This concise handbook offers comprehensive coverage of main topics in music theory. Instructors can elaborate on the material as appropriate to their course, while students can learn and review technical information without having to digest lengthy analyses and explanations. Unbiased and flexible, this book can be used as a primary or reference text. Topics include species and tonal counterpoint, instrumental ranges and transpositions, and a glossary of forms. Each major section ends with suggestions for analysis and further reading.
"Music Theory Resource Book covers topics not usually found in standard theory texts including basic acoustics, contrapuntal techniques, jazz harmony, musics from non-Western cultures, and music since 1950."--BOOK JACKET.
Music Theory Handbook is a comprehensive, easy-to-follow guide to mastering music theory for different instruments, providing a ready reference to terminology, sight reading, ear training, directives, and sound. Charlie Leadon, a classical piano child prodigy, wrote the handbook at age ten to help others discover the stimulating, always interesting world of music theory. Learning music theory can improve coordination with the arts and other subjects. As the great philosopher, Plato, said: “I could teach philosophy, science, mathematics, and art, but most of all, I would teach music, for music is all of them.” Highlights of the handbook include a chapter on frequency and decibels, a complete dictionary of musical terms, a complete dictionary of musical directives, and a table of music mastery. In short, this handbook has it all! Whether you’re just getting started playing the piano or need a refresher as you continue your journey, you’ll find this handbook to be an essential resource.
Master musical skills quickly and easily! From classical music to new age, hard rock, and pop, music has always played an important role in everyday life. Whether you're an intermediate musician or an aspiring music major, The Everything Essential Music Theory Book is a guide to mastering one of the most important tools for every musician: musical understanding. This compact, portable volume covers all the basics, including: The construction of chords and scales How to understand rhythm and time signatures How keys are identified and organized Creating harmonization and melody With each clear and easy-to-understand chapter, musician and educator Marc Schonbrun takes you through the essentials of music theory--the very glue that holds music together.
Perfect for everyone from the intermediate musician to the collegiate music major, this book is a complete guide to mastering musical understanding! It's a total educational package, with a helpful audio CD, hundreds of illustrations, and challenging practice exercises. You'll learn: How chords and scales are constructed How rhythm works and how to understand complex time signatures How composers and musicians think about songwriting Each clear, easy-to-understand chapter includes several Etudes. These focused practice exercises test and reinforce your newfound understanding of music theory. With this hands-on practice, you'll become a true musician in no time!
Understand Your Favorite Music This book is for adults and teens who play an instrument, singers, video game music composers, music producers, and people who want to understand the music they love. Comes with 80+ FREE video examples so you can stop wondering what written music sounds like and hear it which means a deeper understanding and connection to the music! ($89.99 Value!) Comes with FREE Music Theory Flash Cards so you can use music theory now to help you understand and make music! ($9.99 Value!) Inspired by failing his college entrance music theory exam, musician and educator Dan Spencer set out to find a fast and easy way to understand music theory. Fully revised and updated with student feedback, the 3rd Edition of the #1 Amazon Best-Seller “The Best Music Theory Book for Beginners 1” gives everything you need to know to read, write, and understand your favorite music. This book is perfect for absolute beginners, and for musicians and music students who already know a little music theory. This book is so easy even people who have never played music can jump in and get started! Comes with FREE video examples and 50 FREE flash cards...$99.89 value...for FREE! Understand music theory the right way from the ground up so you can save time and make real progress. Read and write music so you can start creating your own songs and compositions! How to write notes by hand and which software to use for writing music on a computer. (pages 15, 61) How to identify time signatures by listening to music so you can tell what time signature your favorite songs are in. (pages 30-31) No more wasting time trying to learn theory on the internet - you have a perfect collection of the correct information and easy-to-understand explanations so you can “get it”! Fully revised and updated with student feedback, this 3rd Edition of the #1 Best-Seller gives you more graphics, explanations, and 4 new pages which means more theory, easy learning, and understanding - fast! After completing this book you will know how to read, write and understand: Rhythm 1 How to read, write and understand Whole notes Half notes Quarter notes How to Clap Rhythms Barlines Regular barlines Double bar lines Final bar lines Measures How to understand, read, and write time signatures 4/4 3/4 Percussion Clef How to write your own music Rhythm 2 Strong and weak beats Rhythm 3 How to understand, read, and write Whole rests Half rests Quarter rests How to write your own music 2 Rhythm 4 How to read, write, and understand dotted half notes Tied notes Repeat signs Pitch and Notes 1 How sound is defined Tone Timbre Melody Notes How to write your own music 3: treble clef Ledger lines Pitch and Notes 2 Accidentals 1 Enharmonic equivalents The full musical alphabet: the 12 notes of music Pitch and Notes 3 How to read, write, and understand diatonic major scales Key signatures Relative keys How to find the relative minor of a major key...and SO much more.
