The Inside Story on the Complete Idiots Guide to Music Theory

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory is designed to be a self-teaching tool for anyone wishing to learn music theory. The book starts with basic notes and rhythms; advances through scales,melodies, chords and harmony; and ends with valuable information about accompanying, arranging, and conducting your music. In short, it presents pretty much everything you'll need to know about music theory - for musicians of any level."

The Chapter List reads as follows:

Part 1. Tones

Part 2. Rhythms

Part 3. Tunes

Part 4. Accompanying

Part 5. Embellishing

Part 6. Arranging

The first thing to note is this book (like Music Theory for Dummies) has been written from the American perspective of the whole note, half note system. This book does not cover the convention of British musicals names such as crotchet, quaver etc.

Also in the introduction to this book the author (Michael Miller) suggests that you have access to a keyboard of some kind to help you do the exercises in the book. And after reading the book I would say that it would be a major handicap not to have a keyboard handy.

So let's look at the plus points in The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory:

The Pros

1. Michael Miller's style of writing flows well and I like the layout of the book.

2. There's an excellent introduction explaining why we need music theory

3. I like the fact that there are definitions for some of the musical words, but I do feel that even more of the words could have been defined for the absolute beginner.

4. The "Least you need to know" section at the end of each chapter clearly shows what you should have grasped from each topic

5. The exercises are a good test of the your knowledge

6. The author's explanations of the musical terms are very good

7. There's a superb section on chords. It actually cleared up some of my misunderstandings!

8. The chapter on transcribing music (listening to a CD and then writing down what you hear) is amazing!

The Cons

1. Although Michael Miller claims this book is for musicians "of any level" I don't feel that it really suits an absolute beginner, as he skips over the fundamentals in the early chapters a little too fast.

2. His use of language is also not really suited to younger students

3. Some of the extra information he has added (I presume for interest's sake) just adds a layer of complexity that would baffle most people.

4. There is no accompanying CD to this book, although the use of your own keyboard in the exercises does help in this regard.

5. A few more drawings would have been nice, to keep the interest level up for younger readers


Conclusions

Of all the book's I have reviewed so far this is undoubtedly my favourite. I really enjoyed the way the author puts across each musical concept and I felt myself tearing through the book.

I would say though, that The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory is better suited to teenagers and older. Particularly if you're interested in writing your own tunes and maybe the next hit song!

The book is definitely geared towards getting the budding musician writing his own songs and arranging them. So in that respect it's more suited to the pop musician than the classical, but as a classical musician myself I found the book very interesting.

Return from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory to Book Reviews
Return to Homepage