Free online music classes

[Callenby]

Hello, everyone!

I'd like to share with you something that I found recently and which hopefully can help people with their music-making (sorry if this has already been posted!). There's a website called Coursera that offers free classes in many areas of expertise, including music (the earliest of which begins at the end of this month): https://www.coursera.org/category/music

Now, I can't personally vouch for how effective these classes are since this will be the first time that I use the service. But if you end up finding it a waste of time then at least you wouldn't have invested a ton of money.

Examples of what's currently being offered:

Introduction to Digital Sound Design (starts Jan 28th 2013. 4 weeks long.)
https://www.coursera.org/course/digitalsounddesign

Introduction to Music Production (starts Mar 1st 2013. 6 weeks long.)
https://www.coursera.org/course/musicproduction

Songwriting (starts Mar 1st 2013. 6 weeks long.)
https://www.coursera.org/course/songwriting

Introduction to Guitar (starts Apr 22nd 2013. 6 weeks long.)
https://www.coursera.org/course/guitar

Introduction to Improvisation (starts Apr 22nd 2013. 5 weeks long.)
https://www.coursera.org/course/improvisation

I hope this has been at least a little bit helpful!

[itroitnyah]

Yes, this looks so awesome. So the professors that are doing the course will just post up a video every day, every other day, whatever, and then you watch the video, do the homework, and submit it? Do you have to be there for a livestream or something?

Classes I will definitely sign up for and participate in:
Introduction to Digital Sound Design (oh my god, YES, I need a course like this SO bad)
Introduction to Music Production (Yeah, this will definitely be helpful, even though I know what the majority of the functions do in most plugins, I will definitely learn useful stuff from this)
Songwriting (My composing could really use some work)

Definitely super excited for this. Thanks for showing this to me, Deja. It's really helpful. Here, come 'ere. Let me hug you. *scoots closer, warmly embraces you* there you go. Thanks again

[DJGaugen]

Holy shit, sign me up for everything.

[Motivfs]

Absolutely signing up, no question... Thanks so much Deja.

[Callenby]

My pleasure. Really, it took like two minutes.

In response to itroitnyah, I'm not 100% sure exactly what the classes will entail because I've never taken an online class before. From the looks of things it varies somewhat from class to class, which would make sense because they're offered by a pool of universities from different countries. The music classes in particular seem to mostly consist of some video lectures each week followed by exams along with a requirement for recording capability and certain software. That's according to the Course Format sections, at least. Plus, many of them are offered by Berklee College of Music, which I've heard good things about (for whatever that's worth).

Definitely worth a shot, I think.

And hey, let me thank all of you guys, too! Even though my few comments don't show it, I've already learned tons in the past couple weeks just by browsing through past threads. It makes the whole composing thing much less daunting for me.

[Twy]

Wow. This looks so incredibly cool! I'm so signing up for all of this...Man this looks awesome.

Thanks so much, Deja.

[Brick Stonewood]

Yes, thanks a lot. I've just signed myself up as well.

[prozeyic]

In the terms of service it says the course is restricted to over 18s. Did anyone else pick that up?

[SticktheFigure]

In the terms of service it says the course is restricted to over 18s. Did anyone else pick that up?

Has that ever stopped the millions of eleven year olds from looking at porn?

[itroitnyah]

In the terms of service it says the course is restricted to over 18s. Did anyone else pick that up?

Allow me to clarify what it says. Let's look at what it says, to start:

the Sites is restricted to those individuals over 18 years of age, emancipated minors, or those who possess legal parental or guardian consent, and are fully able and competent to enter into the terms, conditions, obligations, affirmations, representations and warranties herein

Look closely at the part following "is restricted to those individuals over 18 years of age". You can see that it clearly says

emancipated (means set free, esp. from legal, social, or political restrictions) minors, or those who possess legal parental or guardian consent, and are fully able and competent to enter into the terms, conditions, obligations, affirmations, representations and warranties herein.

