The Slowdown Shortcut (value: $29)
  •  Bonus 4: Instrument Guides (value: $19)
Total Value: 
$315
Your Price Today: 
$149
All Purchases Covered By A 100% Satisfaction Money-Back Guarantee.
Frequently-Asked Questions
Q: When does the course begin? Is it flexible?
The course will begin on Monday 22nd July. It’s structured as a 6-week program providing daily training and it’s expected to take on average 15 minutes per day.

You have flexibility about when you do each day’s training (e.g. no problem to do Tuesday and Wednesday’s exercises all on Wednesday) and you’ll have access to the course materials in perpetuity.

So although the course will run “live” with a set start date, you are free to begin the program whenever you like and proceed at your own pace.
Q: What happens at the end of the course, can I keep the material?
Yes. You’ll have access to the web material even after the 6 weeks are over, for as long as you need.
Q: Is this suitable for beginners?
Yes, absolutely. We’ll be starting from the absolute fundamentals, and the course will have valuable material both for those who are totally new to music learning (or just to musicality training) for and those who’ve been learning for a while.
Q: Do I need to know music theory?
No. This course is designed to teach you all the essential concepts from scratch.

In fact, this is how “music theory” should be.

There’s not going to be tons of arcane terminology and classical music theories you’ll never need to know or use.

Instead you’ll learn the fundamental concepts that will benefit you every day in your musical life.
 Trying to decide if you should go for it?
We asked Foundations graduates what they wish they could go back and tell their former selves in this moment...

Here's what they said:
If you're wondering "Do I have time to start something new right now?"
 I hesitated some time before I made the decision to go for Foundations.

At the one side Ilike to improve and really install the musical foundations in my mind and to get all these skills that help me to become the musician I desire to become. You know, I am at the age of 75 years and I love learning to improvise and live music in all the years that possibly might come for me.

But at the same time I have already so many exercises to do, and also a lot of other obligations that take time. And after a few weeks it's holiday time for the family...

But I told myself: The Foundations are so important! It is really the basis! I like to do it. 

And it is ok for me to take all the time I need for it. I really can't do the course on a day to day basis, but I will do the exercises at my own pace and I will finish the course probably much later than the other students, but I will finish it. That's the way I go for it."

- Jan J.
If you're wondering "Will this work out better than various other resources or courses I've tried?"
 It's really simple for me. I needed a beginning point and structure to learn music basics.

Prior to Foundations I was just searching to learn at random. 

The building blocks were there just not on top of each other. I feel now I have direction!"
- Gerry G.
 This is what I would have said to myself:

Are you worried that this will be "one more thing" you sign up for and don't finish because you don't have time or you don't want to spend time trying to navigate where to go and where to start? 

Don't be . . . it is laid out in a straight forward orderly fashion (you know, "one foot in front of the other"). There are no weird paths to take so you can't get lost. It is presented in short manageable chunks that don't overwhelm you. So even if you are tired or have other commitments one week, it is easy to catch up. You set your own pace.

Although It is basic stuff, the course allows you see and hear in a way that you likely haven't encountered before. But don't think it is too simple or boring.There are a few challenges and 'ah-ha' moments along the way. Just stay OPEN to all that is presented and you will come away with new skills that you will use for the rest of your musical life.

And most of all, it feels REAL. There are real people out there with similar interests. And the folks at Musical-U feel are like family. So go ahead an sign up today. You'll look back on this and say "I'm glad I listened".
- Dottie K.
If you're wondering "Will it be worth it?"
 I started to learn scale degree recognition which starts to open up a better understanding of what I hear, helping to transcribe, harmonise and play by ear. 

By keeping things simple and playful I overcame some fear of improvising and composing. 

It taught me some tools for learning to sight sing. It gave me a simple system for decoding rhythm and explaining it to others.

The bottom line is I learned more and had more fun for about the same money I paid for 6 weeks of singing lessons."
- Nicola K.
If you're feeling nervous or wondering "Will I have a good experience on this course?"
 I would go back and tell myself that this course will help in your confidence in a number of ways. 

· You will know that you sing in tune

· You will know how to tackle sight reading basic rhythms

· You won't feel unprepared with the basics

· You will start to understand where you need to go next"
- Sandy M.
 Have no fear. 

