# Open Music Theory

Source: https://listme.name/books/open-music-theory
Website: https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/

Free, openly licensed online textbook on music theory

Open Music Theory is an online textbook by Mark Gotham, Kyle Gullings, Chelsey Hamm, Bryn Hughes, Brian Jarvis, Megan Lavengood and John Peterson. It covers music theory from the fundamentals through chromatic harmony and is published on VIVA Pressbooks. The text is free to read and openly licensed.

Open Music Theory is an online textbook that covers music theory from the fundamentals through chromatic harmony. It is hosted on VIVA Pressbooks and written by seven authors, and the text is openly licensed, so it can be read free of charge. The book is organized as a sequence, so each topic builds on the material before it.

It suits students in an introductory or intermediate theory course and readers who want a structured course at no cost. Its trade-off is that a free online text offers less classroom structure than the print textbooks on this list. Readers who need ear training or performance alongside harmony should compare it with The Complete Musician.

- Free | Read online
- Price: Free to read online; openly licensed text
- Checked: 2026-10-10

## Strengths

- Free to read online under an open license
- Covers fundamentals through chromatic harmony
- Hosted on VIVA Pressbooks for online reading

## Limits

- Web text only, with no print or ebook edition listed
- Less classroom structure than print textbooks

## Rankings

- #1 of 12 in [best Music theory books](https://listme.name/best/music-theory-books), score 91.0: The strongest option here and the only one free to read in full. It covers fundamentals through chromatic harmony in one openly licensed online text, though print textbooks suit classroom use better.

## Alternatives

- [The Complete Musician](https://listme.name/books/the-complete-musician), score 89.0
- [Tonal Harmony](https://listme.name/books/tonal-harmony), score 88.0
- [The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis](https://listme.name/books/the-musicians-guide-to-theory-and-analysis), score 87.5
- [Harmony and Voice Leading](https://listme.name/books/harmony-and-voice-leading), score 86.5
- [The Jazz Theory Book](https://listme.name/books/the-jazz-theory-book), score 85.0
- [Music in Theory and Practice](https://listme.name/books/music-in-theory-and-practice), score 84.5
- [A Geometry of Music](https://listme.name/books/a-geometry-of-music), score 83.0
- [Berklee Music Theory Book 1](https://listme.name/books/berklee-music-theory-book-1), score 82.0