15 Best Music Theory Courses on Coursera
We compared 15 Music Theory courses currently listed on Coursera, priced from $49.00 to $49.00. 5 come from a named university or institution, including Howard University, Berklee College of Music and University of Michigan. They are ordered by our CourseAsk score, which is built from how thoroughly each course describes what it teaches, whether it comes from a named institution, and how it compares on price — not from star ratings, which our course data does not include.
- Courses compared
- 15
- Price range
- $49.00 – $49.00
- Providers
- Coursera
- Last updated
- 30 Aug 2026
How these 15 courses were chosen
Every course below is a real, currently listed course from Coursera, matched to "music theory" by our catalog and ordered by our CourseAsk score. Courses whose own title names the topic rank above those only tagged with it.
The grade on each entry scores how much the provider publishes about the course before you pay — the length and detail of the description, whether it lists learning outcomes and objectives — and whether a named university or institution stands behind it. A is fully documented and institution-backed; E is little more than a title and a price. Courses with almost nothing published are left ungraded rather than marked down, because an unknown course and a poor one are not the same thing.
There are no star ratings on this page — the course feeds we license do not include them, and we would rather leave a column out than fill it with a number we cannot stand behind. What we do have is price: these range from $49.00 to $49.00, as listed by the provider when we last updated the page.
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1
Music Production: Crafting Award-Worthy Songs
Offered by Howard University
In the Music Production: Crafting Award-Worthy Songs specialization, develop the mindset and confidence of an award-winning producer by producing songs that meet the highest musical standards of the industry, across musi...
$49.00listed price -
2
Songwriting: Writing the Music
Offered by Berklee College of Music
If your notebook is full of unused lyrics and you’re struggling to find inspiration for the music, this course is for you. Whether you are an experienced songwriter looking for new ideas or a beginning songwriter learnin...
$49.00listed price -
3
Exploring Piano Literature: The Piano Sonata
Offered by University of Michigan
In this 3-course specialization, learners will analyze important passages and components of the piano sonata repertoire, while gaining a solid knowledge of the sonata’s inner workings and a better sense of historical dev...
$49.00listed price -
4
Songwriting: Writing, Arranging, and Producing Music
Offered by Berklee College of Music
This specialization will provide aspiring and established songwriters with the strategies and practices to develop hit songs. The award-winning Berklee Songwriting Faculty have selected four comprehensive courses, each o...
$49.00listed price -
5
How to Play Guitar
Offered by Berklee College of Music
Have you always wanted to play the guitar, but never knew where to start? Whether you’re just picking up the guitar for the first time or you just want to brush up on your skills, the Guitar Techniques specialization cre...
$49.00listed price -
6
Fundamentals of Audio and Music Engineering: Part 1 Musical Sound & Electronics
Offered by University of Rochester
In this course students learn the basic concepts of acoustics and electronics and how they can applied to understand musical sound and make music with electronic instruments. Topics include: sound waves, musical sound, b...
$49.00listed price -
7
Piano Chords for Modern Music
Offered by Berklee
This course is designed to introduce keyboard players to the various chord types utilized in contemporary music. In these lessons, you will learn the theory behind chord construction and perform exercises to drill chord...
$49.00listed price -
8
What Does a Music Producer Do?
Offered by GRAMMY GO
Step into the dynamic world of music production with '"What Does a Music Producer Do?" This course is designed to help you cultivate your identity as a music producer, providing insights into the roles, responsibilities,...
$49.00listed price -
9
Produce & Write in Ableton Live: Write Music in Any Genre
Offered by Skillshare
By the end of this course with Future Skills, you will be able to write compelling harmony parts in Ableton Live, design rich layered arrangements across genres, and shape professional mixes using EQ, compression, and re...
$49.00listed price -
10
Developing Your Musicianship
Offered by Berklee
Nurture your love for, and understanding of, music with this specialization. Learn the fundamentals of music theory, including major and minor tonalities, chord scales, song forms, and chord qualities. You’ll also practi...
$49.00listed price -
11
Desarrollando tu musicalidad
Offered by Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo & Berklee
Aprende los conceptos básicos y enfoques necesarios para entender, crear e interpretar música contemporánea. Esta obra fue financiada con una donación del Banco Inter-Americano de Desarrollo con recursos del Fondo Corean...
$49.00listed price -
12
Writing and Producing Music in Your Home Studio
Offered by Berklee
Are you an aspiring songwriter or producer? Do you have a list of song ideas you want to professionally record and put out into the world? If so, this specialization is for you. The Writing and Producing Music in Your Ho...
$49.00listed price -
13
Piano Techniques and Essentials
Offered by Berklee
This specialization will give you the necessary practice techniques and performance skills to play the piano either alone or with a group. You will begin with Piano Techniques for Modern Music, which provides an essentia...
$49.00listed price -
14
Music's Big Bang: The Genesis of Rock 'n' Roll
Offered by University of Florida
Explores the factors — musical and cultural — that led to the birth of American rock 'n' roll music in the early 1950s. Covers in detail the genres, styles and people that converged to create this new music.
$49.00listed price -
15
Music Creation Essentials: Theory, Writing, and Production
Offered by Skillshare
This Specialization is intended for aspiring musicians, producers, and songwriters seeking to develop strong foundations in music theory, melody writing, and modern production. Through three courses led by Julian from Fu...
$49.00listed price
Best Music Theory Courses on Coursera compared
Prices shown are the provider's listed price when we last updated this page. Confirm on their site before enrolling.
What the prices here tell you
The 15 priced courses on this page run from $49.00 to $49.00, with the middle of the range around $49.00 — a spread of $0.00. The options are closely priced, so cost is unlikely to be your deciding factor. A higher price on this page usually reflects who is behind the course rather than how much material it contains, so it is worth opening two or three at different price points and comparing their syllabus before deciding.
Who is behind these courses
These courses come from Coursera. Everything on this page is sold on the one platform, so the buying experience is the same whichever you pick. 5 of these are produced by a named university or institution, including Howard University, Berklee College of Music and University of Michigan — which usually means a fixed syllabus and a recognised certificate, rather than an individual instructor’s own course.
Before you enrol
Open the provider’s own page and check three things this comparison cannot tell you: when the course was last updated, what the syllabus actually covers in its later sections, and what recent learners say. Prices shown here are the provider’s listed price when we last rebuilt this page on 30 August 2026 — they change often, and a promotion can move them substantially. We earn a commission if you enrol through our links, which costs you nothing and never affects the order courses appear in.