Copyright
Public domain music policy
Every piece of music on this site is out of copyright. We only use works whose composer died before 1900, or traditional melodies with no known author, which is a deliberately stricter test than any country's law requires. The arrangements, the fingering and the notation are our own original work, created from scratch rather than copied from any published edition.
The rule we apply
Copyright terms differ from country to country. In the United States, a musical work published before 1931 is out of copyright, and more recent works are protected for the composer's lifetime plus seventy years. The United Kingdom, the European Union and most of the world use lifetime plus seventy. Mexico uses lifetime plus one hundred years, the longest term of any major country. We do not build to any single country's line. We use died before 1900, or traditional with no known author, which clears the longest copyright term in the world by more than a quarter of a century. Every piece here was also first published in the eighteenth or nineteenth century, well inside the United States cut-off. That means the music on this site is out of copyright in every territory, not just one.
Every piece on this site
| Piece | Composer | Origin | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star | Traditional | French folk melody, published 1761 | Public domain |
| Mary Had a Little Lamb | Lowell Mason, died 1872 | Words by Sarah Josepha Hale, 1830; music by Lowell Mason, 1830 | Public domain |
| Frère Jacques | Traditional | French traditional, earliest known manuscript around 1780 | Public domain |
| London Bridge Is Falling Down | Traditional | English traditional, published 1744 | Public domain |
| Ode to Joy | Ludwig van Beethoven, died 1827 | Theme from Symphony No. 9, 1824 | Public domain |
| Jingle Bells | James Lord Pierpont, died 1893 | Published 1857 | Public domain |
| Silent Night | Franz Xaver Gruber, died 1863 | Composed 1818, words by Joseph Mohr | Public domain |
| Für Elise | Ludwig van Beethoven, died 1827 | Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59, composed 1810 | Public domain |
What we never use
We do not copy anyone's published edition, arrangement, fingering, MIDI file or recording, even of music that is out of copyright. A modern engraving of an old piece can carry its own protection, and a modern arrangement is a new work belonging to whoever made it. Our note data was typed by hand and our notation is drawn by our own code, so there is no third-party file anywhere in the chain.
What we own
The arrangements, the difficulty levels, the fingering, the notation, the audio and the exercises are our original work and remain our copyright. You are welcome to use them to practise. Please do not republish them elsewhere.
Pieces we decided against
Some well-known tunes are missing on purpose. We left out anything with disputed authorship, anything where the familiar melody comes from a twentieth century collection or arrangement, and anything with a history of copyright litigation, even where the music itself is clearly free. Where there was any doubt at all, the piece did not go in.
If you think we have this wrong
Write to info@learnpianokeys.com with the piece and the reason. If a credible concern is raised we will take the material down while we look into it, rather than argue first.
This page explains our approach. It is not legal advice.