In the Introduction, I mentioned that this is the book I wish I had been handed on day one of learning music.
Its original working title was “The Missing Manual”, and when I mentioned the project to people, some would ask:
“The missing manual for what?”
“Musicality!” I’d cheerfully reply.
And, more often than I liked, what I heard next would be: “Oh… What’s that?”
Well, ultimately the book’s title became simply “Musicality”. So clearly I didn’t let that point of confusion get in the way! And you have chosen to read it, so clearly you have some grasp of what we mean by the word, and how it could relate to your musical life.
Still, it highlights something important: even if most musicians would have some idea of what “musicality” means, it turns out that those ideas vary wildly.
We know it when we see it… Whether that’s in musicians who seem to simply ooze musicality, like Bobby McFerrin, Victor Wooten, or Jacob Collier—or in those moments (maybe far rarer than we hope) when we feel deeply musical ourselves.
But what is “musicality”? And, if this book is to be the manual for it, what would it actually mean to improve, increase, or unlock your musicality?
Before we go any further, let’s see if we can clear things up a bit.
What Is Musicality?
Musicality is an informal word. It’s not quite slang, but it’s certainly less formal than the equivalent word in the classical music tradition: “musicianship”.
Musicianship encompasses a range of skills. Dictionary.com defines it as “knowledge, skill, and artistic sensitivity in performing music.” The Cambridge Dictionary says musicianship is “a person’s skill in playing a musical instrument or singing.”
So essentially: musicianship means “being a musician”? Well, that’s pretty vague.
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music gets a bit more specific, connecting musicianship to Audiation (the ability to hear music in your head, which we’ll dive into in Chapter 3: Audiation):
“Musicianship is a broad concept that covers a complex range of musical abilities… it is loosely defined as the ability to ‘think in sound’. This occurs when a musician is able to produce music which they perceive internally and in the imagination, whether through playing by ear, singing, reading from notation, or through improvisation.”
In his article “What is Musicianship” Michael Kaulkin (on the Musicianship and Composition faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory) agrees that “inner hearing” is key, writing “Musicianship is about training the student not just to be a player of an instrument, but to be a Musician. The best way to do that is to take the instrument away.”
That’s starting to sound a bit more meaningful. What about the word “musicality” then? Is it different from “musicianship”?
At the time of writing, Wikipedia has a slightly flimsy page, drawing on the Merriam-Webster definition: “Musicality is ‘sensitivity to, knowledge of, or talent for music’ or ‘the quality or state of being musical’.”
The Oxford Dictionary gets a bit mystical, saying musicality is “Musical talent or sensitivity” giving examples of it in use: “her beautiful, rich tone and innate musicality” and “his compositions reveal an exceptional degree of innate musicality”.
Well, the last thing the world needs is more reinforcement of the talent myth, More on this in the next chapter. so let’s go ahead and skip definitions of musicality which imply it’s a “gift” or something innate rather than learnable.
However, there is something valuable in those talent-based definitions. They capture the ineffable quality of musicality, the fact that it isn’t a simple yes/no quality, nor something you can fully define in a single sentence.
So what is musicality?
That’s a simple question, but one with no single, simple answer! That’s why we’re going to approach this topic in a few different ways.
Overview
First we’ll look at how a broad range of people have described what “musicality” means to them, to get a sense of what it’s all about, and why it matters.
Then we’ll zoom in and take a very down-to-earth look at the specific skills and abilities that people tend to associate with musicality or “being naturally musical”. You can use this to start getting an idea of your own current musicality, as well as what might be possible in future.
Next, I’ll share a simple way we like to think about the idea of “reaching your true, fullest musical potential” at Musical U, and the most fundamental framework we use throughout our musicality training. This framework connects all these various ideas, concepts, and skills, enabling you to continually assess your own musicality and identify the best next opportunities for your own improvement.
Then in the next chapter you’ll discover a quick and easy exercise you can do to set your “North Star” in music learning in a way that draws all of this together.
What Does “Musicality” Mean To You?
After interviewing over 100 expert musicians and music educators for the Musicality Now podcast, as well as members of Musical U, I gradually found that this was my absolute favourite question to ask: “What does ‘musicality’ mean to you?”
The answers were as varied as the musicians themselves, and I wanted to share a number of them here, to help inspire your own interpretation of the word and set the scene for everything we’ll be covering in the chapters which follow.
So what is “musicality”?
Musical U members have described it as…
“All of the pieces one needs to be a musician. It is hearing, processing, creating and performing music. It is our ability to take in music on a more refined level and to turn that inner understanding into making music. It can be broken down into many aspects that rely on the ear, mind, emotions and skills we develop.”
“Understanding the language of music, its grammar, punctuation, its clarity and most of all its delivery.”
“That ‘thing’ that makes music human, creative, emotional and unique. It’s what attracts a listener to some kinds of music more than other forms of music. It’s the way the performer makes a piece of music uniquely his/her own. It’s more than technical and mechanical ability but something over and above physical capacity to make music.”
