Chances are at one point or another, you've either purchased an instrument or considered doing so with the intention of learning to play it; most of us, however, never get around the the learning part. The internet is a glorious fount of freely available information, and it's slowly filling up with excellent tutorials for getting good at just about anything—including playing a new instrument. Hit the jump for a handful of great resources for getting started with a new instrument online for the low, low price of free.
Hit Up YouTube for Free Tutorials
As free hosted video sites proliferate around the web, more and more people have begun using them to share their skills with the world at large. Just spend a few minutes on YouTube searching for a musical topic of interest and you will find tons of videos to suit your interests, from how to play drums to how to play piano. You're likely to find the most videos, though, focusing on playing the guitar.Aspiring guitarists should check out web site Video Tabs, which scours YouTube for guitar-specific instructional videos and posts the best to their site.[via]
Improve Your Guitar Chops with iTunes
The second most popular podcast on iTunes is Beginning Guitar 101, a free instructional video from iVideosongs. The site itself is chock full of instructional videos that you can pay $5 to $10 for, but iTunes features six instructional videos for the beginning guitarist to devour for free. Then, of course, if you're hooked, you can head to the site for more. [via]Learn Guitar on Your iPod
Web site and now software iPlayMusic (original post) offers several free videos for the beginning guitarist through their freeware iPlayMusic player. iPlayMusic requires a registration to get started, and it's put a commercial face on a lot of its videos, but the free beginner tutorials are a great place to get started; even better, they export for watching on your iPod on-the-go.Learn to Read Tablature
The best way to get up and started in no time is by learning how to read tab (a simple notation for translating what you're supposed to play that's way less complicated than reading music) and then finding a good tab site or two. Honestly, whenever I'm searching for tabs I just hit up Google and grab the first or second result. That said, I'm a big fan of sites like Ultimate Guitar for their auto-scroll features, which scroll the page for you so you don't have to stop playing. A lot of tab sites are riddled with pop-ups, but sometimes that's the price you pay.Learn the Drums While Playing Video Games
One of the coolest things about the video game Rock Band is that—while the guitar bears no relevance to actual guitar playing—you can actually learn a little something about drumming by playing Rock Band. No, Rock Band isn't exactly "online" (though you can play with friends over Xbox Live), but Wired has rounded up some great tips for Rock Band drummers looking to hone their skills (original post).As you can tell, the hobbiest's instrument-of-choice is definitely the guitar, and you're likely to find a lot more guitar-centric how-tos than the rest. However, with a little digging—and YouTube really is your friend for this—you can get a basic understanding of and get started with just about any instrument. If you've got your own tried-and-true resources for honing your musical talents online, share it in the comments.
Comments
Do they have trombone?
Actually I learned all the basics of piano and guitar online. I'm not saying I'm good but it got me started off pretty well.
Lately I've been using www.chordbook.com to brush up my rusty guitar skills. Really, I've just started w/ the site, and it seems to be working for me. Thanx for the article and the additional info!
I have a keyboard here that is dying to have its ivory tickled... time to hunt around for a good resource...
And yeah, I learned how to play the guitar online... back before youtube and the like, I just used the old fashioned tabs while playing along with a CD :)
Justin Guitar is another excellent source for free lessons, and learning the guitar. It's not my site, just the same first name, but a good guy nonetheless. Heh.
Just this morning, I was thinking I should try learning the guitar...Lifehacker get outta my brain!!!!!
NextLevelGuitar does some amazing instructional videos. They used to post them on Youtube, but they've since been removed and organized into a site with member/non-member sections. Thankfully most of the videos are still free and they're awesome. Check them out at the following link: [www.nextlevelguitar.com]
This is honestly creepy, it seems that whenever I think of doing something lifehacker is there with an article!
You guys rock
Do you still have to practice?
The downside is, it's sometimes hard to separate the quality lessons from the jerks who just want to show off.
Another great site for guitar is www.ultimate-guitar.com. They've got tons of lessons on there from very beginner stuff to really advanced techniques.
I started learning guitar a few months ago, just by reading tabs + ultimate-guitar.com. I also found some video tutorials on YouTube, but hadn't discovered all other sites you mentioned yet.. So thanks LH and um, commenters. =)
Yeah, this is cool and all, but where are the harmonica resources?
There are tons of rock songs that I can find the guitar tabs for but no harp tabs! Maybe there's a tutorial out there that teaches how to convert tabs to another instrument...
If you're a guitar player, like me, one of the best free TAB resources you can get is a program called Powertab. You load in a song and you can see the tab and actually HEAR it also in midi as it plays. There was a huge community of tabbers that transcribed music for powertab which could be downloaded from the HUGE archive at powertabs.net but it looks as if the man has stepped and said, no, you can't do that.
