Help and FAQs

FAQs

Read the FAQ list

Our FAQs contain many helpful tips, information and answers to our frequently asked questions.

Search

A search box can be found on the Music Australia home page, and at the bottom of each page of a result set, and on the Advanced search page. To search, enter your search term in the search box and click the Search button to search across the name, title, subject, date and notes fields in the resources and people and organisation records.

Search limits

You can limit or refine your search to get a focussed or smaller result set by selecting any of the check boxes for the various types of materials.

You can select as many of the limit options as you want. To deselect any of the limit options simply un-tick the box.

If you only want items that are immediately available over the internet, tick the box "Only show results with online content".

Advanced search

The advanced search page allows you to search by selecting fields that will limit the search and provide a result set based on your search parameters. From the Advanced search page you can:

Specify which fields you want to use for searching from the drop down menu:

  • "Any keyword" is any keyword/s across name, title, subject, date and notes field.
  • "Title" is for a title or part of a title.
  • "By" is for the name of a composer, musician, performer, etc.
  • "About/Genre" is for subject and/or type of music, e.g. waltzes.
  • "Publisher/Label" is for the name of a publisher or record label.
  • "Number" is for a number associated with an item, e.g. ISMN.

Choose how you want your search term used from the drop down menu:

  • "all of these words".
  • "any of these words"
  • "as a phrase"

Use Boolean operators to assist with a complex search

  • "AND"
  • "OR"
  • "NOT"

Limit a search to items that can be accessed immediately over the internet

  • "Only show results with online content"

Limit a search to one of more of the various types of resources

  • People, Scores, Sound, Pictures, Websites, Archives, Moving images, Multimedia, Objects, Kits, Books, text etc.

Limit a search to a time frame or period

  • Year start.
  • Year end.

Limit a search to resources held in one or more Australian States or Territories

  • Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia.

Search permalink

Music Australia uses various permalinks to ensure permanent access to its resources. The search permalink can be used to provide direct access from any browser to resources in the service. A search permalink is constructed using the base search "www.musicaustralia.org/search/" and adding a term or name or topic. The search www.musicaustralia.org/search/kangaroo provides a result set from Music Australia of all the music resources associated with "kangaroo".

Search tips

  • Double check the spelling of the name or title you are looking for.
  • You can enter names as "Jack Lumsdaine" or "Lumsdaine, Jack". If you are unsure of first names or initials, try searching on surname only.
  • You can enter whole titles, such as "Aussie Rose" or parts of titles, such as "Rose". The title search is "keyword", not an "exact title" search.
  • You can use the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT in the Search box and in the Advanced search page. The default operator is AND. This means that if you search for Peter Ellis you will retrieve all records which include the terms "Peter" AND "Ellis". Using OR will retrieve all records which include the terms "Peter" OR "Ellis". Using NOT will retrieve all records that include the first term and NOT the second.
  • You can use the * and ? symbols as wildcards. Searching on folk* or folk? will retrieve all records that include a term starting with "folk", e.g. folks, folklore. A wildcard symbol can also be used at the beginning of a word.
  • Having trouble with abbreviations? Try searching for "A I F" as well as "AIF"
  • When using advanced search, limited to resources held in a particular state, use the control key to select more than one state.
  • In the advanced search select the "About/Genre" option to search for music styles and types, e.g. Waltzes. Note: The organisations contributing to Music Australia use many different subject headings and descriptions of types of music in their records. Because of the varying approaches to subject analysis, you may need to use a number of different search terms to maximise your results.
  • In the advanced search to limit to a single date: enter the date in both the Year start and Year end.
  • In the advanced search to limit to a range of dates: enter the dates in both the Year start and Year end.
  • In the advanced search to limit to a time period before a particular date: enter that date in the Year end and leave the Year start blank.
  • In the advanced search to limit to a time period after a particular date: enter the date in the Year start and leave the Year end blank.

Themes

If you are not sure where to start, try one of our Themes. In Themes we have gathered together some of the music items represented in Music Australia to illustrate and highlight particular themes and topics with a musical perspective. The Themes are samples or a snapshop of the music resources available on a subject or topic and are not intended to be a comprehensive listing of all the resources available on that topic in the Music Australia service. To find more resources on a topic or subject from the Themes, click on some of the many links in the records and these will take you to the records associated with that link.

Content and results

If the result set for your search does not include the items you want, but contains similar or related items, you could try using some of the links in the records in the result set, to explore and find other related items.

Music Australia aims to be as comprehesive as possible, with the music content contributed by large collecting organisations (libraries, archives and specialist music institutions). This means that if one of the Music Australia contributors has not collected and described the music item you are seeking, you will not find it in Music Australia.

If this is the case you could try the links at the end of the results display page to other online services, such as Picture Australia, Australia Dancing, Google or search other web services.

Results display

The display of the records in the result set or summary is divided into 2 sections: Resource records (in blocks of 20 records) and People records (in blocks of 10)

The Resource records have:

  • links to "More information" and to various options such as "Borrow this item", "Buy this item", according to type of resource and availability.
  • if available online, links to the online resource according to the type of resource: "View scores", "View images", "Listen to sample", "Listen to full recording", "View online content".

The People and Organisation records have:

  • information on Australian musicians, performers, composers, groups and ensembles, festivals, events and organisations.

Viewing and listening

You can view scores and listen to sound recordings at the same time. The online resources selected from your Music Australia result set will open in a separate browser window. This means you can:

  • Select an online score. This will open in a new browser window, which you can maximise to comfortably view the score.
  • Return to the Music Australia results set and select an online sound recording. This will open in a new browser or player window, which you can minimise so that you can hear the sound but still view a related score, and maximise again if you want to move forwards or backwards in the sound recording.

Contributors websites

When you click on the link in a Music Australia resource to view or listen to an online item, it will open a new browser window and take you to the website of the contributing organisation. Each contributor will have its own delivery, navigation and ordering systems. To return to the Music Australia site, close or minimise the new browser window.

Printing results

Use your browser's print function to print your summary results and the resource description provided for each item via the "More Information" page.

Cite a record

The "Cite this item" link in each of the records, is a permanent link to that item and can be used to access the Music Australia record description from any browser.

System requirements

To use Music Australia to view and print scores, listen to and download sound files, your PC or laptop should have a sound card and access to a printer. You will need to have various sound players installed and cookies enabled.

Your internet connection

Online music content - especially sound - can be much larger than other kinds of online content. You will need a reasonably fast internet connection to be able to listen to and download sound files without long delays.

Sound Players

Music Australia contributors deliver their online sound files in a variety of formats. Some contributors use 'streaming' technologies to improve delivery of sound over slower networks. Others use MP3 file format, which can be downloaded to your computer. This means you may need more than one player to access these different formats.

Plug-ins

Some digital scores have been created using music notation software, as distinct from printed music scores that have been scanned and saved as digital copies. Most of these music software digital scores are created using the industry standard softwares of Finale and Sibelius. To view and use these digital scores you many need to download and install the Finale SmartMusic Viewer and Sibelius Scorch plug-ins:

These music notation software plug-ins have varying system requirements and some of them may not be compatible with your computer. As plug-ins are frequently upgraded by their developers, with different system requirments, it is best to check these requirements from the appropriate download site.

Need help?

Please contact us if you are experiencing problems or difficulties in using the Music Australia service.