Johnson County Public Library offers free music lessons

Daily Journal staff reports

If you have been itching to learn to play a musical instrument, the Johnson County Public Library has a free option for you.

The library is now offering free digital music lessons that will allow students and other residents to take online music lessons for free.

Davin Kolderup, Clark-Pleasant branch manager, tells you what you need to know.

What is the music program?

ArtistWorks is an online learning service taught by award-winning professional musicians.

Why is this something you wanted to do?

We’ve been expanding our online learning offerings in recent years with products like Lynda.com and Gale Courses. Those have been very well-received by our patrons, so we wanted to offer something that let patrons exercise their creativity a little bit.

How do you enroll?

All you need is a Johnson County Public Library card and a web browser. The courses are completely on-demand, video-based learning, so you can take them at your own pace.

Who can participate?

Any cardholders in our district can create an RBdigital account and login to ArtistWorks at no charge.

What can students expect to learn?

There are three dozen courses covering instruments such as guitar, piano, ukulele and more.

Is there a cap on the program?

There’s no enrollment or time limit on the program. We’ll continue to offer it to our patrons as long as there’s a demand for the product.

What does a student need to get started?

For the courses such as guitar or piano, you’ll want one of those instruments. If you don’t own an instrument, you’re in luck — you can now check out a ukulele from the Johnson County Public Library and learn along with the ukulele course in ArtistWorks. There also are several courses such as voice and music theory that don’t require an instrument.

How many people are you expecting?

Given the demand for our ukuleles — we’ve recently had to order more because the waiting list was so long — we believe Johnson County is full of budding musicians who will get a lot of fun and enrichment out of this service.

What will the lessons teach?

Most courses offer beginning, intermediate and beyond, so you can start up a course having never picked up the instrument and it will take you through the basics such as tuning, scales, etc. and eventually lead you onto more advanced skills. All the courses are taught by experienced, professional musicians and teachers, including some Grammy-winners.