Music Copyrights

Scrivener
1

Does anyone have a sense of how much effort I need to make to be able to use bits and pieces of songs? Or how small a segment I can use without having to get permission?

I’m writing a book on chord fingerings for jazz on a baritone ukulele, and would like to include a few examples from classics, such as Fly Me To The Moon. I don’t really need the song so much, but just enough to illustrate the chord sequences and fingerings and where they fit. So lyrics with chord diagrams? The particular chords and fingerings are my work, but of course the tune is someone else’s. And it’s not a book of songs, but I only just need a few for examples here and there.

Thoughts?
–Dennis

2

I’d start by doing a little research on the internet. The Wikipedia article is not a bad place to start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright.

A lot might depend on which country you are in, and which country you intend to publish in. In some places, regrettably, you probably wouldn’t get prosecuted for publishing the entire oeuvre of a writer without permission. And they might not be able to do much about it.