Time is a precious commodity these days. If you or a member of your family wants to learn to play an instrument, formal lessons take time and money. YouTube can get you started playing an instrument like the guitar or piano with free online video lessons. This list of 100 free YouTube music lessons can help you learn to play an instrument at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home.

Piano

1. Learn How to Play Piano the Easiest and Fastest Way Possible -This friendly video teaches you how to praise the Lord through gospel piano playing. As an added bonus, you can see the piano keys and player’s hands at all times, helping the learning process immensely.
2. How to Read Sheet Music for Piano: Piano Lessons for Reading Sheet Music -This short video (less than two minutes) serves as a crash course for reading piano sheet music, with an emphasis on pneumonic devices that ensure memorization.
3. Piano Lessons – FingerPower Ch. 1 -Serving as the first of a multi-part instructional series, this video offers tips and tricks for bringing your music to life by mastering finger movements. Special attention is paid to how musical accents can bring a piece to life.
4. Piano Lessons: ‘Phat’ Chord Voicings! Chap. 2. The second part of this instructional series, this video focuses on taking bland Major 7 chords and “phattening” them into soulful melodies.
5. Piano Lessons – Learn to Play Piano by Ear – Part of the same wonderful series, this video focuses on learning to play certain tunes by ear using Rhythmic Patterns.
6. How to Play Basic Piano Chords: Piano Fingering & the Musical Alphabet for Basic Piano Chords – This quick video gives detailed info about how to play piano chords and interpret the musical alphabet. If you like the video, many more are available in the series.
7. Piano Lessons – Not just any piano lesson, this thorough video offers easy tips for playing the Blues. Special tricks for spicing up gospel songs are available.
8. How to Play Clocks by Coldplay on Piano – It doesn’t get much more specific than this. Just like it sounds, this video tells you everything you need to know about playing Coldplay’s hit “Clocks” on the Piano, in under 5 minutes.
9. How to Play Bubbly by Colbie Caillat – Just as specific as the previous entry, this video tells you how to play Colbie Caillat’s “Bubbly” in a quick (under 10 minutes) lesson. As an added bonus, links are provided to printable sheet music.
10. How to Play Love Song by Sara Bareilles on Piano/Keyboard – Are you sensing a pattern here? This concise, colorful video instructs you in every aspect of playing “Love Song” by Sara Bareilles.
11. How to Play a Funk Groove: Piano Lessons: Funk Piano Song – Rather than the previous specific entries, this video offers quick tips and tricks for using traditional jazz piano concepts to play soul funk melodies.
12. Beginning Piano Lessons: Tips on Reading Piano Sheet Music – Ideal for beginners, this quick (under 2 minutes) video helps you read sheet music for the piano.
13. Super Piano Lessons: The Ingenious New Way to Learn Piano & Keyboard – The creators of this video advertise themselves as “Short Ways to Play,” and this certainly lives up to the name. Through information both instructive and humorous, this video helps you use chords to sound like a pro immediately.
14. Free Piano Lessons – Piano Notes (The Treble Staff) – One part musical reading and one part applied playing, this video teaches you everything you need to know about the treble staff.
15. Piano Lessons – Instruction for Learning the Basic Chords – More thorough than many of the other videos, this is the first of 6 videos instructing you in how to play the 4 basic piano chords.
16. Beginning Piano Lessons : Reading Complex Music Notes – Something of a more intermediate reading lesson, this video offers easy tips on reading more complex notes on piano sheet music.

