As we have discussed here time and time again, an early childhood education in music can have some amazingly profound impacts on the brain of a developing child. We also know that even if you don’t start your education in music until a later age, there are still a wide range of benefits you can reap from the experience. And in discussing all these great benefits, we’ve pretty much exclusively stuck to in-person lessons, either in a group setting, or private. But there is a third option out there most people don’t immediately think of: studying online. Of course, self-driven learning, especially of a musical instrument, has its shortcomings and difficulties, as music more readily lends itself to being learned and experienced in person. However, some people might be amazed at the incredible amount and quality of information and digital lessons available online today. You can find full courses, lessons on individual subjects, sheet music, artistic examples, and exhibits, all absolutely free, or with a relatively small fee.
Music education websites can offer a wealth of extra knowledge, and can provide extra or additional information or techniques that even someone taking in-person, private lessons may never see. These websites can be both beneficial and fun, especially for younger, or novice music students. That’s why this weeks we’ve compiled some of the best music education resources on the internet for you.
This is a free website with a range of resources. From reflections on the Harlem Renaissance through jazz, a retrospective on the early roots of blues, performance guides for teens, and a wide range of series dedicated to different musical concepts. This site also offers standards-based teaching materials.
This site focuses on the theory behind making music, but does so in a remarkably simple way. Rather than diving directly into the deep end, as some music theory lessons so, this site focuses mainly on the fundamentals, and it’s very easy to use. Simply clicking on the “Lessons” link at the top the the home page will bring you to a long list of lessons, broken up into the headings: “The Basics,” “Rhythm and Meter,” “Scales and Key Signatures,” “Intervals,” “Chords,” “Diatonic Chords,” “Chord Progressions,” and “Neapolitan Chords.”
Clicking the “Exercises” link will bring you to an equally extensive list, broken into the categories “Staff Identification,” “Staff Construction,” “Keyboard Identification, “Fretboard Identification,” “Ear Training,” and “For Teachers.”
This site also offers a few tools, including accidental, interval, chord, analysis, and matrix calculators, as well as a tempo tapper, staff paper generator, and even a pop-up piano!
This seemingly simple looking website hides a wealth of music theory information. Having been around since practically the beginning of the internet (they went online in January 1997), teoria is constantly updating their site, and has even won awards for its multimedia educational resources. This site offers a wide range of exercises and tutorials, most of which are fully interactive. The site is mostly free to use, but with a small $20.00 fee, you can download the entire website for offline use.
Another extremely basic looking website, this one nevertheless is an incredible tool for ear training. The website it entirely free, and as Martin, the sites creator and caretaker points out, “for a musician ear training is one of the most important tasks.” The site is simple and easy to use, and offers training in intervals, chords, scales, cadences, and jazz chords.
This site was created and is maintained by Cincinnati Public Radio, and offers musical games, lesson plans, illustrated stories complete with music, and so much more. There are weekly shows, monthly featured composers (this month is Mozart), a range of instrument families to explore, and games that teach you to match rhythms, assign names to the proper notes, and even compose your own music! There’s a musical dictionary, and articles on musical careers, and different musical periods.
Overall, Classics for Kids is a huge, wonderful resource for young music students.
Run by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, DSO Kids provides young students (or old students, we’re not judging) with a great introduction to music history, an opportunity to listen to and learn about the different instruments and families of the orchestra, and even gives some helpful practicing tips, as wellas how to make your own instrument. This is a prime example of a musical education site that is both fun and informative.
Open Yale Courses: Department of Music
Although there is only one open and free music course from Yale, it’s a great one! Called “Listening to Music with Craig Wright,” this course is designed to teach you how to listen to and understand music, specifically Western music. Created for the musical beginner, this course will introduce you to how music is put together, and how to listen to a wide range of musical styles, “from Bach and Mozart, to Gregorian chant, to the blues.”
This one is a little different. With four versions to play around with, you’ll see right away how easily this site allows young students to start experimenting with music. Visitors to the site can click and drag loops of beats, effects, melodies, and even voices into the characters on the site to create an original musical piece. You can even upload your track, rate others’, and explore the top 50 tracks created by users. It’s basic fun, but it can be used to teach the fundamentals of music, like rhythm and melody.
YouTube is, of course, the Internet’s great repository of videos. And as such, you can literally find anything and everything under the sun, including all you can imagine when it comes to musical instruction, theory, practice tips, and more. Need help with a fingering technique? Ask YouTube. Need a tutorial on a specific musical passage? Ask YouTube. Even if you just want to see examples of how your favourite musicians handle certain situations, like a missed note or stage fright, you can probably find it on YouTube.
This is but a small sampling of the huge variety of musical education websites available out there. A great many of them are 100% free, and even most that require a subscription don’t ask for too much. These resources can be invaluable to both those just starting their musical education, as well as people with a bit more experience looking for new challenges.