Saturday, May 4, 2013

A collection of free music courses and tutorials


Introduction to Guitar // Coursera - Berklee College of Music
"Grasp the essentials needed to begin playing acoustic or electric guitar. You'll learn an easy approach to get you playing quickly, through a combination of exploring the instrument, performance technique, and basic music theory"

Fundamentals of Audio and Music Engineering Pt. 1 // Coursera - University of Rochester
"In this course students learn the basic concepts of acoustics and electronics and how they can applied to understand musical sound and make music with electronic instruments. Topics include: sound waves, musical sound, basic electronics, and applications of these basic principles in amplifiers and speaker design."

Songwriting // Coursera - Berklee College of Music
"Learn an efficient, effective process for writing songs that express your ideas and emotions, including a range of tools that revolve around the concept of prosody—the matching of lyrics and music to support your underlying message."

Introduction to Digital Sound Design // Coursera - Emory University
"Sounds and music are embedded in almost every aspect of daily life. This course will provide an overview of the fundamental principles of sound and the factors that determine our audio perception. It will also explore techniques of recording, mixing, processing, synthesis, sampling, analysis, and editing of digital audio."

An Introduction to Classical Music Composition // Coursera - National University of Singapore
"This course introduces students to strategies for style writing of common practice European art music. The issues of harmonic progression, voice leading, and texture are addressed in addition to relevant compositional concepts like repetition, variation, and elaboration. The course aims to offer a creative space even within the restrictions of stylistic emulation."

Exploring Beethoven's Piano Sonatas // Coursera - Curtis Institute of Music
"A series of lectures on one of the greatest bodies of music ever composed, from the point of view of a performer. Each lecture will explore a different facet of the music; all will attempt to locate the source of the tremendous psychological power of Beethoven’s music."

Intro to Music Production // Coursera - Berklee College of Music
"Learn about the music production process—including recording, editing, and mixing—and the tools available to you to create contemporary music on your computer."

History of Rock // Coursera - University of Rochester
"Learn about the early days of rock music, from the pre-rock years of the post World War II era through the birth of rock in the mid 1950s to the psychedelic era of the late 1960s."

  • A satisfactory understanding of the basic building blocks of musical theory and notation

  • An understanding of music theory comparable to that demanded by Grade 3 of the Associated Board of the Royals Schools of Music theory syllabus

  • An understanding of music theory that enables you to move on to Open University Level 2 and Level 3 Music courses, e.g. A224 Inside Music


Learn to Sing // BBC
Warming up, breathing, posture, and singing techniques.
"Pitch systems use mathematics to organize audible phenomenon for creative expression. Over the course of several presentations we will explore basic concepts of pitch and frequency, the organizing rules of tonal systems, and the mathematical construction of basic scales and chords."


  • be familiar with an analytical methodology known as ‘voice-leading analysis’;
  • be acquainted with five complete movements from Mozart's piano sonatas, and with brief extracts from other sonatas by Mozart;
  • recognize some defining features of Mozart's harmonic style;
  • understand the principles of the simplest level of voice-leading analysis;
  • be able to express musical observations by means of the notation developed within this system of analysis.


20th Century Composers // OpenLearn
"Explore the world of 20th century classical and avant-garde music through the composers and the fascinating connections that exist between them"

"This course fosters the development of aural skills that lead to an understanding of Western music. The musical novice is introduced to the ways in which music is put together and is taught how to listen to a wide variety of musical styles, from Bach and Mozart, to Gregorian chant, to the blues."

Guitar Lessons:

Bass Lessons:

Piano Lessons:


Thinkwell Online Courses Review

I've taken Thinkwell classes since I was in 8th grade. I love them! I've taken Public Speaking, AP Biology, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Precalculus, and right now I'm taking AP Calculus AB and AP Chemistry. Here's why I'd recommend them:


  • The teachers. Every teacher in Thinkwell's videos is obviously passionate about the subject they teach and extremely qualified to teach it. They are good at what they do, too. Prof. Burger has taught me math concepts I never thought I'd understand. Bonus points for being extremely funny and charismatic. I don't know how he works so many jokes into math videos, but I've actually laughed out loud on numerous occasions while watching them. Even the teachers who don't crack so many jokes are enjoyable to listen to because you can tell that they love what they do.
  • The self-paced system. You can finish your class as fast as you want or take up to an entire year, if you need it.
  • Great pricing. You get a lot of quality for a very reasonable price.
  • Layout of video lectures: you can see the teacher, what he's writing, definitions of new terms, and a lecture outline all at the same time and the screen doesn't feel overly cluttered. Pretty rare and impressive.
  • There is a ton of content in each course. Each lesson has a video and an exercise. Each unit has a practice test, an exam, and a homework. Each unit also usually has links and interactive content related to the videos as well as definitions for the vocabulary learned in that unit.