This week, I thought I’d pull together a few free instructional resources that are available for the aspiring composer and/or sound designer. These educational sites can potentially aid those who may be intrigued by the subject matter but not yet sure if this career is right for them.

Coursera.org

This site offers free “Massive Open Online Courses” or MOOCs. The coursework is free of charge. Most of the courses I’ve seen here are introductory, so they are a good way to explore the subject matter with a more non-committal approach, to discern whether the discipline would be a right fit. Some of the current offerings in the field of music include “Survey of Music Technology,” “Introduction to Music Production,” “Fundamentals of Music Theory,” “Introduction to Digital Sound Design,” “Fundamentals of Audio and Music Engineering,” and “Introduction to Programming for Musicians and Digital Artists,” among others. More information can be found at Coursera.org

The IAsig Interactive Audio WIKI

This is a repository of articles focusing on “assisting the audio community to learn about audio for electronic games and other interactive media and applications.” It’s an evolving collection of instructional content, and though it is far from complete, there are some interesting articles on interactive music and sound in this WIKI. Read them at the Interactive Audio Special Interest Group Wiki.

Game Audio Relevance

The Game Audio Relevance blog contains a bit more advanced information about the topic, but the depth of information on offer here makes it worthwhile for beginners and advanced practitioners alike. The articles are curated by a group of game audio professionals who cull the contents of such resources as the #GameAudio hashtag on Twitter for their content. Speaking of which…

#GameAudio

The #GameAudio Twitter hashtag is a mixed bag, including quite a bit of promotion and publicity from game audio professionals, teams and projects who are using the hashtag to promote their services and accomplishments. But there are also great links to educational pages and tutorial videos about the craft and art of game audio. Some very enlightening articles can be found in here, and it’s a lively social community. The content is constantly growing and evolving. Find it at twitter.com/hashtag/gameaudio