Reddit Reddit reviews The Everything Music Theory Book with CD: Take your understanding of music to the next level

We found 6 Reddit comments about The Everything Music Theory Book with CD: Take your understanding of music to the next level. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The Everything Music Theory Book with CD: Take your understanding of music to the next level
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6 Reddit comments about The Everything Music Theory Book with CD: Take your understanding of music to the next level:

u/NickCorey · 3 pointsr/Guitar

My advice is to buy some books. There's a lot of info on the internet, but it's all spread out and often chopped up into pieces, which can make it a bitch to make sense of. If you're going to go the internet route, though, check out guitarlessons365.com (not affiliated in any way). The vast majority of the lessons are free and the music theory section is completely free, not to mention very good.

http://www.guitarlessons365.com/lessons-archive/music-theory-lessons-archive/

Regarding books, this is a great, easy to read book on music theory that won't hurt your head. I'd start either here or with guitarlessons365.

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Music-Theory-Book-understanding/dp/1440511829

For guitar books, Fretboard Logic is a must read. Definitely buy this. It focuses on the 5 position system (CAGED). If you're interested in learning the 7 position system for the major scales and other 7 note scales, check out guitarlessons365.

http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348759781&sr=8-1&keywords=fretboard+logic

After that, I'd check out this as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348759708&sr=1-1&keywords=guitar+theory

Worth checking this out as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348759937&sr=1-3&keywords=guitar+theory

Here's another important book. I'd probably buy this last, though.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348760257&sr=1-1&keywords=jazz+theory+book+by+mark+levine




u/underthelotus · 3 pointsr/Guitar

You'll also want to stare at this diagram for a while. Look for patterns. Each interval has a different pattern. Start by learning octaves, then perfect fifths (power chords), perfect fourths, and major and minor thirds.

http://www.guitar-guide-easy.com/images/stories/fretboard.jpg

Did you know the guitar is tuned in perfect fourths, except for the G to B string which is a major third? Fourths is a kind of interval, btw. The guitar is tuned EADGBE and E to A is a perfect fourth, A to D is a perfect fourth, D to G is a perfect fourth, G to B is a MAJOR THIRD, and B to E is a perfect fourth.

Intervals are the distance between two notes. Each interval creates a different sound. Intervals can be harmonic (played at the same time), or melodic (one note played after the other). Major third is typically considered "happy," minor third "sad."

Did you know that unlike a piano the guitar contains unisons? That means there are multiples of the same exact note on the fretboard. This is not the same thing as an octave.

So for example, if you look at the diagram, on the 24th Fret on the low e string, there is a yellow "e" note. That same exact note is found at the 19 fret on the A string, 14th fret on the D string, 9th fret on the G string, 5th fret on the B, and it's the note sounded by playing the open high e string.

EDIT: you might also want to buy a book on music theory. There's a lot of info on the internet, but sometimes it's easier just finding it all in one place. This book is pretty good.

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Music-Theory-Book-understanding/dp/1440511829

EDIT 2: A 24 fret guitar (most guitars aren't 24 fret, but for convenience sake I'm going with it) has a range of four octaves (E2 to E6).

To see what that would mean on a piano, see this:

http://sanfranciscoaudiophilesociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/piano-keys-hor2.jpg

Also, to know how many octaves there are on a piano, you take the number of keys (88) and divide by 12 (12 notes per octave). You get a little over seven octaves.

So that might lead you to believe that on a guitar you take the number of strings (6) times the number of frets (24), which gives you 144 notes, which you then divide by 12 (12 notes in an octave), giving you 12 octaves on the guitar. But as I said earlier, it doesn't work like that. Because unlike the piano the guitar has multiples of the same note.



u/foggyepigraph · 2 pointsr/mandolin

It's sort of a combination of simple note reading, experimentation, and adaption to the instrument. Process:

  1. The key is key. Figure out the key. With the sheet music in front of you this is really a matter of reading the staff notation and then figuring out whether your piece is major or minor (C and Am have the same key signature, G and Em have the same key signature, etc.). You can usually figure this out by listening to the last measure of the piece for its flavor, major or minor (usually).

  2. In each measure, read the notes in each voice and write them down. The notes will tell you which chords are likely.

  3. Now a little guesswork. You need to figure out which chord is appropriate to each measure. Usually this involves knowing a bit about chord progressions and phrasing (generally simple in hymns). If you can sing the melody, guess the chords and sing while playing them. Let your ear be the guide; if it sounds right, you are good to go. Also, it is not necessarily the case that only one chord will work with a given measure (if this was a functional relationship, someone would have written a computer program to deduce the chords for each measure).

  4. Chord voicing. You will want to find the best way to play the chord on the mando. This gets into questions of voice leading, maintaining a good bass line, etc. Often your ear will be a good guide here.

    Step 3 can involve adapting your chord to your instrument. For hymns, you probably won't have to worry about this a huge amount except for seventh chords, and there are pretty extensive charts available for mando seventh chords.

    But really, after all is said and done: This is a pretty easy thing to do, if you know some basic music theory. If not, I think the closest I can get to ELI5 is (a) go read this and this, then (b) go arrange the hymns for mandolin.

    I'll try to post an example later this week (arrgh, not on vacation anymore, so much less reddit) for a simple hymn. Or PM me with a scan of a hymn and I'll try to mark it up and show you what I am talking about in steps 1-4 in the context of an example.

    EDIT: Another way to practice this chord writing skill: Get a book of hymns with guitar/piano chords already marked, and try out the process I outlined above. This way you can check your answers. This is not a bad start. Heck, it may have everything in it you want already.
u/Sermoln · 1 pointr/musictheory

Hey, similar situation here and this is what I recommend

The Everything Music Theory Book has lined up pretty much exactly with my high school music theory class, but I haven't finished yet. It seems to be a great baseline to make sure you know what you need to: it has the same tricks everybody uses, workbook questions/answers, and you could look back in it anytime you need to remember something. (I have the second edition, not sure if it's superior)

Although I don't own it, my teacher has taken a lot from it: Tonal Harmony, apparently any music theory class you'll take in college will use this book, and my director says there's no need for the newest edition.

These two books should be enough of an entrance to music theory, without boring you. Supposedly there's plenty of resources online; I especially love the youtube community around it.

u/thentertamer · 1 pointr/makinghiphop

Not to go out on a tangent as I know you were looking for free online resources, but I purchased The Everything Music Theory Book from Amazon for $13 as an aid for learning music theory. It can be useful to have the information in paper form in front of me while I follow along to videos on similar subjects of music theory.

u/WoJiaoMax · 1 pointr/Guitar

By guitar theory, do you mean music theory that applies to guitar? If so, here is a music theory book that helped me a lot: http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Music-Theory-Book-understanding/dp/1440511829

I read it all, did all the exercises (which forced me to re-read the chapters in order to fully complete the exercises) and by the time I was finished, so many things fell into place.