How to Get a Copyright-Free Backing Track

I went on a little journey recently to find some music that I could use to demonstrate Lyrekos. There is a lot of free or almost free music available for teachers, but we are a commercial company and furthermore, we plan to put the video up on our website, so we had to worry about both a Mechanical License and a Sync License (because of the video). I decided to see how far I could get for free (not counting my time — this took hours).

To that end, I wanted to start with melodies that were off copyright. That means composed 95 years ago or older, so I focused on music written in 1930 or before. I plan to have my grandson play it on his B-flat trumpet, so I wasn’t too worried about his copyright — I’ll bribe him. I wanted both sheet music for him to play as well as MIDI or MusicXML formats for the computer. The search was on.

Finding the Sheet Music

As a song, I picked “When the Saints Go Marching In” — long past copyright and a great choice for trumpet. A little online searching turned up several useful sources:

• MuseScore — A free PDF/MIDI arrangement specifically for trumpet in B-flat solo. MuseScore also lets you play it back and transpose as needed.
• 8notes.com — Offers the piece in multiple transpositions including B-flat major, with downloadable MIDI and MP3 playalong tracks. Handy for practice.
• Capotasto Music — A free trumpet sheet music PDF already written for B-flat trumpet with chord symbols (C, G7, F). Direct PDF download.
• MakingMusicFun.net — A beginner-level trumpet arrangement with piano accompaniment, with permission granted for instruction and public performance.
• Free-scores.com — A free trumpet and piano duet version with downloadable PDF and MP3.

Of these, MuseScore was the winner — sheet music PDFs available, plus both MIDI and MusicXML downloads, and a very good built-in player. I used MuseScore together with GarageBand on the Mac. GarageBand, however, doesn’t speak MusicXML, though of course one can translate MusicXML into MIDI, which it does read.

By the way, there is another music format that computers can read called ABC Notation — a standard text-based format for music that can be turned into an MP3 with an online converter such as abcjs.

Speaking of free music, the Mutopia Project is worth mentioning, though it didn’t have what I was looking for. Also, Hal Leonard is not free, but it is worth visiting because of its extensive offerings, including music minus one support which works well with Lyrekos.

The Backing Track Problem

The next challenge was getting a backing track. Not only was the original song subject to copyright, but so are renditions and arrangements — and I could not find a pre-1930 arrangement. I was worried I was stuck. But in 2026, there are other ways. AI-generated material cannot be copyrighted, so I asked Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude to take a go at generating a backing track for me.

Three AIs, One Prompt

The first time I asked Gemini it refused because it said that it doesn’t do “religious” music. The next time, with slightly different wording, it produced something — but I was underwhelmed. My prompt was: “I would like a backing track to ‘when the saints go marching in’ at 160 bpm and in the key of A major to be accompanied by a B-flat trumpet. I am attaching the MIDI for the trumpet. I would like you to use drums, bass, and piano.” The second time it produced something, but I don’t know how it relates to what I asked. The third time it said it couldn’t do the task, but produced a nice sounding — though useless — alternative.

Next, I tried ChatGPT. In order to get ChatGPT to accept the MIDI, I had to zip it first and hand it the zip file — a little weird, but not a big deal. It first created a simple one-note-at-a-time backing track. Sounded okay. Then it offered to generate a fully arranged MIDI, and asked what style, form, and lead-in to use. Very nice. But the result was off. After a lot of back-and-forth, it turned out that it couldn’t really do what I asked, so it was cheating and taking shortcuts. In the end, it tutored me how to make the backing track in GarageBand by telling me what notes to play for which instruments. The end result was okay as far as I took it.

Next was Claude (Opus 4.6). Same prompt. No fuss, no bother, no shortcuts and no pretending. It just did it. Here is what it said about the result:

A few details on what I built:

Your uploaded trumpet MIDI was in concert Eb major (written F major for Bb trumpet). I transposed everything up 6 semitones so the backing track sits in concert A major — your trumpet part will be written in B major. The tempo is set at 160 BPM as requested, covering the standard 16-bar form.

The arrangement breaks down as: a walking bass line on acoustic bass with chromatic approach notes into chord changes; piano comping with a mix of downbeat and backbeat patterns that vary across the form to keep it breathing; and drums with kick on 1 and 3, snare on 2 and 4, eighth-note hi-hat, and crash accents at the top of each 8-bar section.

The chord progression follows the standard changes: A for bars 1–6, E7 for bars 7–8, A for bars 9–10, D for bars 11–12, then A → E7 → A to close out. Let me know if you’d like any adjustments — different voicings, a longer form with repeats, a count-in, or a different feel!

I played it and it was quite nice.

If you are reading this some months or perhaps even weeks from when I wrote it, you should expect that all these AIs and their cousins have gotten better. The important point is that if one has a melody and needs a copyright-free backing track to go with it, that can now be done by an AI. Very cool.

Of course, a backing track is only half the story — you still need a way to perform with it remotely. If you’re curious how Lyrekos uses backing tracks in a one-on-one lesson setting, see our blog on teaching music 1:1 over the internet. And to understand all the ways a backing track can anchor a Lyrekos session, take a look at our blog on Lyrekos’ flexible building blocks.