This article presents a research project that began three decades ago in the Faculty of Teacher Training on the Cáceres Campus of the University of Extremadura (Spain) and that continues opening new prospects through new interconnected approaches. Many researchers from different universities throughout Spain and Latin America have joined this process in the Group for Musical Heritage and Education (MUSAEXI). It began with the clear premise that music and cultural history have been traditionally centred around the study of the great composers, while other faraway cultures are considered exotic. In order to develop meaningful learning in which musical heritage is not exclusively that of the "grand masters," it is necessary to understand what music has meant in the life of a given community, starting from our closest surroundings. This meaning is defined in three interconnected and cyclical blocks, always considered alongside the study of heritage and its educational application. The first studies local heritage. The second deals with shared heritage, from the local to the global, whether by geographic proximity or the ups and downs of history. The third, the global from the local; local heritage shows us cultures that we see as far away, but that nevertheless are direct descendants.