Hal Leonard Guitar Method Music Theory (Book/Online Audio) (Includes Online Access Code)

Well worth the money. Easy to follow musical theory with several useful tips.

What a fantastic book! If you are a guitarist looking to learn music theory to develop as a musician, if you want to understand how scales and chords work and are put together, then this book is for you.Very simple and clear explanations covering most areas. This book - as the title suggests - is really for novices in music theory.Of course, you can play guitar for years and years (as i did) without any music theory at all, simply a knowledge of chords in a key and a few scales. However, when you want to more fully appreciate the depth and complexity of the musical world, this marvellous book makes for a very good first stepping stone on your path!

This is a really good book and I have learnt a lot from it. It is exactly what is was looking for as it covers all the basics you will need to understand music theory and all though it does explain musical notation and incorporates it into quite a few of the exercises, it doesn't concentrate too much on this, which is good because quite frankly it's not really needed to play the guitar (there's a difference between understanding music theory and being able to sight-read musical notation). The only complaint I have is that it is just full of small and annoying sloppy litle errors which could have easily been picked up if it had been properly proof-read. I'll list a few of the errors I've encountered (so far, that is, as I'm only half way through it):Page 35, Fig. 1B = It states that the major scale harmonised in 3rds is Major-Minor-Minor-Major--MINOR--Minor-Minor-Major, when in fact it should be Major-Minor-Minor-Major--MAJOR--Minor-Minor-Major (don't worry you will learn what I am talking about from the book).Page 51, just above Fig. 7 it explains that the formula for the minor scale harmonised in sevenths is i7-iim7b5-etc. when in fact it should be i7-ii7b5-etc. It may seem like I'm splitting hairs somewhat but it becomes confusing especially if you are learning and especially since in the section on harmonising the major scale the formula includes ii7b5 and you could fail to see that the major and minor scales harmonised in sevenths both contain ii7b5 as opposed to ii7b5 and iim7b5 as it actually states.Page 59, Fig. 14 it states that Am7 is the iv7 chord of C major, which is wrong, it should have been vi7.Like I said it may seem as though I'm splitting hairs a bit but when you're learning you need all the information contained in the study material to be 100% correct as you obviously aren't in a position (knowledge-wise) to judge whether or not it is. Discovering inconsistencies also undermines your belief that what you are reading is true.However, it is still a good book. The publishers just need to get their act together, stop being so lazy and get someone to proof read it! Maybe for the next edition.

This book arrived speedy to my door. I have been looking at theory with my guitar instructor and was looking for a book to supplement my lessons. This book is brilliant it is easy to follow and with lots of useful exercises. I took the book to my instructor who gave it a thumbs up and we now align my lessons with the book. I put the cd on and practice along to it. It is really helping me.

Great to learn from with the back up a must to ones learning

Good reference book for theory. Wish I learned more when I was younger. This helps brush up on knowledge or learning from scratch, written in simple terms easy to understand. Just take a chapter a week into your practice routine. Would recommend

such a great book!! really self explanatory

This book is a really useful, comprehensive and easy way of learning music theory. It is based around guitar with all the theory and exercises specifically guitar based, so for a guitar player such as myself, it is a lot more useful than a standard theory guide. All basic and more complex aspects of theory are explained, including reading music, chord formations and scale theory. There are also useful quizzes at the end of each section to test your knowledge.The book is ideal for anyone who wants to learn a bit of theory. Unlike some books, it doesn't assume you already know anything or use terms without explaining them. It can also be used by more experienced guitarists as it covers most common aspects of theory, so you can either learn from scratch or just improve your knowledge. It also comes with a CD which means you can check that you are playing the exercises (scales etc) correctly. My only one complaint is the diagrams that are supposed to "explain" major scales, as I really didn't understand them, although the explanation of how they are formed is useful. I would recommend this to most guitarists, although if you are a beginner you may want to learn the basics of playing first.

Sehr gut

Very informative read. Written so you can understand it. This is music theory so if you are not into the heavy side of written music, this may not be for you.The purchase was good value for the money in my books.

Perfect book for learning music theory but some topic are not explained briefly like circle of fifths ...other than that it's worth the price....

Un vero e proprio giudizio potro' darlo quando avro' terminato di studiare su questo libro, per ora posso dire che sembra ben fatto. Gli argomenti sono trattati in maniera semplice ed esaustiva. Anni luce rispetto ai vecchi metodi oscuri e incomprensibili :-)

I purchased this book after reading the reviews on Amazon and agree that it is one of the best guitar theory books out there, and consider it to be the "gold standard" of guitar music theory.I have been playing guitar for close to 40 years, mostly self taught and knew virtually no theory until about 3 years ago. I found this limiting to achieving a breakthrough to new playing skill and have an understanding of what I was doing. I started out with some of the basic books on theory, took some lessons and then got this book. Along the way, I bought many books that were not appropriate for my level and got frustrated.This book is perfect for those guitar players who have some experience playing, have been exposed to some theory but need to have all the concepts in one place to reinforce their understanding of the core concepts and then start getting exposure to the more advanced topics like diatonic progressions, harmonization, modes, chord substitution, etc.I would not recommend buying this book if you are a raw beginner with no music theory background. You will get overwhelmed as the book moves quickly into advanced concepts and topics. It does cover all the basic concepts in the beginning, but it will be difficult to get your brain around all this stuff without having some further training. I would suggest first buying some of the real basic thin and " fun" music theory books to get your mind around scales and intervals. You can browse these "pocket size" manuals at most music stores.As others have pointed out, the book is logically and progressively laid out. This makes it a great reference. The accompanying CD is good for listening to the notes, scales, etc. I prefer a DVD format for the accompaniment, as the CD approach is a bit awkward. I'm not much of a fan of trying to browse a CD and look at a book at the same time. I leave this book on my living room coffee table and often will pick it up and review some of the chapters, just to reinforce some concept that I'm still getting my head wrapped around. If you are taking guitar lessons, I would definitely use this book to help structure your understanding of music theory with your instructor. I often found myself scratching my head after a 30 minute guitar lesson, then went to this book to get further grounded on the concept.