This text covers basic elements and vocabulary of music; appreciation and understanding of diverse styles of music past and present; developing listening skills. Includes opportunities for experiencing music (recorded and/or live).
I. Music Fundamentals
II. History of Western Music before 1600
III. History of Western Music after 1600
IV. Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries
V. Listening to Genres
VI. Music of Louisiana, the Americas, and the World

This is an introductory lesson designed for grades 9-12 music appreciation.  It will provide a survey of music from other cultures.

Word Count: 2217

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This website guidance document provides an overview of Carnegie Hall's Musical Explorers Digital program. The site connects students in grades K–2 to rich and diverse musical communities as they build fundamental music skills through listening, singing, and moving to songs from all over the world. 

Students will whistle while they work on this lesson, creating a photomontage movie of their interpretation of a favorite song's lyrics that will end everyone's day on a high note.

Short Description:
Return to milneopentextbooks.org to download PDF and other versions of this textNewParaChildren are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children’s identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we should continuously search for ways to tap into children’s natural reservoir of enthusiasm for singing, moving and experimenting with instruments. But how, you might ask? What music is appropriate for the children I’m working with? How can music help inspire a well-rounded child? How do I reach and teach children musically? Most importantly perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts?NewParaThis book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children’s lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, the book explores ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.

Long Description:
Children are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children’s identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we should continuously search for ways to tap into children’s natural reservoir of enthusiasm for singing, moving and experimenting with instruments. But how, you might ask? What music is appropriate for the children I’m working with? How can music help inspire a well-rounded child? How do I reach and teach children musically? Most importantly perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts?

This book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children’s lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, the book explores ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.

Word Count: 75231

ISBN: 9781942341208

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Short Description:
Children are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children’s identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we should continuously search for ways to tap into children’s natural reservoir of enthusiasm for singing, moving and experimenting with instruments. But how, you might ask? What music is appropriate for the children I’m working with? How can music help inspire a well-rounded child? How do I reach and teach children musically? Most importantly perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts?

Long Description:
Children are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children’s identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we should continuously search for ways to tap into children’s natural reservoir of enthusiasm for singing, moving and experimenting with instruments. But how, you might ask? What music is appropriate for the children I’m working with? How can music help inspire a well-rounded child? How do I reach and teach children musically? Most importantly perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts?

This book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children’s lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, the book explores ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.

Word Count: 75231

ISBN: 978-1-998755-32-5

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

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.

This collection of OER was curated as part of an OER Background Research mini-grant to locate and evaluate resources for a college-level music appreciation course.

Version 2

Short Description:
Open Music Theory is a natively-online open educational resource intended to serve as the primary text and workbook for undergraduate music theory curricula. OMT2 provides not only the material for a complete traditional core undergraduate music theory sequence (fundamentals, diatonic harmony, chromatic harmony, form, 20th-century techniques), but also several other units for instructors who have diversified their curriculum, such as jazz, popular music, counterpoint, and orchestration. This version also introduces a complete workbook of assignments.

Long Description:
Open Music Theory Version 2 (OMT2) is an open educational resource intended to serve as the primary text and workbook for undergraduate music theory curricula. As an open and natively-online resource, OMT2 is substantially different from other commercially-published music theory textbooks, though it still provides the same content that teachers expect from a music theory text.

OMT2 has been designed inclusively. For us, this means broadening our topics beyond the standard harmony and atonal theory topics to include fundamentals, musical form, jazz, pop, and orchestration. And within those traditional sections of harmony and atonal theory, the authors have deliberately chosen composers who represent diverse genders and races. The book is accessible. And perhaps most importantly, the book is completely free and always will be.

The text of the book is augmented with several different media: video lessons, audio, interactive notated scores with playback, and small quizzes are embedded directly into each chapter for easy access.

OMT2 introduces a full workbook to accompany the text. Almost every chapter offers at least one worksheet on that topic. Some chapters, especially in the Fundamentals section, also collect additional assignments that can be found on other websites.

Version 2 of this textbook is collaboratively authored and edited by Mark Gotham, Kyle Gullings, Chelsey Hamm, Bryn Hughes, Brian Jarvis, Megan Lavengood, and John Peterson.

Word Count: 265669

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Version 2

Short Description:
Open Music Theory is a natively-online open educational resource intended to serve as the primary text and workbook for undergraduate music theory curricula. OMT2 provides not only the material for a complete traditional core undergraduate music theory sequence (fundamentals, diatonic harmony, chromatic harmony, form, 20th-century techniques), but also several other units for instructors who have diversified their curriculum, such as jazz, popular music, counterpoint, and orchestration. This version also introduces a complete workbook of assignments.

