Music lessons for kids are one of the best gifts you can give them! In an ideal world, all kids would have access to music lessons at school or with a private teacher. But, for a variety of reasons, traditional music lessons aren’t always possible. Online music lessons for kids are a great option when that’s the case!
There are a huge variety of free online music lessons for kids. I’ve organized my favorites based on the instruments, age group, or topic of the music lessons. There should be an online music lesson on this list for everyone!
I don’t have any affiliation with these music lessons, and I’d love to hear if you’ve found any other great online music lessons to use with your kids! So, let’s check out some of the best online music lessons for kids.
Piano lessons
1 – Hoffman Academy
Hoffman Academy has the best free kids piano lessons I’ve found online. They are very popular, and have a high-quality teaching style, with a structured progression and a large number of lessons.
While there are many, many piano lessons and tutorials available on YouTube, some of them lack the professional touch and structure of a professional teacher. And while it’s still not the same as having your own teacher, and may not be accessible for the youngest learners without their parents learning alongside, Hoffman Academy’s lessons offer the next best option for free.
While there is a paid option available to get extras with Hoffman Academy, all the lessons are accessible for free!
Guitar lessons
2 – Kids Guitar Zone
Kids Guitar Zone is a treasure of free lessons made just for kids.
He has 10 lessons available, with each including multiple mini-video lessons within it. Everything is covered in a sensible, and logical progression of kid-friendly video lessons.
Kids Guitar Zone has everything covered beginning with the basics of how to hold and tune a guitar. The lessons move through to playing ‘Smoke on the Water’ (possibly everybody’s first song on the guitar!), and all the way to playing ‘Gangnam Style’, and more!
These free online music lessons are a great opportunity to get a beginning guitar knowledge for free online while building up confidence in kids’ skills.
Ukulele lessons
3 – Bernadette Teaches Music
Bernadette Teaches Music focuses on Ukulele lessons. She has the basics covered, as well as a variety of tutorials for playing individual pieces on the ukulele. I believe Bernadette is a school music teacher, and she has a good teaching style for children to learn from.
I’ve included one of her first beginning ukulele video lessons for kids below, but if you have a ukulele I’d definitely recommend checking out her YouTube channel, for even more free lessons! She has a lot of beginner series videos to learn from scratch, as well as a lot of fun song tutorials for both kids’ songs and more popular music if you already know the basics.
Violin lessons
4 – Music with Meg
Violin lessons were a bit harder to find for kids free online. While there are quite a few tutorials and lessons available on YouTube, the best online music lessons for kids to learn an instrument should always have a progression and be child friendly.
Music with Meg’s YouTube channel stuck out as the best I’ve come across in free online kids’ violin lessons. She has a ‘Violin School’ playlist for beginners that you should absolutely check out on her channel. Even if your child doesn’t play the violin, this first video lesson will be good just to learn about a new instrument.
Music theory
5 – Musictheory.net & Teoria.com
I am including both these music theory sites together, as they have similar style lessons. Both these sites provide written music theory lessons, that would be very good for parents learning so they can teach their kids. They would also be good for older children and teenagers to learn from.
The lessons on both sites are all free and include topics such as reading music, key signatures, and scales.
Teoria also includes online ear training or listening exercises.
6 – Mr. Henry’s Music World
Mr. Henry’s Music World is a YouTube channel that has a lot of short music lessons for elementary-aged children. For younger kids, these lessons will be better than the sites above, simply because they have a more child-friendly presentation and insert a bit bit of fun and humor.
His topics include everything from reading music, notes and rests to keyboard tutorials and music history.
This particular video is a good online music lesson for kids without much musical experience in reading the notes on the lines and spaces.
Rock music history
7 –Teach Rock
This is one of the most interesting free online music lessons for kids! There are lots of free lessons on this site that would be suitable for middle and high school students. They are all about rock music and it’s history.
The most amazing part of the lessons on this site is that they are even endorsed by some educational boards and organizations, and are school standards-aligned.
Definitely check this site out if you have an older child looking for engaging free music lessons that address non-classical music.
Preschool music lessons
8 – Music with Lindsey
On to preschool music lessons! There are lots of free preschool activities available online, but the best structured free online music lessons for preschoolers are Music with Lindsey’s.
She has a series (stretching over a number of years, and still ongoing!) of half-hour long full music classes that all follow a similar structure. They are very engaging for young kids.
Kids will sing, listen, and learn about music. The classes might be longer than some attention spans, but could easily be done in more than one sitting if that’s the case.
This is the first lesson in her series which is from a few years ago, but I recommend you check out her channel for lots more videos!
Classical music lessons
9 – Classics for kids
Classics for kids is my favorite resource for free classical music lessons online.
Each week they have an audio music lesson for kids, along with a quiz and activity sheet to go with it.
Their site also features other classical music learning tools like kids’ music games and printable worksheets.
10 – New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic has a website with online music lessons for kids. They have music lessons on their site for elementary all the way through high school ages.
There is even a selection of some of the concerts they have put on meant for young people that can be watched on their site.
This is the place to start if you’d like an introduction to the symphony, or to the world of classical music for kids.
General music lessons
11 – Busy Kids Love Music Podcast
If you’re a busy family on the go, this might be a perfect way to sneak music lessons into your schedule for free. The Busy Kids Love Music Podcasts are short bite-sized podcasts around 10 minutes long or so. They cover a variety of topics such as instruments of the orchestra, music history, and composers.
These podcasts are meant for kids and families to use, and she specifically recommends them for homeschools.
Because they can be listened to even during a short car trip, these would be a good music lesson for every family to check out.
12 – Myleene’s Music Klass
Myleene’s Music Klass is another YouTube channel, although it’s a bit different than the others on this list. Her channel features herself along with her kids. She has quite a few music lesson videos where they teach a new concept in each video.
Her music lessons are very fun and upbeat, with activities to do along with them. One good one to start with is her music lesson about basic rhythms.
So many free online music lessons for kids!
With all of these free resources online available at the touch of a mouse, there’s no reason not to start music lessons with your kids today! What will your kids get started with first?
I have a lot more free info and resources on this site to help get you started with music as well. You might enjoy:
10 Responses
Classical music lessons need for my kid.
She has a Yamaha keyboard and would love to learn to have or be able to get free music books to play from
Hi Estelle,
That’s great that she has a keyboard and would love to learn to play it!
The best option will always be to find a teacher. In the long term, feedback from a teacher really is necessary to learn to play well.
That said, if that isn’t something you have access to right now the online options in the article above, and YouTube in general are a good place for her to get started. As for free music books, I’ve linked a number of places to find free sheet music online towards the end of this article.
I hope that helps, and that she enjoys playing her piano!
Katharine
I didn’t not like it because l cannot find the best for me
The apps were nice
This lesson is so important for my children so I would like to study child music.
I feel like my child has to come for singing lessons.
I am very interested in improving my vocal
I would like to do lessons on improving my vocal
Guitar or piano lessons for a 10 year old boy and adult