Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom
Shares rank 3 of 4 music theory books by recommenders
Recommended as a complete, openly licensed full-year music theory textbook with assignments that suits self-study. Critics find the explanations weak and the focus heavily classical.
Recommended as a complete, openly licensed full-year music theory textbook with assignments that suits self-study. Critics find the explanations weak and the focus heavily classical.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 38%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Complete full-year college course
“it’s a full year college music theory textbook with an open license”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom” “A very complete and great resource from the looks of it IMO.”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom” Assignments support self-study
“takes you to the homeworks/assignments and everything else for a self-study/auto-didact to follow along”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom” Openly licensed textbook
“it’s a full year college music theory textbook with an open license”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weak explanation of theory
“a depressing aversion to explaining why and not only what seems apparent”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom” “The exposition of the actual theory is pretty bad, though”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom”
Other music theory books people recommend
The three most recommended other music theory books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Music Tutorialby Curtis Roads | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
| Introduction to Computer Musicby Wayne Bateman | 5 | 1 | 83% | 1 | — | — |
| Music Theory for the 21st-Century ClassroomThis page | 3 | 5 | 38% | 1 | — | — |
| Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scaleby William A. Sethares | 3 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“A very complete and great resource from the looks of it IMO.”
“a depressing aversion to explaining why and not only what seems apparent”
“The exposition of the actual theory is pretty bad, though”
“better title would be "Our Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom"”
“it’s a full year college music theory textbook with an open license”
“as best I can tell this is a slight rehash on more of the same”
“this seems to place a high emphasis on classical music theory”
“takes you to the homeworks/assignments and everything else for a self-study/auto-didact to follow along”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.