With the advent of e-learning platforms having taken a stronger foothold in our communities, the scope of integrating different subjects and areas of practice expanded. This is especially true in light of recent events with the global lockdown, which had forced people to get creative. Muzigal is the brainchild of such creativity and is the creation of one Dr. Lakshminarayanan Yeluri, who founded it in April of 2020.
The Genesis of Muzigal
Muzigal is essentially an app which acts as a stage for collating music and learning on a global scale. As Muzigal would put it, it is a global academy for music. The creation of this app supposedly had its roots in the intention of democratising the music teaching and learning environment and making it accessible to all. The app claims to make the entire online learning seamless and smooth, right from the booking, scheduling, live video sessions and even the actual curriculum.
When you do a quick search on Google Play Store or the Apple Store, you will find a myriad of apps that cater to musical learning such as digital pianos, apps with sheet music to practice different songs, apps to find the right pitch so you can train your voice or even some that allow you to practice for a future as a Disk Jockey (DJ). There is plenty of variety out there to choose from, so why Muzigal?
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Muzigal is more than an app, it is a stage where musicians, both aspiring and masters, gather to collaborate and learn about the art form.
Where Does Muzigal Stand in The Market?
The answer to that is simple, all those other apps have but one function or cover only a single, isolated aspect of the music learning experience and the majority of them are self-teaching apps. Muzigal, on the other hand, claims to be the first-ever app-based platform that brings the student and teacher together, where both are matched to perfection. The app operates around the principle of giving the learner or teacher exactly what they are looking for, that is to say, all genres of music and musical instruments; different levels of teaching and learning for beginner, intermediate learners and advanced pupils; mutually convenient timings and the value for money.
All of these elements brought under one operational platform is what makes Muzigal stand out from the crowd. Though the company only saw its genesis in mid-2020 and is quite young, they have taken the initiative and gone forward with a concept that has not been done through an app before.
What Does Muzigal Offer Students?
The app offers students who are limited by the learning opportunities in their neighbourhoods. Whether they just want to learn how to play their favourite song or want to take up a full A-to-Z music theory course, they can do so through the app which connects them to industry professionals.
Muzigal was tailor-made for convenience and comfort of learning by offering not only the best teachers for music but levels of learning that are adapted to the student’s strengths and weaknesses depending on their level of expertise, be it practical or theory.
Currently, the application has 1174 students, 12,569 classes and 184 teachers currently active as per the numbers provided by their official website, which when considering they just started the company 11 months ago, it is quite the impressive community of young, aspiring artists they have garnered.
In addition to this, students get additional benefits from using the platform, which is getting matched with the right teacher to best cultivate their skills, watch lessons and sessions, get a pulse on the latest happenings in the music industry, have a platform to show off their skills and if all else fails, they get a free teacher replacement.
If none of this sounds convincing, then you can easily just opt for a ‘no-obligation’ free trial class to get to know your teacher and the kind of lessons you will be learning. For students who decide they want to go ahead with the program, they get anywhere from 5 to 20 per cent off if they book more than 8 classes.
Students who wish to undergo a more formal training also have options. If they want to use this platform as a jumping-off-point to earn their certification or degrees. Under ‘Find A Teacher’ option, using the filter ‘Learn Music Theory – Formal Curriculum’ students will be matched with teachers who are qualified to teach staff notation and help with Trinity, ABRSM or Rock School examinations or even Indian classical diplomas such as BA and MA qualifications.
Students have a choice between several different instruments, genres and teachers to learn under. Every form of instrument has a place on the app and more specialised instruments are catalogued under the broader areas such as string instruments like the Guitar, Violin or Sitar, Percussion instruments like Drums or Table, Wind instruments like the Flute or Saxophone, Key instruments like Keyboard and Piano and even different stylings of Vocals such as Western, Hindustani and Carnatic to name a few.
This broad menu of items aside, students can also opt for preference in different levels of advancement such as beginner, intermediate or advanced; different lesson plans such as to learn popular songs, simplified music theory or a formal course on the same; and different languages such as Hindi, English, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Urdu, Odia, Malayalam and Punjabi.
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There are a host of various instruments and vocal techniques that can be taught and learnt through Muzigal.
How Do Teachers Benefit?
Currently teaching music online and offline is a challenge with managing solutions through multiple platforms. Being a performing artist or a musician who would love to teach in your spare time but are constantly faced with obstacles from scheduling to payments to conducting lessons can be tough to navigate. Muzigal was made just for this purpose. It makes teaching seamless and easy with the multifaceted interface. It is a convenient place where you as a teacher can easily access a wide audience, in an organised and efficient manner at your convenience and availability. It is also reasonably priced for the sake of the students but enough to make a budgetary difference as each session charges Rs 400 per 40 minutes.
Teachers are also ranked based on merit from the students on the platform. So, the ranking and popularity on the platform completely depend on you as a teacher and your approach. This will also determine what kind of students that you are paired up with. The fact that all aspects of one’s success on the app are entirely self-determined, which means that there are no limits to what you can achieve.
An Overview
The concept of coupling e-learning with the music industry is not a new one by any means, but it is notable, however, that this concept was taken one step further by integrating face-to-face interactions and lessons between industry experts and musical aspirants. The wide range of attributes and features that the platform carries and the different package options it carries for its students only further amplifies the scale of the operation and the streamlined nature of Muzigal as it incorporates so much under a single application that you can download with a click of a button on Google Play Store.
With India having seen a massive influx of smartphone penetration in the market over the last decade, most of the population would likely have a bare minimum access to the Play Store to access this app. This is innovation and immersive e-learning at its best. Going forward, more and more single-function apps will have to start converting into multi-faceted platforms like Muzigal to keep up with the increasing demand for convenience and value of money.
Another factor to consider is that despite the arrival of vaccines, the pandemic will most likely continue to plague the world for years to come in small and scattered ways, making this digital life a core of our social identities. This makes applications like Muzigal all the more relevant and necessary going forward.
The Founder, Dr. Lakshminarayanan Yeluri, was a dentist with an MBA Degree and a businessman by choice. That said, music was always a passion of his or as he would put it, an obsession. He started learning the Guitar and Vocals early on. Needless to say, he has had first-hand experience with all the bottlenecks and barriers that a young, aspiring musician would face in the music learning space. This is what prompted him to figure out a comprehensive solution to uplift the learning environment, both online and offline.
He also currently serves as a founder & custodian at the Impel Group. He passionately built and scaled several brands like Studio11 Salon & Spa, Impel and various other start-ups in the business enablement space.
Muzigal was founded on the same principle as the Impel Group, which was to bring products and services to the community that were relevant, useful and had an element of value for many. This is what makes Muzigal a potential ‘soon-icorn’ in the Indian start-up space. Though it may be a young name in the market, it shows a lot of promise thanks to its diverse and inclusive nature, a wide range of applications and a more accessible approach to e-learning for an industry that has not seen such effort put in towards its digital learning platforms.
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