Image Credit: PRNewsfoto/Yousician

Interactive online music service Yousician now features music from the movie Soul, so that users can teach themselves to play the songs.

Looking to set a musical New Year’s resolution? Need a project to see you through lockdown? Yousician, an online music-lesson platform, can help you learn a new musical instrument. Already offering interactive learning for guitar, bass, ukulele, piano and voice with lessons, exercises and songs, Yousician have just teamed up with Disney and Pixar to add music from latest movie Soul.

Two songs from the film, ‘Born to Play’ and ‘Bigger Than Us’, are available now for all Yousician users, free or Premium, to learn and play. The app presents a series of musical challenges in a similar way to Guitar Hero, then analyses the student’s performance on their real instrument and provides immediate feedback and guidance. The partnership with Disney and Pixar aims to bring the message of Soul – of the power and joy of music – to musically curious users in their homes.

Soul is a fun and exciting animated movie but, like all Pixar creations, it goes deeper than at first glance. What makes life worth living? For main character Joe Gardner, it’s music – specifically, playing jazz. When a fatal accident means his big shot is snatched away, Joe (Jamie Foxx) finds himself in the Great Beyond – where souls find their personalities before heading down to Earth. Desperate to return to his life in New York, Joe sees a way back through mentoring a difficult soul named 22 (Tina Fey), who’s never grasped the appeal of life. The film is an ode to the immersive power of music and improvisation, and the little things that make up a complete fulfilled existence, via comedy, heart-warming adventure, and great jazz.

Music shimmers throughout the movie. Jon Batiste wrote the jazz arrangements, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed the score. Musicians have never been animated so exquisitely – saxophonist Tia Fuller was used as a model for character Dorothea Williams (Angela Bassett), every movement in the recording studio filmed to be replicated onscreen with the correct fingerings.

Now beginners and musicians looking to practise their skills can explore the music of Soul using the Yousician app. The platform has seen increased interest as people look for a distraction from quarantines and curfews, and it’s currently the number one app for music instruction online. As the pandemic took hold last year, Yousician also offered free access to their ‘Yousician for Teachers’ platform for music educators and students around the world and partnered with artists like Jason Mraz to offer surprise virtual music classes.

If you’re after a new challenge, have a look at Yousician for an easy introduction to learning a musical instrument – after you’ve got cosy and watched Soul on Disney+, that is.