(Part 2) Top products from r/musictheory

Congrats on starting! Thats often the hardest part! And the best bit? Even if it feels like you've started late, some of the best musicians did exactly the same and it never stopped them! In fact I only started singing when I was 16 and now thats my job!

There are loads of resources online which might be able to help you. It does depend a little on what your priority is though. If you would simply like to be able to play and work things out as you go there quite a good app/site called Yousician which helps you learn music on your chosen instrument in a guitar hero style way. Your listening skills will definitely get better with this but I don't think it does much theory.

https://yousician.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz8OE6t-W2wIVBZUbCh1LqQQBEAAYASAAEgIGmvD_BwE

For learning the theory side of things, Piano is definitely very helpful if you can afford a small keyboard. Thats awesome you've already transferred some of the piano stuff you watched onto the ukulele, aural skills like that are hugely useful particularly later on if you want to listen to something and then write it down.

I would recommend music theory.net, they have lots of lessons and exercises online which you can use for free but the lessons are particularly good to give you a full understanding of how to read and understand music.
https://www.musictheory.net/lessons
They also have an app (which is the same material as the website) which you could use, but you do pay for it.

As far as other apps go there is another very useful one called Meludia. I love this one, it helps you train your ear rather then the theory side of things and will play you a short phrase which you then play back within the app. - https://www.meludia.com

For the general practice and seeing how you're doing, I've also just released an app called Muso which lets you practice a load of topics (like recognising notes and chords, and also written stuff) and see where your strengths and weaknesses are. You can also add a teacher further down the line to set you little quizzes and help you learn faster if you ever start lessons.
It's totally free and theres no rubbish in app purchase stuff you can just practice and see how you're doing (we've got a basic AI that learns what you need to practice next which will hopefully kick in soon!). If you do want to check it out its at www.theoretical.xyz or search "Muso by Theoretical" on the app stores (UK).

Theres also a lot of resources through ABRSM (the music Exam body) in the way of books and practice tests for the theory.
This is the most comprehensive to my knowledge and is very popular, though quite in depth!- https://www.amazon.co.uk/AB-Guide-Music-Theory-Vol/dp/1854724460

Or they have a few practice apps you can use, I think you have to pay for some of the features but you might find one you like - https://gb.abrsm.org/en/exam-support/practice-tools-and-applications/

Really though, I think the best tip is to practice practice practice, but above all have fun! Music is awesome and if you can get a bunch of friends together and have a jam together it really is some of the best fun!
I hope that helps a little bit, good luck with all of your music and I hope you enjoy it!

I think every theory book I've ever read has opened up my mind in some way - while always being unsatisfactory in other ways (incomplete, too dense, too little on some forms of music, etc). My experience and interest is largely in popular music of all kinds, less in classical, so that has biased my reading somewhat; but I can recommend all the following (not 100%, but worth reading):

Eric Taylor: The AB Guide to Music Theory, pts I and II - good review of the basics, aimed at pupils studying for grades. Not deep in any way but good if you're just starting out. Solidly classical, which could be a downside for some. The concepts up to grade 5 are shrunk to useful pocket size in [this] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Steps-Music-Theory-Grades/dp/1860960901/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466150641&sr=1-1&keywords=theory+of+music+grades+1-5) - 100% recommended for any absolute beginner.

George Heussenstamm : [Harmony and Theory, pts 1 & 2 (Hal Leonard)] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hal-Leonard-Harmony-Theory-Diatonic/dp/1423498879/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466150878&sr=1-2&keywords=Hal+Leonard+Harmony+%26+Theory) Usefully split into Diatonic and Chromatic. I've read a few texts on standard classical theory, and this is the most approachable, IMO.

William Russo: [Jazz Composition and Orchestration] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Composition-Orchestration-William-Russo/dp/0226732150/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151290&sr=1-1&keywords=russo+jazz+composition) Taught me more than I thought I wanted to know about counterpoint. Most of which I've now forgotten (not much call for it in the bands I played in...). But if you're not into big band jazz (at all), maybe not worth it.

William Russo: [Composing for the Jazz Orchestra] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Composing-Jazz-Orchestra-William-Russo-ebook/dp/B01EZ8OKQW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466149432&sr=1-1&keywords=william+russo) Neat little guide book on jazz arranging (NOT composition).

Mark Levine: [The Jazz Theory Book] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151006&sr=1-1&keywords=levine+jazz+theory) 50% recommended. Well written and presented, eye-opening in many ways, but beware - chord-scale theory! (controversial stuff, in ways he doesn't admit.)

Robert Rawlins and Nor Eddine Bahha: [Jazzology] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=41YkvVcCfEL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR120%2C160_&refRID=ZR730GKYPSZYA2THNXGT) The somewhat dry antidote to the above. 50% recommended. Should have been good, but somehow hard to read, easy to put down. Unlike Levine, no quotes from jazz standards or recordings - all music examples are written by the authors.

