Music Books PDF Free Download – Librivox Music Audio Books

Open Access Music Textbooks PDF

Open Access textbooks are licensed by authors and publishers to be freely used, and were published or updated in recent years. You may also find here other learning resources, such as course lesson plans.

Music Appreciation

Armin Harrison

Achieving the Dream 2021

Open Music Theory

Brian Jarvis, Bryn Hughes, et al

VIVA 2021

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.

A Practical Approach To Understanding Music Theory

Charles B. Brooks

Univ. of North Alabama 2022

A textbook designed for the non-music performance major or music business/audio engineer who needs to professionally interface with musicians without needing to write or compose music.

Music on the Move

Danielle Fosler-Lussier

University of Michigan 2021

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.

Fundamentals, Function, and Form: Theory and Analysis of Tonal Western Art Music

Andre Mount

Milne 2021

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.

Understanding Music: Past and Present

Elizabeth Kramer, Jeffrey Kluball, et al

Univ. System of Georgia 2015

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.

Fundamentals of Music Theory

John Kitchen, Michael Edwards, et al

Univ. of Edinburgh 2021

The materials introduce topics such as the organisation of discrete pitches into scales and intervals, and temporal organisation of musical sounds as duration, in rhythm and metre.

Music in World Cultures

Justin R. Hunter, Matthew Mihalka

Univ. of Arkansas 2021

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.

Music: Its Language, History, and Culture

Douglas Cohen

CUNY Academic Works 2018

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.

Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom

Robert Hutchinson

Univ. of Puget Sound 2021

online four–semester college music theory textbook. This text differs from other music theory textbooks by focusing less on four–part (SATB) voiceleading and more on relating harmony to the phrase.

Resonances: Engaging Music in Its Cultural Context

Esther Morgan-Ellis

Univ. of North Georgia 2021

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.

Music Fundamentals 1: Pitch and Major Scales and Keys

Catherine Schmidt-Jones

OpenStax CNX 2019

This collection is the first of five dealing with the rudiments of music.

Music Appreciation: History, Culture, and Context

Bonnie Le, Brenda Wimberly, et al

Affordable Learning LOUISiana 2023

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).

Sight-Reading for Guitar

Chelsea Green

Rebus Community 2020

Teaches guitar players from all musical backgrounds to understand, read and play modern staff notation in real time. The Keep Going Method is designed to impart the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for sight-reading with efficiency, fun and encouragement.

Brass Techniques and Pedagogy

Brian Weidner

PALNI 2021

Textbook for undergraduate brass methods course focusing on brass instrument techniques and pedagogy.

Understanding Music: Past and Present

Clark, Alan, et al.

Univ of North Georgia 2015

This 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.

Sight-Reading for Guitar

Green, Chelsea

Rebus Community 2020

This book and video series teaches guitar players from all musical backgrounds to understand, read and play modern staff notation in real time. The method in this book is designed to impart the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed for sight-reading with efficiency, clarity and encouragement. All types of guitars apply: electric, steel-string and nylon-string. Best guitar books for self teaching pdf.

Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom

Hutchinson, Robert

Hutchinson 2017

A four–semester college music theory textbook. Students learn about motive, fragment, phrase, and subphrase, as well as types of melodic alteration like inversion, intervallic change, augmentation, diminution, rhythmic change, ornamentation, extension, and retrograde. This text is meant to take the student from the basics of reading and writing pitches and rhythms through twelve–tone technique and minimalism over the course of four semesters.

Music and the Child

Sarrazin, Natalie

Open SUNY 2016

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.

Understanding Basic Music Theory

Schmidt-Jones, Catherine

OpenStax CNX 2013

“The text covers all areas of what one would consider basic music theory and is geared truly for the beginner who has had experience in reading music on some level, but desires more comprehensive descriptions of the “why”.” – Review.

Suggested Books

The Rough Guide to Reggae

Barrow, Steve

Rough Guides 2001

Covers the entire span of recorded music in Jamaica; from 1950s mento and R & B through to dancehall and ragga. The chapters chart the music’s evolution, including ska, rocksteady, roots, dub, toasting, and lover’s rock, as well as reggae’s offshoots in Britain, the US, and Africa. Throughout, there are interviews and features on the major artists, and reviews of the best discs; both on CD and vinyl.

The Rough Guide to Opera

Boyden, Matthew

Rough Guides 2007

A unique handbook on the most thrilling of art forms, spanning four hundred years of music drama. Lively biographical sketches of some 150 composers from Claudio Monteverdi to Poul Ruders. Entertaining accounts of hundreds of operas both famous and neglected and comprehensive reviews of over a thousand CD’s.

The Rough Guide to World Music. Europe, Asia & Pacific

Broughton, Simon et al, comp.