The teaching, the materials and activities are superb and will give you a better understanding of music. 

It's friendly and it's fun."
- Ian H.
“A brilliant programme – really well designed and presented with a very manageable pace.

Like a number of others my only regret is that I did not come upon the course six years ago when I started to learn/play music.”
– Brendan F., Foundations course student
Brendan F.
“[This] has been transformational for me! I wish I had discovered this material decades ago!

It has progressed in small, bite-sized bits and I really appreciate that.”
– Dave W., Foundations course student
Dave W.
“Great material, beautifully presented!

Exactly what I need to learn. Even though I have done this at a higher level, I can feel gaps in the foundations already starting to fill in.

I have noticed that I can pick out the melodies on the guitar or keyboard sooo much quicker when I really know the solfege and can play them with hand signs and body ladder and a rough version of singing them first.”
– Saam Egan., Foundations course student
Saam E.
“The whole program is well thought out and executed. The material covered per week is about right for me.”
– Henry V., Foundations course student
Henry V.
“In depth and so much detail. Won-der-ful.”
– Michael M., Foundations course student
Michael M.
“I am happy that I did this, I really gained new insights. 

I have now learned the deep connection between language and rhythm. Very interesting.”
– Ute A., Foundations course student
Ute A.
“The penny has dropped. From somebody didn’t think they could sing at all! I’m beginning to discover a voice I never thought I had. 

I am so enjoying this course. I feel it is helping me a lot and putting in the foundations to an interesting future of musical self discovery."
– Steve B., Foundations course student
Steve B.
More Case Studies
Nancy K.

Case Study: Nancy K.

Nancy had spent her entire life caring for her husband and children, but always felt that music was a part of her and something that she wanted to explore. As the children grew up and left the house, she was inspired to begin her music education when she hear the melodic tones of the dulcimer. She is now deeply involved in the dulcimer community and has helped to provide 60 instruments to local schools so that children can also learn and appreciate the instrument and style of music. 

She first joined Musical U because she wanted to strengthen her ability to play songs by ear. Prior to this, Nancy relied on tablature to learn and play songs, which was limiting when playing with groups of musicians at the dulcimer rendezvous she loved to attend. She said Foundations of a Musical Mind was appealing to her because it was a set schedule of music learning, which would give her the structure and direction that she needed to gain a deeper understanding of music. 

Nancy said she now feels more confident in her playing and is able to learn songs more quickly on her instrument. It’s allowed her to play more naturally, where before she always felt a bit robotic in her playing. Exploring and using her voice has been a wonderful breakthrough, and wasn’t something that she felt she would be able to do prior to the course. And even though she hasn’t met any other dulcimer players on the course, the commonality of music learning and foundations have allowed her to become more musical on the instrument and play with confidence. 

Marc G.

Case Study: Marc G.

Marc is a blues harmonica player who has been studying the instrument privately and online for several years. He regularly plays in jam nights and explores a wide variety of styles and other instruments during jam sessions. What he likes the most about the harmonica is how portable the instrument is and the culture of blues musicians. 

He’s a lifelong learner and public school teacher, so when the opportunity to join the Foundations course came about he took a leap of faith. He thought that all of his colleagues where learning the same material from the same teachers, and he wanted something that would give him a different perspective to allow him to stand out more during jam nights. Having a broader music education would also increase his ability to play in a wider variety of genres and musical styles. 

Marc credits the Foundations course with creating a paradigm shift in the way that he looks at music. Having a deeper understanding of music theory has greatly increased his appreciation for the blues and strengthened his musical ear. It allowed him to be more confident when getting out of his comfort zone, which has paid off when playing and collaborating with other musicians. He's now keen to pursue more opportunities to sub for other musicians in a wider variety of genres and styles. 
Min F.

Case Study: Min F.

Min grew up and lives in China, where she attended primary school and received a very 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 “too old” to learn music and should stop immediately. But she persisted in pursuing this dream...

After making a new year's resolution that 2019 was the year she was going to learn music, she stumbled upon Musical U. She said she loved the structure that the Foundations course 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. This 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 finding Musical U was the “best thing that has happened to her this year”.
All Purchases Covered By A 100% Satisfaction Money-Back Guarantee.
© 2019 Easy Ear Training Ltd. / Musical U. Musical U is not a university and does not issue credentials.