Learn Music Online

How to Learn Music Online

Welcome to this new blog dedicated to finding the best online music courses for you.

Virtual education is booming, new online music courses are springing up every day, but how can you tell whether the course you've picked is really going to help you succeed?

And why learn online in the first place?

Taking an online music course means you can 

• learn at your own pace
• review and revise your lessons time and time again
• access your lessons from any location
• save time and money on travel costs
• tailor your music education experience to make a perfect fit for your needs

Course market places like Udemy.com are perfect for online music learning. Youtube is great for learning quick facts or picking up tips, and you can even hire a teacher to teach you over Skype.

Dangers

The problem with Youtube is that it can be hard to separate the quality, trustworthy lessons from those posted by the, ahem, more clueless. Youtube ranks videos on popularity, minutes watched and viewer ineraction (i.e. comments and likes/dislikes), but sometimes this means that videos which contain, ahem, less than true facts can get pushed up to the top of the search results simply because they are so bad they invite a lot of discussion. 

This doesn't help you if you simply want to learn music online and be able to trust that the teacher knows his or her stuff! You also don't want to waste time sifting through dull videos, presented by people with no teacher training or natural talent.

Although there is a lot of good stuff on Youtube, you need to realize that "free" sometimes equates with "worthless".

Finding Good Online Music Courses

With a plaform like Udemy.com, courses are either paid or free at the instructor's choice, and credit is given to courses which students like and find useful and effective. Take a look at Udemy's courses, pay attention to the reviews and ratings given per course. To find the perfect course for your needs you should always

• Read through the course description - this contains some information about WHO the course is intended for (level, general interests etc.)
• Look at the star ratings. Any course with mostly 4 or 5 star ratings is likely to be a good one. An isolated 1-star rating is also something which you can probably discount, if the rest of the ratings are good. (Some students are never satisfied, and some people even leave bad ratings to try to knock down competitive instructors!)
• Read the reviews. These are written by real students who cared enough to write a few words.
• Watch the free preview videos and decide whether the instructor's style suits you. All Udemy courses have at least five minutes' of free preview video you can watch. 

When you learn music online with Udemy it doesn't mean that your teacher is unreachable, as it may do on Youtube. You can use the Udemy plaform to start discussions with your teacher within the course, and you can also send them private messages if you prefer. Udemy instructors love to get involved with student discussions, so this is a great way to make contact with your teacher and solve any problems you might have.