Dominic Pedler: [The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Songwriting-Secrets-%2522Beatles%2522-Dominic-Pedler/dp/0711981671/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151087&sr=1-1&keywords=pedler+beatles) Outlines the vast number of theoretical concepts that the fab four would be astonished to learn they employed. Includes a useful appendix on basic concepts of tonal harmony. If you like pop and rock (and theory) but don't like the Beatles, still worth reading.

But then if you like the Beatles AND theory... [Alan Pollack's site] (http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/awp-alphabet.shtml) is essential reading. (Pedler is deep, but doesn't examine EVERY song. Pollack is briefer, but does.

Allan F Moore: [Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Popular Song] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Means-Analysing-Interpreting-Recorded/dp/1409438023/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151140&sr=1-1&keywords=allan+moore+song+means) Does what it says in the title - and goes deep! (way beyond the plain old superficial harmony concepts peddled - sorry - by Pedler :-))

Walter Everett: [Rock's Tonal Systems] (http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.04.10.4/mto.04.10.4.w_everett.html) More stuff to raise the eyebrows of any rock musician. "Wow - we really do all that?"

Paul F Berliner: [Thinking in Jazz] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Jazz-Infinite-Improvisation-Ethnomusicology/dp/0226043819/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151218&sr=1-1&keywords=thinking+in+jazz) Not a music theory book in the usual sense, but discusses how jazz musicians think about improvisation.

I took theory classes 15 years ago, and don't remember what text I used, but it was pretty generic as I recall. I'm thinking of any sort of classical music theory introductory text intended for use in a university course, since they will all probably begin with the same sort of progression of things which logically arises when describing how diatonic music works.


I did a quick search, and this is the sort of text I have in mind:


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393930815/


That one looks very good, and, looking at the table of contents, I'd say the Part I: Elements of Music is the essential part to familiarize with for the basics and then Part II: Diatonic Harmony and Tonicization would expand those ideas in the first part to show how those basics are applied in diatonic music harmonization (basically how to create nice-sounding chord progressions based on diatonic scales).


I would avoid books that are targeted to a specific instrument, or a more modern type of music - like guitar theory, jazz theory, blues piano theory, etc. Not that these books aren't good too, but I've seen plenty of guitar theory books that describe the basics in wacky ways, or in ways that are not really universally applied to all music. Classical theory books will mostly all be the same, and be a solid introduction to these very basics. If you see one that is 20 years old for two bucks at a yard sale it would likely be fine.


In my opinion starting to learn theory from this standpoint of classical music is a great way to start. There are a million ways to learn theory, and this might not be the preferred route for everyone, but it's so good in my opinion because Classical, Baroque, etc. - these early music forms were all about consonance, about how to make harmonic progressions and melodies, and so on, that were pleasing to the ear. They developed these stringent rules to describe methods for arranging sounds to make very pleasing compositions, rules which are very effective at what they are intended for. Once you learn these rules, it makes everything else so much clearer as to why other types of music that break every one of these rules are so effective.


It's maybe like learning to draw a face - you would probably start with learning to draw a face you are looking at, and making your drawing copy it as closely as you can. It's not easy to draw a realistic-looking face, and takes some practice to get it right, to make it look pleasing to people who spend their lives looking at faces and learning their intricacies. If you jump right into trying to do a stylized, artsy rendering of a face, it probably won't be very convincing, since you never learned how to draw a pleasing face to begin with! It would look like a child's drawing, certainly not realistic, but also not very interesting because it's not very sophisticated in how it goes about presenting that face.

Well, all of that stuff you've studied so far (modes, scales, note names) is NOT the bulk of what music theory is all about. Those are just definitions and the basic musical vocabulary. You have to understand English words, and what English letters look like before you try and write down an English sentence, right? The same goes for music theory. Trying to write down a chord progression is impossible without knowing this basic terminology, let alone understanding why you would use certain chords in certain places during that progression. The beginning sucks, but it gets so much better very quickly. I think the best thing you could do is expedite the process of learning these basic terms so you can fully engage with the “good stuff”.

You can do that here:

https://www.amazon.com/AB-Guide-Music-Theory-Part/dp/B004NWH0CW/ref=nodl_

Reading the book takes about a day, two days if you’re taking notes. Totally worth it.

It seems like you are looking for the “why (you would do BLANK)”, in music theory rather then a “what (this BLANK is)”. The good news is, the majority of all of music theory deals with the “why” rather then the “what”. None of these “why” concepts are hard “rules”, however, just what people have observed to typically happen over the past few hundred years in western music.

Harmony, Composition/form and Orchestration/arranging are the main fields of theoretical study, but were just going to focus you in on the first two. If you’re looking for rigorous study, look for the textbooks that major universities use, preferably textbooks that have an accompanying workbook with exercises in it. If you’re looking for something more casual, here are some of my suggestions:

Start here:

https://www.artofcomposing.com/how-to-compose-music-part-six-simple-functional-harmony

Then here:

http://openmusictheory.com/contents.html

Skip through the “strict 2 voice composition” and “strict 4-voice Composition” sections for now and go straight to the “Harmony” section. After that hit the “thematic structure in classical style” section and go nuts. Those two articles were pretty mind blowing for me. There’s a ton of more stuff there that’s really cool as well. If you don’t understand what’s going on, the “Fundamentals” section can bring you up to speed.

