Open Music Theory is a natively-online open educational resource intended to serve as the primary text and workbook for undergraduate music theory curricula. OMT2 provides not only the material for a complete traditional core undergraduate music theory sequence (fundamentals, diatonic harmony, chromatic harmony, form, 20th-century techniques), but also several other units for instructors who have diversified their curriculum, such as jazz, popular music, counterpoint, and orchestration. This version also introduces a complete workbook of assignments.

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of three broad topics concerning music in relation to time.Music as Architecture: the creation of musical shapes in time;Music as Memory: how musical understanding depends upon memory and reminiscence, with attention to analysis of musical structures; andTime as the Substance of Music: how different disciplines such as philosophy and neuroscience view the temporal dimension of musical processes and/or performances.Classroom discussion of these topics is complemented by three weekend concerts with pre-concert forums, jointly presented by the Boston Chamber Music Society (BCMS) and MIT Music & Theater Arts.

This course is an exposition of the philosophy, principles, and materials of music from the Baroque Period to contemporary period with illustrative examples from the Baroque Period, Classical Period, Romantic Period, Contemporary Classical Music and Popular Music. The course is designed to give the student an appreciation of music by exposing them to many musical styles, composers, historical trends, as well as increasing their aural, verbal and writing skills in describing music.

NOTE: Note, if you cannot see the materials, click "View Resource" and then click "Link" on the blank page which appears (or go directly to http://musictheory.tech).

This open educational resource (OER) textbook which is available at http://musictheory.tech contains an explanation of concepts from Music Theory I, II, III, and IV. It is supplemented by video explanations and online assessment activities. It is available at no cost for students and faculty of music theory so long as they use it according to the terms. The copyright notice must not be removed and the terms of distribution may not be changed. Derivative works are permitted under the same terms. Derivative works must be registered by email to editor@musictheory.tech. The concise nature of the materials makes them especially useful for those wishing to review theory concepts before taking an entrance exam, or for students needing out-of-class review of theory topics. The book and materials are under active development and suggestions for improvements are welcome! The materials were created with partial support from an OER grant from Tarleton State University. Floyd Richmond the author has taught college-level music theory I, II, III, and IV for 15 years to hundreds of students.

The supplemental videos and interactive assessments are found in the text but are extracted and listed online at http://musictheory.tech.

The following list of concepts extracted from the Table of Contents shows the scope of the textbook.

THEORY I

WHY IS MUSIC THEORY IMPORTANT

MUSIC THEORY THROUGHOUT HISTORY

WHICH NOTE TO PLAY
Staff, Clef, Treble (G), Bass (F), Alto (C), Tenor (C), Ledger Lines, Octaves

NAMING THE NOTES

ACCIDENTALS
Lines, Space, Accidentals, Sharps, Flats, Naturals, Double Sharps, Double Flats, Octave Numbers

RHYTHM
Note Shape, Heads, Stems, Beams, Rhythmic Names, Duration

STEM DIRECTION
Stem Direction, Special Cases, Center Line, Beamed Notes)

RHYTHMIC RELATIONSHIPS
Whole Notes, Half Notes, Quarter Notes, Eighth Rests, Sixteenth Notes
Whole Rests, Half Rests, Quarter Rests, Eighth Rests, Sixteenth Rests

PATTERNS AND COUNTING
One Beat Patterns, Two Beat Patterns, Kodaly, Gordan, Traditional

METER AND TIME SIGNATURES
Meter, Quadruple Meter, Triple Meter, Duple Meter, Conducting Patterns

PICKUP NOTES
Anacrusis, Conducting

MORE ABOUT TIME SIGNATURES
Common Time, Rhythmic Durations, Time Signatures with a 2, 4, or 8 on the bottom, Simple meter, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4

COMPOUND TIME SIGNATURES
6/8, 9/8, 12/8

DOTTED NOTE VALUES
Dotted Quarter/Eighth, Dotted Eighth/Sixteenth

TIES

SLURS

REPEATS
One-measure Repeats, Two measure Repeats, Simple Repeats, First and Second Endings, DC al Fine, DS al fine, DC al Coda, DS al Coda

MAJOR SCALES
Chromatic Scale, Major Scale, Solfege, do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do, Fixed and Movable do, Whole and Half Steps in a Major Scale

KEY SIGNATURES
Order of Sharps and Flats, Mnemonic Devices, Placement on the Staff, 15 Major Key Names and Number of Sharps and Flats

TONALITY

MINOR SCALES
Natural, Harmonic, and Melodic Minor Scales, Construction, 15 Mine Key Names and Number of Sharps and Flats

MODES
Minor Modes: Aeolian, Dorian, Phrygian; Major Modes: Ionian, Lydian, Mixolydian; Other Modes: Locrian; Other Scales: Pentatonic, Whole Tone, Octatonic, Pitch Class Set, Chromatic

