The academic fracturing of music into sub-disciplines has brought about a great deal of valuable specialization, but it has also had the unintended consequence of suppressing a holistic approach to music education—one that emphasizes the interdependency of all musical parameters, and not just pitch. Our online harmony textbook offers an integrative approach that makes clear the connection between musical elements, and in this respect, it is designed first and foremost with performers and composers in mind.

To this end, our textbook presents a way of thinking about harmony that is rooted in basic human psychology. By centering its contents around three general principles (patterns, punctuation, and flow) rather than a particular style, we nudge students to consider why certain “rules” exist and how deviations therefrom affect our perception of the whole. This approach provides students with a depth of understanding that allows them to transfer knowledge across stylistic boundaries, and it fosters insights that are especially relevant to practicing musicians.

- Alan Belkin & Andrew Schartmann