Over the last few years I have found that the Internet is a great resource for developing musicians.  In grad school at the University of Northern Iowa I found it to be invaluable to practice in front of my computer.  Here are some websites you should check out to help make your practice time more effective.

In no particular order:

• eMusic – eMusic is an invaluable resource for affordable DRM free music.  As a jazz major in college, it was very useful to use eMusic to find rare and hard to find tracks for transcription, study and analysis.  No other online music resource has as deep of a jazz catalog as eMusic.
• I Was Doing Alright Ear Trainer -  This is a great Java based ear training application aimed at not only learning intervals and chord types, but chord progressions, jazz scales and even blues and rhythm changes.  This website was developed by a trumpet player from Atlanta who happens to be a web developer.  Easily one of the best free ear trainers I have ever seen.
• Ricci Adams’s Music Theory – Ricci Adams’ Music Theory website is a great place to start learning the nuts and b0lts of how music works.  Covers scales, chords, intervals, progressions and a lot more.
• Pollstar – I would also recommend JamBase – The reason we all are musicians is because we had a meaningful live music experience.  GO SEE LIVE MUSIC!
• Eythorsson – A great site for free high quality PDF’s of classical guitar literature.  I know many of you are not classical players, but being able to read music and play without a pick are important skills to have no matter what style you play.
• Online Metronome – Use it.  Seriously.
• How to Transcribe – A great article on the basics of transcription.
• Blank Music Paper – A great site for different formats of blank sheet music.   Reading music is such a valuable skill.  I didn’t know how valuable it was until after I could read.

Part two coming soon.