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Elm Nehmara · Post by **Elm Nehmara** » Sun May 24, 2009 2:32 am

Hello all,

I am not a musician by any means at all and am illiterate in reading and composing music. I have the desire of musicianship in my heart and passion for musicmaking runs in my veins but I have no idea how to read notes, time signatures, etc.

I have had trouble when taking music classes in elementary and middle school and understanding the concepts, yet I was never helped probably due to the fact that since I am hearing impaired my teachers figured that I wouldn't be able to play music.

I am thinking about auditing some classes in music in the future however, I cannot do so right now since I am going for a major in graphic arts.

Anyways, I am wondering if anyone may know of a good, easy-to- understand, layman's music theory books that isn't so heavy laden with technical terms, etc.

I appreciate for your help.

Max Headroom · Post by **Max Headroom** » Sun May 24, 2009 4:11 am

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory (2nd edition)" by Michael Miller is fantastic. I knew almost nothing about music theory before reading it, but it explained everything in a clear and concise manner. It was very easy to read, even for someone with no prior knowledge of music theory. When technical terms are used, they are generally explained very well. There were only a couple of places in the whole book that I thought could use some improvement. I definitely learned a lot from it, and I felt my musical compositions improved as a result of reading it.

ATS · Post by **ATS** » Sun May 24, 2009 4:17 am

Elm Nehmara wrote:Hello all,

I am not a musician by any means at all and am illiterate in reading and composing music. I have the desire of musicianship in my heart and passion for musicmaking runs in my veins but I have no idea how to read notes, time signatures, etc.

I have had trouble when taking music classes in elementary and middle school and understanding the concepts, yet I was never helped probably due to the fact that since I am hearing impaired my teachers figured that I wouldn't be able to play music.

I am thinking about auditing some classes in music in the future however, I cannot do so right now since I am going for a major in graphic arts.

Anyways, I am wondering if anyone may know of a good, easy-to- understand, layman's music theory books that isn't so heavy laden with technical terms, etc.

I appreciate for your help.

I am always learning by working on songs and reading little things here and there. Like if you are working in a certain key look it up and read about that key, stuff like that.

flugel45 · Post by **flugel45** » Sun May 24, 2009 4:39 am

I stumbled across this book a couple years ago. IMO, the best of its kind:

http://www.edly.com/mtfpp.html

JD

wrench45us · Post by **wrench45us** » Tue May 26, 2009 3:29 pm

if the point is to understand theory and harmony th ebooks mentioned will work

if the point is to learn how to write songs (practically apply sopme basic theory) I'd recommend any of Rikky Rooksby's songwriting books

iskandar · Post by **iskandar** » Tue May 26, 2009 10:30 pm

yea the Rikky Rooksby "How to write songs on keyboards" is a very good one.

MOK19 · Post by **MOK19** » Wed May 27, 2009 10:15 am

Music Theory for Computer Musicians by Michael Hewitt is okay. I have my qualms in his sentence prose, but all the teaching elements are there. Exercises, review, a dvd with audio examples, digestible chapters.

When I first read it, I ended up re-reading a number of chapters before I felt pretty integrated with it. That might be a problem with the book, or simply the nature of learning music theory. I favor the latter though.

very angry mobster · Post by **very angry mobster** » Wed May 27, 2009 10:57 am

A Practical Guide to Musical Composition takes a macroscopic & generic perspective. It's fairly easy to read and comes as a free downloadable PDF.

vivies · Post by **vivies** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:45 am

Hello nehmara,

You will find here free lessons and a complete theory video method for beginners ( 10 dvd + 10 books ) that are downlodabled easily.

http://www.musiclassroom.com/cours/musi ... hp?lang=en

good luck

Redmerkurii · Post by **Redmerkurii** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:59 am

Comprehensive and easy to follow free online resource here :
http://www.musictheory.net/

Enjoy.

silenthill2006 · Post by **silenthill2006** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 4:06 pm

Max Headroom wrote:"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory (2nd edition)" by Michael Miller is fantastic. I knew almost nothing about music theory before reading it, but it explained everything in a clear and concise manner. It was very easy to read, even for someone with no prior knowledge of music theory. When technical terms are used, they are generally explained very well. There were only a couple of places in the whole book that I thought could use some improvement. I definitely learned a lot from it, and I felt my musical compositions improved as a result of reading it.

Definately agree with this one!

reb2009 · Post by **reb2009** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:15 am

AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.

Hi, check out All-in-one to Grade 5 by Aaron publications (author: Rachel Billings). They have a website all about the book and you can see for yourself how good it is, and read Rhinegold's review... www.aaronpublications.co.uk (http://www.aaronpublications.co.uk). Highly recommend it.

Elm Nehmara wrote:Hello all,

I am not a musician by any means at all and am illiterate in reading and composing music. I have the desire of musicianship in my heart and passion for musicmaking runs in my veins but I have no idea how to read notes, time signatures, etc.

I have had trouble when taking music classes in elementary and middle school and understanding the concepts, yet I was never helped probably due to the fact that since I am hearing impaired my teachers figured that I wouldn't be able to play music.

I am thinking about auditing some classes in music in the future however, I cannot do so right now since I am going for a major in graphic arts.

Anyways, I am wondering if anyone may know of a good, easy-to- understand, layman's music theory books that isn't so heavy laden with technical terms, etc.

I appreciate for your help.

shadoe42 · Post by **shadoe42** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 7:16 pm

Max Headroom wrote:"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory (2nd edition)" by Michael Miller is fantastic. I knew almost nothing about music theory before reading it, but it explained everything in a clear and concise manner. It was very easy to read, even for someone with no prior knowledge of music theory. When technical terms are used, they are generally explained very well. There were only a couple of places in the whole book that I thought could use some improvement. I definitely learned a lot from it, and I felt my musical compositions improved as a result of reading it.

There are also in this 'series' Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition and Guide to Arranging and Orchestration you might find handy.

And I will also second the Rooksby books. I have the keyboard and guitar one as well as a book I have called Chord master.

Easy to understand beginner's music theory books?