Revolutionizing Music Education - Moombix Founder Margret Juliana Sigurdardottir
Join us for an inspiring episode of Inside Learning brought to you by the Learnovate Centre. In this episode, we dive into the future of music education with Margret Juliana Sigurdardottir, founder of Moombix. Discover how Margret is addressing the challenges adult learners face in accessing quality, flexible music lessons and how MoomBix is building a global community of music enthusiasts. Learn how the platform connects learners with expert teachers worldwide and provides innovative digital tools to enhance the learning experience. Don't miss this discussion on how COVID-19 accelerated the shift to online music education and the exciting potential of Moombix to democratize music learning.
00:00 Introduction to Inside Learning Podcast
00:15 Challenges in Music Education
01:35 Margret's Musical Journey
03:59 Founding of Moombix
05:36 Impact of COVID-19 on Music Learning
06:55 Features of Moombix Platform
10:09 Global Reach and Cultural Exchange
13:01 How to Get Started with Moombix
13:53 Conclusion and Credits
Find Moombix at https://www.moombix.com
Episode Transcript
The Inside Learning Podcast is broughtto you by the Lernovate Center.
Lernovate's research explores the powerof learning to unlock human potential.
Find out more about Lernovate's researchon the science of learning and the
future of work at LernovateCenter.
org.
As an experienced professionalmusician and music teacher, today's
guest has witnessed firsthand howdifficult it can be to access
(00:22):
flexible, high quality music lessons.
Traditional lessons are designedfor school age children, which
leaves adults with limited options.
Her company changes that she sayswe're not offering lessons were making
music education a lifestyle choice.
Something that can fit seamlesslyinto your day just like a
(00:44):
yoga class or any other hobby.
We're excited to embark onthe next step of our journey.
building a global community of musicenthusiasts where inspiring musicians
can connect with expert teachers fromall over the world anytime anywhere,
Welcome to another episode of theinside learning podcast and we have
(01:04):
something different for you today thistime it's learning, it's learning music
and we're joined by the founder ofthat company moombix ceo and founder.
Margret Juliana Sigurdardottir, . Ihope I got the name right, Margret
I think it was almost perfect.
There's always room forimprovement with my music and my
(01:27):
Yeah, yeah,
have you.
criticism.
you.
take it.
I'll take the feedback.
Let's get stuck in.
Iceland has such abeautiful heritage in music.
I was telling you, I'm amassive fan of Olafur Arnalds.
I'm a massive fan of Bjork, and Sigur Rós.
. Beautiful music that comes out of Iceland.
(01:48):
And I'd love to hear.
The origin of where all this came from whyare you doing it what was the frustration
Big questions.
Where it comes from I think both onpersonal level and maybe on Iceland
level, there is a strong musictradition in Iceland, as you say.
(02:08):
When I was a kid, musicwas taught in schools.
Everyone learned the basics of music.
and there's a lot of peoplewho go to music schools and
learn to play an instrument.
Are supported by the government there'salso a sort of certain entrepreneurish
kind of character, I think, in manyIcelanders, and that spills into the
music as well and maybe blossoms there.
(02:31):
So I think when you have then peoplelike Björk and Sigur Ros who have done
quite well globally, Björk, of course,and Sigur Rós, like, outstanding.
They become role modelsfor the ones to follow.
From a personal level, Iplayed music since I was a kid.
I think the earliest recording isme and my daddy performing together.
(02:54):
He was a teacher and a later schoolprincipal, but he always played in bands.
And my whole family is very musical,so I both learned to play by ear,
and then I started playing piano,and then I, ended up at the Royal
Academy of Music, finishing mypostgraduate studies in, voice.
And in between that, there,on the road to there, there were
(03:15):
bands and lots of things to do.
when I just moved back to Iceland after mystudies and working for a while in London.
And my plan at the time was tojust go have my headquarters in
Iceland and go global and, , followthe footsteps of Björk or similar.
But then I had a daughterand, and reality kicked in.
(03:37):
At the time I was working a lot.
I was doing radio shows in Iceland and Iwas singing in funerals with my chamber
choir and traveling and touring andalso trying to do well as being a mother.
