068 – How to Become a More Confident Musician & Living the Entrepreneurial Life – with Christopher Sutton of Musical U

Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a more confident musician? Are you wondering what it’s like to live the entrepreneurial life? Then you’re going to love this interview. In this episode of The New Music Industry Podcast, I chat with Christopher Sutton of Musical U. Download the PDF Transcription Podcast Highlights: 00:14 – Introduction 00:27 – What is the concept behind Musical U? 01:52 – Ear training 03:14 – Tips for people looking to learn an instrument 04:49 – What do musician struggle with most? 07:25 – How do we avoid burnout as content creators? 10:32 – What tools and apps do you use to run your business? 13:17 – The Dynamite Circle 18:18 – What other tools have you found beneficial? 20:05 – Can entrepreneurship be taught? 22:11 – Why was 2012 a rough year for you? 27:53 – Entrepreneurial depression 35:00 – What are the challenges connected to your music and business life being so interconnected? 36:30 – Developing your inner circle 39:39 – What is something you wish you could spend more time on? 41:22 – How to achieve both a successful business and an incredible lifestyle 44:05 – Abundance mindset 46:10 – Conclusion Transcription: David Andrew Weibe: Thanks for joining me. Today I've got another incredible interview lined up for you so why don’t we get right into it? Today, I'm joined by the founder of Musical U, Christopher Sutton. How are you today Christopher? Christopher Sutton: I'm very well. Thank you, David. How are you doing? David: I'm great. Thanks for asking. To start things off, I wanted to ask, what is the concept behind Musical U? What can people expect to learn on your website? Christopher: Musical U came out of my company called Easy Ear Training originally. The genesis was really on this topic of ear training and how do you get a good ear for music. The reason for that was really I looked around and I knew how powerful ear training can be for musicians, but all of the traditional methods were really boring and really theory-based. And so, I started my company in 2009 to try and leverage technology to make it fun and easy for people to get a good ear for music. For the first few years, we were really focused on that idea of ear training and giving people good exercises to do. But more and more I realized it's part of so much bigger picture. And so, with Musical U we're really talking more about musicality in general, and ear training is a big part of that, but it's kind of a means to an end. And the end is how can I become the kind of creative, versatile, confident musician that I was probably dreaming of when I picked up my instrument but maybe got lost along the way. And so, what we do is help musicians fill in those kind of soft skills and inner skills like: Can you recognize notes by ear? Do you have a good sense of rhythm? Do you have the confidence to get up on stage and perform? Leaving aside the instrument technique, can we turn you into the kind of musician you dreamed of being? David: All right. So, ear training is mentioned a few different places on your website, so it seems like a something pretty important, also part of your musical journey, so talk about that a bit. Christopher: Yeah. So, ear training is probably 70% of what we teach at Musical U. It is such a valuable thing, but it's a tricky one because the phrase “ear training” comes with a lot of baggage. A lot of musicians haven't even heard of it. And so, you then need to explain what is ear training and how can it help. And those who have heard of it have typically learned it in a frustrating way, so they might have just studied up for the oral skills section of an exam they were taking, or they might have tried an ear training app and found it quite difficult and frustrating, so they decided it wasn't for them. And so, we were a bit careful how much we use that phrase these days, just because what musicians actually care about is learning to play by ear, learning to improvise, learning to write songs, that kind of creative fun experience in music, and ear training is just the tool to get them there. And so… Yeah. At Musical U we teach ear training in a particular way that gets away from some of that baggage and some of that tedium and frustration. David: Absolutely. Because depending on how the material is presented, it could either be boring or hard to understand, so it's really good when it's something that's a little bit simpler and helps musicians get to where they want to be in that capacity. What tips do you have for someone looking to learn an instrument? Christopher: That's a big question. So, I think I see a lot of people making mistakes early on. I think if you're in the hands of a skillful teacher you can avoid a lot of those mistakes. But these days it's so easy to learn online. I think there are a lot of self-directed learners who are making use of these fantastic resources online but that leaves them open to not having the experience to kind of guide their journey. And so, for example, I'm a big proponent that the ear side of things should be part of your music learning from day one really. This isn't an advanced skill that you get to when you're a master of your instrument already. This is really the heart of music making and feeling like you are a musician. I think one tip I'd give is just even if you are right at the beginning stage picking up a new instrument, don't assume that playing by ear is something you need to be gifted to do, or improvising is an advanced thing for jazz musicians only. If you want to enjoy making music, and if you want to feel like you are a natural in music, there are things you can do from the very beginning alongside learning –  where to put your fingers on the guitar fretboard or the keyboard. That can really transform the experience you have of learning music. Playing by ear isn’t something you need to be gifted to do.Share on X David: I have found some people do really well with the self-directed learning side of things, but then I would say the overwhelming majority really kind of need a lot of direction to help them get to where they want to go, so those are some really good points. On your website it says you'd rather spend your time creating resources for musicians than getting up on stage and performing. In some ways, I'm the same way. What have you found to be some of the things musicians struggle with and need to learn most? Christopher: For me, it comes down to these inner skills. I think we have a really fantastic tradition in the US, the UK, Australia, of how do you learn the instrument. If you want to learn to play chords on guitar or learn classical piano or learn slap bass technique, you can take tutorials, or you can take lessons with a teacher. It's a fairly proven path. You'll have your ups and downs. It does take hard work. It does take persistence, but the instrument technique side of things I think is fairly well covered. That's really why with Musical U we focus on what I feel is so often neglected, which is, do you really understand what you hear in music? Do you understand what you're playing on the guitar, piano, bass? Can you choose what notes to play rather than only ever being able to play what you've carefully practiced from sheet music or tab? And so, the resources I get excited about creating are ones which show people in a fun and engaging way that they do have what it takes to be creative in music and be expressive and kind of feel ownership of the music they are playing rather than just feeling a bit like a robot who sometimes makes mistakes, which I think is unfortunately the position a lot of people get to if they just focus on the instrument technique. David: Yeah. That is so important. Being able to express yourself creatively and improvising. I was fortunate to develop those skills pretty early on in my development, but unless you're regularly jamming or getting in front of an audience and situations where you have to play something or perform, then you may not get there as quickly. Those are valuable skills. Christopher: For sure. I think the other thing to keep in mind is that there's just such a mindset barrier for a lot of musicians. We have this cultural idea of talent and whether you have a gift for music. For a lot of people that means they never even consider improvising or learning to write songs because they feel like "I tried it once and it didn't work and therefore I'm not talented". This comes up a lot with singing too. People think they just can't sing. The reality is all of this stuff is learnable. You need to kind of break past that emotional barrier and understand that it's not a question of I have it or I don't. It's all stuff that you can learn with the right resources and the right guidance and a bit of hard work and persistence. David: You create a lot of content, including articles and training modules for Musical U. And as I understand it, you're also answering questions for the community. So, as an experienced content creator myself, I know how easy it can be to spread yourself too thin even if you enjoy the process. Have you encountered any challenges connected to creating and delivering regular content? Christopher: That's a great question. It has been challenging at times. I think in a way I was lucky because, just to give a bit of background, I discovered this thing called ear training only in my 20s when I'd already been a musician for 10 or 15 years. And so, when I started my company, I was very conscious that I knew a reasonable amount and I knew enough to kind of guide the company, but there were only so many articles I really felt expert enough to write. And so, from almost the beginning I was hiring music educators much more experienced than myself to create content for our website. And so, there was still kind of editing and formatting and