How to Write an Effective Content for Online Music
Courses?
Sharing your knowledge about music through
teaching courses is a noble path. By creating an online music course, you’ll be
able to help others express their passion and produce their own music.
However, if you want your course to have a
desirable effect and act as a successful learning tool, you need to write
helpful content. The content you create and present within your online course
will determine how well your course will perform. It will also affect your
students’ development process.
There are certain steps you need to take
that will lead you to a well-rounded online music course. So, in the following
lines, we’ll introduce those steps and help you understand the demands of
writing quality content for online music courses.
1. Pick Your Topics
Music course is a wide notion. You need to
narrow down what you’ll teach and focus your content on that.
If you are a talented musician and
producer, you want to think about what is your forte. There must be a subject
that you are most knowledgeable of. That subject should be the topic of your
course.
To give you an example of what type of
music courses you can teach, here are the topics of some of the most popular
music classes online:
● Fundamentals of music theory
● Music production
● The basics of songwriting
● How to play a [name of a specific instrument]
● Introduction to classical music
● Composing and programming music in [name of the
software]
2. Set the Course Goals
The goals are what the students will come
out with when the course is finished. Will they be able to produce music? Will
they have a better understanding of music theory?
You need to have a clear grasp of what
you’ll teach the students. Based on that, you can direct your course planning
and content writing to meet those goals. The information you include in the
course content must help the learners to attain the set objectives.
For example, if the objective is to learn
the basics of music theory, such as scales, keys, and intervals, the content
needs to cover that.
Also, put these goals in writing, as
students will be interested in what you offer. Don’t make any promises. Simply
state what diligent studying and regular practicing can lead them to.
3. Write the Course Outline
Once you decide on the topic of your music
course and the goals, you need to determine the segments you'll be covering.
Within each topic, you must have clear and defined subtopics.
For example, if you want to create a course
“Introduction to songwriting,” your subtopics can be something like this:
● Welcome to the songwriting course
● How to develop a song idea
● Understanding the concept of prosody
● Understanding the relationship of rhyme schemes
to prosody
● Understanding language rhythms
Start writing the outline by putting down key terms
you’ll discuss. Then, turn those terms into subtopics. Finally, you can write
what you’ll teach within each subtopic.
When you create an outline, you’ll have an
overview of the content you need to collect and present to your students. This
will help you speed up your content creation process.
4. Use Only Reputable Source
Be very careful about what sources you use
for writing the content. If you present untrue information in your content,
your credibility as a teacher can be shaken.
Let’s say that you will teach about music
theory. Use only published books and article from authoritative sources. Also,
if you include any original music, make sure that there aren’t any copywriting
rights.
You should also double-check any
information you aren’t 100% sure of. It will only take a few minutes to check,
but it is an important part of creating quality content.
5. Rely on Your Own Experience
Make your course unique by sharing your own
experience. If you are creating a music course, you must be an expert in the
subject. Meaning, you have enough experience and knowledge to pass on without
hesitation.
Think about the special techniques, tips,
and tricks you used to learn how to play an instrument, remember the music
theory, or whatever you are teaching. Those unique methods can be that special
ingredient that will attract students to your course precisely.
Don’t be intimidated by what others will
think of your techniques. You are here to present what you know. However, you
can make a disclaimer that your unique ways may not work for everyone. State
that they are just a useful addition that might cut someone’s learning path
short.
6. Keep It Simple and Conversational
Your content needs to be digestible and
comprehensive. To achieve this, you want to write in everyday language and keep
it simple.
You need to adapt your writing to the level
of the course. For example, a beginner's course should contain content with
plainly explained terms. On the other hand, writing for experts who want to
upgrade can contain some technical terms.
No matter for whom you are writing or what
you are writing about, your content needs to be engaging. This means that your
content should be informative, entertaining, and keep the reader’s attention.
You can order website content writing if you aren’t
skilful in composing engaging content.
7. Find the Balance Between Too Much and Too Little
Information
When writing content, you want to aim for
enough information to teach valuable lessons, but not too much to make the
course tedious and overwhelming.
Bear in mind that people’s attention span
is shorter when they need to stare at the screen to learn something. Thus,
finding this balance will ensure that you don’t bore the learners.
Wrapping Up
Writing content for a music course isn’t an
easy task. So, prepare for researching, writing, and rewriting. You need to
invest both time and effort to get a high-quality result—a successful curse.
Follow these steps, and you will source and write useful content that your
students will be grateful for.