Everyone has their own unique way of teaching and learning. When teaching music studies, most people prefer to do it in a familiar environment and are skeptical about teaching and instructing music lessons online.
However, there are tons of courses and tools for teaching online music lessons. These online music teaching sites exist to help teachers share knowledge and information to students. These online tools engage and interest the students directly and make the learning process fun. Online courses and tools give teachers and students full access to music information around the globe.
There are many great online music tools online so we’ve compiled ten useful tools that you should consider to make it easier to decide.
Top Online Music Resources for Students and Teachers
Music is one of the top things that connect us. Although every other person most likely has different tastes in music, there is one thing that almost everyone has in common.
This being the fact that they like music, and find listening to it as an enlightening and calm experience. Some people feel the same way about playing music as they feel about listening to it, while some actually prefer playing over listening.
This could be because of the fact that playing allows you to create your own music, music that you find peaceful, music that you use as a way to express your feelings and who you may be as a person, or simply because you can play for your own fun and entertainment, without having to impress anyone.
There are literally hundreds of instruments for you to choose from, each and every single one being unique in their own way. However as easy as it may sound, choosing an instrument to keep playing is a very difficult choice, and learning one is even harder.
This is where music lessons come in. Music lessons are available by digital and conventional means.
There are also many music resources for students and teachers that help with learning music, music theory, and more. Read on for more of these tools.
1. Smart Music
This web-based music education platform is created to connect teachers and students. And it makes practicing and learning more enjoyable. This tool allows teachers to track student’s performances.
Through Smart Music, teachers can create several sight-reading exercises for individual music devices or ensembles. Students will be able to personalize their own notation and import or export the data to MusicXML files. Both teachers and students can view each other’s written reports and feedback for each assignment and recording.
This tool can be accessed using a computer, iPad, and Chromebook devices.
2. Classics for Kids
The Classics for Kids is a new learning tool. It provides comprehensive resources for teachers using productive activities. There are also practical plans that use classical music to educate children on the basics of music.
The lessons are up to date and are based on the National Standards for the Arts. It also follows state education standards.
Teachers can guide students in choosing their preferred instruments and how to practice correctly. Every teacher will receive an update each month for the latest Classic for Kids program. Together with other news updates on the website on various music information. This information can be shared with both students and parents.
3. Musictheory
At Musictheory.net, teachers can teach students to understand and read sheet music via their interactive website. Some of the basic lessons teachers can teach their students are the basic staff – trebles, bass clefs, ledger lines, and learning to scale to key signatures.
Once the student completes their lesson, they can take a test that includes exercises to test their musical knowledge. The activities include note identification, note construction, and chord ear training. Teachers can also create personalized lessons by choosing the exercise customizer option.
4. Making Music Fun
Makingmusicfun.net is an educational website offering free educational resources for elementary teachers and students. It has practice charts, more than 800 downloadable worksheets, plans, and resources. Teachers will be able to improve their teaching methods and develop new and fun techniques for their students.
5. Ear Master
Ear Master is an online software tool intended to teach intonation. Teachers and students can access interval training and challenges that make learning tone variations fun and simple. There are chord and ear scale exercises available online at Ear Master.
This music lesson tool can be accessed as low as $5 for every user for each year.
6. Music’s Teacher Helper
This software is for professional music teachers to help them automate and control their teaching studio. It helps keep track of the student’s progress, schedule lessons, invoicing, tracks payments, and allows the student to access their payment details. The pricing for this tool starts at $11.66 each month for one user.
7. Masterclass
Masterclass is one of the most renowned websites when it comes to lessons online. This is mainly due to one thing, which is the fact that they have some of the best professionals from specific professions to provide you with classes that will help you, in the same way that they helped them.
When it comes to music, Masterclass have some of the best, for example world famous composer, Hanz Zimmer who has won multiple awards for his great work on the soundtracks of many a few films.
They also have more than few other big names, such as famous singer Usher and violist Itzhak Perlman, along with others.
These famous artists will take you on a journey of your own while also familiarising you with the things that got them to where they are now.
Along with this, there are also conveniences such as the ability to view the lessons no matter where you are through your phone, desktop or TV. There is also a workbook associated with each lesson.
8. ArtistWorks
ArtistWorks.com is a website that features musical classes from musicians that are experts at what they do.
