Product Description

Many people grimace at the sound of music theory. It can conjure up bad memories of grade school music classes, rattle the brains of college students, and make self–taught musicians feel self–defeated. Music Theory may seem tedious and unnecessary, especially since not many people can read music.

Luckily, Music Theory for Dummies shows you the fun and easy way to understanding the concepts needed to compose, deconstruct, and comprehend music. This helpful guide will give you a great grasp of:

• Note value and counting notes
• Treble and bass clefs
• Time signatures and measures
• Naturalizing the rhythm
• Tempo and dynamic
• Tone, color, and harmonics
• Half steps and whole steps
• Harmonic and melodic intervals
• Key signatures and circles of fifths
• Scales, chords, and their progressions
• Elements of form
• Music theory’s fascinating history

This friendly guide not only explores these concepts, it provides examples of music to compliment them so you can hear how they sound firsthand. With a bonus CD that demonstrates these ideas with musical excerpts on guitar and piano, this hands–on resource will prove to you that music theory is as enjoyable as it is useful. Don’t get discouraged by the seemingly complicated written structure. With Music Theory for Dummies, understanding music has never been easier!

Note: CD–ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3217 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 360 pages

From the Back Cover
Helpful hints on melodies, chords, and music development

The fun and easy way to read, write, and perform any style of music

Need to grasp music theory? This hands–on guide explains the concepts in plain English — from scales, intervals, and tempos to chord progressions, phrasing, harmonizing, and arranging — and shows you how to apply them in compositions ranging from pop and rock to jazz and classical. It′s also packed with musical examples you can hear on the CD!

Discover how to:

• Read notes and understand tones

• Keep proper rhythm

• Master major and minor scales

• Build chords and cadences

• Write in popular musical forms

Demonstrations of music theory concepts

Musical examples performed on both piano and guitar

About the Author
Michael Pilhofer teaches music theory and percussion at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he serves as department head of the Ensembles Department. He has worked as a professional musician for more than 18 years and has toured and recorded with Joe Lovano, Marian McPartland, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland, Bill Holman, Wycliffe Gordon, Peter Erskine, and Gene Bertoncini.

Holly Day has written about music for numerous publications internationally, including Computer Music Journal, ROCKRGRL, Music Alive!, Guitar One, Brutarian Magazine, Interface Technology, and Mixdown magazine. Over the past couple of decades, her writing has received an Isaac Asimov Award, a National Magazine Award, and two Midwest Writer’s Grants.  Her previous books include The Insider’s Guide to the Twin Cities (3rd^, 4th, and 5th Editions), Shakira, and Behind the Orange Curtain: A History of Orange County Punk Rock.

Customer Reviews

Just enough of everthing you need to know about Music Theory
It's harder than it should be to find a good, readable book on Music Theory. In my experience many turn out to be classroom references or music notation only books, but Music Theory for Dummies covers the gamut of subjects, including on the way, music notation, a brief history, and forms of music and it does it all logically and informally with clearly laid out sections and diagrams.

So if you want to know the difference between an imperfect and plagal cadence; between a Rondo and a Sonata or the contribution to music of Pythagoras, this 336 page book has it all and for these reasons, I can recommend it to anybody that wants to study music theory from beginners to intermediate level.

Music Theory
This is an impressive book making a normally dry subject amusing and entertaining. It is fun to read and understand, explaining everything for the beginner and going into real detail for the more experienced.
The only word of criticism is that it is American and as a result doesn't consider that terminology such as semibreve, crotchet, quaver, semi-quaver even exist. Minim is mentioned but the others are not. Having said that the terms note, half-note, quarter-note etc. are more easily understood - however a little addendum would have helped even if in part of the history section.
It also comes with a CD that has a fantastic array of examples and concepts to listen to.
I have yet to work my way through the more complex parts of the book but I'm sure that it will provide me with the answers to questions that have puzzled me for years. I fully recommend buying it to anyone.

Crash course in music theory
When my son started taking piano lessons a couple of months ago, I was terrified of the day that he needed my help with his studies. Thanks to this book, though, I can now look over his shoulder while he's playing and know exactly what it is he's doing--and supposed to be doing--while working through his music lessons.

Not only does this book cover the basics, but I'm confident that I'll be able to help my son with his piano and music lessons for years to come, all the way through to the point where he starts writing his own music. And who knows? Maybe by then I'll be playing music as much as he is now--even thought I've only had the book for a few days, I've been really inspired to try to figure my way through some piano pieces myself, or just sit and play around with chord progressions and some of the other more interesting parts of improvisation covered in this book.