Mark Feezell

Dr. Mark Feezell is a Senior Lecturer in Music Theory and Composition within the Division of Music in the Meadows School of the Arts. Known by colleagues as one who understands this generation’s approach to learning, Feezell receives consistently high student evaluations from his students. In 2011 and 2012, his students selected him for the H.O.P.E. (Honoring Our Professors’ Excellence) Award.

Feezell’s passion for teaching extends to students of all backgrounds, from entering first-year students to advanced graduate music professionals.

Feezell's background includes extensive studies in orchestration, form, harmony, counterpoint, notation, serialism, twentieth-century music, acoustics, Schenkerian analysis and electronic music. He has presented analytical papers at regional conferences of the College Music Society and the Society for Music Theory. As a composer, his music has been performed in Denton, Dallas, Fort Worth, Longview, San Antonio, Louisiana, and South Carolina. He has created hundreds of arrangements for various instruments and ensembles, accessible through scoreexchange.

In 2010, Feezell launched LearnMusicTheory.net, a website of free teaching materials for music theory. The site has averaged 15 page views every hour, or over 500,000 total page views as of January 2014. LearnMusicTheory.net is a top-ten Google search result for over 300 music theory search terms, including rhythmic syllables, V7 to I, compound ternary, mode mixture, spelling triads, Ger+6, Neapolitan harmony, rondo examples, types of accompaniment, and asymmetric meter. It is used as a primary or secondary e-textbook at a number of schools.

Feezell grew up in San Antonio and earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. He earned his Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of North Texas at Denton in 2003, where he studied with Thomas Clark, Joseph Klein, Butch Rovan, Jon Christopher Nelson, Cindy McTee and Timothy Jackson. From 2003 to 2006, he was Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C. He joined the faculty at SMU in 2006.