LibGuides: Open Educational Resources: Music

Music Resources

This is a selection of openly licensed textbooks that has been created for free use in courses. These resources may be adopted for use as classroom text, modified to create new texts, or used as a supplemental learning tool to aid in understanding key concepts.

Music Appreciation

Music Appreciation by Todd Mueller, Elizabeth Whittenburg Ozment, Irina Escalante-Chernova, Marc Gilley, Catherine Kilroe-Smith & Rachael Fischer

This text is intended to be an introductory music appreciation text, intentionally kept general in nature to allow for instructors to expand and build upon the content to suit their needs. The text is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.
Music: Its Language, History, and Culture by Douglas Cohen
ISBN: 9780991388707

The aim is to introduce you to works representative of a variety of music traditions, and to enable you to speak and write about the features of the music you study, employing vocabulary and concepts of melody, rhythm, harmony, texture, timbre, and form used by musicians.
Understanding Music by N. Alan Clark, Thomas Heflin, Jeffrey Kluball, & Elizabeth Kramer
ISBN: 9781940771335

Publication Date: 2016-01-01

Understanding Music: Past and Present is an open Music Appreciation textbook co-authored by music faculty across Georgia. The text covers the fundamentals of music and the physics of sound, an exploration of music from the Middle Ages to the present day, and a final chapter on popular music in the United States.

Music Theory

Understanding Basic Music Theory by Catherine Schmidt-Jones

An open, introductory music theory text. Topics discussed include notation, notes and scales, harmony and form, and challenges in music, amongst others. The text is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license.

Multimodal Musicianship by Victoria Malawey

Multimodal Musicianship is an open educational resource for learning music theory and ear training. The content engages concepts related to tonal harmony, suitable for a two- or three-semester music theory and ear training curriculum in a liberal arts college or other higher education setting. Licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA.

Music Fundamentals

Music Fundamentals 1: Pitch and Major Scales and Keys by Terry B. Ewell & Catherine Schmidt-Jones

The first part of an open collection of resources dealing with the rudiments of music. Topics include pitch notation, half steps, octave designations, key signatures, major keys and scales, amongst others. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0 license.
Music Fundamentals 2: Rhythm and Meter by Terry B. Ewell & Catherine Schmidt-Jones

The second part of an open collection of resources dealing with the rudiments of music. Topics include duration of notes, rhythm, time signatures, and meters, amongst others. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0 license.

Courses and Courseware

Below are some open courses and courseware that have been made openly available for use. These courses may be completed in their entirety for supplemental learning, or portions may be used to supplement classroom instruction.

Introduction to Music - Saylor Academy
An introductory course that conducts a survey of the Western Classical tradition, exploring music as both sound and culture. Unless otherwise noted, all course content produced by Saylor Academy is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY 3.0 Unported license.
Listening to Music - Open Yale Courses
A full, open course produced by Open Yale Courses. Unless otherwise noted, the lectures and course material produced by Yale are licensed under a CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0 license.
MIT Open Courseware
MIT has a large number of 'open' courses that relate to music and music theory. Most contain syllabi, course readings and/or reading lists, assignments, and exams that are available for download under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. Some additional courses also contain videos of lectures. Selected course topics Include:
- Early Music, by Professor Michael Scott Cuthbert
- Introduction to Western Music, by Professor Ellen Harris
- Musical Improvisation, by Dr. Mark Harvey and Tom Hall
UCI Open
The University of California-Irvine has a large collection of open courses, containing full lecture videos. Each course is openly licensed under individual Creative Commons licenses.
- Introduction to Pitch Systems in Tonal Music, by John Crooks

Below are a selection of sources that contain collection of archival materials, including music scores, audio files, and monographs. Some of the resources are in the public domain, while others will be individually licensed. It is important that you check the permissions according to the individual site.

Digital Public Library of America
The Digital Public Library of America is home to a large collection of primary source materials, including a collection of archival sheet music and audio files. The items are individually licensed.
Europeana
Europeana hosts primary source materials housed in museums and archives across Europe. Its holdings include collections of archival music recordings and some sheet music. The items are individually licensed according to the content provider.
HathiTrust
HathiTrust contains a number of full-text music monographs and musical scores. The permissions vary according to the individual item.
Library of Congress Digital Collection - Music Scores and Books
The LOC has a digital collection of musical scores and instructional and music appreciation materials. The permissions for use vary according to the item.
New York Public Library Digital Collections
The NYPL's digital collections contain both notated music and musical recordings, many of which are in the public domain. The permissions for use vary according to the individual item.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg contains a collection of public domain music resources, including texts on musical history and theory, sheet music, and a collection of biographies of musicians.
World Digital Library
The World Digital Library contains a collection of sound recordings and sheet music, which are individually licensed. Many are in the public domain.

The collections below are repositories containing open music and videos, and each collection contains its own individual license(s) that must be adhered to. For additional material types, see the drop down menu to the left.

Music
ccMixter	ccMixter is a community music remixing site created by Creative Commons, which features music samples and complete remixes for public use. Each track is licensed under a Creative Commons license, however the licenses may vary from item to item.
Free Music Archive	The Free Music Archive is a library of free, legal audio downloads directed by the WFMU - a freeform radio station. Inspired by the open source movement and Creative Commons, the songs provided are openly licensed under terms set by the individual artists.
FreeSound	FreeSound is a collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, sound recordings, and sound effects that have been released under open licenses to allow others to make use of them. Pay attention to the licenses of the individual items.
Jamendo	Jamendo is an open music site that first was created as part of the open source/free culture movements. It provides free music in a variety of genres, available for download under Creative Commons licenses. Pay attention to the licenses granted for the individual songs.
Video
Vimeo	Vimeo is a video sharing platform that allows for users to specifically search for video resources that are openly licensed under Creative Commons licenses **
Youtube	Youtube is a video sharing platform allows for users to specifically search for video resources that are openly licensed under Creative Commons licenses **

**Note: Not all results contained within are guaranteed to be openly licensed. Pay special attention to check the licenses on each item you intend to use.