7 Outstanding Online Courses to Learn Music Theory

It’s incredible how much your perception of music changes once you start to understand the concepts behind the creativity of artists and musicians. In order to get this understanding, you have to learn music theory. Fortunately, in the age of Internet, you can get this knowledge for free. Check the list of top seven resources that can help you.

Music Theory Course by Yale University

Most people think learning music theory is the first step to the understanding of music. Craig Wright from the University of Yale disagrees with this statement and suggests learning how to listen to music first. His course has 23 lectures with each lecture lasting a little longer than one hour. After you finish listening to these courses, you will understand what makes music special and how musicians create it.

Music Fundamentals 101 by Pebber Brown

Pebber Brown had 19 mentors and studied at 5 different universities, so this man knows how to teach music! His collection of videos offers over 23 videos of one-hour recordings, teaching you the music fundamentals. Incredibly intense and worthwhile course.

Online Lessons by MusicTheory.net

In case you don’t have more than 20 hours to spend on learning music theory in a comprehensive manner, Pebber Brown’s courses won’t suit you. Luckily, we have online lessons by musictheory.net which offer concise and short videos that include the essential parts of music theory. Topics of musictheory.net lessons include chords, scales, rhythm, harmony, etc. They also have an app that allows you to access their lessons through your iPhone. That app costs 3 dollars.

Fundamentals of Music Theory by Coursera

The curriculum of this course is designed for those who have no background or education in music. In order to participate in this course, you need to monitor Coursera and catch the ongoing session. The easiest way to do this is to add the course to your watchlist and wait for the notification.

Music Theory Classes by Udemy

You have two options if you decide to take classes from Udemy. You can either pay from $10 to $100 for a complete music course or get a free course called Music Theory Classes. It includes 180+ lectures that have all you need to know about music.

Basic Music Theory by Ethan Winer

That’s the course for those who already have some background or education in music. Ethan Winer course is available on YouTube and it is broken into 5 pieces. The total length of the course is less than three hours, but it touches all the necessary topics to make you understand the basics of music theory. However, if this is the first course that you want to watch, you won’t understand anything, because it requires some already-learned knowledge.

College of Music by Berklee

This is for those who want to build a solid foundation in music and get the course of college-level music theory. The bad news is that you have to pay $1,249 for that.

Don’t miss out on the wonder of music, for music runs through our blood and has the potential to transform our minds and hearts.