“Musicality means being able to express your thoughts/feelings through music.”
“Musicality is being in the flow of the music instead of struggling with the notes which are written down or how to get them from my instrument.”
“It means feeling the music as you play it and conveying that to the audience. The instrument becomes an extension of yourself. It is communication of an emotion, idea or concept through song. It’s the expression of your soul.”
“The rich blend of playing, listening to, appreciating, interpreting and sharing music. Engaging with it as a whole language in all its diverse forms of reading, writing and speaking; unlimited by idiomatic variations and improvisations.”
“Musicality means I am using my ears more than my eyes to play music on my instrument. It means a musician can listen actively to pieces of music, play it by ear on his/her instrument, jam with other musicians, and create his/her own music.”
“Ability to flow with the music, feel the music like a fish feels the water and a bird feels the air.”
I’ve also had the honour of interviewing many leading musicians and music educators, whose answers have also been fascinating and inspiring. Here are some highlights These were excerpted from longer answers, given on-the-spot during interviews. So please take them in that spirit, rather than considering them that person’s official, full, “Gospel truth” on the subject! :
“Musicality to me is being able to play or express any musical idea that you have in your head. To not feel like you’re bound by limitations. That you’re able to play the music that you’re hearing in your head and express it to others.
And how do you achieve that? How, really, do you develop musicality? Well, you have to follow what gives you energy, the energy that is driving us to make us put in all that hard work to actually develop those skills.”
Brent Vaartstra, Learn Jazz Standards
“For me, musicality is the ability of interaction with other musicians when you’re performing and when you’re making music. So it’s the conversation that happens between musicians in an ensemble and how they can create different stories and different conversations within the music.”
Inês Loubet, Singer-Songwriter
“Musicality to me is totally integrated with being human. It’s just humanity. And people talk about ‘having musicality’, but I think about it more in terms of our ability to access our innate musicality.
It’s there, you know, it’s there the way nature is there. And we could choose to enjoy nature and let it infuse us with its beauty.
When someone says to me, ‘I’m not creative’ or ‘I’m not musical’. I’m like, ‘well, maybe you just haven’t found the right window or door to open for you to access that, your ability to enjoy it or sense it within yourself.’”
Melissa Mulligan, Music Career Mastermind
“Musicality: I think about it like my connection to music, how close I feel to music. I know that I can connect to music through listening. I can connect to music through creating. I can connect to music through understanding. And the more that I practice those three areas of my music learning, the closer I feel to music, the more I feel I understand music. That’s how I would define it. It’s your connection with music and the desire to continue to get closer to it.”
Tony Parlapiano, popMATICS
“Ah, musicality. I think that is when you start getting beyond the mechanical, maybe beyond the printed page. Musicality is when you get to put some ‘you’ into it.
What traditional music has us do in the process of learning from books, it’s very easy to fall into being mechanical about things and saying, ‘there’s no wiggle room, it has to be exactly this way, no other way.’ And it kind of squeezes out you, or what you might bring to it.
Musicality to me would be when you have a little more freedom to make the best piece you can of any piece of music.
And that could be with notation, without notation, but make something that has some heart in it, that has some heart and soul and breathes a little bit, lets you breathe musically. And really be the way music is supposed to be, which is enjoying the process of making music.”
Jeffrey Agrell, author of the “Improv Games for Classical Musicians” books
“Musicality is when you embrace all aspects of music, whether you’re learning to play by ear, whether you’re learning to read music. A part of that is, of course, music theory and understanding the universal language and how we can implement that into our musicality.”
Glory St. Germain, Ultimate Music Theory
“The most important point that I would like to propose about musicality is that it’s something that we can choose. It’s not something that you have to be born with, or that’s only available to people who are musically talented or genetically gifted.
We’ve certainly all had experiences playing where we’re not feeling particularly musical. And hopefully we’ve had some moments in our lives in which we have felt very musical. So those moments can serve as kind of a treasure map back to that feeling. We just have to ask ourselves, ‘What was that moment about? What made that possible?’
I think that one of the ingredients is just playing music that isn’t too difficult for you. Sometimes musicians want to play the hardest music they can. But there is a hidden magic in simplicity. If the music is easy, and if you’re relaxed and having a great time, this allows you to access this thing that we call musicality, where you’re really grooving with the music, playing in a way that’s relaxed and natural.
I think that musicality is available to all of us all the time. Sometimes we just have to make a conscious choice to play from that place of simplicity and enjoyment.”
David Reed, Improvise For Real
I hope you’re starting to get a feel for everything that this single word can encapsulate! I expect some of the descriptions above hit a deep nerve with you, while others may not have resonated at all. That’s absolutely normal, and part of the beauty of this single all-encompassing word.
Now that we have the lay of the land, let’s get a bit more concrete. What exactly do we mean when we talk about a person’s “musicality”?