They have some very recognizable names on their list of lessons, for example they have well known American guitarist Paul Gilbert, as well as many other famous musicians, for example Noam Pikelny, the popular banjo player and the co-founder of Punch Brothers.
There are a variety of different lessons for a variety of different instruments, and what makes things better is the fact that they have different classes for each instrument to suit players of different levels.
Their beginner courses allow you to learn the instrument that you want at your own place, as long as they have a lesson available for said instrument, which is rarely ever a problem.
You will be familiarized with the instrument that you are trying to learn and you will be able to get a better understanding of how to play it, improving your skills for the long term. Advanced players will also be able to learn at any pace they like.
9. Udemy
Featuring a large quantity of lessons from people all over the world that have been qualified as experts when it comes to playing their respective instruments, Udemy has more than enough courses for you to choose from and fulfil your learning needs.
For example, one of their lessons allows you to get familiar with the methods and tools used to by top guitarists all over the world, something that can drastically help you if you are a beginner guitar player.
The mentioned lesson allows you to develop your own method of playing with the guitar, allowing you to create your own unique voices as you play.
Some guitar classes will also let you identify different chord functions, along with how to fully utilize them. Some will teach you about music theory.
This allows you to read music using techniques that have been proven to be effective while letting you work on the tempo of your playing, along with how to play rhythms in an accurate manner. Similar to these, there are lessons made for most instruments.
10. Coursera
A website that features a variety of lessons for a variety of different things, including music, Coursera has lessons that are provided to you by top teachers from the biggest universities and colleges all over the world.
As mentioned, they have a variety of different lessons for everything, this includes multiple ones on different instruments, while also including classes that take on different viewpoints from one another entirely.
There are courses that can help you launch your own career as a musician, without needed anyone to produce or record your music.
These lessons focus on helping you to develop yourself as an artist to spread your popularity, identifying you with tools used by professionals across the world, and making you a better player overall.
There are also simple courses that help you becoming a good enough player at your instrument. These can be found for classical music, as well as the more modern genres.
There are seminars that will be able to identify chords, their progression and intervals, something that can come in quite handy.
11. Lynda
Lynda is the name of a project started by LinkedIn, the popular social media platform many use for their career progression. Lynda features courses that help you progress in your field and let you learn in the comfort of your own home by taking them online.
From the Ukulele to playing the drums, there are over 10,000 music related lessons on the website, meaning that there are at least a few that can help you out.
Almost all of the courses are taught by different teachers who take their own approach regarding the matter at hand.
While there are simple tutors that teach you how to play an instrument, like Grammy award winning ukulele player, Daniel Ho, who teaches you how to play the ukulele using tips and tricks that he himself uses, while also going at a pace that even beginners will be more than comfortable working with.
There are also lessons for different instruments like guitars, while there are also some that discuss and define music for what it is. This leaves you with loads to choose from.
12. edX
If you’ve been searching up lessons online before this, you may have heard about edX.
They are basically a platform for students to learn about a variety of different things that has been founded by both Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT for short.
Being a platform made to gain knowledge, edX contains studies made in Harvard and MIT as well as other institutions. These studies, as mentioned, can be regarding multiple things.
Music is also widely featured on the platform, having over 50 different lessons for you to try out depending on the type of thing that you are looking for.
They have both the traditional classes, those that introduce you to your instrument if you’re a beginner, while also having ones teach you about music as a business and how you can thrive in the industry as a creator or a producer.
Other studies also discuss and teach you about things such as music theory, along with how music can be a positive part of our lives.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. Study
As you can probably guess from their name, study.com are a platform for you and other people to learn how to do certain things through the different lessons that they provide.
They have a very wide variety of classes when it comes to musical classes, as some cover the simple things like playing instruments and getting close with it.
Some other classes that they provide talk about different yet related things, for example there are a few that talk about what music itself is, the effects that it has on us, along with its genesis and history.
These types of courses mainly cover the rise of music during the medieval times, and how the church influenced classical music and shaped it differently to what it could have been.
On top of this, there are also lesson plans and complete courses for the people that wish to be music teachers.
These lesson plans include assignments that you can give your students along with other things that you can use to entice their interest in music.
18. Reed
Started all the way back in 1995. Reed.co is the oldest United Kingdom based recruitment websites, and to this day is one of the most famous, if not the most famous.
You can apply to be a teacher or a student for any available programs. Their programs feature lessons for both people that want to grow as musicians in the music industry as well as those that want to grow as businessmen or businesswomen in the same industry.
