Online music lessons are becoming increasingly common for several reasons, which we’ll quickly go through. One of the biggest is that you can learn from the comfort of your own home which means you don’t have to leave your house. Another is that teachers can teach from anywhere in the world which means they too can deliver lessons form the comfort of their home (potentially). And finally online lessons help eliminate some of the issues with large classroom sizes like waiting for a teacher and having more students than a single teacher can handle.
There are a lot of options for learning music online. From in-person lessons to YouTube videos, there is no end to the options out there. There’s information overload and it can get really confusing. You might not know where to start and you don’t want to waste time on the wrong thing (and money!).
In 2019, there are more options than ever for aspiring musicians to hone their skills. As learning landscapes and information exchange becomes increasingly digital, the challenge becomes how to ensure quality and value in an area as subjective and close to the heart as music.
Any investment of your time (and money) is worth due diligence, so here are some options to help you connect with the right music learning resources:
Soundfly
With courses ranging from Unlocking the Emotional Power of Chords, to Modern & Advanced Mix Techniques, this platform stands out for the depth and quality of its learning materials as well as for its unique mentorship model.
While they offer free access to a number of online courses, investment in one of their Mentored Courses will land you a friendly, knowledgeable musician-coach to guide you through the content, share feedback on your work, and create a goal-based learning plan customized to your personal needs. Their Headliners Program may be their most unique offering, allowing students to customize their own learning experience to reach their creative goals.
[Free Course: How to Create a Killer Musician Website]
edX Berklee
You no longer need to travel to the esteemed Boston music school to take Berklee classes anymore! In collaboration with edX, Berklee College of Music offers course content in multiple languages and subject areas online for free, including Creativity and Entrepreneurship, Vocal Recording Technology, and Music for Wellness.
As is the case with other edX partners, users have the option to earn a Verified Certificate for $49, though unfortunately these badges do not translate to college credit.
Learning Music (Beta) – Ableton
By the company best known for the Push Controller and Live Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), Ableton’s Free Learning Music web platform is perhaps the most holistically comprehensive beginner’s guide to experiential music learning out now.
While many platforms offer more advanced or specialized knowledge, the foundational elements of music are often assumed to be understood prior to the user finding the resource. From identifying sounds, recognizing the patterns and groupings of notes the user finds compelling, to arranging chord progressions, basslines, and melodies, users can now make musical choices from the very beginning.
LessonFace
What I love most about LessonFace is the ability to meet virtually and in real time with seasoned music educators around the world. Students can select from a range of instructor profiles or be matched by LessonFace staff, and areas of study span across genre traditions and instruments.
Busy Works Beats
My favorite aspect of Busy Work Beats is their unusual (to a formally trained musician), accessible approach to fundamental music theory using numbers to represent semitones.
Cutting through Eurocentric traditions to fastrack modern producers into an informed, empowered understanding of music theory they can use in creating their own music, Busy Work Beats is a top choice for a non-traditional music student to learn what they need and skip what they don’t.
MusEDLab @ NYU
The Music Experience Design Lab has created a suite of tools designed to help novices interact with their favorite music in a more playful way. They’ve partnered with the NY Philharmonic to allow fans to Step Inside Mahler, developed widgets for PBS’s Soundbreaking series, and mapped the QWERTY keyboard to play as a natural musical instrument with any mode or tonal center.
7) FutureLearn
FutureLearn provides people of all ages with courses regarding almost any subject or topic. Naturally, these topics include music as well.
There are a total of 25 studies on FutureLearn that are related to music. All of these studies have been taken from cultural institutions and universities around the world.
Although most lessons that you’d see online would cover simple things such as getting better at an instrument or tuning instruments, which are all obviously helpful in their own ways, some of the ones on FutureLearn take a more advanced look into the subject.
Meaning that they focus on teaching you things such as working in groups to create music. In the group music making course, you will be taught how to communicate with each other in a way that you can implement even when you are playing casually or performing.
There are also classes for music teachers or people that want to become music teachers.
These kinds of classes will take a look into things like effectively communicating with your students and developing teaching strategies that suit you most.Visit Website
8) Skill Share
You’ll find a variety of different music classes available on skill share that are held by music teachers.
On the website, you will be able to find lessons for classical instruments such as pianos and acoustic guitars, while also being able to find courses for newer genres of music, such as beat making for trap and dub-step songs.
These beat making courses are held by experts who will teach you essentials through easy to programs that have been made to be easy to follow and learn from.
As long as you know some of the basics about beat making, you will be able to learn from these classes and be able to improve yourself using methods such as parallel compression.
There are also lessons that will discuss music theory and cover subjects such as intervals, clefs, pitches etc. while helping you grow your skill as a musician.
Others also cover the topic of making money using music, if you want to choose music as a career path.Visit Website
9) TakeLessons
As you can pretty much guess from the name of the company and its website, TakeLessons focuses on providing students with, well as you can probably guess, lessons. These can be taken regarding most matters whether anything science or history related or painting and of course, even music.
They have teachers from the different parts of the world that are qualified to teach you and help you with your problem.
What is convenient about their website is that they offer teachers that can teach you from the comfort of your home through online classes or by sending a tutor to your home, or you can also visit the tutor’s studio if that is what you prefer.
Their music theory experts help you through several different classes, helping you understanding of the music that you play, and helping you in memorizing it for ease of play.
Their instructors have many years’ worth of experience which comes in handy when they help you through you your problems, while also helping you improve upon them.Visit Website
10) LessonFace
Lessonface is a company that has been made for the purpose of connecting different students from all around the world to the most qualified of teachers for lessons of their choice.
There are lessons for most languages, while there also some for entertainment based things such as singing, song writing, acting and last but not least, music.
There are more than a few teachers on Lessonface that can teach you about what music theory is and how learning it can help us improve upon how we play, and how others hear our music.
The courses covered by these tutors cover things like the composition and production of music, the technique of playing and of course the main thing out of all of these, music theory itself.
You can book any tutor that you like as long as they are available and they will be more than willing to teach you in a manner most comfortable for you, regardless of your level of playing and how good you are.Visit Website
Conclusion
When trying to learn how to play an instrument, one of the first things you often look into is what resources are available to you. There are many different ways you can take lessons online. Here are our picks for the best online music lessons available.