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04/09/2020
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A Guide to Remote Music Education Resources During the Coronavirus

With schools across the country now shuttered due to coronavirus-related stay-at-home orders, remote music education resources have seen a massive uptick as of late, with companies and nonprofits alike offering cheap and easy ways to learn music-making online.

The range of virtual programs that have sprouted up over the last several weeks aren’t just for kids. From professional webinars to online lessons, children and adults alike are being given access to complimentary and low-cost courses, mentoring sessions and free trials to music-learning apps. Many of these initiatives also serve as a lifeline for musicians who have been put out of work by the pandemic, offering them paid online teaching slots to help fill the gaps in their income.

Below you can find an extensive list of low-to-no-cost online music education resources currently being offered by a variety of companies, schools and organizations, from the Berklee College of Music to SoundCloud to Fender guitars. The list will be continually updated over the coming weeks as more programs and resources become available.

Professional Seminars:

8 Til Faint’s Virtual Panel Series
8 Til Faint founder and Jessie Reyez manager Mauricio Ruiz curated an April 6 virtual panel for artist managers like Jordan Evans and Matthew Burnett (Daniel Caesar, Charlotte Day Wilson), Tyler Henry (PARTYNEXTDOOR) and more to talk strategy amid the pandemic. He says that more virtual panels will be announced soon.

Guild of Music Supervisors & Mondo.NYC Weekly Panel Series
The Guild of Music Supervisors is partnering with music business conference Mondo.NYC to host weekly online panel conversations with music supervisors, composers and recording artists. Panelists for the first edition on April 9 include music supervisors Jen Malone (Euphoria, Atlanta) and Tracy McKnight (Hunger Games, Free Solo), as well as artists like PJ Morton and Citizen Cope.

Let’s Dew Lunch
Digital Media Wire, which puts on the annual Digital Entertainment World (DEW) expo, is now offering a daily webinar series that covers a variety of issues related to digital entertainment, including the music business, live-streamed performances in the age of the coronavirus and more.

MIDiA: COVID-19 Impact on Entertainment Demand and Behaviours
MIDiA Research is mounting this free April 15 webinar that will offer entertainment professionals the tools and strategies "to help you respond proactively to consumer behavior and market shifts" in the wake of the pandemic.

Music Biz Live
The Music Business Association is debuting a new livestream interview series that will showcase the latest relief efforts available to people in need and offer guides on how to use available tools to weather the industry's current challenges. A backlog of previous webinars is available here.

Music Tectonics Weekly Websdays
The Music Tectonics music tech conference is offering a weekly curated "music tech meetup" via Zoom featuring Q&As with industry thought leaders. Participants can ask questions using the hashtag #websday on Twitter.

NAMM U Webinars
The National Association of Music Merchants’ educational vertical, NAMM U, is offering a slate of webinars about how to do business amid coronavirus for members and nonmembers alike. Topics include “Sales & Marketing In The Time of COVID-19,” “Virtual Music Making During COVID-19” and more.

Shesaid.so’s Community Streaming Sessions
Shesaid.so, a global network of women in the music industry, is holding a variety of community streaming sessions via Instagram Live, with topics including digital technology, radio, event management and more.

SoundCloud’s Creator Office Hours
SoundCloud's artist team is providing "virtual professional-grade advice" on Instagram Live via real-time discussions, interactive workshops, AMAs and more.

Splice TV
Splice TV is a daily music education series that streams for free every weekday from 2-3 pm PT/5-6pm ET via Twitch. The series offers exclusive tutorials and product demos from production professionals including songwriter-producers Jason Evigan and KSHMR, as well as recurring features including "Weekly Rhythm" with Splice’s Nick Chen and 343 lab’s Level Up series. You can follow @Splice on Instagram for programming updates.

SyncSummit’s Sync Cafe Chat
The music licensing summit is hosting a free daily "sync chat" at 1pm ET where participants can talk about "music, business and life."

The Panel By Q&A
Troy Carter, J. Erving and Suzy Ryoo's music and technology company Q&A is hosting virtual panels to “discuss the state of music and other industry insights” every weekday on Zoom. Speakers have included Motown Records president Ethiopia Habtemariam; Live Nation Urban president Shawn Gee; Capitol Records senior vp global creative Amber Grimes; Warner Chappell A&R president, U.S. Ryan Press and more.