These can be done in a limited amount of time, or at your own pace, based on which one you choose.
While most of these cover the essentials of playing music or utilizing music as a business opportunity, some teach you about music’s history and how it has changed over the years.
A few of these courses also feature therapy using music and how it can be a peaceful and calm experience for anyone that gives it a go. You can choose any of these provided courses or go into specifics learn a certain instrument from experienced players.
19. Music To Your Home
Music To Your Home is a website that provides you with highly qualified teachers that will teach you on a daily basis by talking to you and teaching you via video call.
The website was started in 2003, as an effort to provide people that are enthusiastic about playing instruments a convenient means to learn their favourite instruments.
They have qualified teachers for every instrument that will provide students with attention and guidance on a daily basis, meaning that any mistakes you’ll make will be pointed out and they will work with you in a pace that you feel is suitable for yourself so that you can clear said mistakes and learn from them.
Another convenient thing about these lessons is that people from all over the world can take them, allowing them to learn instruments even if there aren’t any studios nearby to help them with the matter.
They have multiple experts for a variety of instruments, including piano, violin, guitars, etc. that will provide you or your children with helpful guidance.
20. Musika
Musika is an online platform that focuses on providing people of all ages and skill levels with music related lessons that can help them grow as musicians. It covers most things music related.
From nearly all the main instruments and more, to singing and vocalizing. In the singing and vocalizing department, they provide you with lessons that can help you improve the way you sing by giving you some daily one on one time with qualified singers from all over the world.
These instructors cannot only guide you and make you sound better when you sing, they can help you control the tone of your voice and teach you when to shift tones during singing.
There are tutors like these for every instrument as well, who will work with you through video chat on a daily basis to improve the way you play and to improve upon any mistakes that you may be making when playing.
From classical violin to Bass guitars, there are more than enough tutors for all of these instruments that will help you grow as a casual or professional musician.
21. Class Central
Class central is a website that is a combination of many other lesson related websites as compared to being a website of its own. Meaning that it is basically a search engine that covers lessons related to anything.
It features courses that are featured on a large amount of different websites and makes them easier for you to access.
All you have to do is search for a specific thing and you’ll see different teachers that will provide you with guides on how to get better at said things.
For example, there is a very large collection of music based lessons that can help you grow as a musician, producer, recorder or editor.
These classes cover a variety of things based on what they are about, and there are even some that will talk to you about what music as a practice is, and how it plays a role in life, along with its history. Any specific thing that you’d like to learn, you can do so using this websites search engine.
Tools for Conducting Live Online Video Lessons
Giving video lessons is starting to become the norm. Below are our recommended hardware and software for conducting online video lessons.
Recommended hardware:
- Laptop: Acer Aspire 5
- Webcam: Logitech C920S HD Pro Webcam
- Microphone (optional): Fifine Metal Condenser Recording Microphone
- iPhone video recording kit: Smartphone Video Microphone Kit
Recommended Software:
Skype
Teaching music via Skype is getting popular these days. More and more teachers find it a convenient and accessible way to teach music lessons, especially when they aren’t able to teach lessons in-person. Skype offers an endless number of possibilities for music teachers to share their expertise and music enthusiasts to learn about their passion.
Teachers can teach their students at home without ever having to leave. All you need is a stable internet connection and a laptop or computer with a webcam. Be sure to update your Skype to the latest version to minimize any technical difficulties and benefit from the latest features and updates.
Zoom
Zoom has many fresh and innovative features to help you teach online. You can record lessons and share them with your students. Other features include being able to chat and use videos. In addition, it can also handle more than one user at a time.
However, if you need to connect to a student for more than 30 minutes, you’ll need a paid account. You can give your student a link so they can join and voila, you can start teaching right away! Make sure your students register their email and name if it’s their first time using Zoom.
Conclusion
There are more than a thousand different websites that will provide you with classes that you can take to learn about music, or playing music.
However the websites mentioned above provide you with more than enough variety to choose for yourself, so you can learn in the most comfortable manner possible.
There are other websites that are great for this kind of thing too. What’s most important is that you find a good course or tutor that can get you interested in playing or learning about music.
The tools listed above feature various applications to help teachers in educating music knowledge to their students. Overall, some of the qualities that are worth looking out for are simplicity, tools for creating music, lesson plans, and the activities that a user can participate in.