INTERVALS
Consonant Intervals, Dissonant Intervals, Neutral Intervals, Melodic Intervals, Harmonic Intervals, Unison, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, Octave, Qualities of Interval: Major, Minor, Perfect, Diminished, Augmented, Doubly Diminished, Doubly Augmented, Listening to Intervals, Enharmonically Equivalent Intervals, Most Consonant, Neutral, and Dissonant Intervals, Inverting Intervals, Identifying Intervals, Constructing Intervals

SCALE DEGREE NAMES
Tonic, Supertonic, Mediant, Sub Dominant, Dominant, Submediant, Leading Tone, Sub Tonic

TRIADS
Major (Mm), Minor (mM), Diminished (mm), Augmented (MM), Arrangement on Scale Steps in Major Keys, Arrangement on Scale Steps in Minor Keys, Identifying Triads, Spelling Triads

CHORD SYMBOLS FOR TRIADS
Popular Music Conventions, Roman Numeral Conventions

TRIAD INVERSION
Root Position – Bass Note: Root, First Inversion (6) Bass Note: Third, Second Inversion (64) Bass Note: Fifth

HARMONIC PROGRESSIONS
Dominant to Tonic Movement, Circle of Fifths, . . . iii, vi, ii, V I . . .

CHORD SUBSTITUTIONS
Chords with Shared Notes, Common Chord Substitutions

MORE ABOUT CHORD PROGRESSIONS
Chord Substitutions in Major and Minor Keys, I64 as a dominant substitution, Cadential 64 Progressions

WRITING MUSIC
Rhythms, Melodies, Harmonies, Texture, Form

CREATING HARMONIES
Two Voices, Three Voices, Four Voices, Voice Leading Rules, Resolving Adjacent Chords, Resolving Chords with Tendency Tones

NON-CHORD TONES
Passing Tone, Neighboring Tone, Appoggiaturas, Escape Tones, Anticipations, Suspensions, Retardations, Pedal Tones, Suspension Numbers, Identifying, Constructing

CADENCES
Function of Cadences, Types of Cadences: Authentic Cadences, Perfect Authentic Cadences, Imperfect Authentic Cadences, Plagal Cadences, Half Cadences, Deceptive Cadences; Strength of Cadences

PERIOD AND PHRASE CONSTRUCTION
Phrases, Periods, Double Periods, Antecedent, Consequent, Parallel Construction

THEORY II

SEVENTH CHORDS
M7 (MmM), Mm7 (Mmm), m7 (mMm), Æ7 (mmM), °7 (mmm), Writing Quality with Popular and Roman Numeral Systems

SEVENTH CHORD INVERSION
Root Position (7), First Inversion (65), Second Inversion (43), Third Inversion (42), Popular and Roman Numeral Conventions, Seventh Chord Progressions, Substitutions, Doubling, Resolving, Identifying, Construction, Using 9th, 11th, and 13th Chords

SECONDARY DOMINANTS
Concept, Purpose, Circle of Fifths, Major and Minor Keys, Identification, Construction, Resolution

SECONDARY SEVENTH CHORDS
Concept, Purpose, Identification, Construction, Resolution

THEORY III

MODULATIONS
Pivot Chords, Common Tones, Direct Modulations

BORROWED CHORDS

PREDOMINANT CHORDS
Neapolitan 6 (N6), Augmented Chords: German (G+6), Italian (I+6), French (F+6), Other +6 Chords, Enharmonic Spelling, Identification, Constructions, Resolution, Secondary Augmented Sixth Chords

THEORY IV

LATE ROMANTIC AND IMPRESSIONISTIC PRACTICES
More Substitute Chords, ct°7, Parallel Chords, Planing, Chromatic Mediants, Whole Tone Scales, Octatonic Scales, Pentatonic Scales, Modal Scales, Modified Modal Scales, Making Dissonances Approachable

TWENTIETH CENTURY AND BEYOND

TWENTIETH CENTURY CLASSICAL MUSIC
Meter (Changing Meters, Asymmetric Meters, Bimetric, Polymetric), Tonality (Bitonality, Polytonality), Non-Tertian Harmony (Tone Clusters, Secundal Harmony, Quartal Harmony, Quintal Harmony), Pandiatonic Harmony, Minimalism, Expressionism/Serialism, Aleatoric Music, Prepared Piano, Music Concrete, Electronic Music

JAZZ
Origins, Influences, Vocabularies, Melodies, Rhythms, Expression, Harmony

POP MUSIC
Decades, Instruments (Folk, Clean Electric, Distorted Electronic, Keyboards, Bass, Drums, Vocals), Harmonies, Memorization, Modulations, Forms, Timbres