Long Description:
Open Music Theory Version 2 (OMT2) is an open educational resource intended to serve as the primary text and workbook for undergraduate music theory curricula. As an open and natively-online resource, OMT2 is substantially different from other commercially-published music theory textbooks, though it still provides the same content that teachers expect from a music theory text.

OMT2 has been designed inclusively. For us, this means broadening our topics beyond the standard harmony and atonal theory topics to include fundamentals, musical form, jazz, pop, and orchestration. And within those traditional sections of harmony and atonal theory, the authors have deliberately chosen composers who represent diverse genders and races. The book is accessible. And perhaps most importantly, the book is completely free and always will be.

The text of the book is augmented with several different media: video lessons, audio, interactive notated scores with playback, and small quizzes are embedded directly into each chapter for easy access.

OMT2 introduces a full workbook to accompany the text. Almost every chapter offers at least one worksheet on that topic. Some chapters, especially in the Fundamentals section, also collect additional assignments that can be found on other websites.

Version 2 of this textbook is collaboratively authored and edited by Mark Gotham, Kyle Gullings, Chelsey Hamm, Bryn Hughes, Brian Jarvis, Megan Lavengood, and John Peterson.

Word Count: 268272

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This lecture by Matt Sakakeeny (Associate Professor, Music, Tulane University) explores the history of jazz music in New Orleans, focusing on the interplay between tradition and innovation. It begins by acknowledging New Orleans’s rich musical heritage and the enduring popularity of traditional jazz, but questions whether this focus on preservation has overshadowed the city's continued role as a source of musical innovation. The lecture traces the roots of jazz to the post-Emancipation era, highlighting the contributions of African American musicians and the unique cultural environment of New Orleans. It emphasizes the importance of improvisation and musical literacy in the development of jazz, citing Louis Armstrong as a prime example of a musician who skillfully blended tradition and innovation. The lecture also discusses the evolution of brass bands in New Orleans, from their origins in jazz funerals and second-line parades to their incorporation of modern genres like funk and hip-hop. It concludes by celebrating the ongoing creativity of New Orleans musicians and calling for a broader recognition of their contributions to the contemporary music scene. The lecture challenges the notion of New Orleans as a mere repository of musical traditions and instead positions the city as a dynamic and evolving hub of musical innovation.

This lecture is distributed by An Open Classroom on New Orleans Culture. It was created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Google Education, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, the Department of Mass Communication at Xavier University of Louisiana, and the Division of Undergraduate Education at the University of California, Berkeley.

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.

Learn about the music of Brazil. Have you ever wondered how music transforms from notes on a page to something so beautiful it can touch our souls? Mike travels to Harrisonburg, VA to meet a pianist from Brazil, who teaches us about the music of Brazil and performs a lively piece on the piano. Mary guides us in moving our bodies to all of the different musical sounds and we learn to sing a children’s folk song in Portuguese.

More About This Resource
Presented by VPM.

Songs and Stories with Mary and Mike uses music and story as the joyful pathway to learning for young children while integrating and modeling the state's new EC learning standards for literacy, math, and social-emotional learning as well as the National Standards for Music Education. The show forges connections across the greater community by featuring guest teachers, artists, musicians, authors, and community members. With every music selection, book selection, and guest spotlight, Mary and Mike strive for a rich, diverse, beautiful representation of all people and cultures. The message to beautiful learners is clear: they are loved, they are valued, and they can do amazing things.

Volume I: Fundamentals

Short Description:
Steps to Music Theory is a music theory textbook that explains concepts step by step with accompanying video lectures.

Long Description:
Steps to Music Theory is a music theory textbook that explains concepts step by step. Volume I (Fundamentals) covers the basics on how to read and write music. Chapters are divided into 8-12 sections so that students can instantly jump to any specific section. Nearly every section ends with one (or as many as six) Practice Sections, where students can go through problems to see if they understand the concepts. There are several advantages to an online platform for a music theory textbook. First, students can listen to musical examples while they read. Steps to Music Theory contains hundreds of musical examples, including over 100 real musical examples (many by women composers). Second, every Practice Sections includes a video lecture, where I go through the steps to finding the answer.

Word Count: 54872

ISBN: 979-8-9874569-0-3

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

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.

An introduction to the infinite universe of music from its origins to the present, this course investigates the role of instruments, culture, myth and science in the evolution of music. Illustrations through the medium of the World Wide Web present the concept of music as both communication of ideas and expression of feelings in diverse musical traditions of the world.