Here’s a solid beginners Harmony Book:

The Songwriter's Workshop: Harmony https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634026615/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_pcYKAbPQK5Z9M

Here’s a solid beginners Composition Book:

Melody in Songwriting: Tools and Techniques for Writing Hit Songs (Berklee Guide) https://www.amazon.com/dp/063400638X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_MbYKAb6XE2FPG

Both are super useful and practical. You’ll start learning things you can apply right away.

After that you could do read this book here if you want a more in depth look into how motives can develop and the logic behind compositional “form”:

Fundamentals of Musical Composition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0571196586/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_neYKAbH8HCFKN

You can find this one for free on the internet somewhere.

>I'm trying to put together a plan of materials to go through with the intention of becoming an "expert" (very adept, lets say graduate level) in theory over the next several years.

So, at minimum, you'll need to know tonal (Schenkerian) analysis and post-tonal analysis. The fourth edition of Joseph Straus' Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory is good for post-tonal. My Schenkerian class didn't use a text, but Cadwallader and Gagne seems to be a thing now.

At the graduate level, studies are motivated by the student's research interests. It sounds like you are interested in what Dmitri Tymoczko calls "the extended common practice."

For breadth, read journals and publications. MTO is free, Spectrum is a big one, and so it JMT. Here are the last five recipients of the Wallace Berry Award (and you can read more here):

Steven Vande Mooretele - The Romantic Overture and Musical Form from Rossini to Wagner

Daniel Harrison - Pieces of Tradition: An Analysis of Contemporary Tonal Music

Ruth DeFord - Tactus, Mensuration, and Rhythm in Renaissance Music

Jack Boss - Schoenberg's Twelve-Tone Music: Symmetry and the Musical Idea

Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis - On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind

Given your interests, I'd definitely read the Daniel Harrison book.

/u/Jay13232 mentioned Persichetti. If you're going to read it, do so after you get a handle on set theory (from Straus). It's a good book, but our modern methodology is better for describing that repertoire in my opinion. Persichetti and Hindemith are like whacking nails into a board with a wrench (using ideas appropriated from tonality to describe music that doesn't follow those principles). Allen Forte, John Rahn, Robert Morris, and Howard Hanson gave us a proper set of hammers.

>It's perhaps the least romantic gift ever

Hahahahaha! I would definitely agree, though—I think the CHWMT would be an excellent book. If she goes through any sort of History of Theory course (which most PhD programs do), I can't imagine she wouldn't use this book. Even if she didn't have such a course, this book is a collection of (with perhaps one exception) excellent essays written by top scholars on almost every major theoretical approach or issue in the history of Western music.

I won't speak for other sub-disciplines—vornska's suggestions are definitely some of the central books in present theoretical studies—but let me make some suggestions for books more oriented towards Schenkerian analysis.

Schenker's Free Composition — this is Schenker's magnum opus in which he lays out his mature theory. For any Schenkerian, this is definitely a Bible of sorts, and a must-have. Just be sure, if you end up purchasing this, to get both volumes; one volume is the text and the second is the examples. You can also find the hardcover first English edition, sometimes even for less than the price of the two paperbacks.

Cadwallader and Gagné's Analysis of Tonal Music: A Schenkerian Approach — this has become the standard textbook for teaching Schenkerian analysis, and I still find myself referring to it after years of Schenkerian studies. A somewhat dry but very clear and beneficial book.

Schachter's Unfoldings: Essays in Schenkerian Theory and Analysis — Carl Schachter is one of the greatest Schenkerians; nearly everybody who's anybody in the world of Schenkerian analysis studied with him. This book is a wonderful collection of some of his greatest essays. His writing style is exceptional and his analysis are some of the best I've seen.

I am currently using this. It has been very good for me so far, but I don't know if you will learn "tough" sheet music in a month. I have played the piano for nearly 20 years, so I definitely understand standard music notation. This book doesn't go on and on about notation, it just gives a brief explanation and makes you go at it. Since Christmas, I feel pretty comfortable sight reading individual note lines, somewhat comfortable with intervals, and pretty good with the chords that they use most in the first 50 or so pages.

So yeah, my overall opinion is that it's effective. It's not the most exciting music to play and you might have to spend quite a lot of time on it if you hope to read notes from the whole fretboard (after almost 50 pages, I'm still only in the first 5 frets).

I've been slacking on this skill, but I can tell you what my ideal method would be for this skill. Note that aural skills were the bane of my existence as an undergraduate, and my current struggles have probably kept me from full funding at the graduate level, which is why I've been woodshedding (I'll show them! I'll show them all!)