Rough Guides 2009

Has full coverage of genres from Balkan brass to Bollywood song and from fado and flamenco to Filipino fusion. The guide includes articles on more than 60 countries from Albania to Wales and Afghanistan to Vietnam written by expert contributors, focusing on popular and roots music. You’ll find discographies for each article, with biographical notes on thousands of musicians and reviews of their best CDs.

World Music: The Rough Guide. Africa, Europe and the Middle East

Broughton, Simon et al, comp.

Rough Guides 1999

The articles – from more than eighty contributors – are designed to provide the background to each country’s music styles, explaining how they relate to history, social customs, politics and identity, as well as highlighting the lives and sounds of the singers and musicians.

Rock: The Rough Guide

Buckley, Jonathan and Furmanovsky, Jill

Rough Guides 1999

Developed through the Internet, this guide has opinion on every phase and craze of rock. There are critical discographies, reviews of CDs and career details of more than 1200 bands and artists.

Total Guitar

Burrows, Terry

Sterling 2002

The heart of the book: a playing section, divided into 20 self-contained lessons, each introducing new ideas and techniques. And, they cover a range of styles: rock, folk, country, jazz, blues, and classical. You’ll start right at the beginning, with how to stand and sit properly while holding the instrument, and find out how to tune it, do fingerpicking, master timing and rhythm, and improvise. An extensive chord dictionary contains over 1,000 chord fingerings. Best guitar books for self teaching pdf.F

The Rough Guide to Jazz

Carr, Ian

Rough Guides 2004

Surpasses all other handbooks with more than 1600 critical biographies. The Rough Guide is a completely revised edition of the acclaimed Essential Guide to Jazz. The authors have updated and expanded all the original entries, added hundreds of new artists, and provided personal recommendations of some three thousand key albums on both CD and vinyl.

Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings

Cook, Richard and Morton, Brian

Penguin 2008

The world’s leading guide to recorded jazz, a mine of fascinating information and a source of insightful – often wittily trenchant – criticism. Includes artist biographies, full line-ups, authoritative critical ratings, full index of artists. 14,000 CDs reviewed.

The Choral Singer’s Companion

Corp, Ronald

Thames/Elkin 2006

Essential information is provided on composers, works, technical terms, and how to run a choir, plus advice from Barbara Alden on how to sing better. There is a wealth of advice on repertoire and on such matters as how to conduct successful rehearsals and build balanced concert programmes.

The Savvy Musician

Cutler, David

Helius 2010

A guide to the aspiring musician who wants to make their living doing what they love.

Grove Dictionary of American Music (2nd edition, 2013)

Garrett, Charles Hiroshi

Oxford University 2013

One of the 8 volumes is missing from this link. Also here are all four volumes of the 1st edition, published in 1986. This is the largest, most comprehensive reference publication on American Music. The articles of the dictionary range from small definitions of dance styles and musical terms to mid-length biographies of important performers, composers and music patrons, to longer examinations of larger subjects such as the history of jazz, musical instruments, music education in the United States, and the American history of the orchestra. The dictionary’s articles are supplemented by over 400 images and 140 musical examples and other materials.

The NPR Classical Music Companion: An Essential Guide for Enlightened Listening

Hoffman, Miles

Houghton Mifflin 2005

Offers an essential education certain to increase any listener’s understanding and appreciation of this potentially daunting musical genre.

The Billboard Illustrated Musical Instruments Handbook

Jenkins, Lucien and Berkley, Rebecca

Billboard 2006

Packed with more than 400 pictures and information on a vast array of instruments. Instruments are organized by type–percussion, wind, brass, stringed, keyboards, electric and electronic, innovations and inspirations–and also include historical context. Each entry describes the personality, history, and sound of the instrument, whether it’s a violin or a steel drum.

Early Music : A Very Short Introduction

Kelly, Thomas Forrest

Oxford University 2011

An interest in music of the past has been characteristic of a part of the musical world since the early 19th century. Much has been gained in the 20th century from the study and revival of instruments, playing techniques, and repertories. In this VSI, Thomas Forrest Kelly frames chapters on the forms, techniques, and repertories practices of the medieval, Renaissance, and baroque periods with discussion of why old music has been and should be revived, as well as a short history of early music revivals.

The Encyclopedia of Country Music: The Ultimate Guide to the Music

Kingsbury, Paul

Oxford University 1998

Includes more than 1,200 A-Z entries covering nine decades of history and artistry, from the Carter Family recordings of the 1920s to the reign of Taylor Swift in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Compiled by a team of experts at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

American Ballads and Folk Songs

Lomax, John A. and Lomax, Alan

Macmillan 1934

With this ample collection of authentic ballads and songs, you can immerse yourself in the rich tradition and heritage of American folk music. Many of the songs were recorded “on location” by noted folklorist John A. Lomax and his even more famous son, Alan, as they traveled around the United States. The results are firsthand versions of music and lyrics for over 200 railroad songs, chain-gang songs, mountain songs, Creole songs, cocaine and whisky songs, “reels,” minstrel songs, songs of childhood, and a host of others. Folk songbook.