But I just saw that this would become adifficult path to, go for me personally.
And I decided it . to step intothis world of entrepreneurship.
(03:59):
And I had to there was onecompany that I started, which
was based on someone else's idea.
And then I, I, did mylast company called Musila.
We did a music application forchildren based on an adventurous game.
And and then I exited from there in2020, and I had for a long time thought
(04:26):
about this solutions, something similarto MoonPix, where I would be serving
adult learners and catering to what Ibelieve that there's a need for some
sort of Services, learning services.
There's a lot of people who want to play.
There's a lot of people who regrethaving had the opportunity to
(04:50):
learn to play, or they had theopportunity, but they were reluctant.
Not motivated by what they wereoffered as children, or maybeot
supported by the parents becauseit takes a lot of home practice.
So, I think with MoomBix, which isnow for adults, but I think we will
later, also go into schools andalso for children with their parents.
(05:13):
But with Moonpix I think there's a lot ofpeople who want to learn, but they don't
have really access to music education.
And taking a lesson takes you anhour, maybe, to commute, and, You
have a lesson for half an hourand then you go back and you've
forgotten everything that you learned.
So yeah, this is maybe where it comesfrom, trying to solve this problem,
which I think is there and unsolved.
(05:36):
it's interesting to hear your backgroundstory because of firstly the frustration
that you saw, not just with yourown work but, the opportunity and i
wondered did COVID act as an accelerant?
Was it a huge help because Suddenly thewhole world started to connect on devices
like we're connecting here remotely thatpeople weren't really used to that but
(05:59):
now all of a sudden they were used toit and it was almost like the perfect
fertile ground for you to start Moombix.
Absolutely.
And my daughter was playing the violinin the living room with her teacher.
We only had iPhone.
And she just placed it on a woodenshelf, so it made an amplifier.
And it was just like the teacher wasin a living room, and I, it really made
(06:24):
me think seriously, at the same time,the teacher was frustrated because
She called me actually, her violinteacher said, Margret, can you help me?
The music school in my town wasgoing online with this because
we have to teach everyone online.
And suddenly the whole townhas my personal gallery of
photos in their computers.
So , the tools were inadequateto say the least at the time.
(06:47):
And then of course, there aremany other things that I wanted
to add to this experience ofjust being online, on screen.
, and with MoomBix, we've done that.
It's not only a marketplacewhere , it's similar to Airbnb, where
you can get music lessons with ateacher, live online music lessons.
But we also have this learning platform,which is equipped with digital tools
(07:08):
that help you support the tuition,both the teacher and the student.
Where you can plan the lesson, youcan follow that plan during the lessons,
you can, exchange comments and notesin your sheet music or chord progression
those notes become your homework.
And then you have this timeline,you can follow your progress in
(07:28):
the timeline with the teacher.
And then also it's a morebroad spectrum of music learning.
It's not only learning music to learnto play an instrument, but you can also
learn to DJ, you can learn production,composition, , or even publishing.
it's useful to understand a model,like Airbnb for music lessons.
Or Tinder for finding the rightmusic, the right teacher for you.
(07:53):
Yes, and in many ways,it's in a similar way.
It's very personal.
It's very revealing tomeet some other person.
So this is our current challenge,really, to figure out how we can make
that connection less embarrassing,
That's an important thing.
People are gonna get it wrong like they'regonna they're gonna kiss some frogs to
(08:14):
find your prince and i'm sure it's thesame where you have to find the right
chemistry i work also as an executivecoach you have a chemistry meeting
where you see do we get on well cuz it'simportant for both sides to get on well as
a teacher, I'm sure for you as well, youhave to have learnability as a student.
(08:35):
Otherwise, if somebody is beingtold by their parents, you go on
to moombix, you get yourself somelessons and they're being forced.
It's not going to be very successful.
So tell us a little bit about that processof matching the student and the teacher.
We are experimenting with this a lot.
We are a startup, of course, sonot everything that we dream of is
(08:57):
there already, but , we are in theprocess of creating these things.
Currently we are offering singing lessons.
