A collection of free music courses and tutorials

Introduction to Music Composition // MIT

Music and Technology // MIT

Music Composition // MIT

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."

An Introduction to Music Theory // OpenLearn 

• 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.

Introduction to Pitch Systems in Tonal Music // UC Irvine

"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."

Voice-Leading Analysis of Music 1 // OpenLearn

• 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"

Music 112|Listening to Music // Yale

"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:

http://www.freeguitarvideos.com/

http://www.cyberfret.com/

http://www.guitarnoise.com/

http://www.guitarlessons.com/

About Beginner Guitar

Bass Lessons:

http://scottsbasslessons.com/

http://www.studybass.com/

http://www.cyberfretbass.com/

http://learnbass.net/

Piano Lessons:

http://www.free-online-piano-lessons.com/

http://www.zebrakeys.com/

http://www.gopiano.com/

http://www.pianonanny.com/

http://www.pianolessons.com/

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.

BenchPrep AP, ACT, and SAT Prep: Review

After trying Kaplan, I stumbled across BenchPrep, a lovely site where you can choose to have access to a single course for a year or pay a monthly fee to study as many as you want. I've been using BenchPrep for two months now and I like it a whole lot. Pictured above is a snippet of what the site looks like - a simple, streamlined layout, cross compatibility with computers, smartphones, and tablets and lots of courses to choose from.

Pros:

• Clear, well-written answer explanations
• Easy navigation
• Ability to complete the course from beginning to end or hop from section to section
• Compatible with phones, tablets, and computers
• You can access everything they have for a pretty low monthly price - perfect for some extra studying those last few months before a test
• After taking practice tests there's a clear breakdown of which skills you need to work on
• Ability to rate sections by how hard or easy they are for you, which is great when you need to concentrate on and quickly find parts of the course - fantastic for homeschoolers with busy schedules!

Cons:

• Some of the courses don't have as many practice questions or tests as others - there are two ACT math prep courses and I prefer one to the other by FAR. If you're buying the monthly all-access version of BenchPrep that's obviously not an issue.
• That's really it!

I'd recommend using BenchPrep if you're looking for courses that highlight strengths and weaknesses so real progress can be made. It's easy to see where you're at and there's no battling through section upon section of review before happening upon something you need to work on. In true homeschooling style, there are no limits on how long you take or how quickly you complete the work and you can study only what you need to practice without an effect on the entire course progress and grade.

Kaplan Test Prep: Review

http://www.kaptest.com/

I'm applying to college this semester, and while I've taken the SAT a couple times and have a decent score, I thought I'd try the ACT and see what happened. I got Kaplan's ACT course so I could have an easy way to keep track of what I've covered and how much time I've put into studying. Here's what I think:

Pros:

• Lots of diagnostic tests - There are 6 tests, which is more than enough to get a rough idea of what kind of score you'll get.
• Promptness of scoring the test and essay - They promise scoring to be completed in 3-5 business days, but I got my first diagnostic test and essay back, graded, in 2 days. 
• Great layout and easy visualization of where you are in the course - At the bottom of the main course page, there are two bars that show what percentage of the course you have covered and what percent you have "mastered". Also, you can set a goal for the score you want, and that shows up on the side in a sort of pie chart which is great for easy comparison of what diagnostic scores you're getting, your goal, and the max ACT score. And there is a nice countdown to your test day where you can easily see it.

Cons:

• "Guided practice" questions have no answer explanations.
• Answers to the quiz questions are often not explained well - After you finish the quiz, you're taken to another page where the answers are explained.  Most of the answers aren't very clear and you'll have to open another tab to be able to look at the question and answer at the same time.
• You can't redo the quizzes you haven't mastered.
• You can't change your mastery level - To "master" a particular skill, you must get 80% of the quiz correct. This is substantial to a lot of people, but there's a huge amount of students who already have a good score (scoring in the 80th-upper 90th percentiles) and want to perfect it. Obviously getting only 80% of the questions right is something they're already doing and aren't happy with.
• A lot of the practice sets are about "Kaplan Strategies", not actual ACT content, and although I'm scoring pretty high on the actual test content, I'm getting 40's and 60's on the "strategies", because a lot of the answers seem to be a bit ambiguous and not relevant.
• No new strategies - Everything they tell you to do on the ACT is something I already used for the SAT or I've heard a thousand times.
• This is just a nit-picky thing, but... the tutors in the videos are a little too smiley and script-y sounding. There's a certain amount of smiling and autonomy that is okay, and then it just gets creepy.

In the end, I would have picked a different course if I could have a redo. I'd recommend Kaplan for someone who is shooting for an average/slightly above average score or someone who is new to standardized testing in general.

edX

Okay, this is a little late, as one(?) of the classes has already started, but I've been so excited for edX to come out ever since I saw a post about it on MIT's Facebook! Don't know what it is? Imagine MIT OCW, but with grades and certificates for finished classes. Harvard and MIT have been working on this for quite a while now. This is a big deal. They don't have many classes up and going right now, but this and Coursera are for sure the next big triumphs for online education. I'm doing the circuits class as well as the introductory computer science class from MIT for some review.

Visit edX here!: https://www.edx.org/

TED ED

http://ed.ted.com/
Free videos from TED.com organized by subject

How to Earn Scholarship Money

If you're homeschooled and looking for the best scholarship websites, look no further.

1.) Zinch - They've got a huge database of scholarships. Put in your information, and they'll match you to hundreds of them based on your demographics, location, interests, and skills. Also, if you win scholarship money through Zinch, these lovely folks will double your money when you send them proof. Seriously. Look into it.

2.) Cappex - This site has a lot of scholarships as well, and a great database of colleges and admissions trends. They are the best, easiest to navigate college information source I've found yet.

These two are my favorites and you'd never run out of the scholarship opportunities given by them. But here's a couple basic scholarship search sites.

3.) Find Tuition
4.) Scholarships.com