Edly's Music Theory for Practical People

Ed Roseman illustrated by Peter Reynolds
Music EdVentures
ISBN-13: 978-0-9661616-0-2
ISBN-10: 0-9661616-0-2


The world is full of people who have learned to play music by ear, or to read tabulature for guitar or other stringed instruments but not musical notation. Ed Roseman has taken on the daunting task of teaching these folks music theory, all the while gently chiding them to learn to read music. It is an interesting effort, filled with exercises created on a computer spreadsheet, probable Appleworks by the look of it, that use the letter names of notes, CDEFGABC, instead of the little marks on five lines and four spaces of a musical staff, to teach the concepts of harmony, the circle of fifths(and fourths) scales, modes arpeggios and all that other good musical stuff that every musician should know.

He has the same exercises in music notation in each section for those who took piano lessons in elementary school or played the clarinet in junior high band, like me, can follow along that way.

Even with the Dr. Seuss like illustrations by Peter Reynolds this is a good solid grounding in music theory. All you guitar wankers out there might consider giving this book a try.