So essentially, it's saying that you have to have parental permission, unless you're over 18, or an emancipated minor. I'm not sure how you would become an emancipated minor though

The rest of it says:

By registering or participating in services or functions on the Sites, you hereby represent that you are over 18 years of age, an emancipated minor or in possession of consent by a legal parent or guardian and have the authority to enter into the terms herein. In any case, you affirm that you are over the age of 13 as the Site is not intended for children under 13. If you are under 13 years of age, do not use the Sites. In addition, those who wish to register and participate must meet the minimum requirements laid out in the Terms of Use (this document) and abide by the Honor Code herein. In addition, certain Courses may have additional eligibility requirements, as specified on the Course website. If you do not qualify or do not agree to these terms, you may not use the Site.

So just to repeat, incase you didn't get it, as long as you meet the requirements of previous knowledge, skill, possessions that you are in ownership of (some classes require a DAW of some sort in order to participate in the class), or whatever, and you are above the age 13, you can participate in these classes. With the exception being that ages 13-17 need parental permission. Not sure how they would check that you parental permission of course

So there you go, I hope you understand this better. I'm assuming that now you understand better you realize that you can sign up for the class you want

[Pimps_McGee]

Thanks Deja! Just signed up for the Introduction to Digital Sound Design course. It seems pretty fantastic.

[Ohffy]

oh my god thank you so much for this

[soup2504]

You know... I would LOVE to sign up for some of these, but I really wish I knew whether or not the classes are at certain times, or just do it when you get the chance things, because I barely have much time for myself during weekdays.

[itroitnyah]

I think they just post videos on a timely basis and assign homework with occasional videos

[soup2504]

I think they just post videos on a timely basis and assign homework with occasional videos

I would like to find out if this is true before signing up, because I would not want to sign up for something if I won't have the time for it.

[Symphon]

I'm definitely signing up for some of these... Thanks so much for this! This is incredible! I bet it will be really good, and even if it's just decent, it's free!

[Callenby]

I think they just post videos on a timely basis and assign homework with occasional videos

I would like to find out if this is true before signing up, because I would not want to sign up for something if I won't have the time for it.

Well, you could always just try it out for a week or two and drop out if it's too much. It's not like it will show up as incomplete on your transcript or something.

I highly doubt that they have a strict schedule. Keep in mind that they have to accommodate students from all different timezones so it would be unreasonable for them to expect everyone to adhere to one static schedule.

[eClypse]

Holy shit, that sounds great. Thanks for sharing this with us, Deja!

[FlyingNinjaBannanas]

Will I jump into this bandwagon even though I have very little experience in making music. Yes, Yes I will. Unless there's something that conflicts in the requirements. But even if I drop out, at least I can learn something without paying any money.

Also.

What resources will I need for this class? You need access to a Windows or Mac computer with a built-in microphone. All software used in this course can be downloaded for free and is available for both PC and Mac.

Edit: That quote is from the sound design course. I don't know about the rest.

This convinced me.

[Brick Stonewood]

So, the intro to digital sound design course started today, and there are a really large number of people taking this course, as it turns out. The number of people in the discussion forums is kind of intimidating, in some way. There's nothing to say because someone else has already said everything by the time you get to it, and there's probably no way to actually get to know anybody else there just based on sheer volume. There are a bunch of study groups set up for people to avoid this problem and talk about their stuff in smaller settings, but even those are either for some niche group that I'm not in or already completely huge. I don't really expect it to go anywhere, but if anyone signed up for the course and is having that same problem, we could maybe start some sort of MLR-based group. It's just an idea. I figured I'd ask here first, just so I'm not the jackass trying to talk about My Little Pony to a large and uninterested crowd of other musicians.

[Motivfs]

Brick, check here, anything we need to discuss can go here now!

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6849

[Brick Stonewood]

Aaaah. So there is a group already. Awesome. Thanks for letting me know.

[vladnuke]

Im already two days late on the sound design, but I'll take the others fo sho.

[Kushy Kallous]

Im already two days late on the sound design, but I'll take the others fo sho.

I just signed up for sound-design and went through a couple of videos this morning. : )
Planning on going through all of them before work.

Deja, mad props for this.