The Land Where the Blues Began

Lomax, Alan

New Press 2002

Set in an era as harsh and fertile as Delta silt, The Land Where the Blues Began reveals how the river of African-American culture overtook its repressive banks–to give us R & B, soul, rock ‘n’ roll, and the only purely American art form, the blues. Alan Lomax takes us on an adventure into the “bad old days” of the post-slavery, Jim Crow Mississippi Delta–the birthplace of the blues–when railroads and levees were being built and cotton boomed at the expense of Southern working-class African Americans.

Singing: The First Art

Marek, Dan

Scarecrow 2007

The Italian singing technique Bel Canto instructs, “He who knows how to breathe and how to pronounce, knows how to sing.” Singing: The First Art incorporates the techniques of Bel Canto along with those of masters like Berton Coffin and Manuel Garcia to promote and facilitate vocal excellence. Many concepts are described, from correct posture and alignment to improving and maintaining proper breathing, from good pronunciation and diction to producing an even, pure tone, and from vocal ranges to singing within and smoothly shifting between vocal registers.

The Listener’s Guide to Classical Music: An Introduction to the Great Classical Composers and Their Works

McLeish, Kenneth

Sphere 1991

A reference book which spans four centuries of classical music. It includes concise biographies of a hundred composers, descriptions of their major works, follow-up listening recommendations covering more than a thousand works and explanations of types of music, instruments and musical forms. Classical music books free.

Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock And Roll, 1947-1977

Miller, Jim

Simon & Schuster 1999

A prizewinning historian and journalist who has covered the pop music scene for more than three decades, James Miller brings a powerful and challenging intellectual perspective to his recounting of some key turning points in the history of rock. He traces its roots from the jump blues of the forties to the disc jockeys who broadcast the music in the early fifties. Richly anecdotal and always provocative.

The Contemporary Singer: Elements of Vocal Technique

Peckham, Anne

Berklee 2010

The companion online audio makes this guide an ideal tool for creating a singing course for students of almost any age or gender, who can practice technique along with lead sheets for such standard vocal pieces as “Yesterday” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” Topics covered include getting started, posture, belting and diction, maintaining vocal health, microphone technique, and much more.

The Rough Guide to Hip Hop

Shapiro, Peter

Rough Guides 2001

The definitive guide to every aspect of the music, tracing its story from its origins in the 1970s as New York’s urban folk music. Extensive biographies cover hip-hop’s entire spectrum. All the best MCs, DJs, B-Boys and graffiti-writers are here, but there are also extensive sidebars that go beyond the music to the lifestyle, describing hip-hop’s fashions, films, feuds and fads.

Folk Music : A Very Short Introduction

Slobin, Mark

Oxford University 2011

This is the first compact introduction to folk music that offers a truly global perspective. Slobin offers an extraordinarily generous portrait of folk music, one that embraces a Russian wedding near the Arctic Circle, a group song in a small rainforest village in Brazil, and an Uzbek dance tune in Afghanistan. He goes on to sketch out the turbulent times of folk music today and tomorrow, confronting new possibilities, frameworks, and challenges.

The Rough Guide to Classical Music

Staines, Joe and Clark, Duncan, eds.

Rough Guides 2005

A unique handbook, spanning a thousand years of music from Gregorian chant via Bach and Beethoven to current leading lights such as Thomas Adès and Kaija Saariaho. There are concise biographical profiles of more than 200 composers and informative summaries of the major compositions in all genres, from chamber works to operatic epics. Topics such as the influence of jazz, notation, conducting, the madrigal, and why Stradivarius made such great violins are covered fully in feature boxes.

Music USA: The Rough Guide

Unterberger, Richie

Rough Guides 1999

Tours the musical heritage of America, from New York to Seattle, stopping at all the shrines of sound in between. Coverage includes background on the development of local music styles, with details on clubs and venues, radio stations and record stores nationwide.

Song Index; an Index to More than 12000 Songs in 177 Song Collections, Comprising 262 Volumes

Wilson, H.W.; Sears, Minnie Earl, comp.

Wilson 1926 Dewey Dec. 016.7

Songs in English as well as many other languages. Song titles and authors are indexed alphabetically, with references to the collection where they are contained, plus a full bibliography of the song collections. Songbooks pdf.

Country Music: The Rough Guide

Wolff, Kurt

Rough Guides 2000

Both a record buyer’s guide as well as an encyclopedia; it covers every phase of country’s development, from hillbilly string bands and honky-tonk legends to the musicians of the new century, both mainstream and “alternative.” Insightful essays that trace Country’s growth from hand-me-down folk to a major American industry; concise biographies of hundreds of performers, more than 250 images. Most famous country music, best biography books musicians.