Musikskül

TBT: This is me in the 2000's playing in my band Coaster at the Spitz in London. Anyone know the Spitz? We sold tickets to all our friends, and friends of friends, and we made an amazing night of music to raise money for a hospital charity. It was so much fun!

This is me a looooooong time ago, playing in a band called Coaster. I have a confession to make. When I play or even listen to music, I rarely hear the lyrics. I'm mostly focused on the instruments. In fact, if I'm performing, I often mess the lyrics up! BUT, because I play with feel, I can often fake my way through it, by distracting my audience with some awesome guitar playing. ... Playing with feel is a HUGE part of playing music. TRY THIS Play 6 keys on a piano, slow or fast, your choice, but without any enthusiasm. Now, play the same 6 keys with the same speed, but like you mean it! As if the music were in your bones! See the difference? At Musikskul, teaching students to play with feel is a core part of our lessons.

Buying an instrument can be intimidating. We've put together a buying guide with tips on the things you should consider when buying a keyboard, guitar or drums. Click here to get our super useful buying guide: https://musikskul.com/resources

Super cool video demonstrating open G guitar tuning. This is how I get my students started on guitar. It's much less confusing and gets them playing faster. Check it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRAK3WBSKWw

Mary and I met because of music. We were both in university in England and I was blaring a Barenaked Ladies song from my student residence room. At the time, the Canadian band BNL weren't very well known in England. A pretty young woman named Mary happened to be walking by and wondered who the heck was playing BNL. She thought she was one of the few that even knew they existed. So, she followed the sound (as you do when you're young and brave) and she found me!... The rest is history. .

You don't need to be an accomplished musician to play along to your favourite songs. Learning the bare bones of music theory and understanding how to make chords is all you need to be able to play. The idea of learning "just enough" is something Musikskül strongly believes in because we recognize that not everyone wants to be a rock star.... In fact, many of us just want to be able to noodle around on an instrument at our own pace, for no other reason than for our own enjoyment or maybe to play a few ditties around a camp with friends. More thank anything, Musikskül aims to get more people playing music for life - at any skill level. There are so many benefits to music and we want to give everyone a chance to participate. Check out our kids' Core Program and our adult After Dark lessons to find out more about our approach to music lessons.

Thanks for your valentines playlist suggestions! Some great ones on there. Our favourite is Minnie Riperton, Lovin' You, but special mention for Extreme's More Than Words. Those harmonies have been attempted on many a late night campfire sing along! We are wishing you a great V-day and we hope it's full of love. ... Here's the full list: Eric Clapton Wonderful Tonight Adele Someone like you Unhappy birthday The Smiths Untouchable Face Ani Difranco Lovin you Minnie Riperton Heartbeats Jose Gonzalez Perfect Ed Sheeran Suffocated Love - Tricky Black - Pearl Jam Flavours - Gomez Louise - Human League Nothing Compares to You - Sinead Troy - Sinead Fade into you - Massy Star 4th and Vine - Sinead More Than Words - Extreme Tainted Love - Gloria Jones

It feels like a lifetime ago that I worked at EMI Records in the UK. My job was Music Licensing and I got to learn so much about the business side of music. I started as an intern and worked my way up. One of the things I try and teach my students is that being able to succeed with something you love will require hard work - you don't just get there by magic.

Committing to learning an instrument or a new piece is hard. Finding the time to practice with all of my other commitments (full time job + Musikskul + family + all the other things life throws at me) is really tough. Here's my strategy: I set a time that I know I am available (for me it's 7 AM) and I spend 15 minutes practicing. It's in my schedule and I do my best not to deviate from it. That's it. Schedule it and do it. Give it a try.

Let's build the ultimate Valentine's Day playlist together. We've got 14 days to get it done. I'm not talking a sappy love song playlist. I'm talking about a playlist that gets us rocking and rolling, laughing, crying, smiling or screaming. It could be about love gone right, wrong or somewhere in between. It could be about love that hurts, love lost, love found, love unrequited, love for ourselves, love for the world or any other kind of love. Let's cover it all. I'll ...collect everyone's ideas and then publish the ULTIMATE VALENTINE'S DAY PLAYLIVE on February 14 right here. I'll start... "Many Thanks" by Kate Maki.

Thanks for playing our music Muskoka Radio.

Remote learning means sitting down a lot of the day. When school is out, consider playing some tunes to get your bodies moving or at least to lighten the mood. Music can be an amazing stress reliever! Play music you know your kids enjoy (even if you don't!) Work together to make an after-school playlist Take some time to check out the top 20 charts and discover a new song or artist.... Listening and talking about music is part of learning to love music. The more you keep music a part of your life, the more likely it is that kids will keep it a part of theirs. .