Music Theory For Dummies, with Audio CD-ROM
by Holly Day, Michael Pilhofer
|
List Price: Our Price: $12.50 You Save: $12.49 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.90 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Music Theory For Dummies, with Audio CD-ROM
Book Review: Back in the saddle again
Summary: 5 Stars
Man, this book is exactly what I needed to get back into learning music. I took piano lessons as a kid and again in college, and didn't retain much from the experience except how to count off four-four time. That, and an incredible dislike of structured music lessons. This book starts way at the beginning of note-reading and counting off beats and takes you through to the basics of improvisation and composing your own music. The process is easy and gentle and the information delivered sticks. I remember everything I've read in this, and at no point did I feel like an idiot trying to figure any of the topics out.
The CD is almost worth the price of the book itself, especially if you are a complete beginner. Every major and minor music scale is played out on guitar and piano, and make a great practice aid to play along with. All the chords discussed in the book are played on the piano for you to listen to--which is great, because I didn't know the difference between one 7th chord to the next just by ear, but now I'm learning to.
Also, how cool is it that the book has a short interview with Steve Reich on the composition process in it? I think it's cool, anyway, I'm assuming it's an original interview--had to check and make sure Reich was still alive when I saw that, and voila, he is! There's also a fairly recent interview with the late Robert Moog in it on keyboard design (saw another interview with Moog on-line by one of the authors, so I'm thinking that's original, too). It was a pretty cool way to break up the fairly heavy-duty chapters on chord construction and chord progressions. Overall, this book left me feeling like all my previous experiences with formal music teachers were mostly wasted ones, and that I could have saved myself a lot of time and agony if I had just had this book.
Book Review: I finally put 2 and 2 together thanks to this book
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm 48, and I've been playing guitar, bass, keyboards and a lot of other instruments since I was 12. Two of them well, all of them by ear. I didn't have a clue what to call anything I did, aside from knowing when I was playing a major, a minor, a 7th or a 9th. But only because better players told me so. Having found some success in other areas with other books in the Dummies franchise, I took a shot at this one.
Turns out I was doing a lot of things right all these years and even being fairly close to correct in the way I described them to my guitar students. Yes, a guy who needs a Dummies book for music teaches kids to play. The nerve, right? Well, I feel a lot better about it now. I'm able to give my students some theory with their Green Day, and using the same matter-of-fact way of describing and discussing it as I found in the book, it gets across quite nicely. I'd bought a different book on music theory that was supposed to be very simple. In fact, it seemed extremely short and unintimidating... at first. Shortest book I ever failed to complete. THIS book, on the other hand, clocks in at 330-some pages and it never bogs down. They stay with a topic instead of flying past it without making sure you are ready to move on. In my opinion, that's the most important quality a Dummies book should have: a flat-out refusal to leave any reader in the dust. I appreciate that. Now if the same authors will just do a MIDI For Dummies book, aaaaand maybe books for Studio-In-A-Box 24Track Digital Recording, Signal Processing, Microphone Techniques, Child Rearing and a few other topics I need help with, life will be complete.
Book Review: Don't expect to walk away with too much.
Summary: 3 Stars
This book is like one long, albeit informative and entertaining, seminar. It talks ABOUT music theory. You will learn what notes are where on a staff. You'll learn what a quarter note is and what 6/8 time means. You'll learn the difference between a form and a genre. You'll learn a lot of interesting historical tidbits about where certain styles came from and why the piano is the go-to instrument for understanding notation.
But you won't walk away with a genuine understanding of music theory.
Let me use some simple analogies here to further drive the point home:
If "Guitar for Dummies" gives you the equivalent information on its topic that this one does, at the end of the book you'll know what strings are tuned to which notes, what the parts of the guitar are named, and some interesting history behind the instrument.
If "Automotive Repair for Dummies" gives you the equivalent information on its topic that this one does, you'll walk away with an idea of how to start changing your oil, know that you need to determine if your car uses metric or standard bolts, and will probably be able to find your alternator.
If "Cooking for Dummies" gives you the equivalent information on its topic that this one does, you'll know what broth consists of, be able to name off several different kinds of knives, as well as have a better understanding of why a tomato is a fruit and not a vegetable.
Nothing this book gives is wrong or unusable, it's just that if you have one book to pick on this topic, don't pick this one.
Book Review: A bunch of careless errors, but clearer than any regular textbook
Summary: 3 Stars
I have to agree with David C. that this book is filled with careless errors. The authors and editor should be ashamed of this sloppy work.
That being said, if you overlook the mistakes (mostly in charts and tables) the book actually does do a good job of explaining music theory. I read "The Idiot's Guide to Music Theory" first, and it left several issues unclear as well as lacking some practical application to keyboard and guitar fretboard positions, but the Dummies book cleared up some of the foggy issues as well as provided some good starter info for guitar scales. The circle of fifths discussion in the "Idiot's" book was practically useless, while the "Dummies" book gave a clear and useful presentation of the topic. If I had to recommend one or the other, I would have to say that this Dummies book does a better job, overall, of getting the ideas across. If you have the inclination, reading both books would provide a more complete introduction to music theory.
By the way, the "Idiot's" book also has its share of errors, but at least the author has posted a table of corrections on his web site. Apparently the authors of the Dummies book just don't give a damn about the mistakes, as I cannot locate any kind of errata or corrections listing for this book.
Book Review: A few things you should know about 'Music Theory for Dummies'
Summary: 4 Stars
Two kinds of people will benefit from this book - those who know nothing whatever about musical notation and wish to learn from the very start; and those who know how to read music, but are unfamiliar with deeper theory like key signatures, intervals, chord progressions and so on.
The book begins with a solid section on rhythm, before progressing to melody and harmony, including the all-important Circle of Fifths.
An interesting section at the back looks at some notable music theorists and their achievements, from Pythagoras all the way up to Stockhausen and Moog. There is also a section on form, which I thought was far too short (particularly when discussing classical forms like the rondo and fugue). Perhaps this could be expanded on in future editions.
The appendix contains a helpful chord chart, for piano and guitar.
The book is clearly written, easy to understand, and uses humour less than other 'For Dummies' titles (which is a good thing, because 'For Dummies' humour is generally pretty lame).
You may also enjoy Time Struggle 1: The Wolves of Odin (Volume 1).