Customer Reviews

Elementary Harmony

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The fifth edition of Elementary Harmony is a still a good text that stresses fluency in theoretical fundamentals. It moves more slowly than some competing texts, which I consider a plus. It is a text that teaches mastery of theory, not merely a survey of theory. It is much more readable (less pedantic) than old editions of Ottman. This edition is riddled with printing errors. The publisher is aware of this, and I know from personal experience that they are taking more care in the new fifth edition of Advanced Harmony. Elementary Harmony is in need of a new printing, but the publisher is seeking input to improve the accuracy of any reprint. To summarize, the concepts and sequence of the text presentation are very good, especially for students needing thorough grounding in fundamentals. The excessive errors will confuse students, but a reprint of the edition can easily correct the errors.

This is a well-designed book, but is marred by an incredible number of mistakes. It's truly unbelievable. I realize that these exercises can be tricky, but the publishers ought to be ashamed that, after four editions, they have allowed mistakes to remain in nearly every assignment.

Why is it that the majority of first-semester music students can find so many mistakes, yet the professionals who put the material together can not see glaring errors that jump right off the page? This is the most unreliable text I have ever used. It's not unusual to find a mistake here and there in technical books, but I identified literally dozens in just the first half we covered in Theory 1 class.

If you are required to use this book for a class, then you don't have any choice--just be very careful. If you are studying on you own, without the benefit of others to help catch all the errors, then you will want another book.

My class used this book for the first time this year. It was a Music Theory class, and everyday, in almost every assignment, we found mistakes. The book itself is great, but the publisher's should have spent more time working out the mistakes. If you know what you're doing and you can easily catch the mistakes, then this book is great. But, if you are at the point where you KNOW if it's a mistake or not, you don't need this book to begin with.

this was the text book that was used in my college intro to harmony and tonal counterpoint. it was full of mistakes and was very difficult to follow. my professor even expressed his hatred of this horrible, horrible book, but yet my university feels inclined to continue using it. if you really want to learn voice leading and harmony, find another book.

A good book, better than many others I have used, but as otherreviews describe, it contains many blaring errors. Its text is muchmore readable than other books I have used, though.

My first complaint is that there is no reason why this book should cost as much as it does. It has flimsy paperback binding (I owned it two months before the cover fell off, and my only use of it was during class and carrying it on the 2-minute walk from the music building to my dorm - in my hands!) and cheap paper. The only "pictures" are some black-and-white staves. My psychology book cost as much as this book and was physically made far superior. The only thing I like about the pages is that they accept pencil, which is nice for taking notes and jotting down answers to questions that can be erased later.

The set-up of the book itself makes sense and was fairly easy to skim when preparing for a test. I appreciated that. Yet I think all the good I can say about this book has now been stated.

As other reviewers have indicated, it has lots of errors. My theory teacher had to correct several factual errors in class, which made me worry about the rest of the book! Also, most of the "review" questions in the book don't have answers - which make them completely useless. I saw no point in practising skills if I didn't even know whether or not I was doing it correctly.

Also, I used the book to study so I could test out of Theory I, and was aggravated to no avail that the book does not really explain figured bass - the foundation of all theory! It mentions figured bass, assumes the reader knows what it is, and proceeds to teach new concepts. I had find websites to show me figured bass, thanks to the lack of explanation in my theory book!

Chances are, you don't have a choice whether or not you use this book, since, like I, you are coerced into using it because of your professor. In that case, be forewarned about the problems with it. However, if you do have a choice, only use this book if you can find it for $20 - that's about how much it's worth. And get supplements; you'll need them.

My book arrived within a few days after I ordered it. It came in the original shrink-wrap as well as the cd that accompanies the book. The cd came in packaging that protected it well. Overall excellent service, I am very satisfied.

I use this to teach 1st year music theory at the college level. This book, I do not like. There are so many errors. Not only in the text, but also in the back of the book where they provide answers. Even those are error-filled. Really, publisher, how can you justify a textbook (soft back) pock-marked with technical errors, for almost $100? yikes. Clearly publisher should be issuing either partial refunds or get the 6th edition out already. This book is now 13 years old, that's 13 years of students fumbling through your errors. Some of my fav'rit errors are the font errors, where the wrong symbol is printed. Clearly, time to change texts.

Great review of "the essentials" given before getting into the meat of the text, including ways to help determine key sigs, etc. Audio CD a big help.

This and its companion, the author's "Advanced Harmony", are probably the most practical English-language part-writing texts still available, though a bit plodding. (But consider that I am familiar only with an earlier edition.)

Also recommended: PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by JEFF BURNS.