Guitar

17. Beginner Guitar Lessons – Finger Dexterity Exercise – This video offers advice that you don’t often think of when envisioning that rock star lifestyle: tips and tricks for how to make your fingers more flexible and keep them flexible. This is necessary whether your musical future is slow jams or fast-paced shredding.
18. Guitar Lessons So Easy A Child Can Do It! – This short video illustrates some of the basics of beginning to play the guitar, with numerous close-ups and helpful annotations.
19. How to Play Guitar: Blues Guitar Lesson – Falling under the rubric of intermediate lessons, this video teaches you how to use your existing guitar skills to create smooth blues melodies.
20. Guitar Lesson: Green Day’s Good Riddance – Now that you know how to play, this video helps you with what to play. In just over 3 minutes, this video instructs you how to play the classic Green Day song “Good Riddance (The Time of Your Life).”
21. Guitar Lesson – 12 Bar Blues in 12 Keys – This thorough video instructs you how to 12 bar blues in all 12 keys using a closed bar position. Once you know this, you can play blues in any key you want.
22. Guitar Scales – A Reference Video – A great beginner video, this walks you through 11 major scales, offering detailed info through notes, sounds, fret positions, and more.
23. Major & Minor Guitar Scales & Patterns: Relative Guitar Tuning Tips – Your best playing can sound awful with an improperly tuned guitar. Luckily, this video walks you through some quick tuning tips.
24. How to Tune a Guitar & Alternate Tunings: Relative Guitar Tuning Method -From the makers of the last video comes a more thorough video with a broader spectrum of tuning tricks.
25. Guitar Basics for Beginners: Standard Western Guitar Tuning – Continuing the tuning series, this video tells you all you need to know about tuning your guitar the western way.
26. Guitar Basics for Beginners: How to Play an E Chord on Guitar – From the makers of the tuning videos comes this quick, specific video on how to play the E chord on your guitar.
27. Beginner Guitar Lesson #1 “C, D, E Chords” – Focusing on the C, D, and E chords in the first position, mastery of this video means that you’ve only got two chords left to learn!
28. Free Acoustic Guitar Lessons with Martin Breedlove – This specific series focuses on acoustic guitar playing, and helps bring electricity to your unplugged playing.
29. John Butler’s Guitar Lessons – This video is part of a helpful series in which John Butler divulges all of the tips, tricks, and plain common sense that have helped him succeed in the world of music.
30. Guitar Lessons with Daron Malakian from System of a Down – Another “pro” lesson, this longer video (nearly 20 minutes long) features Malakian sharing some of the secrets that have made him and his band successful.
31. Play A Classic Rock Guitar Solo – Guitar Lesson – This video teaches aspiring classic rockers the greatest tool for bringing those golden oldies to life: the Pentatonic scale.
32. How To Play Guitar for Beginners: Guitar Lessons for Beginners: Different Approaches – Billing itself as “Guitar Playing 101,” this video brings the school of rock to beginners everywhere, and offers a great segue into the more advanced videos from Expert Village.

Bass Guitar

33. Free Online Absolute Beginner Bass Guitar Lesson Number 1 – A basic class on bass guitar parts and a beginner guide to playing the bass correctly.
34. How to Play the Bass Guitar: How to Play Slap Bass Guitar Using Hammer Ons – If, like Paul Rudd from “I Love You Man” you’d like to “Slappa de bass,” this video is for you. Specifically, it offers instruction on how to use hammer ons to make your bass experience a snap.
35. How to Play the Bass Guitar: How to Play Bar Chords on Bass Guitar – Expert Village’s excellent videos continue with this short video this gives you the rundown on playing bass chords on your electric bass guitar.
36. How to Play the Bass Guitar: How to Play Seventh Chords on Bass Guitar – While many beginner bass players think it’s all about strumming individual notes, this short video teaches you how to play seventh chords on the bass guitar. Knowing these chords makes jamming out with your friends much easier.
37. How to Play the Bass Guitar: Basic Slapping Techniques for Bass Guitar – Also focusing on slapping the bass, these basic techniques are more suited to bass beginners.
38. How to Play the Bass Guitar: How to Play a Pentatonic Blues Scale on Bass Guitar – Once you’ve gotten your bass basics down, this video serves as a good intro to playing the blues on your bass guitar.
39. How to Play the Bass Guitar: How to Play Major Scales on Bass Guitar – Band class comes to You Tube as Expert Village teaches you how to play major scales in no time flat.
40. How to Play the Bass Guitar: How to Play a Blues Scale on Bass Guitar – This video focuses on the “regular” blues scale as opposed to the pentatonic one. Learn both, and you’ll be soul jamming in no time.
41. Bass Lessons – This You Tube playlist features nearly 30 videos for how to play the bass guitar, and should be bookmarked immediately.