We, have this profile of the teacherthey have an intro video and they share
photos of themselves and they writeabout their experience as musicians.
We're not only looking at academicmusic teachers, even though we love
to have them there as well, but alsoI think people, many people are not
(09:22):
necessarily academically trained,but they have a lot to teach.
They maybe have played inbands but they're not maybe
necessarily reading music so much.
There are other ways also of creatingthe bridge and that is by packaging the
lessons into group lessons and mixit with other mediums as well, videos
and, there are other ways as well,more detailed like filter the genre.
(09:47):
The music style we are aiming for morelike a Netflix kind of when you start to
use Netflix, you're asked what kind offilms you like, and then if you like these
films, you probably like these films.
If you like, RAM or Radiohead andyou're likely to like also other
music from that same genre.
When it comes to that, Iwas thinking about how.
(10:09):
You have somebody who is not very goodat finding business for themselves.
So a musician maybe it's a brilliantmusician not very good business person,
and what i love about moombix, is the factthat that liberates somebody that might
be living in a remote part of the worldand now because they have the internet
connection they can make a living andfollow their passion actually use their
(10:34):
passion to teach other people, when youlook at the what this liberates with this
frees up for people it's really inspiring
Thank you.
That is actually also a strongmotivation for me to make this.
When I was doing my singing studies,I traveled sometimes, hours to
get one singing lesson with ateacher that I wanted to meet.
(10:56):
And I know that people even gooverseas, especially from Iceland.
There are so many people that Iknow who traveled the world to
get lessons with some gurus, guruteachers somewhere far away.
But there's also Even more, astronger motivator for me is, is
even that you can get the music.
Like, if you want to learn asitar it's not likely to find
(11:20):
a sitar player in Iceland.
But if you go to India or, orLondon, even you will, you're
like more likely to find some highquality musicians in that field.
There's a book i read called thegoldmine effect and it was about how,
say somebody like you have beautifulsingers like Emiliana Torrini.
Beautiful singer i've gone to see her herein ireland as well and you have a genre
(11:45):
so each country almost has a genre, theylearn from other people in the country
or they might learn so they might createthese collectives and they might work
together to learn off each other whenyou start to hear global music and then
you don't have access to the teachersbecause nobody plays that music there
it can be restricting and i really lovethat the fact that, somebody, their
(12:08):
parent may play bluegrass music and it'smaybe it's part of new orleans culture
louisiana or something like that andnow i can actually reach out to people,
that have this pocket of genius of thattype of music and that this is what
this book the goldmine effect is aboutwas that you had pockets of, sporting
(12:28):
genius in different parts of the worldbut now this can be the same for music
And I think if you can go evenfurther and, think of all the folk
music that is buried in all sortsof societies everywhere in the world.
Something which is verydifficult to access.
like Norwegian mountain violinor, percussion players.
There's this fantastic Recordingsof musicians who travel to Cuba or
(12:52):
they travel to Australia to explorethis culture and get it sinking in.
But now you can do that onlinebecause everyone has a mobile.
Margret for people who want to findout more about moombix where is the
best place for them to reach out
Just go straight to MoomBix.
com.
It's Moom, like Zoom, and Bix, like Mix.
(13:14):
MoomBix.
And
Check it out and try it out if you'reinterested trying a music lesson or be a
DJ or, take the dust off your guitar thathas been lying in your cupboard for years,
and you want to renew your old skills.
that have been lyingsilent for many years.
Go to MoomBix.
(13:34):
com and we have a greatselection of teachers.
There's more than 100teachers there, 150 or 60.
We have a Grammy nominee there.
We have an Emmy award winner.
We have someone who's worked withNeil Davids from Massive Attack many
years, made film scores and, TV music.
So, great selection ofwonderful people on Moombix
Founder of moombix Margret julianaSigurdardottir thank you for joining us
(14:00):
Thank you.
Thanks for joining us on Inside Learning.
Inside Learning is brought toyou by the Learnovate Centre
in Trinity College, Dublin.
Learnovate is funded by EnterpriseIreland and IDA Ireland.
Visit learnovatecentre.
org to find out more aboutour research on the science of
learning and the future of work.
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