• Buy "A New Approach to Sight Singing, 4th Ed." (because the newest editions are too expensive) http://www.amazon.com/New-Approach-Sight-Singing-Fourth/dp/B000L3K71I. Why? Because the interval of a 4th (do --> fa, re --> so, mi --> la, so --> do, la --> re, ti --> mi) feels different in each of those contexts, relative to whatever is your tonic note. For that matter, so do all other intervals. At any rate, sing through Part I of each chapter, and then Part II of each chapter, etc. Expect this to take a long time. Expect to be frustrated when the keys go outside of a comfortable range (e.g. a major 2nd which is easy in G major is incredibly difficult in the key of B, a major 3rd above)
  
  
• Buy "371 Harmonized Chorales and 69 Chorale Melodies with Figured Bass" by J.S. Bach (http://www.amazon.com/Harmonized-Chorales-Chorale-Melodies-Figured/dp/0793525748), and play three voices while singing the other. This will also take forever. Use sol-fege
  
  
• Buy MacGAMUT (http://www.macgamut.com/) MacGAMUT looks really, really outdated. But it isn't--if you use Windows you'll need to get a Virtual MIDI Synth and some SoundFonts, because the way it sound out-of-the-box will probably hurt more than help. But where MacGAMUT succeeds is in it's refusal to coddle you as a musician. Either you know it or you don't. Expect to spend dozens of hours using the program. The most vital exercises are going to Melodic Dictation and Harmonic Dictation. They are both difficult and will require you to use staff paper. But they work.
  
  
• If you are fortunate enough to be studying music at the Undergraduate level or beyond, look for "error detection" methods in your music library. If you are not fortunate enough to be studying music but you have money, you can buy something like "Error Detection: Exercises for the Instrumental Conductor" for around $200. (http://www.jwpepper.com/10087652.item#.Vy0lh76b2CM)
  
  
• Realize that ear training is different for everybody. Some people just have great aural skills, and they will treat you like dirt because they'll wonder "why can't you hear that?" Others believe that aural skills are like athletic abilities and thus cannot be trained to a consistent standard. I disagree. I do think that ear training requires devotion and it is time-consuming, and the payout is not the same now when everything is on youtube than it was in the 17th-19th centuries when you had to be able to relay information accurately to other musicians. Consider that most of the educated populace had better skills with the visual arts before the age of photography and you have a striking parallel to music before the age of recordings.

You mentioned you like jazz, feel free to hang out with us /r/Jazz

Internet is great, and there is a lot for good free ressources. You'll have to go through a bunch of crap though, it can be confusing for a beginner and takes valuable time away to an already time consuming hobby.

So here are a few books I personally recommand.

Jazzology, an encyclopedia of theory centered around jazz that you can use with any genre. It's really good.

The real book, a good way to learn jazz standards with sheets that aren't so painful, using solfège for melody and letters for chords. This is the format I use with students.

The Jazz Theory book, or anything from mark levine.

The Complete Musician is good if you can find it for cheap, which is no easy task.

The definition of perfect pitch includes knowing the names of the notes. Without this knowledge, it's just "having a good ear". A good way to practice it is picking random notes and visualizing what the chord will sound like before playing it. That vizualisation aspect is the amazing thing about absolute pitch and helps with composing. The tuning or knowing what key you're in things are cute but fairly irrelevant.

Anyway, have fun.

I know more by heart than you do. I also know how to use them.

You should check out The Guitar Grimoire series. This particular book has every mode of every 5, 6, 7, and 8 toned scale in context, in staff and tab, with the scale overview at the beginning of each scale section broken down into how the modes fit together and how they're created with super easy to translate charts and a list of chords each scale and mode works over.

It's tremendously comprehensive, as is the rest of the series. What's more, it directly shows how each example can be used in real music, because the author knows a lot of traditional theory as well as having explored set theory in a more comprehensive way than you have. He's also got books for chords, one for common chord progressions, one for exercises and more. It's a great series and highly recommended.

Edit: OH YEAH! He also relates everything from guitar back to a piano overhead shot so you can see how it lays out on the piano roll, so in a way this single book doubles for both guitar and piano.

I'd recommend this book. I don't have this particular version, but the one I've had I've used for years. It's a great quick guide to stuff like this. It won't replace a better orchestration book that covers considerations of extended technique and volume by range, etc., but you can keep it handy to always be able to figure this stuff out. Honestly, if you're curious about these kinds of things you could open your mind a huge deal just thumbing through it and getting a better ideas of how various instrument work and the notation that they might use that you're less familiar with. The first page of a given instrument or family will have range, sounding range and the transposition (octave displacement as well.

Not that this doesn't belong here per se, but you should also post this over on r/OrchestrationHub. You might get a better answer.

My answer to your question would be: a mixture of both.

My favorite book when it comes to orchestration and topics like this would be The Essential Dictionary of Orchestration. It has everything a composer or music enthusiast would need to know about just about every orchestral instrument out there, including timbre and mood-creating descriptions. It's a fantastic reference tool. (I know it looks like I'm advertising for something but I'm serious; worth every penny.)

I think theory as a whole has reached a very comfortable spot. Sure, we might still not have a tuning with perfect ratios of its harmonics on the octave, perfect fifth, mayor third, etc etc. But humanity knew how to adapt to what was already available and theory has gone beyond music to blend itself with non-functional sounds very useful for movies, video games or theater.

