Noisey: What made you want to set up Meludia?

Paul: Despite the fact that music is one of the rare universal traits of human
societies throughout space and time, we have come to think of music as an innate
gift that only a few people possess. Meludia aims at revealing that anyone can
become a musician.
How did the Meludia story begin?
It really started 25 years ago with Vincent Chaintrier, Meludias founder, who is a
music composer and teacher. Vincent has trained more than 3,000 musicians in his
life.
Right. And how did it turn into a business then?
Four years ago, Bastien Sannac, a musician with a business background, received
composition lessons from Vincent, and was amazed by the efficiency of Vincents
method. Together, they decided to turn Vincents philosophy into an online game.
Back in 2012 they created an alpha version of Meludia be tested by 300 people: not
only friends and family, nonmusicians, but also musicians and music teachers. A
new version of Meludia was then released late 2013.
How does it work?
The process is simple: Listen, Recognise, and Repeat. It leverages our brains
innate skills and makes learning easier. It also transforms our connection to music:
you will enjoy listening to your favorite songs much more when you understand the
theory behind them. But before going into theory, we address music practice by
sensations and emotions. Like language, its much more natural to start listening and
talking before reading and learning grammar.
Make sense. But how can you learn through emotion?
The real question is how can we possibly learn music without addressing emotion,
pleasure and creativity?
But seriously...
Vincent found that music geniuses all had two things in common: accurate hearing of
the primitive elements of music and a strong inner emotional vehicle. We have
created a universal way to acquire those elements.
Right. But its not super easy to be a music genius, even while using the app.
Yes, we havent yet seen anyone succeed the hardest Meludia exercises, even
professional musicians. Our highest levels help o empower their musical brain by
unlocking their progress and creativity. All musicians know how much this behind-
the-scenes work matters.
Who did Vincent learn from?
Vincent started with classical music, before moving to jazz. He worked with famous
jazzmen like Kenny Barron, Michel Sardaby and Bernard Maury and studied
arrangement with Bill Dobbins. During his whole life, he has studied the main music
theory influencers, from JeanPhilippe Rameau, Hugo Riemann, Hermann Von
Helmholtz, Erno Lendva, and Heinrich Schenker.
So where do you think the future of music and technology is heading?
We think that the next decade will consecrate a new musical area where the number
of music creators will increase dramatically. This is what happened with video,
photography and writing: democratisation via accessible production and publishing
tools saw zillions of new content creators emerge. This is what will happen for music
as well.
Right.
We can actually see the premises happening right now with the success of software
like Garageband and platforms like Soundcloud. And we plan on playing a major part
in the coming revolution by giving everyone the means to fulfill their creation.
But what do you think was missing before? Whats the secret ingredient that
Meludia provides?
We place pleasure and creativity at the core of music learning. This makes a huge
difference when youre learning something for the first time. But we also change the
order of the learning process. We do not start with score reading and solfeggio, even
if it comes later. Instead, we promote composition and improvisation in the first
weeks of practice. It is important that people start playing with music very soon in
the learning process. So instead of learning abstract and theoretical notions at first,
we prefer focusing on the sensory recognition of primary elements. This enables the
musician to gain better and deeper understanding.