Customer Reviews

The Chord Wheel: The Ultimate Tool for All Musicians

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this book hoping to find something useful for my theory students. To my disappointment, I discovered a wonderful spinning cover attached to a 12-page book of poor and incorrect writing. I have all of the background I should possibly need to use this book. I have good command of the English language and a masters degree in music theory and choral conducting. I don't say this to make myself sound smart (I make as many dumb mistakes as the next guy!), but to show why I expected to be able to make clear sense of the book's contents. Unfortunately, the text of the book, which appears confusing at first, turns out to be hard to follow because it is riddled with grammatical errors. Paragraphs lack coherence, misplaced commas make the sentences hard to trace, and sentences lack subjects and objects. The entire text is filled to the brim with unsupported claims, and most disturbingly, not all of the theory inside of those pages is actually *correct*.

For a beginning theory student trying to get his or her head around the circle of fifths, this can absolutely be a useful book (as long as it remains closed). The spinning wheel can help the beginner to navigate the circle and its relationships successfully, but students beware! The wheel is only useful for the major keys. The minor key relationships, which typically take up half of the time in a theory 101 class, are missing entirely.

This is an incredibly easy intro to music theory. It shows which chords sound good with other chords. It shows how simply folk and rock songs are put together (3 or 4 chords, usually). I'm an "adult beginner" on piano and keep it on the piano at all times. It helps me figure out how to accompany myself once I've picked out a tune. I may even be on the verge of composing a song, thanks to this simple tool. Changing keys seemed impossibly difficult until I got this. (If you've ever wondered what is meant by the I, IV, V chords, get this and life will make sense.) Most of all, it's fun. Highly recommended.

Seriously. When I first tried to learn something about music years ago, I
was completely stymied by the notes -- what do you play and when? how
come some notes sound better than others? why do certain songs (like
jazz & bass "standards") seem so similar, but sound so different?
How does everyone know what to play & when?

Well, it's all here. And you don't even have to get past the cover!
The Chord Wheel finally demistifies how songs are put together
around chords, and how those chords follow a progression. Now
you can visually see not only exactly what you should play, but
how to put together other chord patterns.

Frankly, I don't understand why other music books have never
covered this material this way.

Truly enlightening!

I have played guitar for over 10 years. I am a guitar instructor as well. Sometimes it's difficult to keep all the chord theory in my head at all times. This little tool, the Chord Wheel, is an excellent aid that I find myself using often.

The Chord Wheel has a spinnable template that lays over the circle of fifths. Instantly, it helps you understand the flats and sharps in each key. Once you spin it to a certain key, it gives you all the main chord substitutions for every step in the gey--genious. The Chord Wheel also has some excellent chord theory instruction within its few pages.

I use The Chord Wheel as part of my teaching curriculum. I haven't found a better tool to teach the circle of fifths or to introduce my students to the power of basic chord substitutions.

Excellent product, Jim. Thanks.

Hope this helps.

-Craig Nybo, co-author of [ ... ]

The book is very short with 12 pages. The book gives a very basic view on the relation of chords and chord functions. It has some other stuff, like chord construction, scales, and transposition. The best thing about the book is the chord wheel on the cover. It has a moveable plastic to set to a key and it will tell you what relation the chords are in the key. Don't buy the book if you are looking of in depth music theory, buy it for the interactive chord wheel diagram on the cover.

The chord wheel has helped me greatly in creating more interesting progressions very quickly. It has 12 pages of information that tells how to use the wheel on the front of the book. This information alone may not be enough to get the most use out of this tool, but it does help. I would recommend this in conjunction with a good music theory book. Edly's Music Theory for Practical People would be a good choice to pair this tool with. Regardless of how much theory knowledge you have, it is well worth the price and is a very good tool. I have told many friends about it and almost all of them have purchased one. They have also found it very useful!

Well it's just a nice presentation of a circle of 5th and 4ths that would be found on plenty of websites. However for a student getting into harmony and discovering these basic elements for the first time it could work. If it gets a student thinking about harmony and starting them composing around a 6 chord set and transposing into new keys - well it's done it's job.

THis book was purchased for my daughter who is doing music theory at the moment. She says that it is extremely useful due to the visual information conveyed by the wheel

The Chord Wheelis great for anyone trying to transcribe something that doesn't sound quite right or anyone who's forgotten their theory. It's easy to read and colourful therefore easy on the eye! It really is pretty handy.

The cover is a great visual representation of progressions and the relationship between chords.

However the text is unclear GIBBERISH.

There are a few gems of information deeply buried beneath condescending inferences that you should ALREADY KNOW this, TRUST ME on that, or JUST TRY IT and it will work.

This book doesn't teach theory, it CONFUSES an average student

It would be better to have just the cover and a one page explanation of its usage on the back-
that would be worth $5, but at this cost it is not worth it!