Virtual Music Education:

Artist Collective
Chicago-based artist development and consulting company Artist Collective is offering a free month-long trial of online courses teaching artists how to connect with fans during the quarantine.

Ausounds’ Lil’ Maestros
Starting March 30, headphone manufacturer Ausounds began holidng a free, five-week course of virtual music lessons in guitar, piano, percussion, music theory, improvisation and more for kids and parents. The program airs weekdays at 12 p.m. PST/3 p.m. EST on the Ausounds YouTube channel and at this link. No instrument is needed -- participants are invited to download from a list of free music-playing apps listed on the Ausounds site.

Berklee
As always, The Berklee College of Music is offering free massive online open courses that enable prospective students to sample the "Berklee experience" for free. Instructors include vibraphonist Gary Burton, producer and engineer Prince Charles Alexander, songwriting professor Pat Pattinson and entertainment lawyer John Kellogg. You can browse a list of free courses here.

BMAT
Music monitoring and metadata company BMAT is launching a series of videos and shareable PDF documents to help artists navigate doing business amid the pandemic. The first episode -- an introduction to the series -- can be found here, and forthcoming episodes will be shared on BMAT’s Instagram and Twitter.

Carnegie Hall
The venerable concert venue in New York City has made its Musical Explorers curriculum, designed for families with young children, available for free online. It has also introduced a resource hub for music educators that includes professional development resources, lesson plans and more.

Dept. Of Sound
The music education nonprofit is offering a live, four-week music production intensive for free online. You can pre-register for the April session here. Space is limited.

GRAMMY Museum
While it is temporarily closed to the public, the museum will release educational content and lesson plans via its website and digital platforms, along with digital exhibits and never-before-seen video interviews with artists and industry professionals from its archive.

GRAMMY Music Education Coalition and David Ellefson Youth Music Foundation
The David Ellefson Youth Music Foundation, a nonprofit started by the Megadeth bassist, has partnered with the GRAMMY Music Education Coalition for the "School's Out" initiative, which provides free music lessons and one-on-one mentoring sessions with via videoconference with rock and metal artists including Ellefson, Anthrax's Frank Bello, Five Finger Death Punch's Chris Kael and more.

Guitar Center
Guitar Center is now offering live, one-on-one online lessons for guitar, bass, drums, piano and more instruments, plus DJ and vocal lessons.

Lincoln Center
Through its Lincoln Center at Home initiative, the historic venue is hosting daily pop-up classrooms for families via Facebook Live every weekday at 2pm ET.

NYU Percussion Virtual Masterclass Series
NYU's Zoom masterclass series is offering free percussion classes by instructors including Erik Daimo, Adam Kiefer, Matthew Strauss and more. Full list here.

Sennheiser
The Sennheiser Sound Academy is offering a variety of free audio training webinars covering topics such as wireless microphones, audio for video and more at 1:30 a.m., 6:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m ET daily. Full list here.

The Shed
The Illinois-based music education site is offering free passes to a range of its music production and transcription courses online for schools that have undergone coronavirus-related shutdowns.

TED-Ed
TED-Ed creates free, video-based interactive lessons for all ages, built by a network of 500,000 educators. Lessons range from "How to Read Music" to "Beatboxing 101" to "Getting Started as a DJ."

Women’s Audio Mission
The nonprofit catering to underserved women, girls and gender non-conforming individuals free virtual classes on various music-related topics. It is also offering a collection of the organization's online training modules for free.

Yousician For Teachers
Music education platform Yousician -- which provides interactive learning for guitar, bass, ukulele, piano and voice -- is offering teachers a free premium subscription for the remainder of the school year.

Music-Making Apps & Tools:

Ableton
The software developer is currently offering a 90-day free trial of its Ableton Live 10 Suite DAW.

Amped Guitar partnership with Gibson
Through a partnership with Gibson Gives, Sweetwater.com and Amped Guitar Learning, guitar maker Gibson is offering new users three free months of Premium Access Membership to online guitar learning platform Amped Guitar.

Fender Play
The guitar maker is offering new users three free months of guitar lessons via its online learning platform Fender Play.

Logic Pro X DAW
Apple is offering a free 90-day trial of its Logic Pro X DAW.