Preface
I have developed the materials in this open educational resource from my work in teaching music theory and ear training to undergraduates at liberal arts colleges. This collection of materials offers multiple modes of engaging content—with text, musical examples, audio examples, video content, application activities, and links to supplemental content—designed for students to learn and reinforce their knowledge according to their learning styles and needs. I recorded much of the video content during the COVID-19 pandemic, as a means of teaching remotely and asynchronously. These videos often reinforce content presented in other formats throughout the text. I have constructed these materials with principles of Universal Design for Learning in order to provide all students equal access to learning content. In addition to presenting key concepts related to music theory, this educational resource also incorporates ear training activities, including pitch pattern identification, sight singing with movable-do solfege, aural meter identification, rhythmic dictation, tonal melodic dictation, harmonic dictation, and contextual listening.
Although these materials may be helpful to anyone wishing to learn music theory and develop basic ear training skills, I have designed this educational resource for best use in a college classroom setting, where an instructor is available to coach students individually and provide explanation and feedback. The content engages concepts related to tonal harmony, suitable for a two- or three-semester music theory and ear training curriculum in a liberal arts college or other higher education setting.
What this open educational resource offers:
- Learning content in multiple formats
- Integrated aural skills instruction and practice, including dictation, sight singing, and contextual listening activities
- Opportunities for students to apply concepts to different contexts in multiple formats
- Wide range of musical examples, including works by underrepresented composers and recordings by popular artists
- Fully integrated theoretic topics engaging popular music genres
- Slideshows, which may be adopted and remixed, for in-class instruction and study
All content published within this online educational resource, including .pdfs, slideshows, videos, and H5P content, is licensed with the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International) license. Feel free to share and adapt this material with attribution and for non-commercial purposes.
Unless otherwise indicated, third-party texts, images, and other materials quoted in these materials are included on the basis of fair use as described in the Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Open Education.
Like any online resource, we have the ability to adjust and correct errors more easily than print resources. Minor typos, broken links, and the like will be fixed on an ongoing basis. Any major alterations to or improvements of the text will take place during summer 2024 and recorded in the changelog.
