Almost everyone on the planet likes some kind of music. There are so many different genres of music and no matter what mood you're in, you can always find an appropriate song to listen to.
You can also be an active participant by playing music or singing and there are many benefits to both. Whether it's for the mind, body, or soul, music can help and those who create and perform music tend to be happier and more creative.
We often hear stories of musical prodigies and those who were born with a wonderful voice. However, most people will have to learn how to sing and practise regularly either through formal music education, private singing tutoring, or even by taking online singing lessons.
While there are many successful singers and musicians with no understanding of music theory or how to read music, most musicians and performers will agree that music theory is essential.
In many situations, you'll need to know how to read sheet music whether you're sight reading in a performance or just to understand a song that you're learning how to sing or play.
You'll find that most successful musicians and singers combine talent with a lot of hard work and practice to get the most out of their musical gifts.
If you'd like to come anywhere close to them, you're going to have to put in a lot of hard work, practise, study music theory, and learn how to read sheet music. Here's how you can do the latter online!
Websites Where You Can Start Learning about Music Theory
There are many cognitive benefits to learning music, especially for kids, and children who learn to read music and play musical instruments have been shown to have greater neuroplasticity.
Here are some useful sites for children to learn about music theory, but adults can also use them if they find them useful!
Music Learning Community
Music Learning Community is a website aimed at offering music education to students and you'll find lots of games that are great for younger learners. There are also a lot of useful resources for teachers, too.
The site isn't free, but you can get monthly subscriptions for around $13 (the prices on the site are in USD). The yearly subscription works out at around the cost of paying for 10 months of the year.
Before you buy the subscription, feel free to try out the free content and activities to see if it's right for you or make use of the free trial to explore some of the premium content and features.
Hello Kids
This website isn't solely for music, but it does feature a lot of useful learning resources for children across a broad range of subjects.
As for the music, children can learn about the names of musical notes, note value, etc.
Metronimo
The Metronimo website has plenty of free resources, apps, and games for learning more about music theory, musical instruments, classical composers, and even playing the piano.
Learners of all ages can use the resources on the site, but they're clearly aimed at children. The site isn't the flashiest you'll see on today's internet, but that doesn't mean that you can't find lots of valuable content on it.
There's both software to download and online games you can play directly in your browser. There's even a Pacman clone that teaches you about the different keys in music, which is great if you're a visual learner!
More Sites for Learning Music Theory and How to Read Sheet Music
While you can always practise singing with karaoke videos and karaoke apps, if you dream of becoming a professional singer, you'll probably need to learn how to read the notes on a page of sheet music.
Musical notation is used in most professional settings and singers will need to be familiar with reading the lines on a staff, note value, and the various symbols used in sheet music.
The same is true for any musician who wants to play piano, violin, guitar, bass, or most other instruments. Drums and percussion don't usually have notes to play, but you can still learn how to read sheet music for them and percussionists in orchestras will know how to read sheet music, too.
To be able to read sheet music, you'll have to understand the underlying music theory, be able to keep time (or at least follow a metronome), and perform the music on your instrument of choice. After all, sheet music is the instructions for how to play music and long before recording technology was available, sheet music was one of the only ways to make a record of compositions.
Nowadays we have plenty of recorded music but we also have so many different resources covering music theory and how to read sheet music, especially online!
Here are just a few of our favourites.
MusicTheory.net
You may hear arguments for and against learning music theory and while there are certainly plenty of musicians who never studied it or learnt how to read sheet music, many find it an essential part of becoming a better musician.
Whether you want to sing or play a musical instrument, music theory and learning to read sheet music can help and sites like MusicTheory.net are great for learning more about it.
This site in particular has lots of different resources, apps, lessons, etc. to help music students and musicians of all levels to improve their understanding of music theory including information on:
- Note names.
- Intervals.
- Note value (how long a note lasts).
- Musical notation and how it appears in sheet music.
- Vocal ranges and their names (soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass).
- Reading sheet music.
- Key and time signatures and how to read them.
The site is clean, easy to navigate, and full of many useful resources and content. A lot of the content is available for free, but you can also download the site's premium apps to learn more about music theory.
ToneSavvy
ToneSavvy used to be called eMusicTheory. It's a website dedicated to music theory and ear training complete with resources for both students and teachers.
A lot of the resources are for those learning to play the piano or guitar, but there are also many exercises for training your ear, which is essential if you're a singer since you don't have keys or frets to produce the right note for you.
The subscriptions (in USD) are as follows:
- $19 per month (up to 25 students)
- $39 per month (up to 75 students)
- $59 per month (up to 150 students)
It's not the cheapest option out there, but it's certainly worth looking into if you need ear training or if there are a few of you interested in investing in the premium content.
One Minute Music Lesson
One Minute Music Lesson covers musical notation, rhythm and tempo, key signatures, ear training, and plenty of music quizzes for you to test your knowledge. Most of these lessons are great for beginners.
Teoría
Another great website for music theory is Teoría (which simply means theory). There are lessons, exercises, and articles on beats and measures, time signatures, note value, key signatures, harmonies and harmonic function, and how to transpose instruments.
The site is free, but you can donate to the cause if you find the content useful and would like to help keep it online.
If you're learning music theory to become a better singer, don't forget about recording your singing. For that, you may want to take a look at our article on the best tools for recording your voice.
Another great way to learn more about music theory or how to read sheet music is with a private music tutor. Fortunately for you, we can help with that as well.
On the Superprof website, there are plenty of private music tutors all over New Zealand and around the world. Just search for music or music theory and where you live and you can start browsing the profiles of potential tutors in your area.
Don't worry if you can't find any suitable local tutors, though. There are also plenty of online tutors who can help and as long as you have a webcam and a decent internet connection, you can learn from tutors anywhere in the world.
With most of the tutors on our website offering the first lesson for free, you can even try a few out before choosing which one is right for you and what you want to learn.
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