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Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory: A Complete Self-Study Course for All Musicians
Ships from USA. Will take 25-35 days
152 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2004
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257 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 8, 2023
4 ⭐
Well, well, well! Here’s a day I thought might never come!
I started reading Alfred’s on September 24, 2021 and have just completed it today. I would not, under any circumstances, recommend working through it at such a snail’s pace if it’s the only musical text you’re working from. The fact that my knowledge of any book I read over 18mths ago is questionable at best is probably a good gauge on how bad an idea that is.
Alas, this is not the only musical book I’ve been covering so I feel that most of the information in here has been “fairly” well absorbed. That said, this is very entry-level music theory and lacks depth in areas so this, as it was for me, should and could only be the beginning of your journey into music theory.
A couple of quick notes that I had which could be more than a year old but still hold true:
- I quite liked the tetrachord system of scale building as opposed to the more common (as far as I’ve seen) pentascale with notes added on top. Both are perfectly fine but the tetrachord system just makes a lot of sense to me. Kinda feels like the sensible, logical metric system vs the non-sensical imperial system.
- As I mentioned briefly above, this does lack depth in areas. On example is the section on the variety of different minor scales. The book explains how to build the different scales (natural, harmonic and melodic) but gives no information/suggestion on what the meaning of different minor scales is and/or where and why they might be used. A huge oversight in my opinion. Another area that is lacking, though this seems quite common in early theory books, is the areas on harmonising. You really never step outside the I,IV and V of the native key. There is a little discussion on passing and neighbouring tones but nothing on when to use, or what the effect might be of using, any of the other chords within a scale. A little bit of improvisation will give you an idea but I would’ve appreciated greater exploration of this. The world of music would be very boring if we only harmonised with 3 chords in a scale.
- Lastly, just a friendly consolation for anyone who finds themselves having trouble with the ear training in the book. I pushed on and attempted each and every one but to put it VERY mildly… I did NOT. DO. WELL! The last 2 or 3 were, surprisingly, not too bad but this is an area that was exposed to me as a strong weakness so I’ll be seeking some secondary sources of ear training as I continue with Music Theory. But, yeah, if you struggle with ear training, I just want you to know:
Well, well, well! Here’s a day I thought might never come!
I started reading Alfred’s on September 24, 2021 and have just completed it today. I would not, under any circumstances, recommend working through it at such a snail’s pace if it’s the only musical text you’re working from. The fact that my knowledge of any book I read over 18mths ago is questionable at best is probably a good gauge on how bad an idea that is.
Alas, this is not the only musical book I’ve been covering so I feel that most of the information in here has been “fairly” well absorbed. That said, this is very entry-level music theory and lacks depth in areas so this, as it was for me, should and could only be the beginning of your journey into music theory.
A couple of quick notes that I had which could be more than a year old but still hold true:
- I quite liked the tetrachord system of scale building as opposed to the more common (as far as I’ve seen) pentascale with notes added on top. Both are perfectly fine but the tetrachord system just makes a lot of sense to me. Kinda feels like the sensible, logical metric system vs the non-sensical imperial system.
- As I mentioned briefly above, this does lack depth in areas. On example is the section on the variety of different minor scales. The book explains how to build the different scales (natural, harmonic and melodic) but gives no information/suggestion on what the meaning of different minor scales is and/or where and why they might be used. A huge oversight in my opinion. Another area that is lacking, though this seems quite common in early theory books, is the areas on harmonising. You really never step outside the I,IV and V of the native key. There is a little discussion on passing and neighbouring tones but nothing on when to use, or what the effect might be of using, any of the other chords within a scale. A little bit of improvisation will give you an idea but I would’ve appreciated greater exploration of this. The world of music would be very boring if we only harmonised with 3 chords in a scale.
- Lastly, just a friendly consolation for anyone who finds themselves having trouble with the ear training in the book. I pushed on and attempted each and every one but to put it VERY mildly… I did NOT. DO. WELL! The last 2 or 3 were, surprisingly, not too bad but this is an area that was exposed to me as a strong weakness so I’ll be seeking some secondary sources of ear training as I continue with Music Theory. But, yeah, if you struggle with ear training, I just want you to know:
December 13, 2019
I found this book to be very straightforward and well organized. The lessons are reasonably short but very informative. The Answer Key in the back was a great aid to improving my understanding of the concepts being discussed. CDs are helpful as well.
June 24, 2020
4 1/2 Stars
May 18, 2016
This book is a great self-study music review. The music lessons are taken slowly, and written perfect for children between the 3rd and 6th grades.
Want to read
December 30, 2016A good way to refresh on the basics and beyond.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews