Musical Instruments and Interests

IU Music Live!

Visit the home of Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music live performance webpage to access free video recordings of previous live performances from current and past seasons. Enjoy brilliant musical entertainment from home.

Check out these playlists from Indiana University Library blogs.

Free to listen, without annoying ads.

The four main families of instruments are woodwind, brass, percussion, and string.

String instruments are comprised of some sort of hollow box or pickup with strings drawn across that are plucked, strummed, or bowed and include violin, viola, cello, double bass, guitar, ukulele, and many more varieties.

Brass family are made of brass tubing as their name implies, and  include trumpet, trombone, tuba, French horn and others.

Woodwind instruments have reed and tubes, but not all function in exactly the same way as with flutes. Others include clarinet, saxophone, and the English horn,

Percussion includes the piano and any sort of instrument that uses a stick, hand, mallet or other handheld implement to strike a surface and generally are used to maintain rhythm and beat.

Clarinet resources with free instructional material on technique and other startup hacks can be found here.

Finger Placement for Clarinet:

Saxophone beginner tips and technique pointers can be found here.

Flute quick tips and basics outlined and includes many links can be found here.

Trumpet basics and pointers for first-time players can be found here.

Trombone starting points and encouragement can be found here.

For Trumpet lessons click the image:

Learning guitar, like many string instruments, is slightly less intuitive as other instruments because of the inclusion of chords and a wide range of notes, including half step notes.

Reading sheet music and reading guitar tabs are not exactly the same, and if the goal is to pursue more formal method, then guitar tabs will  help to develop familiarity with the guitar, but a bit of study of music theory would follow.

Finger Placement for Guitar:

Generally, tabs have six lines to represent the six strings on a guitar.

Finger Placement for Piano:

Here are some quick start resources for piano.

Flowkey provides instructional materials arranged as individual, progressive chapters.

8notes provides a huge set of piano sheet music for free with many beginner selections available.

Take A Piano Sheet Music Break is home to beginner sheet music PDFs and arranged by level.

Hand placement for Drumsticks:

Basics for learning drums and many helpful resources can be found free here.

Forums, free resources and general drumming interests can be explored here.

Learn to Play Music

Use this all-encompassing Youtube channel for learning a wide variety of instruments from a wide variety of different teachers and hosts.

Andrew Furmanczyk Academy of Music

Use this resource to learn step-by-step lessons to play piano. Very simple and easy to follow, the link connects to a playlist of piano-focused videos.

Guitar Lessons 365

Another helpful collection of videos for learning many different guitar techniques for acoustic, electric, and classical.

Drumeo

Use this free collection of drum lessons to gather the basics needed to play a drum kit as well as tricks to get the look and feel of being a professional-quality drummer. A variety of videos and instructors available including the Godmother of Drumming playing heavy metal.

The Online Piano & Violin Tutor

Use this excellent resource to learn piano pointers and fine-tuning for violin. A great resource for those interested in learning violin, especially in a step-by-step progression; very British, indeed.

Best Youtube Channels Reviewed

Here is an extensive set of descriptions and reviews for some of the more popular Youtube channels and teachers for learning to play a variety of instruments and music styles. Some of the videos provided go quite deep into detail concerning music theory and can be helpful for learners of any level.

Examples from the review can also be found here:

Dave Conservatoire

musictheoryguy

Andrew Furmanczyk

Another helpful resource is Andrew Huang.

These videos provide not only background on music theory and helpful tips for learning to make music, but explores some of the less-conventional approaches to making music through incorporating technology.

Check out these free online courses from EdX:

Introduction to Music Theory

Music For Wellness

Vocal Recording Technology

World Music, Culture, & You

Check out these online courses from Coursera:

Fundamentals of Music Theory

Developing Your Musicianship

Guitar Scales and Progressions

The DIY Musician

GuitarTuna

Use this free app for iPhones and Google phones.

Simply Piano

Use this free app for iPhones and Google phones.

Yousician

Use this free lesson app for guitar, bass, and ukulele for iPhones and Google phones.

SingTrue

Use this free app to achieve perfect pitch for iPhones only.

When Folk Music Speaks: Ben Hunter at TEDxRainier

A casual TED talk to get some warm nostalgia.

Discovering American Folk Music

A short documentary explaining influences on folk music.

Folksongs of Another America: Field recordings from the Upper Midwest 1937-1946

A real deep dive into folk music of the American Midwest from the Library of Congress.

IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana

Visit this Indiana University resource to browse free collections of Hoosier sheet music for a variety of instruments and ensembles.

18 Folk Songs With 1 Strum Pattern

Use this video to learn some of the common techniques for popular songs.

Folk music ranges throughout the world, finding its roots in oral tradition and telling of stories. Sounds of banjos and fiddles often evoke pastoral scenes in the imagination, and the sounds inspire a nostalgic veneration for ancestry and pioneering.

Folk music continues to grow more popular in the United States, with lyrics telling the stories of folklore and spirituous Americana. Often the sounds come from improvised instruments, but that is not to say that folk music goes without brilliance and mastery.

Its core instruments are stringed and reeded, used to keep lively time and often encourage dancing and clapping to keep and enjoy the rhythm.

Common instruments are:

Banjo, a five-stringed cousin of a guitar with a round, tambourine like body and is often plucked with fingers, and notes separated using frets, much like a guitar.

Dulcimer, a hollow box across which are drawn strings of different pitches who are struck with small hammers to make a resonate sound.

Fiddle, the classic lead for melody in much folk music, it more or less is a violin and is played almost exactly the same with a bow drawn back and forth across the strings, but occasionally is used for its plucked sound.

Mandolin, a stringed instrument with four sets of paired strings that is smaller than a guitar, and its even smaller cousin the Ukulele, that actually came to and not from Hawaii from Europe.

Harmonica, a small, hand-held reed box used to make harmony and melodic rhythms.

Concertina, an accordion instrument that uses buttons instead of keys, but is played by moving hands apart and together in much the same manner.

Source:https://www.classicsforkids.com/music/instruments.php?family=Folk

Jack Hockemeyer