The Royal Conservatory (RCM)

Official syllabi, errata, examination policies, theory requirements, and instrument-specific repertoire/technical requirements. Dr. Peter G. Fielding also maintains an RCM teacher contact profile for families interested in lesson inquiries through The Royal Conservatory’s teacher directory. See also RCM in the US.

RCM Low Brass Resources: Trombone, Euphonium, and Tuba

The Royal Conservatory publishes syllabi and errata for trombone, euphonium, tuba, and other instruments. These syllabi include repertoire, etudes, technical requirements, musicianship, sight reading, and examination policies. They are useful for students and teachers planning graded study, audition preparation, and long-term repertoire development. Always consult the current official RCM page for the most recent syllabus and errata information.

RCM Theory Resources: Theory Syllabus, Theory Resources, and Theory: Licentiate Diploma

Georgia Theory Resources

Georgia Music Teachers Association (GMTA)

 GMTA Georgia Auditions Theory Exam (GATE) 

Curriculum and official sample tests for levels A, B, and C

GMTA Theory 

Levels 1-12 curriculum, sample tests, past tests, vocabulary lists, and ear-training files.

Georgia Music Teachers Association Theory & GATE Exam Guide 

Free resource concordance for GMTA Theory Tests and the Georgia Auditions Theory Exam (GATE), connecting official topics with free Open Music Theory and musictheory.net resources. This teacher-facing guide is designed as a planning shortcut for independent studio teachers, piano/theory teachers, homeschool music teachers, and Georgia music educators preparing students for GMTA Theory or GATE review. 

Music Theory Fundamentals & Practice

musictheory.net — Lessons and Exercises

A clear, student-friendly resource for reviewing music fundamentals, including notation, clefs, rhythm, meter, scales, key signatures, intervals, chords, Roman numerals, and cadences. Its exercise area includes note identification, key signatures, intervals, scales, chords, keyboard skills, fretboard skills, and ear-training drills. 

Best for: beginning and intermediate students, parents helping students review fundamentals, adult learners, and teachers assigning targeted practice.

AP Music Theory Course and Examination Description (Fall 2026-27)  — College Board

A comprehensive guide to the content, skills, and expectations of the AP Music Theory curriculum, reflecting 2026-27 updates. 

Best for: students, teachers, and independent learners seeking an overview of collegiate-level music theory fundamentals, sight singing, dictation, harmonic analysis, and musicianship development.

teoría — Music Theory Tutorials, Reference, and Ear Training

Teoría offers music theory tutorials, reference articles, and interactive exercises, including ear training, sight singing, intervals, chords, scales, rhythm, harmonic functions, and more advanced harmonic topics. The site identifies itself as a long-running music theory web resource and notes a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license. 

Best for: students ready for more structured theory and ear-training work, AP/college-prep students, adult learners, and teachers seeking customizable drills.

Open Music Theory — Mark Gotham, Kyle Gullings, Chelsey Hamm, Bryn Hughes, Brian Jarvis, Megan Lavengood, John Peterson, and Erin K. Maher, editor

Open Music Theory is a natively online open educational resource designed for undergraduate music theory curricula. Version 2 includes fundamentals, diatonic harmony, chromatic harmony, form, twentieth-century techniques, jazz, popular music, rhythm, counterpoint, orchestration, and workbook assignments. 

Best for: advanced high-school students, college students, teachers, homeschool families, and adult learners who want a free, college-level theory reference.

Aural Skills, Sight Singing & Dictation

Free Music Dictations — Jeff Yunek and Benjamin Wadsworth

Free Music Dictations provides free aural-skills materials for high-school and college musicians, including dictation assignments, practice dictations with answers for independent study, sight-singing excerpts, instructional videos, and improvisation exercises. The site was created to reduce costs for students studying aural skills and offers teacher/professor access to answer materials by request. 

Best for: aural-skills students, music theory teachers, college instructors, AP Music Theory preparation, sight-singing practice, melodic/rhythmic dictation, and independent musicianship development.

Foundations of Aural Skills — Timothy Chenette

Foundations of Aural Skills is a research-based, accessible, inclusive, and creative open textbook for introductory aural skills. It addresses aural fundamentals, sight reading, dictation, improvisation, playback, transcription, ensemble skills, form listening, and chord listening, with creative activities and embedded listening practice. 