​

I think the guinea pigs are the people themselves: we collectively decide what we like and the people who write for the big names take note.

​

With that said there's a lot of experimentation with microtonality in both music (king gizzard & jacob collier are the first to come to my mind) and we have books that look to implement math into theory and expand whats possible:

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a geometry of music: a study in counterpoint: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195336674/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

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The geometry of rhythm

https://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Musical-Rhythm-Godfried-Toussaint/dp/1466512024/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_es_US=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&keywords=geometry+of+rhythm&qid=1563542715&s=books&sr=1-1

Yes it does, but you would have to study harmony a bit more first. Take lessons or read the excellent 'Harmony and Voice Leading' by Aldwell and Schachter: https://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Voice-Leading-Edward-Aldwell/dp/0495189758

Good luck!

I would say print it yourself too - but only if you have access to a copier that you don't have to pay for!

Because yes, ink is so unethically expensive today that it's probably more cost-effective to buy it from Amazon.

When I was in college we were required to by 11 x 17 paper and there used to be one company that made it on really nice paper - very thick so you could erase and wouldn't lose your staff lines or wear a hole through the paper. And that's why printing it yourself is still good - because you can customize it - put it on the paper you want, size you want, and so on.

But if you just need "standard" basic paper, yeah I'd buy it in bulk (they do also make manuscript paper books with spiral binding).

I printed out something from my printer last night and we've bought a little heavier paper because I'm tired of the way-too-thin paper being used everywhere now to save a penny.

But when I wrote on it with pencil, I could barely see it. Either the paper is too glossy to abrade the lead off it, or the lead material in the pencil is no longer the quality pencil lead used to be (most likely the case as everything now is just made cheaply and poorly and quality is nothing).

This:

https://www.amazon.com/Standard-Wirebound-Manuscript-Paper-Green/dp/0881884995/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=manuscript+paper&qid=1567876609&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Usually covers it.

Go with the Archives or Carta brand if you want something a little nicer.

Though I want to say, even though blank manuscript paper still has it's place, you should really be becoming an expert in Finale or Sibelius in this day and age if you want a career in music, especially given you're in college.

Cadwallader/Gagne is the standard text to use. There's also the Forte book which I haven't personally used but my friends that have used it don't like it.

You could also try the Salzer/Schachter book on counterpoint: it's heavily Schenkerian and just a great read. But its goal is to instruct you in counterpoint, not in Schenkerian analysis per se...that said, counterpoint is obviously very influential on Schenker's theories and it's important to understand counterpoint to succeed at Schenkerian analysis.

I feel you. Counterpoint would certainly be a good starting point, but it almost certainly isn't going to be useful to you except as a bridge upon which you might arrive at 4-voice-land.

Bach is an incredible study in counterpoint, but you'll likely not understand how to write simply by analyzing his counterpoint (unless you're peculiarly keen on intervalic analysis and pick up on nuances like a lack of parallel 5ths and 8ves, contrary, parallel, similar or oblique motion between voices, etc).

I'm not aware of any online resources with which one can learn counterpoint (someone else might be able to direct you there).

This is the book we've used in all of my theory classes, I through IV so far It's not a particularly cheep cheap (god it's late)* book, but it's been worth it for the wealth of knowledge. It does a really good job of taking theory step by step from the smallest of pieces (notes on a staff) to crazy complex serial compositions and other awful stuff like that ;)

If you have the patience, Harmony & Voice Leading by Aldwell & Schachter, hands down.

It depends on how much of a "Beginner" you are. I went through Music Theory for Dummies before I moved on to the above monster of a textbook. The Shaping of Musical Elements and its second volume are also some recommendations. However, they also require a deal of patience (and possibly a knowledgeable friend/teacher if you'd like your work examined). The aforementioned Laitz book is also a great text worth of perusal.

I wish you the best of luck in your learning ventures!

Ditto to this...learning Schenkerian analysis is more like learning to play an instrument than learning to use Roman numerals, for example. It's nearly impossible to get good at it without a Jedi master holding your hand, as it were. Most of the noted Schenkerians working today can trace a direct line back to Schenker himself, and it's rare to find someone doing really good Schenkerian analysis today that didn't learn from one of the 2nd-generation Schenkerians. The C&G text is the best out there, but there are very few hard and fast rules with Schenkerian analysis, so it's exceedingly difficult to learn from a book (do, however, avoid the Forte & Gilbert textbook, and absolutely do not attempt to learn Schenkerian analysis by reading Free Composition).

Incidentally, what textbook did you (OP) learn from originally? I'd recommend getting a copy of the Aldwell/Schachter harmony text. Carl Schachter is the most important Schenkerian alive today (he learned from Felix Salzer, who was a student of Schenker's), and this harmony textbook, while not actually Schenkerian, will help a lot in grasping some basic concepts. You might also take a look at Robert Gauldin's textbook, which includes some basic Schenker instruction (if I remember correctly...I don't have a copy handy). There are plenty of us Schenkerians hanging around here in the wings, so we can probably help a lot (and I haven't gotten into a good Schenker argument in a while!).

