Bottlehead Forum

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Yoder on January 18, 2014, 11:10:17 AM

Title: Some Free Courses in Music and Audio
Post by: Yoder on January 18, 2014, 11:10:17 AM

Planning on going to parents weekend at Stanford in Feb. While signing up for some seminars that I want to attend, I looked up a prof who will be teaching one of them. It so happens that he founded www.coursera.org (http://www.coursera.org) There are many classes, all free, taught by the faculty at universities from around the globe.

Main catalog: https://www.coursera.org/courses?orderby=upcoming&stats=upcoming&lngs=en (https://www.coursera.org/courses?orderby=upcoming&stats=upcoming&lngs=en) (select "Starting Soon" from the drop down)
Fundamentals of Audio and Music; will build a guitar amp: https://www.coursera.org/course/audiomusicengpart1 (https://www.coursera.org/course/audiomusicengpart1) Berklee School of Music offers a few courses
Jazz Improv taught by Gary Burton: https://www.coursera.org/course/improvisation (https://www.coursera.org/course/improvisation)

There are a lot of good courses in physics, music, neurology, mathematics, audio, electronics/electrical engineering, etc. Definitely worth a look and by far one of the best "freebies" on the Web.

Title: Re: Some Free Courses in Music and Audio
Post by: ironbut on January 19, 2014, 07:49:21 AM

Thanks for the links!
I signed up for a couple of courses so I'll let you guys know what I think when they're done.

Title: Re: Some Free Courses in Music and Audio
Post by: johnsonad on January 19, 2014, 09:12:32 AM

I too signed up for a class. There is a lot of variety!

Title: Re: Some Free Courses in Music and Audio
Post by: Yoder on January 20, 2014, 09:03:31 AM

Yea, I may do the audio class. It covers a lot of audio wavelength material, amp circuitry, etc. and I guess the class project is to build a working guitar amp.
Doubt if the amp would be much, but it is a good way learn.

Title: Re: Some Free Courses in Music and Audio
Post by: ironbut on January 20, 2014, 09:28:13 AM

I did a little digging on these types of courses known as MOOC's (turns out I was already enrolled in one).
Massive Open Online Courses seem to be quite the rage in the tech sector right now and I can see why. Most of the courses are free and for a small fee, some are beginning to give college credits/certificates.
Some very interesting stuff going on with these guys as they search for the right business model(s). The capital seems to be flowing into them and the established higher ed colleges are getting onboard worldwide.

Title: Re: Some Free Courses in Music and Audio
Post by: SammyJ on February 04, 2014, 07:34:31 AM

So I signed up for this class and completed this week's lessons.  Most apparent thing to me so far is how horrific my basic algebra skills have become.  Math heavy at the start, but seems like a good syllabus.  Excited to get things going.

Considering making the guitar amp, but I don't really need one.  Any ideas on how to repurpose it?

Title: Re: Some Free Courses in Music and Audio
Post by: Doc B. on February 04, 2014, 09:26:28 AM

Quote from: SammyJ on February 04, 2014, 07:34:31 AM

Considering making the guitar amp, but I don't really need one.  Any ideas on how to repurpose it?

Plug a harmonica mic into it.

Title: Re: Some Free Courses in Music and Audio
Post by: Paul Joppa on February 04, 2014, 10:51:59 AM

Make up an iPod cable for it. Carry it to parties.