Best for: college-level aural skills, advanced high-school students, adult learners, teachers, and students who want to connect listening, performing, memory, and musical imagination.

Foundational Sight Singing — Tobin Stewart

Foundational Sight Singing provides a systematic approach to learning to read, hear, and perform music. It presents melodies and rhythms in an ordered sequence and includes multiple exercises for developing accuracy and fluency in pitch and rhythm reading. It is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. 

Best for: sight-singing practice, college ear-training courses, ensemble musicians, choral/instrumental students, and independent learners building fluency.

The Dictation Resource — Adam J. Kolek

The Dictation Resource is a free online dictation resource by Adam J. Kolek at Rowan University. The site provides access to chapters through a Google Sites menu and includes downloadable staff paper, with audio and files available through Google Drive access.

Best for: students practicing melodic/rhythmic dictation, teachers assigning supplemental dictation, and learners who benefit from structured listening practice.

Aural Skills Pedagogy & Deeper Reading - Gary S. Karpinski

These readings are more advanced, but they align strongly with Fielding Music Education’s emphasis on listening, perception, solmization, dictation, and musicianship. 

A Model for Music Perception and Its Implication in Melodic Dictation

A foundational article for thinking about how listeners perceive, remember, and notate melodic information. It connects directly with his larger body of work on aural skills acquisition. 

Best for: teachers, college students, aural-skills instructors, and serious learners interested in why dictation can be difficult and how musical perception informs pedagogy.

 A Cognitive Basis for Choosing a Solmization System

This Music Theory Online article argues that tonic inference is a fundamental process in tonal listening and compares solmization approaches, especially do-based minor and la-based minor, in relation to how listeners infer tonality. 

Best for: music teachers, theory/aural-skills instructors, singers, conductors, and students interested in solfège and tonal hearing.

Ambiguity: Another Listen

This Music Theory Online article explores ambiguity in visual and musical perception, including metric and tonal ambiguity, and relates those ideas to music analysis and pedagogy.

Best for: advanced students, teachers, theorists, and musicians interested in perception, analysis, and musical interpretation.

Scores, Repertoire & Public-Domain Music

IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library

IMSLP describes itself as “sharing the world’s public domain music” and provides access to a large online collection of scores, parts, and recordings. Its library portal supports browsing by composer, genre, instrument, time period, and other categories. 

Best for: students, teachers, performers, scholars, and independent learners looking for public-domain scores and historical editions.

Note: Public-domain status varies by country. Users should check copyright status before downloading, printing, performing, recording, or distributing materials.

Neue Mozart-Ausgabe / NMA Online

NMA Online provides digital access to the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe — the scholarly complete edition of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s works — including musical texts and critical commentaries. Operated by the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum in cooperation with the Packard Humanities Institute, the site is intended to make Mozart’s compositions accessible for personal study, educational use, and classroom use, with searching by Köchel number, key, editor, NMA series/volume, and keyword. 

Best for: students, teachers, performers, coaches, theory instructors, music history classes, score study, Mozart repertoire research, and anyone needing a reliable scholarly edition for study or teaching.

Note: The site is intended for personal study and educational use; wholesale downloading or reuse is prohibited, and users should follow the site’s stated copyright and licensing restrictions.

Choral Public Domain Library / ChoralWiki

CPDL/ChoralWiki provides free choral and vocal scores, texts, translations, and related information. Its main page describes CPDL as home of the Choral Public Domain Library and notes that it hosts tens of thousands of choral and vocal works by thousands of composers. 

Best for: singers, choir directors, church musicians, music teachers, vocal students, and anyone exploring choral/vocal repertoire.

Note: CPDL’s own copyright information explains that “public domain” generally reflects contributor belief that a work is free of restrictions, while editions and creative editorial changes may still require attention. 

Mutopia Project

The Mutopia Project offers free sheet music in PDF, MIDI, and editable LilyPond formats. Its music is based on public-domain editions or released under Creative Commons licenses, and the site states that materials may be downloaded, printed, copied, distributed, modified, performed, and recorded, depending on license terms. 

Best for: students, teachers, performers, arrangers, and learners interested in editable open-source sheet music.

Inclusive Repertoire & Broader Music Theory Examples

Expanding the Music Theory Canon

Expanding the Music Theory Canon is a collection of inclusive music theory examples of composers, organized by topic for classroom use. 

Best for: music theory teachers, college students, advanced high-school students, and educators seeking broader examples for theory and analysis.