Understanding music theory is easy with this beginner music theory method book. Now, all instrumentalists, songwriters, singers and composers, can learn most of the music theory they’ll ever need to know. Adapted from our very popular Music Theory for Guitarists book, this easy-to-understand ‘self-study’ method for learning basic music theory, eliminates the confusion and frustration that so many music theory beginners experience. In Music Theory Book for Beginners you'll find step-by-step lessons in all the most important music theory basics - explained in easy-to-understand, confusion-free language with no music reading necessary plus dozens of practical examples to play and study. To help you learn, see and understand how the building blocks of music theory fit together, we'll be using the piano keyboard as a visual aid. You can then apply what you've learned to your own instrument. No piano skills are required to use this book but instructions are given if you do want to play certain examples on the keyboard. Includes bonus downloadable demo tracks, play-along backing tracks and quizzes to test your understanding. Perfect if: - You want to finally understand the music theory basics all musicians and songwriters need to know - You want an easy-to-use method giving you a crash-course in most of the basics - You feel like your lack of knowledge is holding you up and stopping you from progressing as fast as you could be - You’ve tried learning music theory before but found it too hard, long-winded and confusing - You’re sick of feeling clueless when you hang out with other musicians and want to understand the language they use - You’d love to write your own music and songs but don’t know where to start - You need to learn beginner music theory but haven’t a clue where or how to begin In this Music Theory Book for Beginners you’ll discover: - The Musical Alphabet - discover the only 12 notes used in all music! - Tones and Semitones - The Major Scale - learn what it really is and where it comes from - Major and Minor Triads - understand the chords used in the vast majority of music (pop, country, rock, folk etc.) - Major Scale Intervals - major 3rds, perfect 4ths ...what even are they? - Chromatic Intervals - finally discover what weird names like ‘diminished’ and ‘augmented’ really mean - Major Keys - what keys are, where they come from, and what to do with them - Chord Progressions - how to start writing pro-sounding chord sequences and songs of your own! - Pentatonic Scales - discover some of the most commonly used scales ever - The Natural Minor Scale - essential for understanding and playing music in minor keys - Minor Key Basics - learn the secrets of awesome minor key songs and chord sequences ... plus more, essential, practical music theory knowledge. How will you learn and remember all this? Easy! Each chapter introduces a new element of music theory and gives you a clear but detailed explanation of the concept. There are multiple examples/practical exercises, FAQs and more to drive your understanding home. When you think you’ve got it, test yourself using the quiz questions at the end of each chapter (answers supplied). To help you play certain practical examples you are also given piano-keyboard diagrams (plus music notation in some examples). Want to understand music theory? You can … and without all the struggle, confusion, and misleading explanations!
(Berklee Methods). The second in a two-volume series based on over 40 years of music theory instruction at Berklee College of Music. This volume focuses on harmony, including triads, seventh chords, inversions, and voice leading for jazz, blues and popular music styles. You'll develop the tools needed to write melodies and create effective harmonic accompaniments from a lead sheet. This edition includes an answer key for all exercises and lessons to check your progress.
As I read through this book, it started as an "I knew that, I knew that..." experience. But as the pages turned, even the most knowledgeable musician would start to say, "well I knew that too, but I wasn't aware of where that came from" or "now I've never thought of it that way before". Soon I was saying, "now I never knew that" and "there's an inversion I've never encountered" and "so that's how that works!" Note by note, scale by scale, mode by mode and chord by chord Pete Swann uncovers, demystifies and unclouds the reasons why music works the way it does. Its laid out in a clear and logical manner. Believe me, there's enough knowledge between the covers of this book to keep you busy for the rest of this lifetime and halfway through the next one. - Wendell Fergusson, multiple Juno and multiple CCMA Guitar Player of the year winner
Drawing on decades of teaching experience and the collective wisdom of dozens of the most creative theorists in the country, Michael R. Rogers's diverse survey of music theory--one of the first to comprehensively survey and evaluate the teaching styles, techniques, and materials used in theory courses--is a unique reference and research tool for teachers, theorists, secondary and postsecondary students, and for private study. This revised edition of Teaching Approaches in Music Theory: An Overview of Pedagogical Philosophies features an extensive updated bibliography encompassing the years since the volume was first published in 1984. In a new preface to this edition, Rogers references advancements in the field over the past two decades, from the appearance of the first scholarly journal devoted entirely to aspects of music theory education to the emergence of electronic advances and devices that will provide a supporting, if not central, role in the teaching of music theory in the foreseeable future. With the updated information, the text continues to provide an excellent starting point for the study of music theory pedagogy. Rogers has organized the book very much like a sonata. Part one, "Background," delineates principal ideas and themes, acquaints readers with the author's views of contemporary musical theory, and includes an orientation to an eclectic range of philosophical thinking on the subject; part two, "Thinking and Listening," develops these ideas in the specific areas of mindtraining and analysis, including a chapter on ear training; and part three, "Achieving Teaching Success," recapitulates main points in alternate contexts and surroundings and discusses how they can be applied to teaching and the evaluation of design and curriculum. Teaching Approaches in Music Theory emphasizes thoughtful examination and critique of the underlying and often tacit assumptions behind textbooks, materials, and technologies. Consistently combining general methods with specific examples and both philosophical and practical reasoning, Rogers compares and contrasts pairs of concepts and teaching approaches, some mutually exclusive and some overlapping. The volume is enhanced by extensive suggested reading lists for each chapter.