Here's a couple that I've found useful:

• Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition by Michael Miller - http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Music-Composition/dp/1592574033/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418209745&sr=1-3&keywords=music+composition+for+dummies&pebp=1418209748985 – this is the first book I read on composing and I found it was a great introductory text. Not too heavy, entertaining but still informative. Will provide you with a basic foundation to build upon.
  
  
• Fundamentals of Music Composition by Arnold Schoenberg - http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Musical-Composition-Arnold-Schoenberg/dp/0571196586 – this one is more theoretical but packed full of good information. A classic.
  
  
• Composing Music, A New Approach by William Russo - http://www.amazon.com/Composing-Music-A-New-Approach/dp/0226732169/ref=pd_sim_b_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=1ZNR3GJFDSRX6Z2PGS4R – this one's a bit more modern and full of practical exercises, will get you composing straight away.
  
  And the one I'm reading at the moment, Jazz Composition and Arranging in the Digital Age by Richard Sussman and Michael Abene - http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Composition-Arranging-Digital-Age/dp/0195381009/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418209939&sr=1-1&keywords=jazz+composition+and+arranging
  
  Hope that helps!

One thing you could do is get a chorale book - they are mostly note-against-note four part settings of melodies. Coupled with generally simple progressions, and that the fact that there are very few non-chord tones like passing tones and the like, it makes for a very good starting point for basic harmonic analysis.

Many countries have their own chorale books with texts in the native language, sometimes published by the church, on IMSLP the only one I found relatively quickly was an old English one: http://imslp.org/wiki/The_Chorale_Book_for_England_%28Various%29

When you want something slightly more advanced you can start looking at chorale settings outside of chorale books, for example this collection with Bach chorales (I use it for sight reading and figured bass reading, plus it's good to have such a large collection to beat people over the head with when you run into voice leading misconceptions): http://www.amazon.com/Harmonized-Chorales-Chorale-Melodies-Figured/dp/0793525748

Not all chorale books have that great harmonisations (being from Sweden I have a Swedish one which truth be told contains some pretty crappy ones), but the one up on IMSLP looked to be pretty decent.

musictheory.net has some lessons on chord progressions and such which might be of help.


edit: here are a whole bunch of Bach chorales on IMSLP: http://imslp.org/wiki/Chorale_Harmonisations,_BWV_1-438_%28Bach,_Johann_Sebastian%29 , once again though they might be a bit hard to start out with.

nnngh I see what you're asking, but it's really just plain old theory about keys and then we can get a bit more complex.

I write atonal music which uses all 12 tones freely, but I still use the rules of the road to guide my decisions. You shouldn't ever throw pitches in willy nilly.

Buy these books. They're produced by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music here in the UK. They are AMAZING and are a complete guide to everything you need to know. Heck, I'm doing music at degree level and I sometimes still find them useful.

1- http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Guide-Music-Theory-Vol/dp/1854724460

2 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Guide-Music-Theory-Part/dp/B00144C78E

Justin's Practical Music Theory PDF is an excellent resource.

If you'd like to take things further, and as Justin recommend on the site, I'd also highly recommend MI's Harmony and Theory:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0793579910/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486590104&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=harmony+and+theory&dpPl=1&dpID=617snwalTUL&ref=plSrch

The Complete Idiot's Guide is a surprisingly good resource. I taught myself from this book in 6th grade and ended up with a strong command of theory before high school.

Once you get what you can from that, try
Kostka and Payne. From my understanding this is a very popular book for college theory classes. It also has a workbook that can be useful.

If you spend 20 minutes a day studying theory, you will have a solid foundation in no time.

harmony is far more complex than any one post can explain to you. get a good book. i recommend Tonal Harmony. you can get it used for a good price. you will need to know some basics, like how to read music.

If you would like to end with Chopin, you only need to study tonal theory. So twelve tone topics are not of any use since that topic is 20th century, after tonality.

If you didn't do voice leading (SATB harmony): Are you interested in voice leading? If you want to get to the more advanced topics of tonal theory, you'll need to cover that. If so I would suggest this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Musicians-Guide-Theory-Analysis-Third/dp/0393600491/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535936804&sr=1-1&keywords=clendinning+theory

Have you done species counterpoint? Species counterpoint will be very helpful in dealing with just about all music. I would recommend Fux's book:

https://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535936929&sr=1-1&keywords=fux+counterpoint

If you've already done species counterpoint: For more advanced counterpoint (not useful for Chopin, but necessary for anything with fugues in it, obviously) I would suggest Mann's book:

https://www.amazon.com/Study-Fugue-Dover-Books-Music/dp/0486254399

For a complete discussion of forms I would suggest Berry's book:

https://www.amazon.com/Form-Music-2nd-Wallace-Berry/dp/0133292851

For an in depth and modern discussion of sonata theory (remember that symphonies are also often times in sonata form), I would suggest Hepokoski's book:

https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Sonata-Theory-Deformations-Late-Eighteenth-Century/dp/0199773912/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535937360&sr=1-1&keywords=hepokoski+sonata

If you already know species counterpoint and voice leading you can study Schenkarian Analysis. For this there's two books I would suggest:

https://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Tonal-Music-Schenkerian-Approach/dp/0199732477/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535937496&sr=1-1&keywords=schenkerian+analysis

https://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Analysis-Schenkerian-David-Damschroder/dp/0393283798/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535937488&sr=1-2&keywords=schenkerian+analysis

​

If you're interested in composition, that's the other side of the coin and so all the above are of limited use. Let me know if you want books for composition.