Music By Women

Music By Women describes itself as a nonprofit educational company and publisher that elevates the visibility of women composers and theorists. It offers resources for exploring music composed by women, theoretical writings by women, teaching materials, publications, posters, playlists, and related educational content.

Best for: teachers, students, performers, and families seeking broader representation in music study and repertoire exploration.

Selected Books and Reference Resources

While the resources above emphasize free and open-access learning opportunities, many students, teachers, and independent learners benefit from maintaining a small personal library of trusted reference works. Several of the resources below have influenced my own teaching, scholarship, and musicianship development over the course of my career. This bibliography is intentionally selective rather than comprehensive, and all resources are selected independently for their educational value, relevance, and quality. 

Fielding Music Education participates in affiliate programs with Amazon and Bookshop.org. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, and Bookshop.org purchases made through affiliate links may also generate a small commission at no additional cost to you. For additional recommended reading lists in music theory, musicianship, music education, and related fields, visit the Fielding Music Education Bookshop.

Appreciating and Understanding Music

Copland, Aaron. What to Listen for in Music

Written by one of America's most influential composers, this classic introduction helps listeners engage more thoughtfully with music by exploring melody, rhythm, harmony, tone color, texture, form, and style. Copland's writing is accessible to non-specialists while remaining valuable for teachers, students, performers, parents, and lifelong learners seeking a deeper understanding of how music works.

Introductory Music Theory

Wharram, Barbara. Theory for Beginners

A classic introductory text that has helped generations of students develop fundamental music literacy skills, including notation, rhythm, scales, intervals, key signatures, and basic harmonic concepts. Particularly useful for beginning students, independent study, studio instruction, homeschool settings, and parents seeking a structured introduction to music theory. 

Comprehensive Music Study and Examination Preparation

The Royal Conservatory (RCM)

The Royal Conservatory publishes a comprehensive collection of theory, history, harmony, ear-training, analysis, and practical-study materials that support its Certificate Program examinations and broader musicianship development. Its resources provide a structured pathway for music literacy, theoretical understanding, repertoire study, and performance preparation from introductory through advanced levels.

RCM Theory Studies | RCM materials on Amazon

Aural Skills and Musicianship

The following resources have had a particularly significant influence on my own teaching and scholarship in aural skills and musicianship.

Karpinski, Gary S. Aural Skills Acquisition: The Development of Listening, Reading, and Performing Skills in College-Level Musicians

A landmark study of how musicians develop listening, reading, memory, and performance skills. The book remains one of the most important research-based examinations of aural-skills development and musical perception. As a former doctoral student of Gary S. Karpinski, I have drawn upon many of the concepts presented in this work throughout more than twenty years of teaching music theory and aural skills. Particularly valuable for teachers, graduate students, advanced undergraduates, and anyone interested in the cognitive foundations of musicianship.

Oxford UP | Bookshop.org | Amazon | Google Books

Karpinski, Gary S. Manual for Ear Training and Sight Singing, 2nd ed.

A comprehensive workbook fostering musicianship education; integrating melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic dictation with sight-singing study. I have used materials from this text extensively in collegiate musicianship instruction and continue to recommend it as one of the most systematic and effective approaches to developing aural skills, musical literacy, and independent musicianship. 

W.W. Norton & Co. | Bookshop.org | Amazon | Google Books

Karpinski, Gary S., and Richard Kram. Anthology for Sight Singing, 2nd ed.

An excellent collection of musical literature fostering the development of sight-singing fluency, stylistic awareness, and musicianship. A companion to the Manual for Ear Training and Sight Singing, it provides carefully sequenced repertoire for developing confident musical reading, hearing, and performance skills while drawing from a broad range of musical periods, genres, and stylistic traditions. An earlier iteration of this anthology served as the inspiration for my doctoral dissertation and continues to influence my thinking about musicianship and repertoire-based pedagogy.

W.W. Norton & Co. | Bookshop.org | Amazon

External Resource Notice

External resources are linked for educational convenience. Fielding Music Education does not control external websites and does not guarantee that all materials are appropriate for every learner or legally available for every use or location. Please review copyright, licensing, and terms of use before downloading, copying, performing, recording, or distributing materials. 

This page is selective rather than exhaustive. Resources are included because they may be useful for music learning, teaching, study, repertoire discovery, or independent musicianship development.