Edly's Music Theory For Practical People

by Ed Roseman, Edly, Peter H. Reynolds (Illustrator)

(Music Instruction). Unique, conversational and sometimes humorous, this is a theory book people will actually want to read! Presented in a full-color format with illustrations, charts, diagrams and workbook exercises, Edly's Music Theory for Practical People applies to all instrumentalists and singers, from teens to adults. Topics include: notation, natural & chromatic alphabets, scales, keys & key signatures, intervals, chords, ear-training, and much more. This third edition also features new advanced topics, such as: voicings, chord extensions & alterations, voice leading, reharmonization, melodic harmonization, and harmonic analysis. This book transforms the topic that music students love to hate into something they can't help but enjoy!

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Ed Roseman is the author, publisher, and primary distributor of the well-loved books "Edly's Music Theory for Practical People" and "Edly Paints the Ivories Blue." The theory book is used by individuals and high school, college, and community theory classes throughout the United States. He was music columnist for the Maine Times in 1992, and his article "Teach Your Children Well" was published in the 1/93 issue of Keyboard magazine as a guest editorial. He is also a composer of many styles of music, some of which incorporate world music elements, and has written for diverse acoustic ensembles as well as for synthesizers. Commercially, his music can be heard on videos for clients such as Fablevision Animation Studios and Motorola Codex. His spirited and quirky "Uncle Stumble's Dance" and "Sweedler's Dance" were premiered by the Community Orchestra of the Portland Symphony in 1999.

He has performed extensively as a solo multi-instrumentalist in California and elsewhere, as well as with the folk music show band Shanachie. He played on, produced, and arranged much of the material for (Klezmer band) the Casco Bay Tummlers' debut CD.

He teaches privately at his studio in Kennebunkport, Maine, and is currently teaching the York County Regional Fine Arts Gifted and Talented Composition and Arranging Class.

Having attended the Berklee College of Music and the University of Michigan at Interlochen, he received his B.A. with honors in music from Wesleyan University. Major areas of study included Western classical and jazz composition and theory, Ghanaian drumming, and solkattu (South Indian percussion solfege), as well as forays into Celtic and Chinese musics. He is an overtone singer, and plays bones, among other instruments.

Reviews

[Spike Gomes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had this book for awhile, and while I've used it as a reference, I decided to read it cover to cover. It was originally recommended to me from a musician's forum, as one of the better books on music theory. Indeed it is pretty good, with some caveats.

1. This book is for people with a beginner to intermediate level understanding of music theory. It's not really the best introduction for someone with zero experience with music because it demands that you understand certain key things right off the bat.

2. It sticks to pretty much what it says on the label. You're not going to get anything discussing time and rhythm here, like in most books of basic music theory, even though technically it's outside the purview.

3. It moves fast. After each chapter, do the exercises, and then go and woodshed it out with your particular instrument (which might be a bit tricky for folks playing non-chordophone instruments. This book is more about application of music theory than really having a high end understanding of it.

4. If you're like me, much of the book is a bit of an intellectual exercise. I'm just trying to understand enough to create a melody and harmonize a simple song. This book gives you enough of a grounding that with work, you can wrap your mind around the jazziest of chords and basic improvisational playing. That's more than I needed, but nice to know, nonetheless.

5. Probably, the only real downside for me, is that this book is really made for aspiring musicians and not songwriters looking for ways of figuring out an interesting melody and harmonizing to it. However, if you're just in it to jam, know what you're jamming, and how to figure out how to play a new song quickly and then embellish it to make it your own interpretation, then this is the music theory book for you.

In summation, if I had to pick one book on music theory, this one wouldn't be it, but if I were to create a list of ten books to recommend, it certainly would be on the list of "must-haves".

[Dominique · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this book. I really like how it was written and the humor and frankness the author writes with. For somewhat of a dry subject, it was pretty entertaining. I felt like the first few chapters were like, “yes, yes, got it, know that, makes sense” and then it increased in intensity and it wasn’t quite enough explanation or information or examples for me. The chapters are short and cover a lot of information. You have to have a good grasp of everything in there before moving on, and that’s probably my downfall that I hadn’t completely absorbed everything before moving on. I’d have to go back or just plow ahead mostly getting it. This is a workbook. You’ll need a pencil to fill it out. I also had to sit by the piano for many chapters and play things out so I could hear it. It made more sense that way. There was a lot geared toward writing music too, and that wasn’t what I was looking for. So this book was work to get through and took a long time to read even though it’s not a super long book.
I wouldn’t recommend this for music beginners. It goes pretty in-depth. I think it definitely has its appeal and draw but for the right type of musician.

[Thor Rudbek · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the real deal - a Music Theory book that actually delivers on what it promises. Really helpful in untangling a subject that can get complicated fast in the wrong hands.

[Vish Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's a blurb from my blog, where I wrote about this book before joining Goodreads:

This book has been recommended several times by a Talkbass member named JTE. I didn’t look into it until the other night because I have Music Theory for Dummies downstairs, and Bass Guitar for Dummies upstairs. Well, I found it online and realized that I leafed through this years ago at Barnes & Noble, but didn’t buy it then, because I didn’t yet know what music theory was or how it applied to bass. I thought, at the time, that I needed to look at bass-specific books (how-to-play). Now that I’ve read more, I can understand its value. Even more, I looked at some of the inside contents on the author’s website and really like how its presented, so I grabbed it. Amazingly, Amazon shipped it yesterday, and its supposed to arrive today. Its travelling halfway around the country to get here in what I consider record time.

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After having gone through the book, I can say that it illustrates many music theory topics in memorable, evocative ways which help to enable understanding and recall of the topics. I really enjoy Edly's way of writing and would recommend this as a companion book to any musical method book that a student/learner uses for general instruction.

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A link to my original blog entry can be found here:

http://uglybass.wordpress.com/2011/10...

[Elizabeth]

For a few years, I got to teach a very fun (at least to me...) theory course to college freshman who needed a little extra something to get their formal musical skills in order—nothing too crazy. Just enough so that they were comfortable reading music and thinking about form, melody and contour, expressions and meaning—skills that I truly believe most people already have, even if they don't have the formal vocabulary to explain it. I tried several different popular theory books and never actually settled on one, though I did use this one two years in a row. It covers all the basics (just as Music Theory for Dummies does), has a light-hearted voice (same), and included some workbook exercises in each chapter (a nice touch). The explanations are concise enough to not be overwhelming and there are some very charming illustrations. In the end, however, I don't recall this book standing out any more than any other similar theory book. It works just fine.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In trying to figure out a more exciting way to teach music theory, this book intrigued me. As I went through it I was reminded of things that I had forgotten and got some ideas to use in my teaching. It was very worthwile.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous practical book on theory