The Everything Music Theory Book: A Complete Guide to Taking Your Understanding of Music to the Next Level [With CD]

----- I've been studying this book for about one year and as a result have accumulated a large amount of notes. Initially I was just planning to read up on a mysterious topic. After two months, I came to the conclusion that I was going to spend some serious time studying this book. In my mind, understanding 'theory' can help the reader enter a larger and more interesting (musical) world and has helped maintain and grow my interest in music-making and music-playing. Currently I am on Chapter 10, 'Chord Progressions'. I am reading this book as a person studying the piano (not the guitar) however this has seemed to make the entire process just a little bit easier. (A keyboard is also illustrated to help.) Either way, the author accommodates both as it mentions in the preface: "The notation is presented for single-line instruments, mainly the piano and guitar." --- The first chapter of the book is a 'Review of the Basics' which includes: · Clefs, Time Signatures, Rhythm, Rests and Meter In the first section, there is a three page review of note reading and understanding clefs. This includes reading notes on the Treble, Bass and Movable 'C' Clef. The section concludes with a sixteen measure exercise. (see Fig. 1.7 on page six) Here is a breakdown of each chapter in this book: 01. Review of the Basics 02. Intervals 03. The Major Scale 04. The Minor Scale 05. Musical Keys and Key Signatures 06. Modes and Other Scales 07. ETUDE ONE: Scales and Keys 08. Chords 09. Seventh Chords and Chord Inversions 10. Movements: Chord Progressions 11. More Chord Progressions 12. Melodic Harmonization 13. ETUDE TWO: Chords and Harmony 14. Advanced Harmony 15. Jazz Harmony 16. Transposition and Instrumentation 17 ETUDE THREE: Advanced Harmony, Jazz Harmony and Transposition The most important thing you may possibly learn about involves the subject of intervals. Intervals seem to be the building block of everything else. You will have plenty of time and opportunity in this book to learn about it. Here is just a sample taken from my notes regarding chord construction: --- CHORD CONSTRUCTION - Triads: Major Triad - Major 3rd interval + Minor 3rd interval Major Triad - Root + Major 3rd + Perfect 5th (1-3-5) Minor Triad - Minor 3rd interval + Major 3rd interval Minor Triad - Root + Minor 3rd interval + Perfect 5th interval (1-b3-5) Diminished Triad - Minor 3rd interval + Minor 3rd interval Diminished Triad - Root + Minor 3rd interval + Diminished 5th interval (1-b3-b5) Augmented Triad - Major 3rd interval + Major 3rd interval Augmented Triad - Root + Major 3rd interval + Augmented 5th interval (1-3-#5) --- There is a lot of information contained in that small amount of text. As you can see, understanding intervals is KEY. CONCLUSION: If you love music then you will be in good company! Marc Schonbrun makes a difficult topic easy to understand and effectively conveys his enthusiasm and love for music to the reader. Here is a quote from my piano book: "To

I have had several private guitar teachers; two of which had Master's Degrees in music and until I bought this book I still could not understand many musical concepts. This book has really unlocked the puzzle of majors, minors, scales, etc. It is written mostly for guitar and piano players but anyone intersted in understanding why music seems to follow certain patterns will really benefit from this book. The book includes chord diagrams and tablature for guitar and music for piano and others. I didn't really put much thought into the etudes and I certainly won't reduce the rating because of missing answer keys; everything is presented in the chapters.

I have been playing music since elementary school band and have played guitar since I was 20 years old (I am now 32), so music theory is not new to me. I have long had a cursory understanding of basic theory, but there were a lot of things I knew but did not understand, and a lot more that I just plain didn't know. For example, I knew about the different minor scales (natural, harmonic, and melodic), but had no idea why there were three of them and how they were used. I knew that a "root" chord usually follows a V7 chord, but did not understand why the V7 chord has such a strong pull back to the tonic. I knew what a "tritone" was, but not why it is musically important or when and how to use one. I had seen the circle of keys (aka circle of fifths) but did not understand its purpose or how to apply it to the music I read and play. I had only the most basic understanding of things like harmonization, chord progressions, inversions, and augmented/diminished chords, and I found many explanations of these things to be intimidating at best and confounding more often than not. This book explains all of those and a good deal more, as well as when and how to apply the concepts, in a way that is very easy to follow and comprehend. The author goes into why things are the way they are with bits of historical information and examples that help you understand where different musical concepts came from, but he does not get bogged down in the "how and why" like a lot of theory books do, and he never loses focus on the topic at hand. The Everything Music Theory Book is fantastically written, easy reading, and informative, and I do not hesitate to recommend it to anyone I meet that is interested in music, regardless of their current level of understanding or which instrument they currently play or want to learn. The material presented in the book is invaluable to anyone that wants to learn about music or improve their ability to play, comprehend, and analyze it, and you would be hard pressed to find it presented in a manner that is plainer, friendlier, or easier to understand.

Having studied music performance as a child, I wanted to freshen up on my theory skills. I like the book because it didn't talk "down" to you, like you were a six year old. The author covers a range of topics that will get you up to speed quickly. The only gripe I have: In certain areas in the book he gives you "Etudes"--tests to see how your comprehension is. However, there are no answers provided in a book, or no online link give to where the answers are. So you could be self-teaching your way through the book and you would have no clue on if you were right or not. Other than that, I really do enjoy this book. If you don't play piano or guitar, a CD of audio examples is included, which I think is a nice touch.