There will always be people who are afraid of losing their profit.
There should be other places you can go to find them though.
This is awesome, theres an 'ol folk guitar up in my room, that I've always wanted to learn to play. Cool! BUT!!!
Where can I learn to dance??? like break-dance, line dance, stuff like that...LH, what do you say to an article on learning to dance, eh? Thanks
@tjmage1: The best way to learn to dance is still the old fashioned way - with another person! I highly recommend it; it can lead to other fun activities as well! ;)
As a music teacher, I appreciate some things that I can give to my students to help them along. However, as many good helps as there are, there are quite a few horrible ones that I have seen that teach the wrong thing.
There is no substitute for a real person giving private lessons.
@Capone: Yes, you have to practice!
@SenorDunda: Check out youtube videos by Alan Raph for some decent trombone help
If you play any percussion, check out VicFirth (www.vicfrth.com) for some top-notch lessons.
If you want some good music theory help, check www.emusictheory.com
Last, but not least, check out MENC (www.menc.org)- it is a resource for music teachers, but their site, especially their forums can be lots of helpful info for any musician (forums are free to read, you have to be a member in good standing to post).
Those are just some general ones - I have TONS of sites for speciic instruments.
Another good place for online guitar lessons is [www.wholenote.com] You can even create lessons as well.
You know, I've been meaning to learn how to play bass, but I learned how to play Trombone and pretty much every other brass instrument the old fashioned way (practice and joining the HS band).
Go Ska Bone!!
[www.studybass.com] is good for learning bass; I'm just starting out but it comes recommended by my teacher.
I see someone else has mentioned him, so I'll second the motion: [justinguitar.com] is a terrific resource.
For aspiring drummers check out www.onlinedrummer.com This site is awesome (although not very pretty). I've progressed a long way with this site (and some Rock Band, I must admit).
For the more esoteric and adventurous, there's [thereminworld.com] and lots of helpful YouTube videos.
While learning to play the piano, midi files of songs that I was trying to learn seemed to help as well, with the help of Vanbasco's Karaoke Player to show what notes were played on each track. It helped me so much! There is nothing as good as YouTube and that personal touch.
Another great site is gospelmidi.blogspot.com for learning the piano (gospel music specifically).
For banjo, folk guitar, and some harmonica, try Pat and Patrick: Dobro33H at youtube, their Tangier Sound blog, and their
business.
"Hobbiest"? Is that someone who's hobbier than thou?
Or did you mean hobbyist?
.
.
@drdoombot: Do a search on Adam Gussow on Youtube. He has over 130 video lessons on there and he can make a harmonica cry, beg, and whine like nobody's business.
@SenorDunda: My first trombone lesson in 5th grade started with these two simple rules- if its too high, slide it out, if its too low, slide it in.
There, you've just learned trombone. :)
By far my favorite is Guitar Tricks - www.guitartricks.com
I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet.
Out-dang-standing! More great stuff from the internets! Now, if they could just get me over my dread of handling live electricity with a video online.
Anyone knows a good, free website that could help a beginner like me learn to play the keyboard (piano)? Thank you.
Lifehacker, I'm serenading you right now. I love you more than my unborn baby.
I'm loving this thread. I'm a semi-pro guitar player, acoustic jazz and R n'B, so I'm always on the hunt for new tips and tricks. And I'm getting some good ideas in here, so thanks! I do love YouTube. Search "swing guitar" or "jazz guitar" or the name of any musical giant and you'll encounter a trove of great music and opportunities to watch and learn. Cheers, Mario C
@tjmage1:
go to youtube and search do a search for phrases like "break dancing tutorials" i know there are a bunch of them up there, and that at least a small handfull are really good.
These types of tutorial can be good for gathering new skills, but learning a new instrument without a teacher seems to me like a great way to develop bad habits. Even a couple of lessons with a pro can nip these in the bud before they get too entrenched.
Good Point JordanW! If you want to get your feet wet, these "free" lessons are a good start. But if you want to pursue the instrument further, you really need a good teacher. The knowledge that they pass on through years of experience are really invaluable.
hmm i wonder if they have French Horn....that would of helped back in school haha!
In addition to the video workshops cmwilson mentioned, I have also released four books on playing guitar and banjo under Creative Commons licenses:
The How and the Tao of Old Time Banjo
A Book of Five Strings
The How and the Tao of Folk Guitar
The Outlaws and Scalawags Songbook
apparently the whole distance-teaching thing works pretty well for folk music. My online students are starting to produce their own online workshops.
-Patrick
[tangiersound.wordpress.com]
Check out ukuleleunderground.com for great uke tutorials and uke minutes from Aldrine Guerrero
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