Forewords
This is the book I wished I had in high school.
Then, along with choir and concert band, my primary outlet for music was a rock band, and each of us would gather nightly in my garage, rehearsing, scheming,
and dreaming, trying to knock out our own music, but without a solid grasp of the language and technical know-how. This book would have been such a big help
back then.
It’s still a big help now! Music is a communicative art, and the first persons the composer, arranger, or players must communicate with are other musicians. To a beginner, or to the uninitiated, written music may seem like an American trying to read Mandarin! If you wish to read and write music, this book could be more than your first primer—it could be your Rosetta Stone.
In my own teaching, I often use The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Theory as a means to jump-start the learning process for my students. Too often young
musicians and teachers alike approach music theory as a Very Hard Subject That Must Be Learned, instead of a set of liberating tools that makes one’s
music-making easier and better. However, this book makes learning theory fun!
Michael’s diagrams, language, and wit will often contain the bit of information that enables the student to finally grasp the material at hand, oftentimes with an
accompanying smile at the author’s language and antics.
Consequently, I’ve often found that theory teachers at all levels will employ it for its numerous strategies, often at a time when nothing else has conveyed the concept.