Violin

42. Violin Lessons: Introduction and Purpose – The first in a series, this video brings the wisdom of a real life violin teacher to your computer monitor. Like a private lesson, but you can’t beat the price.
43. Violin Lesson #1, Holding the Bow Part 1 – If you had any doubts about how thorough the teacher of the previous entry is, this video spends almost five minutes instructing you on a basic (but crucial) matter: holding the bow.
44. Violin lesson #2, Holding the Bow Part 2 – Continuing the previous lesson, this video contains much advice that I would never have thought of. For example, sometimes it’s more helpful for right-handed folks to hold the bow with their left hand.
45. Violin Lesson #3, Holding the Bow Part 3 – This video continues the series and focuses on alternative methods of holding the bow, with commentary about how some positions—though easier in some ways—produce unneeded tension in your hand.
46. Violin Lesson #4, The Hold & Finger Placement Part 1 – Now that you know how to hold the bow, this video offers great tips for holding the violin, as well as proper finger placement.
47. Violin Lesson #5, The Hold, Finger Placement Part 2 – Continuing the lesson from the previous video, this tutorial gives great examples of just why you’d want to avoid certain holding techniques, even diagrams the finger.
48. Violin Lesson #6, The Hold & Finger Placement Part 3 – Continuing the lesson further, this video emphasizes how proper finger placement and proper violin balancing are interconnected.
49. Violin Lesson #7, String Crossing Part 1 – The lessons continue with this video that emphasizes the proper arm movements for string crossing—a vital component of violin playing.
50. Violin Lesson #9, String Crossing Part 2 – The professor continues his lessons enjoyed by thousands, with an emphasis on how to master the repeating motions of string crossing.
51. Violin Lesson #8 AND #37, Playing in Tune Part 3 – Offering critical distinctions between independent fingering and block fingering, this video helps you master playing in tune.
52. Violin Lesson #10, String Crossing Part 3 – The string crossing lesson continues, with an added emphasis on speed to avoid large gaps between notes.
53. Violin Lesson #11, Straight Bowing Techniques Part 1 – First in a two part video series, this video has the professor offering techniques to straighten up crooked bowing techniques.
54. Violin Lesson #12, Straight Bowing Techniques Part 2 – This episode finishes the lesson, as the professor offers unorthodox techniques to spare you from the wrath he received for crooked bowing in his youth.
55. Violin Lesson #13, The Balance Point and Lifting the Bow – In this video, he discusses the importance of letting the instrument bear some of its own weight. Finding the “balance point” between your grip and the violin’s is a key lesson for any player.
56. Violin Lesson #14, Detache’ Bowing – In this video the professor explains that despite the detached-sounding name, this technique refers to playing notes in an un-slurred (but not unconnected) fashion.
57. Violin Lesson #15, Tone Production Techniques - The professor details secrets to “tonalization”—creating and using special tones in order to get what all music teachers (and players) want: more sound.
58. Violin Lesson #16, Retakes-lifts – As a follow-up of sorts to the balance point lesson, this video discusses the importance of the re-take-life-bow circle—great for tense players nervous about putting their instrument down.
59. Violin Lesson #17, The Rebound - A follow-up to the previous video, this video emphasizes how the placement and movement of your feet affects the movement and positioning of the bow itself.
60. Violin Lesson #18, Playing in Tune Part 1 – This is ideal for beginning players, as it discusses the first key steps towards playing in tune—a valuable lesson for soloists and ensemble players alike.
61. Violin Lesson#19, Playing in Tune Part 2 – Continuing the previous video, this lesson focuses on notes that cannot be played with open string, and how this affects tone.
62. Violin Lesson #20, Relax! Relaxation Techniques – This details the often-overlooked wisdom of violin-playing: be relaxed at all times. The professor emphasizes that a relaxed state can prevent any number of potential mistakes.
63. Violin Lesson #21, Relaxation and Balance - A continuation of the previous lesson, this video offers simple movement techniques to dissipate tension and relax both body and mind.
64. Violin Lesson #22, Wrist (hand) Vibrato techniques Part 1 Now that you’re good and relaxed, this video details how to bend your sound through wrist vibrato techniques, separate from arm bravado techniques.
65. Violin Lesson #23, Wrist (hand) Vibrato Techniques Part 2 – Offering more advanced techniques for wrist vibrato, this video emphasizes the delicate relationship between fingers and strings to the entire process.
66. Violin Lesson #24, Wrist (hand) Vibrato Part 3 This final video demonstrates techniques for moving further down the violin, and bending the sound differently through wrist vibrato.
67. Violin Lesson #25, Arm Vibrato techniques Part 1 Now that you’ve mastered wrist vibrato, the professor offers thorough techniques for using a full arm vibrato.

