Changelog
Below is a list of major edits and improvements to OMT. Minor edits (fixing typos, adding worksheets, aesthetic changes, etc.) are not necessarily listed.
We will not make major changes to the textbook during the school year (September–May).
Summer 2025
- Fundamentals
- Worksheets updates
- Intervals, Triads, and Seventh Chords worksheets renamed (1–5 became A–E)
- New intervals worksheets or updated worksheets:
- D & E have two new activities: intervallic inversion and analysis
- Four new worksheets, focusing on ma/mi/P and d/A intervals separately (two versions of each)
- Renamed worksheets in major/minor scales chapters:
- Scales: Major → Major Scales
- Key Signatures: Major → Major Key Signatures
- Etc.
- Three new activities on major/minor scales worksheets:
- Identifying major/minor scale degrees by number and name
- Writing scales within a key signature
- Writing scales against a mismatched key signature
- Second version of each major/minor scales worksheet
- Half and Whole Steps in Staff Notation: new treble/bass only version; both versions now have melodic analysis added; updated instructions; editable versions now in .mscz format instead of .docx
- Enharmonic Equivalence: new treble/bass only version; editable versions now in .mscz format instead of .docx
- Simple and Compound Meter worksheets: “Rebeaming in Simple/Compound Meter” retitled “Notating rhythm in simple/compound meter”; additional example added to simple meter; orientation changed on compound meter so entire examples are on one line.
- Diatonic modes worksheets: 1 and 2 renamed A and B; treble/bass versions added; all versions have a new activity to write modes within a parallel major/minor key signature.
- “Further Readings” section added to each chapter; numerous interactive examples added; typos/broken links etc. fixed, small edits made
- Reading Clefs: New content on octave treble clefs (Reading Treble Clefs section) with examples; Other C Clefs section added (with example); Neutral Clef section added (with examples)
- Other Aspects of Notation: New content in Tempo and Structural Features sections with examples (a tempo, one/two-measure repeat signs, and d.c./d.s. al fine/coda)
- Other Rhythmic Essentials: New examples added at beginning of chapter
- Major Scales: New example added at beginning of chapter
- Minor Scales: New example added a beginning of chapter
- Diatonic Modes: Pentatonic Collection section with examples added, new example and text in Chromatic Scales section
- Worksheets updates
- Ear Training Appendix (Introduction): added almost all of the text
- Major Rewrite of Inversions chapter with new URL (https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/chapter/inversion)
- Major rewrite of Figured Bass Chapters
- New ordering of some music fundamentals chapters after Seventh Chords.
- Diatonic harmony: added a chapter on diatonic sequences
Summer 2024
- Fundamentals
- Roman Numerals rewritten to avoid figured bass terminology; Chords in SATB style moved to its own chapter
- Pop
- New chapter: Texture in Pop Music
- Form
- Pop form chapters are crosslisted (originally in Popular Music section)
- Throughout
- Worksheet fixes
- Replacing image examples with MuseScore embeds
Summer 2023
Existing chapters edited
- Fundamentals
- The Basics of Sight-Singing and Dictation moved to Ear Training Appendix
- Rhythmic and Rest Values title changed to Notating Rhythm; URL changed to
https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/chapter/rhythmic-rest-values/
- Jazz
- Swing Rhythms video assignment has a new backing track file with a count-in; file format changed to .mp3.
- “Lead sheet symbols” → “chord symbols” in many worksheets, to align with chapter terminology
- Jazz Voicings has an expanded discussion of voice leading paradigms for the upper voices.
- Pop
- AABA Form and Strophic Form worksheet replaced with a version that uses Briformer.
- “Listening to Pop Form” worksheet replaced with “Verse-Chorus Form” worksheet that uses BriFormer instead of Audacity.
- “Modal Reharmonization Composition Exercise” MuseScore file now hosted on textbook domain; .mscz instead of .mscx”
- Lead sheet symbols” → “chord symbols” in many worksheets, to align with chapter terminology
- Pentatonic Harmony (https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/chapter/pentatonic-harmony/):
- Add usual chapter materials: take aways, further reading
- Expand Example 1 to show all 5 rotations
- Reduce Example 3 (Stevie Wonder) to bass only (all and only the relevant part to avoid ambiguity)
- Expand text in general and specifically to add …
- New section on 5ths and 5th progressions, including …
- D-A-G-C example of what Lewandowski calls the fallender Quintanstieg (https://www.gmth.de/zeitschrift/artikel/508.aspx) as seen in TLC’s ”Waterfalls” (1994/5)
- 20th/21st-c. Techniques
- Expanded Normal Form and Transformations worksheet to include practice transposing/inverting and more practice identifying transformations
- Atonal Analysis worksheet: .mscx replaced with .mscz; recording added; two pitches tweaked to make more relationships possible.
- Orchestration
- Score-embed (play-back supported) examples added (Rachmaninoff and Hensel)
- Anthology
- Significant expansion to both harmony and serial listings.
- Harmony also adds options for direct download of scores and snapshot-style links for browsing.
- Helpful documents: moved from front matter to back matter
New Parts added
- Rhythm and Meter. Collects cross-references to existing chapters and several new chapters.
- Ear Training Appendix. Contains The Basics of Sight-Singing and Dictation and Examples for Sight-Singing and Sight-Counting chapters, and may include other similar repositories at a later date.
New Chapters added
- Mediants
- Examples for Sight-Singing and Sight-Counting levels 1 and 2
- Hypermeter
- Metrical Dissonance
- Twentieth-Century Rhythmic Techniques
- Drumbeats
Other small-scale changes (edits, etc.) are still being made.
Summer 2022
- All chapters are line-edited for improved clarity, consistency, and accuracy. Thanks to Erin K. Maher for editing OMT!
- The chapter “Half- and Whole-Steps and Accidentals” is now titled “Half Steps, Whole Steps, and Accidentals.” The URL is unchanged.
- The chapter “Mi (scale degree 3) in the bass at beginnings” is now titled “The mediant harmonizing mi (scale-degree 3) in the bass.” The URL is now
https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/chapter/the-mediant. - Added Chapters in Development section, where authors will soft-launch new material to be added to OMT in future years.
- Replaced M/m abbreviations for quality (major/minor) with ma/mi, which are more accessible for people using screen readers.
