24 Music
The Art of Music: Music Appreciation with an Equity Lens
Amy McGlothlin (Fitchburg State University)
2025
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
The Art of Music: Music Appreciation with an Equity Lens is a music appreciation textbook that features musical examples and photographs that represent the demographics of our students today. Special attention has been paid in choosing to represent women and minorities. World Music photographs and videos represent the music’s areas of origin.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, and MOBI
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Comprehensive Musicianship, A Practical Resource
Randall Harlow, Heather Peyton, Jonathan Schwabe, and Daniel Swilley (Iowa State University)
2023
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
This book presents an integrated suite of learning resources developed for the core music theory and musicianship curriculum at the University of Northern Iowa School of Music. It provides a more comprehensive symbiosis of musicianship and music theory learning than can be found in existing textbooks, including engaging and progressive video demonstrations and interactive listening and vocal exercises that integrate musical knowledge with foundational musical skills.
Formats: Online, PDF, EPUB
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Foundations of Aural Skills
Timothy Chenette (Utah State University)
2022
Licence: CC BY-SA
Foundations of Aural Skills is a research-based, accessible, relevant, creative, inclusive, empowering textbook for teaching introductory aural skills. The first seven chapters provide thorough instruction in aural fundamentals, allowing students to build their foundations from a variety of starting points. The following chapters address the traditional tasks of sight-reading and dictation, but also improvisation, mimicking music you hear (“playback”), transcription, and ensemble skills. The final two chapters add some basic form- and chord-listening skills. Every section includes creative activities that learners can try out on their own or do in class. Embedded playlists for practicing listening skills include a diverse range of music that will connect with students’ preferences and allow them to experience music they haven’t worked with before. While the text is primarily designed for a first semester or year of instruction, it also includes some instruction on modulation, chromaticism, and mixed meter, and future additions/development will make these advanced applications more robust.
Formats: Online, PDF, eBook
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Foundational Sight Singing
Tobin Stewart (Montana State University)
2022
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Foundational Sight Singing was created to provide a systematic approach to learn to read, hear and perform music. The ordered presentation of both melodies and rhythms in this text helps students develop accuracy and fluency in sight singing. Multiple exercises are provided for drilling and practice at each level throughout the text to grow the students’ fluency and proficiency in reading and performing pitch and rhythm.
Formats: PDF
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Fundamentals, Function, and Form: Theory and Analysis of Tonal Western Art Music
Andre Mount (SUNY Potsdam)
2020
Licence: CC BY-NC
This text provides readers with a comprehensive study of the theory and analysis of tonal Western art music. Author Andre Mount begins by building a strong foundation in the understanding of rhythm, meter, and pitch as well as the notational conventions associated with each. From there, he guides the reader through an exploration of polyphony—the simultaneous sounding of multiple independent melodies—and an increasingly rich array of different sonorities that grow out of this practice. The book culminates with a discussion of musical form, engaging with artistic works in their entirety by considering the interaction of harmonic and thematic elements, but also such other musical dimensions as rhythm, meter, texture, and expression.
Formats: Online and PDF
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Music Appreciation I
Lumen Learning
2020
Licence: CC BY-SA
Based on the Lumen Learning course, Music Appreciation, this online book is designed to give the student an appreciation of music by exposing them to many musical styles, composers, historical trends, as well as increasing their aural, verbal, and writing skills in describing music.
Formats: Online and PDF
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Music Appreciation II
Lumen Learning
2020
Licence: CC BY-SA
Based on the Lumen Learning course, Music Appreciation, this online book is designed to give the student an appreciation of music by exposing them to many musical styles, composers, historical trends, as well as increasing their aural, verbal, and writing skills in describing music.
Formats: Online and PDF
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Music Fundamentals 1: Pitch and Major Scales and Keys
Terry B. Ewell, Towson University, and Catherine Schmidt-Jones (OpenStax)
2013
Licence: CC BY
This collection is the first of five dealing with the rudiments of music.
Formats: Online and PDF; online LibreTexts version
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Music Fundamentals 2: Rhythm and Meter
Terry B. Ewell, Towson University, and Catherine Schmidt-Jones (OpenStax)
2013
Licence: CC BY
This collection is the second of five dealing with the rudiments of music.
Formats: Online and PDF
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Music in World Cultures
Justin R. Hunter and Matthew Mihalka (University of Arkansas)
2021
Licence: CC BY-NC
This text provides just a small sampling of some of the various musical styles and traditions that might be found, though the skills developed in this course can be applied to any type of music.
Formats: Online, EPUB, PDF, and more
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Music: Its Language, History, and Culture
Ray Allen, Douglas Cohen, Nancy Hager, and Jeffrey Taylor (Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music)
2015
Licence: CC BY-SA
The chapters in this reader contain definitions and explanations of musical terms and concepts, short essays on subjects related to music as a creative performing art, biographical sketches of major figures in music, and historical and cultural background information on music from different periods and places.
Formats: Online and PDF
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Music on the Move
Danielle Fosler-Lussier (Ohio State University)
2020
Licence: CC BY-NC
Music is a mobile art. When people move to faraway places, whether by choice or by force, they bring their music along. Music creates a meaningful point of contact for individuals and for groups; it can encourage curiosity and foster understanding; and it can preserve a sense of identity and comfort in an unfamiliar or hostile environment. As music crosses cultural, linguistic, and political boundaries, it continually changes. While human mobility and mediation have always shaped music-making, our current era of digital connectedness introduces new creative opportunities and inspiration even as it extends concerns about issues such as copyright infringement and cultural appropriation.