Other Instruments

68. Beginner Harp Music Lessons: Example of Traditional Irish Harp Music – This introduction to the harp is taught by a self-proclaimed “Harper for harmony,” and includes Irish flair in its beautiful melody.
69. Beginner Harp Music Lessons: How to Play Yankee Doodle Melody on the Harp If you don’t already feel patriotic viewing his special Bill of Rights/Constitution harp, this democratically minded harper shows you how to play Yankoo Doodle Dandy.
70. Beginner Harp Music Lessons: Playing the One String on Harp – Ideal for beginners, this video details playing the red or “one string” along with the host. Master this, and you’re on your way to melodies in no time.
71. Beginner Harp Music Lessons: Example of Venezuelan Harp Style – As a break from the slow, conservative stereotype of harp music, this video offers instructions on how to play a spicy Venezuelan tune.
72. Beginner Harp Music Lessons: Playing the Seven String on Harp – This video helps you complete a full harp chord, mastering what the host calls the “magical seven” string.
73. How to Play the Cello: How to Tune a Cello Just like you’d imagine, this quick video will have you tuning your cello like a cell-Pro in no time.
74. How to Play the Cello: How to Hold a Cello -This video details how to use both the floor and your body to hold your cello in a way that keeps you both from breaking.
75. How to Play the Cello: Cello Finger Position Tips – This lesson, the Austen native demonstrates how to navigate the more perilous pitfalls of finger placement on the cello.
76. How to Play the Cello: Cello Bowing Techniques – This video, short and to the point, demonstrates proper bowing techniques, and incorporates some of the lessons from the cello-holding video.
77. How to Play the Cello: How to Hold a Cello Bow -Now that you know how to hold the cello itself, this video teaches you how to hold the bow. Special emphasis is paid to the necessity of a relaxed hand.
78. How to Play the Cello: How to Prepare a Cello Bow – Offering advice that is often over-looked by beginning cello players, this video details the importance of using rosin to prepare your bow, as well as great info about rosin itself.
79. How to Play the Cello: How to Position a Cello Bow – Building well off of previous lessons, this video details how to change the tone by changing the position of your bow.
80. How to Play the Cello: Cello Double Bowing Demonstration – And now for something completely different: this video details how to use double-bowing to play power chords. And you thought being a cellist meant abandoning those rock star dreams.
81. How to Play the Cello: How to Play Cello Vibrato – This short video describes proper wrist vibrato for the cello, a lesson crucial for your cello playing future.
82. How to Play the Cello: How to Pluck the Cello – Another unusual lesson from the cello master, this video details how to pluck your cello like a guitar.
83. How to Play the Cello: Cello Free Standing Storage Tips & Advice – Since you won’t always have a convenient cello stand nearby, this video details how to properly rest your cello on its side for maximum safety.
84. How to Play the Cello: Tips on Cello Parts – This anatomy of a cello details sound posts, the bridge, and more, and offers detailed explanations as to how each one affects tone.
85. How to Play the Cello: Tips on Cello Parts, Part 2 – This video continues the cello anatomy, analyzing the tail piece, end pin, and more.
86. Cello Basics: Cello Practice Techniques – Now that you know how to play your cello, how do you maximize your practice time? That’s the subject of this quick video, offering from a Music Performance master.
87. Cello Basics: Troubleshooting Cello Playing Problems – A quick video, this lesson offers a troubleshooting “checklist” of sorts to help identify why your cello doesn’t sound as it should.
88. Jazz Mandolin Music Lessons: Bluegrass Stomp Mandolin Chords – This quick video demonstrates how to bring a down home blue grass spice to the classiness of your Mandolin music.
89. Drums & Percussion: Marching Snare Drum Techniques – This video offers lessons on single strokes, double strokes, and paradiddles on the marching snare drum.
90. How to Play the Drum Set: Basic Beats for a Drum Set – The journey of a thousand rolls begins with a single beat, and this video helps you master basic rhythms for your drums.
91. Drum Lesson – John Bonham Triplets, Van’s Cool Drumming Tips – This video acts as a kind of rhythm buffet for your drums, offering techniques to jazz up any percussion performance.
92. Rock Drum Play-Along #1 – Drum Lessons – There’s no substitute for experience, and this video lets you follow someone playing along to the Sterr song “Ever Done Before,” and getting tips for your own future rockouts.
93. Native American Flute Lessons with Odell Borg – From the creator of High Spirits Flutes comes this awesome playlist detailing how to play the Native American flute.
94. How to Play the Clarinet: Warm Up & Daily Practice of the Clarinet – For aspiring clarinet players, this video—offering great warm-up and practice routines—is invaluable.
95. Clarinet Lesson – Woodwind players know the importance of proper embouchure to any performance, and this video lets you put your musical money where your mouth is on the clarinet.
96. Learn the Trumpet: Mouthpiece and Lips – For brass embouchure, trumpet players have to worry about properly buzzing their lips into the mouthpiece. This fun video offers tips and tricks on how to do that.
97. Trumpet Lessons for Beginners: Overview and Scales : How to Make Sounds – This video offers further embouchure tips for trumpet players, and how different techniques produce many different sounds.
98. Saxlessons.com Lesson #1 -Videos don’t get more beginner-friendly than this. In their own words, this video is for those who “just brought home their first saxophone and has no idea how to put it together and get started playing.”
99. Saxlessons.com Lesson #2 -Second in the series, this video details proper finger placement to produce the tunes you want to make.
100. How to Play the Kazoo – Ever wanted to learn how to play the kazoo in half a minute? This video teaches you how.

This video list barely scratches the surface of the numerous free music lessons on You Tube. Check out the search and related videos functions to find more music lessons to improve your playing skills.