Might be a voice-leading thing, might be a case of your use of inversions being a bit haphazard.

For less haphazard use of inversions, hit the theory books and may God have mercy on your soul.
For voice-leading you could try:

"Tendency Tones and Functional Dissonances"
"Tonal Degrees and Degree Tendencies"
"Advanced Music Theory Lesson 2: Scale Tendencies"

TBH the clearest explanation I've seen is in Harmony and Voice Leading (unless you're flush with cash just buy a 2nd-hand copy of an older edition - music theory hasn't changed that much since 1988 - you'll save yourself a small fortune). And that book will also teach you about inversions, chord progressions, sequences, &c albeit in Classical style. You'll need to be able to read bass & treble clef.

C13 question. Root, 3rd, 7th and 13th are enough. You can add other stuff as well if you like. See /u/lasercrusters post for additional details.

Learning shd be interactive, you read, you play, you write on staff paper... The FAQ listsings are excellent. here are some boosk i like, for people that like to yellow highlighter all over their books

http://www.amazon.com/Edlys-Music-Theory-Practical-People/dp/0966161661/



http://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Theory-Comprehensive-Musicians-Essential/dp/0793579910/

Usually a good idea to include:

• The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory
  
  
• Strunk's Source Readings in Music History
  
  For the kids to read:
  
  
• Music in Ancient Greece and Rome
  
  
• On the interpretation of Greek music (free on archive.org)
  
  Accessible primary sources:
  
  
• The Manual of Harmonics of Nicomachus the Pythagorean
  
  
• Ptolemy Harmonics: Translation and Commentary
  
  You might want to get/read:
  
  
• Apollo's Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
  
  
• The Science of Harmonics in Classical Greece
  
  
• Ancient Greek Music
  
  
• Ancient Greek Music: A New Technical History
  
  
• Greek Reflections on the Nature of Music
  

The guitar grimiore really opened my mind to music theory for the guitar.
http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0825821711
It has charts for scales that you will never need and the opening chapters go over music theory in a really dry and simple fashion. I found mine at a used book store. The best thing about it is understanding intervals by mainly focusing on half steps. This book isn't good for other instruments. But if you stick to the charts you get a real good feel for how these arrangements of intervals sound AND good muscle memory practice for your fingers.

I don't know what you mean by the "science" of it, but Gardner Read's Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice is a great reference (and covers microtones). Someone also recently recommended Elaine Gould's Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation to me, which is much more recent, but I don't know anything else about it.

there's a little tiny book here http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Dictionary-Orchestration-The-Series/dp/0739000217 ... it's really little but addresses the range and sound OFEVERYINSTRUMENTEVER. good luck

These are pretty popular and seem to fit your description. I own them both myself.
http://www.amazon.com/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z

If you are confronted by a mode, run away. Learn the way the greats actually learned back in the day:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDdKVro-7hS8cMjBrcqaAMQ/videos?view=0&sort=da&flow=grid

Unless you only care about post "kind of blue" Jazz, Levine's Jazz theory is a detrimental distraction:

http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.00.6.1/mto.00.6.1.rawlins.html?q=mto/issues/mto.00.6.1/mto.00.6.1.rawlins.html

It's hard to imagine a work which thrown so much real jazz and so many great players under the bus.

This looks alot less harmful:

https://www.amazon.com/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782

poor guy still needs modes though. My favorite theory book, which since you know piano, might be interesting. It's a great supplement to Barry Harris Jazz theory.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1423412494/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks that was exactly what i was looking for and also explains the length of the exceptions! Perfect!

Gould, is that in reference of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Behind-Bars-Definitive-Guide-Notation/dp/0571514561

I wanted to improve my sight reading so I got this book and worked through it. Highly recommended and I think it will work better than an app.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0876390114?keywords=%26%2334%3Ba%20modern%20method%20for%20guitar%26%2334%3B&qid=1453607443&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

Most college music theory texts have a companion workbook filled with quizzes and practice problems/questions. Where I went to undergrad we used Tonal Harmony and the school I'm going to now uses The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis. Not sure if that qualifies as being "accessible," but it's good material if you're willing to part with all those dollars. Text books sure are expensive.

This is, to put it simply, awesome: http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~godfried/rhythm-and-mathematics.html

I also recommend his book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Geometry-Musical-Rhythm-Makes/dp/1466512024

As Elaine Gould establishes in her book:

>Notes are easiest to read and to pitch when they are spelled according to the following conventions, whether or not the music has a tonal context:

>
>i. Use the most familiar intervals — perfect, minor and major — rather than augmented and diminished intervals
>
>ii. Chromatic-scale figures use sharps to ascend, flats to descend
>
>iii. Spell stepwise figures as a scale, i.e. as adjacent pitch letters: F# G Ab or D Eb Fb, not Gb G G# or Eb E Eb.

