Music Theory For Dummies, with Audio CD-ROM [Paperback]

Michael Pilhofer (Author), Holly Day (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2007

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.

Editorial Reviews

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies (April 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764578383
• ISBN-13: 978-0764578380
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Takes You From Basic to Advanced, April 4, 2007

By 

David Wilson (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Music Theory For Dummies, with Audio CD-ROM (Paperback)

I ordered this book with some skepticism. I could read music before I go this book but I guess at a very rudimentary level. I have looked through other music theory books and have been left a little bewildered about musical keys, cord construction and such. This book demystifies these and many other musical concepts. I now understand musical keys and many other things that had always seemed very mysterious to me. The book starts off very basically and slowly advances as it introduces you to more advanced concepts by adding more information about how music is constructed. Someone with a firmer background in music may be board by the pace but for others of us it is just right. I recommend it if, like me, you always wanted to understand music but never found someone who could describe it in an understandable way.

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I finally put 2 and 2 together thanks to this book, November 23, 2007

By 

Darrel Johnson "DJ Johnson" (Lake Hills, WA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Music Theory For Dummies, with Audio CD-ROM (Paperback)

I'm 48, and I've been playing guitar, bass, keyboards and a lot of other instruments since I was 12. Two of them well, all of them by ear. I didn't have a clue what to call anything I did, aside from knowing when I was playing a major, a minor, a 7th or a 9th. But only because better players told me so. Having found some success in other areas with other books in the Dummies franchise, I took a shot at this one.

Turns out I was doing a lot of things right all these years and even being fairly close to correct in the way I described them to my guitar students. Yes, a guy who needs a Dummies book for music teaches kids to play. The nerve, right? Well, I feel a lot better about it now. I'm able to give my students some theory with their Green Day, and using the same matter-of-fact way of describing and discussing it as I found in the book, it gets across quite nicely. I'd bought a different book on music theory that was supposed to be very simple. In fact, it seemed extremely short and unintimidating... at first. Shortest book I ever failed to complete. THIS book, on the other hand, clocks in at 330-some pages and it never bogs down. They stay with a topic instead of flying past it without making sure you are ready to move on. In my opinion, that's the most important quality a Dummies book should have: a flat-out refusal to leave any reader in the dust. I appreciate that. Now if the same authors will just do a MIDI For Dummies book, aaaaand maybe books for Studio-In-A-Box 24Track Digital Recording, Signal Processing, Microphone Techniques, Child Rearing and a few other topics I need help with, life will be complete.

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bunch of careless errors, but clearer than any regular textbook, January 18, 2009

By 

HealthAdminGuy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music Theory For Dummies, with Audio CD-ROM (Paperback)

I have to agree with David C. that this book is filled with careless errors. The authors and editor should be ashamed of this sloppy work.

That being said, if you overlook the mistakes (mostly in charts and tables) the book actually does do a good job of explaining music theory. I read "The Idiot's Guide to Music Theory" first, and it left several issues unclear as well as lacking some practical application to keyboard and guitar fretboard positions, but the Dummies book cleared up some of the foggy issues as well as provided some good starter info for guitar scales. The circle of fifths discussion in the "Idiot's" book was practically useless, while the "Dummies" book gave a clear and useful presentation of the topic. If I had to recommend one or the other, I would have to say that this Dummies book does a better job, overall, of getting the ideas across. If you have the inclination, reading both books would provide a more complete introduction to music theory.

By the way, the "Idiot's" book also has its share of errors, but at least the author has posted a table of corrections on his web site. Apparently the authors of the Dummies book just don't give a damn about the mistakes, as I cannot locate any kind of errata or corrections listing for this book.