Becoming Talented: A Systematic Method for the Development of Ear Training and Music Reading Skills

Have you ever felt like you lacked musical talent? Becoming Talented is here to help.

Becoming Talented contains an unprecedented self-guided method to rewire your brain so that understanding musical sound and notation becomes easy. With Becoming Talented, you can achieve the musical mastery you have always wanted. Whether you are a professional musician, an amateur hobbyist, or a complete novice, Becoming Talented will completely change the way you play, write, hear, and understand music. This method can make a profound impact on your musical abilities, regardless of your primary instrument or preferred genre, be it classical, jazz, R&B, metal, pop, or any other style.

If you have ever struggled with music reading, ear training, improvisation, sight singing, sight reading, dictation, transcription, score reading, or any other musical task, Becoming Talented will equip you with the necessary tools to conquer these challenges, enabling you to master musical skills that may have previously seemed impossible.

This comprehensive method will help you develop high-level musical abilities, such as:

• Vastly improved sight reading.
• Rapidly learning pieces of music by ear and easily transcribing them as music notation.
• Writing/composing music directly onto a score (or into music production software), knowing what it will sound like without the need to play/hear it first.
• Fluent sight singing (in seven different clefs!)
• Easier memorization of music.
• Effortless improvisation, knowing what every note will sound like before you play it.
• Improved rhythm reading and rhythmic accuracy, i.e., playing more “in the pocket.”
• The ability to look at music notation and hear it in your mind, whether it is a simple melody or a massive orchestral score.
• Playing pieces of music by ear from memory, totally unprepared, i.e., immediately play pieces you have heard before, never having studied them or spent any time actively learning how to play them.
• A deeper understanding of diverse musical styles, allowing you to easily mimic the style of your favorite composer, songwriter, arranger, improviser, etc.
• More creative freedom when composing or improvising.
• Playing keyboard reductions of full orchestral scores, string quartets, etc.
• Easily transposing notated music into other keys.
• Improved sense of pitch and intonation.
• …and much more!

Becoming Talented is more than just “a few hints and tricks” for becoming a better musician.

Unlike other methods, Becoming Talented gives you a concrete approach to ear training and music reading that really works. Becoming Talented presents dozens of unique exercises to help you develop three fundamental skills that lead to musical fluency. These fundamental skills will help you directly associate music notation with sound, making any musical task feel natural and easy. All of the exercises are scalable with your prior musical experience—you can supercharge your musical abilities even if you are an experienced professional musician.

This revolutionary method will help you develop incredible musical abilities by changing the way your brain processes musical sound and notation.

The exercises in Becoming Talented are designed to force your brain to create specialized cognitive tools for understanding music—the same tools used by “naturally talented” musicians. Musical talent is not a fixed gift from nature; with the proper strategies and exercises, your level of musical talent can be enormously improved. This method will not just make you a better musician; it will help you become talented.

Isador Miller has been teaching music for nearly two decades. His interests in cognitive science and skill acquisition have led him to develop a groundbreaking method that enables students to acquire incredible musical ability, regardless of age, prior musical experience, primary instrument, or preferred style of music. Isador holds a bachelor's degree in linguistics and a master's in music theory, both from the University of Maryland, where he has taught music theory and aural skills courses. He studied with Ernesto Tamayo, Dr. Lindsey Reymore, and Marianne Ploger, a student of renowned music teacher Nadia Boulanger.