This book is a really good guide to music theory applied to the guitar. Well worth the investment.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011

For any particular style? It sounds like you're more interested in classical -- the text for my first two years of music theory in college was this one but if you're at all interested in jazz theory I can't recommend this one enough.

THIS BOOK IS VERY GOOD!
http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Musical-Acoustics-Revised-Edition/dp/048626484X

Music composition in medieval and early renaissance, and classical period can be analysed as pattern based.

Some good books - https://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Problems-Practices-Renaissance/dp/0816669481

https://www.amazon.com/Music-Galant-Style-Robert-Gjerdingen/dp/0195313712

https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-History-Western-Music-Theory/dp/0521686989

The same can be said for many traditional/ethnic music styles. (Get any good book on X folk/pop/ethnic style depending on your interests,)

This one is great. Very deep.

Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics

Some of my favorites:

Messaien - The Techniques of my Musical Language

Straus - Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory

Ross - The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

Chinen - Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century

Gottschalk - Experimental Music Since 1970

Perle - Serial Composition and Atonality

Xenakis - Formalized Music: Thought a d Mathematics in Music

Mann - The Study of Fugue

Part Two of Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments, by C.P.E. Bach

Do you have a good edition you can point me to for this? Would this Reimenschneider edition be ok?

Personally, I like these. Have been coming back to them for years:

Music Theory

Guitar Fretboard Workbook

Most recent resource:
Circle of Fifths for Guitarists

I'm a theory n00b of the highest order; this is way beyond anything i could handle, but anyway…

Schoenberg wrote books on composition and harmony.

http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Musical-Composition-Arnold-Schoenberg/dp/0571196586

Check the sidebar under theory apps and books. I haven't finished a single book yet so can't really comment on what's best, but there are some listed there. I've ordered " The Musician’s Guide to Theory & Analysis", you can find that on google books I think and browse it.

If you'd like something physical, you can instead purchase a manuscript notebook to write in.

https://www.amazon.com/Manuscript-Paper-Standard-Wire-Bound-Stave/dp/0881884995

It's too complex for a post or even a series of posts. You're going to need a book. I'd recommend The Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony and Jazzology. I wouldn't recommend anything by Mark Levine.

My approach is classically oriented and requires an ability to read music at a level found say at the beginning of intermediate piano lesson books-just to give an example of what I'm thinking of here.

J. S. Bach four part Chorales-tough to follow up on this. But understanding the rules becomes a task of inscrutable difficulty so these two books might help-could need require some additional tutoring on the side.

Robert Ottman's Elementary Harmony -Theory and Practice approachable but lacks some thoroughness. Available at the online booksellers too.

Harmony and Voice Leading (2nd Edition) /Aldwell and Schachter -very thorough, steep learning curve.

​

Here you go ;)

I think you will fine Dmitri Tymoczko's A Geometry of Music much more substanial. Or perhaps Godfried T. Toussaint's The Geometry of Musical Rhythm.

I believe anyone studying counterpoint should read Johann Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum, nowadays published as two separate volumes translated and edited by Alfred Mann, namely The Study of Counterpoint and The Study of Fugue.

> "Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice"

While we're talking about notation books, I can't not mention 'Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation' by Elaine Gould. It has 46% more pages than the Read and was published in 2011, so when it comes to books about music notation, it's about as relevant as you're going to get!

Look at some of the Chorales in riemenschneider, have a look at what Bach does.

check out the table of contents of this book using amazon's "look inside feature"

i'd have them do a chapter or so of this book every week:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0793579910/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This: http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Grimoire-Compendium-Formulas-Scales/dp/0825821711/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462640039&sr=8-1&keywords=scale+grimoire

HAs been around for awhile, while not complete, very thorough.

Is this it?

Once you have basic music theory down all you have to do is listen and write

http://smile.amazon.com/Manuscript-Paper-Standard-Wire-Bound-Stave/dp/0881884995/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418230764&sr=8-1&keywords=manuscript+paper

I use this thing. I'm still figuring out the tool-set though, I might need to take a few more tutorials.

http://www.amazon.com/Manuscript-Paper-Standard-Wire-Bound-Stave/dp/0881884995/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406101960&sr=8-1&keywords=Hal+leonard+sheet+music

I'm not sure if this is quite what you're after, but you might find C.P.E. Bach's treatise on keyboard instruments to be instructive - from what I recall, there are segments about keyboard accompaniment in there.

This isn't a video but I like this book for learning the fretboard:

http://amzn.to/2yCxJWj (affiliate link)

It covers not only the CAGED shapes but also how you can tack scales on them all around the neck. Same thing they teach at MI.

get (or pirate) "the guitar Grimoire" https://www.amazon.ca/Guitar-Grimoire-Compendium-Forumlas-Scales/dp/0825821711

Then rock out in some crazy Hungarian gypsy stuff