#Musicianship vs musicality how to
#Musicianship vs musicality full
#Musicianship vs musicality series

Fortunately, once you learn how to play melodies by ear or how to play chords by ear the mystery dissolves and you realise that like all other aspects of musicality, this is something you can learn for yourself. If you don’t understand how to learn to play by ear, then it can seem like you need a mysterious “talent” to do it. In fact this skill can be so impressive, particularly if you don’t know how learnable it actually is, it is a prime cause of people believing that musicality is an innate gift. When you see a musician who can easily pick up their instrument and play any song or piece of music they’ve just heard (possibly for the first time), without the need for sheet music, a chord chart, or any kind of practice time to learn the piece – now that’s musicality! Right? This is probably the most prominent skill people associate with musicality. Let’s look at each of these in turn and see how they contribute to being musical. Here (in no particular order) are some of the skills we believe are important parts of musicality:

#Musicianship vs musicality series

We’ve unpacked that into a large number of specific skills and explored each of these here on the blog in our “Musicality Means” series and we have a Musicality Status Check for our members to see which areas they want to focus on improving next. Musicality is a set of “inner skills” which let you freely and confidently express yourself in music. Here at Musical U we like this short and simple definition: Chad West who regularly presents on the subject of modern musicianship defines 5 “Big Skills” which contribute to musicality and go way beyond instrument technique or being born talented. 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 we’re not keen on definitions of musicality which imply it’s a “gift” or something innate rather than learnable. If you’ve been following this blog then you know we at Musical U can’t stand the Talent Myth and think “talent” doesn’t compare to practice for becoming a great musician. “his compositions reveal an exceptional degree of innate musicality”. “her beautiful, rich tone and innate musicality” The Oxford Dictionary gets a bit mystical, saying musicality is “Musical talent or sensitivity” giving examples:

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”.” So what about “musicality”? Is it different from musicianship? The best way to do that is to take the instrument away.” Defining Musicality In his article “What is Musicianship” Michael Kaulkin (on the Musicianship and Composition faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory’s Pre-College Division) 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. 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.” “Musicianship is a broad concept that covers a complex range of musical abilities… it is loosely defined as the ability to ‘think in sound’. That’s pretty vague.ĪBRSM gets a bit more specific, connecting musicianship to audiation: So essentially: musicianship means “being a musician”. defines it as “knowledge, skill, and artistic sensitivity in performing music.” The Cambridge Dictionary says musicianship is “knowledge, skill, and artistic sensitivity in performing music.” Musicianship encompasses a range of skills. It’s not quite slang, but it’s certainly less formal than the traditional classical music equivalent: musicianship. So let’s take this opportunity to explore: what is musicality? By using this short and simple word we risk overlooking many of the dimensions and subtleties it’s used to represent. Like all catch-all terms though, there is a downside to the convenience. It encompasses many of the skills we help people to learn at Musical U. Musicality is a very useful catch-all for “being musical”.

#Musicianship vs musicality full

Do we truly understand the full range of skills and experience bundled up in that simple word though? But what exactly does it mean? As musicians and music lovers we all have some instinctive understanding of what musicality is, and perhaps we can even spot it when we see (or hear) it. We use the word “musicality” a lot here at Musical U.