FORMS
Binary, Ternary, Round/Canon, Invention, Fugue, Passacaglia, Minuet, Theme and Variation, Rondo, Sonata Allegro, Tone Poem

Music Theory for the 21st–Century Classroom is an openly–licensed online four–semester college music theory textbook. This text differs from other music theory textbooks by focusing less on four–part (SATB) voiceleading and more on relating harmony to the phrase. Also, in traditional music theory textbooks, there is little emphasis on motivic analysis and analysis of melodic units smaller than the phrase. In my opinion, this led to students having difficulty with creating melodies, since the training they are given is typically to write a “melody” in quarter notes in the soprano voice of part writing exercises. When the assignments in those texts ask students to do more than this, the majority of the students struggle to create a melody with continuity and with appropriate placement of harmonies within a phrase because the text had not prepared them to do so.

Music Theory for the 21st–Century Classroom is an openly–licensed online college music theory textbook that is meant to take the student from the basics of reading and writing pitches and rhythms through twelve–tone technique and minimalism over the course of four semesters. This text differs from other music theory textbooks by focusing less on four–part (SATB) voiceleading and more on relating harmony to the phrase. Also, in traditional music theory textbooks, there is little emphasis on motivic analysis and analysis of melodic units smaller than the phrase. Whenever possible, examples from popular music and music from film and musical theater are included to illustrate melodic and harmonic concepts, usually within the context of the phrase. Practice exercises (with answers), homework exercises, and practice tests are included.

Open Music Theory is a natively-online open educational resource intended to serve as the primary text and workbook for undergraduate music theory curricula. OMT2 provides not only the material for a complete traditional core undergraduate music theory sequence (fundamentals, diatonic harmony, chromatic harmony, form, 20th-century techniques), but also several other units for instructors who have diversified their curriculum, such as jazz, popular music, counterpoint, and orchestration. This version also introduces a complete workbook of assignments.

Sound Reasoning is a web-based, introductory music appreciation course. It offers a new approach to music appreciation for adults, focusing on style-independent concepts. While the course concentrates primarily on Western classical and modern music, the concepts that are introduced apply to music of any style or era. The goal of "Sound Reasoning" is to equip you with questions that you may ask of any piece of music, thereby creating a richer and more comprehensive understanding of music both familiar and unfamiliar. Here are some additional features of the course. "Sound Reasoning" is completely listening based. No ability to read music is required. The course assumes little or no musical background. A minimum of terminology is invoked. Musical examples are interpolated directly into the text. The course is interactive. A "listening gallery" with exercises follows each module, so that you may practice and refine your listening skills. The modules may be studied in sequence or individually. You may easily print a .pdf of any module. "Sound Reasoning" is designed as both a stand-alone, self-paced course as well as a supplement to existing university classes.

The disciplines of music history and music theory have been slow to embrace the digital revolutions that have transformed other fields' text-based scholarship (history and literature in particular). Computational musicology opens the door to the possibility of understanding - even if at a broad level - trends and norms of behavior of large repertories of music. This class presents the major approaches, results, and challenges of computational musicology through readings in the field, gaining familiarity with datasets, and hands on workshops and assignments on data analysis and "corpus" (i.e., repertory) studies. Class sessions alternate between discussion/lecture and labs on digital tools for studying music. A background in music theory and/or history is required, and experience in computer programming will be extremely helpful. Coursework culminates in an independent research project in quantitative or computational musicology that will be presented to the class as a whole.

A Survey of Music Theory for the College Classroom is a concise, practical, and readable text and workbook for use in the freshman and sophomore music theory curriculum.

A Survey of Music Theory for the College Classroom is a concise, practical, and readable text and workbook for use in the freshman and sophomore music theory curriculum.

A Survey of Music Theory for the College Classroom is a concise, practical, and readable text and workbook for use in the freshman and sophomore music theory curriculum.

A Survey of Music Theory for the College Classroom is a concise, practical, and readable text and workbook for use in the freshman and sophomore music theory curriculum.

Although it is significantly expanded from "Introduction to Music Theory", this course still covers only the bare essentials of music theory. Music is a very large subject, and the advanced theory that students will want to pursue after mastering the basics will vary greatly. A trumpet player interested in jazz, a vocalist interested in early music, a pianist interested in classical composition, and a guitarist interested in world music, will all want to delve into very different facets of music theory; although, interestingly, if they all become very well-versed in their chosen fields, they will still end up very capable of understanding each other and cooperating in musical endeavors. The final section of this course does include a few challenges that are generally not considered "beginner level" musicianship, but are very useful in just about every field and genre of music.

Understanding Music: Past and Present is an open Music Appreciation textbook co-authored by music faculty across Georgia. The text covers the fundamentals of music and the physics of sound, an exploration of music from the Middle Ages to the present day, and a final chapter on popular music in the United States.