I recently came across a great resource (thanks Stephen) from Yale University; the ‘Open Yale course‘ series. Of particular interest is the course by Professor Craig Wright from the department of music.

You may be familiar with Professor Wright’s coursebook ‘Listening to Music (5th edition, 2007)’ which I believe is widely used in the US. This lecture series by Professor Wright takes a look at how western music is constructed and helps students to develop an appreciation of how to listen to music.

While the course is aimed at undergraduates, with care many aspects of this course will be accessible to younger audiences. Particularly music students doing A-Level in the UK. With fondness I remember sitting in my music classroom every week during an extra lesson where we would watch videos about the musical ‘greats’. In particular I remember a  wonderful series by HC Robbins Landon which helped to foster my love for ‘Papa’ Haydn (thanks Mrs A!). Like the lecture series, these programs were not aimed at A-Level students, but the music is the same and many of the stories I watched still stick with me. What’s more, some of the examples are useful by themselves. For example check out ‘Macarena a la Mozart’ in Lecture 6!

Great resource and its free for real (no sign in, password, give us your email, here have some spam, etc.)!

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