Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom

Reviewed by Ion-Alexandru Malaimare, Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola, Marshall University on 5/13/25

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The textbook offers an extensive curriculum, covering fundamentals through advanced topics such as jazz theory, set theory, and serialism.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The theoretical explanations and examples are precise and professionally presented, with strong alignment to scholarly norms. Numerous real-world excerpts (e.g., Debussy, Ravel) support accurate interpretation of musical concepts.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The inclusion of jazz, popular music, musical theater, and minimalism speaks directly to the 21st-century classroom. The textbook responds to the College Music Society’s call for progressive change, encouraging improvisation and arranging alongside traditional analysis.

Clarity rating: 4

Generally well-written, with clear explanations. Some advanced sections (e.g., jazz scale-chord relationships or post-tonal analysis) may require guided instruction or more scaffolding for students with less background.

Consistency rating: 5

Terminology and structure are applied consistently across chapters. Concepts build logically, and recurring themes such as phrase-level analysis provide coherence.

Modularity rating: 5

Chapters are mostly self-contained, with defined sections and exercises, making it easy to reorganize or excerpt content. However, some later modules assume completion of earlier topics, slightly limiting full modular independence.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The progression from basic notation to advanced theory is logical and pedagogically sound. Each chapter includes practice material and examples, reinforcing learning.

Interface rating: 4

The LibreTexts platform enables interactive access and hyperlinking. However, formatting and navigation can be slightly less intuitive in offline PDF versions. The embedded YouTube links with time stamps are a notable advantage.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text is grammatically correct and professionally edited throughout.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The author makes efforts to incorporate diverse genres, including jazz and popular music. Still, further integration of global music traditions or composers from underrepresented groups would enhance cultural inclusivity.

Reviewed by Alek Palmersmith, Assistant Professor, Old Dominion University on 7/27/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The book is detailed, with a lot of information, with a clear index, but it's missing a glossary.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content is clear and accurate.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

While the fundamental concepts of music theory have stood the test of time, I believe this book could have included more modern examples from various genres to make it more relevant to students learning music theory now.

Clarity rating: 4

It is concise, which is helpful. It does however use some jargon that can get in the way of easy understanding and real-world application.

Consistency rating: 5

It's very consistent in formatting, content, and terminology.

Modularity rating: 5

It's easy to jump from one section to another to get the information you need. In fact, it is probably best used as a reference guide instead of read cover to cover.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

It's well-organized with clear chapter and sub-chapters.

Interface rating: 4

It's pretty clean, but could be a little more visually appealing.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I found no errors while reading this book.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Nothing was offensive and it is inclusive. However, I think it could include examples from more styles of music.

Comments

Solid overall book, helpful for learning the concepts of music theory.

Reviewed by Cherise Leiter, Professor, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 8/17/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Overall, this text is quite comprehensive, including the topics generally covered in a 4-semester theory sequence. There are a few instances where there is not as much detail as I am used to (for instance, I couldn't find mention of the Phrygian half cadence), but the text includes a significant amount of pop and jazz music theory which many texts do not cover. Both the index and glossary are easy to use and by using links, send one immediately to the correct place in the text.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The accuracy is very good. I did not see any obvious mistakes.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The text had a nice balance of examples from art music, popular, and jazz music styles. Personally I would have liked to see a few more examples from the musical theatre genre, since at our school music theatre majors have to take two semesters of music theory. More examples from female composers would also be a relevant element.

Clarity rating: 5

The text utilizes succinct explanations of concepts and employs clear language overall. The examples are easy to follow and relate clearly to the topic under discussion.

Consistency rating: 5

The text employs consistent language, style, and layout in each chapter.

Modularity rating: 5

The text is well organized into modules that can be re-ordered quite easily. In some cases, the modules for certain topics occur later than typically found, but are presented in their module in a way that would allow an instructor to utilize it earlier. However, some modules would need to be broken up, but the subheadings generally make that possible.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The text is fairly well organized. There are some instances where I would prefer a topic be separated out or placed in a different module (for example, modes, whole-tone scale and octatonic scales are only listed in a chart in the jazz theory chapter) but overall, the text flows in a logical manner.

Interface rating: 5

I did not notice any interface issues.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text was well written and contained no grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Overall I appreciated the breadth and variety of musical examples used in the text and homework assignments. As stated above I would like to see more examples by women and other underrepresented groups, particularly when giving examples of art music.

Comments

I very much appreciated the ancillary materials such as homework assignments and practice tests. Not all OER music theory texts include them, and these were in-depth and creative. I also found the practice exercises at the end of each chapter helpful, with answer keys at the end of the text. There were also several chapters included in this text that are not normally found in music theory textbooks that I thought were a good inclusion, such as the chapter on Accompanimental Textures.

Reviewed by Geoffrey Cunningham, Adjunct Music Lecturer, Holyoke Community College on 6/28/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text is very comprehensive. Each chapter is concise and clear, without being overly verbose as some music theory textbooks can be. The index is very effective, in that you can just click on the link next to each term or topic and it will give you the section being referenced with also a link to navigate you right to the location in the book where it is cited for full context. In a way, this index functions as a glossary as well by giving such quick access to descriptions and definitions.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

There are 35 chapters in this book, and I have yet to find any errors.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Content is up-to-date and relevant. It covers all of the traditional topics usually covered in music theory courses 1-4. Anything that needs updating should be quite easy to implement, as the chapters are all organized and divided into neat and tidy subunits.

Clarity rating: 5

As I had commented before, the writing is clear and concise without using any unnecessary language. The book does a good job of including great visual graphics and charts, along with several imbedded musical examples in every chapter to help illustrate the concepts.

Consistency rating: 5

Yes, terminology is consistent from chapter to chapter.

Modularity rating: 5

This books seems to have been structured with modularity in mind all along. Each chapter is divided into smaller sub chapters that would make it easy to divide and reorganize topics and subjects within. I plan on using this textbook in the coming year, but will likely change the order of chapters to match the order I usually present these topics in. Thankfully, there is not much cumulative/chronological overlap between chapters, so it makes it easy to do things in a different order. For example, the part-writing section which is covered later than usual (Ch 26) doesn't include practicing the chromaticism covered in earlier chapters (Ch 19 - 23) until the very end of the unit, so it makes it easy to use that chapter earlier in the semester.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Organization is very clear, logical, and easy to navigate.

Interface rating: 5

Interface is clear and without issues.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The grammar is clear without any glaring errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

I am very impressed with the cultural and stylistic diversity presented in the musical examples throughout this textbook. Too many traditional theory books lean so heavily on the music of 18th Century European classical composers. This book will illustrate a concept equally with examples from Bach, Mozart, the Beatles, Bruno Mars, and Cee Lo Green, all in the same chapter!