An Understandable Guide to Music Theory: The Most Useful Aspects of Theory for Rock, Jazz, and Blues Musicians

by Charles Bufe and Annabeth Albert

This guide explains the most useful aspects of theory in clear, nontechnical language. Areas covered include scales (major, minor, modal, synthetic), chord formation, chord progression, melody, song... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1884365000
• ISBN13: 9781884365003
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: See Sharp Press
• Length: 74 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.5" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Good concise addition to your other Theory books

This is a short and concise book that covers considerable material. As such, I found this book to be a good ADDITION to my library (I also recommend Tom Kolb's book for music theory that is more guitar centric). Note that I highlighted the work addition, this book combined with my other books and my guitar lesson's proved to be a useful reference. I have found that reading the same material written different ways helps me to better understand it. That said, I do not recommend this book if it is to be the ONLY music theory book you plan on purchasing. However, if you are looking to augment your library, or to clarify some concepts, it would be a good choice.

The to-the-point theory book I have needed...

I found this book very useful. I learned basic scale and chord theory a long time back and had those integrated into my playing. But I have been confused about modes, clusters various scale families and higher level ideas such as pointillism, etc. especially found in jazz. This book cuts through the clutter found in most books by getting straight to the subjects and often citing their use in blues, rock or jazz standards. There are also suggestions about how to use these ideas in your own arrangements or solos. The book is short and to the point (74 sparse pages, multiple music examples/diagrams on almost every page): Scales and scale families with good discussion of intervals ~ 25% of content Chord construction from scale theory ~ 15% of content Chord progressions including brief sections on voice leading, subs, other topics. ~ 20% Melody, Song forms, Musical devices, and Instrumentation guidelines ~ 40% Good Bibliography with comments - 1 page One criticism I think is legit against the book is that it is probably too brief for any given subject, except possibly scale theory and usage with/in chords. For example, the section on substitutions is a page and a half; voice leading, a page and a half. If you want a helicopter view of everything relevant to the serious contemporary musician - with some teasers into areas of theory that are less practical - this is a good book. If you need to study any topic in depth, it will only get you started. This is the book I was looking for. I plan to use the bibliography for more directed study.

5 stars without reservation

This book removes a lot of mystery. It does require some note reading and/but is not instrument specific. It is by far the must understandable generic theory book I have ever read. (www.NorthernMusician.com)

An excellent guide

The reviews from "Jazz Player" and "Guitar Player" are correct. This book delivers exactly what it promises: a lot of very useful information for the performing (or would-be-performing) musician in an easily understandable format. This is an excellent short guide.

excellent little book -- bizarre reviews

I picked this up on a lark at the local bookstore. Its perfect if you want to make music yourself and need to learn the really useful parts of music theory. The author discusses examples from many styles (Bartok, Allman Bros., Devo, etc.) and he does not waste your time with anything unimportant or pedantic. I really appreciated his efforts to guide the reader away from overworked musical ideas, and his clear presentation. As to the spelling of quartal/cuartal, what could possibly matter less?