Music Tutorial

Vast amounts of information for music have been published in print and electronic formats. Much of the information is free and may be found on the Internet. Other information may be found in specialized databases to which the library subscribes. Hints for obtaining information from these sources follow.

Internet (Internet glossary)

To find information, try the following search techniques at search engines. A search engine searches documents by keywords and returns a list for linking to the documents. Four search engines are Google, Alltheweb, Yahoo and Altavista. Notice that the advanced search tool allows choices for language, domain, etc. If you choose to use the basic search tool, i.e. Google,you may use the + sign, quotes, and an asterisk with your keywords to refine a search: "music theory " +critical biographies

Different engines have different techniques so it is best to click on "Help" for detailed search instructions for the engine you use. Try typing in "music" +clearinghouse -domain:com to retrieve a list of Internet sites that link to many other sites. Internet terms that are interchangable with "clearinghouse" are "gateway," "metasite," "pathfinder" and "directory." You may limit searches to specific Internet domains or specify domains you do not want as in the clearinghouse example above where the minus sign exludes the domain ".com". Since the Internet is not as precise as licensed databases, often mixed domains are returned in the results. Valuable information may be obtained from the deep web content of PDF or powerpoint files, i.e. "music " +"cognitive development" +filetype:pdf If one search engine does not retrieve satisfactory results, switch to another search engine. Whatever data you find, it is always wise to evaluate information

Listed below are miscellaneous search strategies that you may tailor to the search instructions of the engine you use.

Need speech by a famous musician: +"famous musician* " +speech
Need bibliography on classical music of Arabia: +"Arab classical music" +bibliography
Need poem entitled "The Power of Music" that was set to music: +"the power of music" +poem
Need an online language conversion dictionary for Spanish: +language dictionary +"Spanish"
Need to see a list of contemporary music used at funerals: +"contemporary music " +"funerals" +list
Need to find a picture, video or audio? Use Altavista search engine's Search screen and click choice at top


Specialized Resources

Research Central accesses fulltext and bibliographic electronic databases that you are encouraged to use during your studies with the university. However, you must have a southern.edu e-mail account to access the databases. Digital Dissertations and GroveMusic are excellent full text sources. NetLibrary contains full text of books on music.


Other Resources

Classical Connection Worldwide Themefinder Melodyhound Music Dictionaries U of Wash Website Harvard Links Helsinki Conservatory K-12 Music Educators MIT Resources Bubl Links NY Public LibOnline Books & Journals

More information, contact Ann Greer