A track from Musicademy blogger David Clifton’s Christmas album was played on UK Radio 2 Aled Jones show recently and a number of people have been looking for where to hear more. The album is available on iTunes, Amazon and in high street stores in the UK & Canada.
There’s a sample track and review of the album below: Read More
A seasonal worship trainwreck - it gets beter the longer you listen!
Confidence is really crucial in effective vocals performance. When we are under confident we tend not to breathe as well as we should and also not to really nail the notes that strongly, so it all comes out a bit mushy. Now at Musicademy we’ve taken a fairly in-depth approach to helping worship vocalists through our vocals DVDs, so of course we would recommend going through them or alternatively getting some private lessons to help you on your specific issues, but here are some brief tips: Read More
This post has nothing whatsoever to do with worship or music but its a great little clip so please enjoy.
As music teachers we find it helpful to be aware of the learning model that defines students as at one of four stages:
Stage 1 unconscious incompetence
Stage 2 conscious incompetence
Stage 3 conscious competence
Stage 4 unconscious competence
The model explains the process and stages of learning a new skill
Here’s a question from Dale in the US which I’ve posted as it comes up all the time.
“I am a self-taught guitar player for the last ten years. i don’t know anything about music theory or some of the more technical terms i hear about and read on your guitar courses. I have led worship at churches i have attended, but find myself lacking in some areas. i have seen your guitar courses on worshiptogether.com, but am really unsure whether i should purchase the beginner or intermediate course. i don’t want to go to something so basic that it was a waste of my money, but don’t want to miss out on things i need to know by jumping to the intermediate course. how basic or beginner is your beginner course? i know most of my major chords, can transpose with a capo, and know a couple of strum patterns, but have an issue with tempo and lack in moving up the neck and fingerpicking. any advice on what i should purchase?”
OK. I know that we don’t all play by ear and even if we do we like to have the security of the words in front of us when we lead worship (and not all churches have that great system where words are shown on floor based monitors). But why do so many people insist on having their music stands set so high?
Read More
“Hi, i’m a bassist that plays in a church band and I wanted to know what’s the difference from getting the song learner seperately as a single download and getting the discs. I’d like to keep the songs (video) on my computer…Do you all show different fills, riffs, and slides into chords, etc. on your videos?”
David Wooliston
Thanks for the question David. In a nutshell:
- The online Song Learner videos are the same in terms of content with the DVDs
- The online videos will only play on a computer, the dvds on computer or DVD player
- The DVD quality is much higher than online video
- You can take the content from the DVDs onto your computer if you like
If you are wanting most of the Song Learner lessons I would recommend the DVDs. If you just want to try one or two lessons then go the online route.
I would also say that the main Musicademy Beginners/Intermediate Worship Bass Course DVDs are our “core” product. These have onscreen graphics, input from lots of worship leaders and pro players, and are a thorough step by step teaching programme. They are far far more than the Song Learners so do have a think about the Intermediate bass course for you as well.
(This answer applies equally to the guitar song learners)
We get emailed all the time from people asking questions about our DVDs, worship, playing and instruments. We’ve created two places on our blog to answer these questions in public so if you have a question please email info@musicademy.com.
Look at the Ask The Expert and Ask An FAQ categories on the Blog to see the archive.
You are welcome to comment on any of the questions (or our answers) in the comment box.