With its innovative multimodal approach, Music on the Move invites readers to listen and engage with many different types of music as they read. The text introduces a variety of concepts related to music’s travels—with or without its makers—including colonialism, migration, diaspora, mediation, propaganda, copyright, and hybridity. The case studies represent a variety of musical genres and styles, Western and non-Western, concert music, traditional music, and popular music. Highly accessible, jargon-free, and media-rich, Music on the Move is suitable for students as well as general-interest readers.
Formats: Online, PDF, and EPUB
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Musics: Diversity, Difference, and Synergies
Ted Conner (Muhlenberg College)
2026
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Musics: Diversity, Difference, and Synergies is a radical re-imagining of how music can be studied. Non-Western, vernacular, and Western art music are valued equally and studied at the same level of depth. Of equal importance is the emphasis placed on hands-on doing. Scales common to Jazz and Western art music are learned by playing them on the piano. Rhythmic skills are embodied on the darbuka, a Middle Eastern goblet drum, through the study of Turkish rhythmic cycles called usuller. Pitch recognition is developed by singing paltas (pitch patterns) for Indian ragas and melodic studies for Turkish makamlar using fixed-do solmization systems. Training in moveable-do solfege for Western art music begins with conducting as a foundation. This is followed by the addition of takadimi syllables for rhythm, solfege syllables aligned with scale degrees, and, finally, pitch.
Formats: Online, PDF
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Open Music Theory, Version 2
Bryn Hughes, Brian Moseley, Kris Shaffer, Mark Gotham, Kyle Gullings, Chelsey Hamm, Brian Jarvis, Megan Lavengood, and John Peterson
2023
Licence: CC BY-SA
Open Music Theory is an open-source, interactive, online “text” book for college-level music theory courses.
Format: Online
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Pay for Play: How the Music Industry Works, Where the Money Goes, and Why
Larry Wayte (University of Oregon)
2023
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
The history of music is closely linked to the history of copyright law. This book explores how the law shaped music and the music industry. From church and court patronage in pre-19th Century Europe, to the effects of social media on music, this book explores the abiding influence of the law on music.
Formats: Online, PDF, eBook
Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection
Nancy K. Baym
2018
Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
Playing to the Crowd explores and explains how the rise of digital communication platforms has transformed artist-fan relationships.
Formats: Online, PDF, EPUB
The Public Domain Song Anthology
David Berger, Chuck Israels
2010
Licence: Public Domain
This is a collection of 348 popular songs with modern and traditional harmonization. This resource was curated by two leading jazz repertory experts and consists of songs in the US public domain.
Formats: PDF
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Resonances: Engaging Music in Its Cultural Context
Esther Morgan-Ellis (University of North Georgia)
2020
Licence: CC BY-SA
Welcome to Resonances: Engaging Music in Its Cultural Context! Although this book is intended primarily for use in the college music appreciation classroom, it was designed with consideration for independent learners, advanced high school students, and experienced musicians. That is to say, it includes enough detail that expert guidance is not required and is written using broadly-accessible language. At the same time, it addresses advanced topics and positions music as a serious object of study.
Format: PDF
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Sound Reasoning
Anthony Brandt and Robert McClure (OpenStax)
2019
Licence: CC BY
Sound Reasoning is a web-based, introductory music appreciation course. It offers a new approach to music appreciation for adults, focusing on style-independent concepts. While the course concentrates primarily on Western classical and modern music, the concepts that are introduced apply to music of any style or era. The goal of Sound Reasoning is to equip you with questions that you may ask of any piece of music, thereby creating a richer and more comprehensive understanding of music both familiar and unfamiliar. Here are some additional features of the course: 1) Sound Reasoning is completely listening-based. No ability to read music is required. 2) The course assumes little or no musical background. A minimum of terminology is invoked. 3) Musical examples are interpolated directly into the text. 4) The course is interactive. A “listening gallery” with exercises follows each module, so that you may practice and refine your listening skills. 5) The modules may be studied in sequence or individually. 6) You may easily print a .pdf of any module. Sound Reasoning is designed as both a stand-alone, self-paced course as well as a supplement to existing university classes.
Formats: Online and PDF; online LibreTexts version
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Understanding Basic Music Theory
Catherine Schmidt-Jones (OpenStax)
2013
Licence: CC BY
Although it is significantly expanded from Introduction to Music Theory, this book still covers only the bare essentials of music theory. Music is a very large subject, and the advanced theory that students will want to pursue after mastering the basics will vary greatly. A trumpet player interested in jazz, a vocalist interested in early music, a pianist interested in classical composition, and a guitarist interested in world music, will all want to delve into very different facets of music theory; although, interestingly, if they all become very well-versed in their chosen fields, they will still end up very capable of understanding each other and cooperating in musical endeavors. The final section does include a few challenges that are generally not considered “beginner level” musicianship, but are very useful in just about every field and genre of music.
Formats: Online and PDF; online LibreTexts version
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Understanding Music: Past and Present
Alan Clark (Middle Georgia State University), Thomas Heflin (Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College), Jeffery Kluball (Darton State College), and Elizabeth Kramer (University of West Georgia)
2015
Licence: CC BY-SA
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.
Format: PDF
Suggested for: MUSI 267
Unlocking the Digital Age: The Musician’s Guide to Research, Copyright, and Publishing
Kathleen DeLaurenti and Andrea I. Copland (Johns Hopkins University)
2024
Licence: CC BY
Based on coursework developed at the Peabody Conservatory, this book serves as a crucial resource for early career musicians navigating the complexities of the digital era. This guide bridges the gap between creative practice and scholarly research, empowering musicians to confidently share and protect their work as they expand their performing lives beyond the concert stage as citizen artists. It offers a plain language resource that helps early career musicians see where creative practice and creative research intersect and how to traverse information systems to share their work. As professional musicians and researchers, the authors’ experiences on stage and in academia makes this guide an indispensable tool for musicians aiming to thrive in the digital landscape.
Formats: Online, PDF, eBook
