Hal Leonard Pocket Music Theory: A Comprehensive and Convenient Source for All Musicians Kindle Edition

The name says it, it's a pocket theory book in the sense that you won't find all the music theory that you need as music student. It's a quick reference book. The first 50 pages are very basic, you'll find information that any high school student knows, but after that it gets interesting you'll find quick information about scales and modes often used in improvisation, how to find key centers that also help you're improvisation, how to harmonize scale degrees etc. This book goes from very basic to an intermediate/ advanced level in a very short time. The explanations are very easy to understand. I highly recommend this little book.

I've revisited this book over the years and I learn more each time I do. This book doesn't explore every nook and cranny of each concept, but it has a good depth of concepts to explore and each concept is adequately, yet concisely explained to give you enough to experiment with on your own. But YOU must personally explore the concepts in order to get the full value of the book's content.I found most of the low ratings and reviews highly misleading, except for the negative Kindle version reviews. First, you must understand that music theory can't be learned just by reading a book; music theory must be heard to be fully understood. If you don't experiment with the concepts by playing them then you'll miss the point. After all, music is an auditory phenomenon. It takes time to connect the theoretical concepts to what you're hearing.

This is an excellent compact reference. It is, for the most part, very clearly written, and well organized, and it covers a lot of ground, from the very basic (pitch, intervals), through some intermediate (key areas, modes) to some not-so-basic (altered scales, chord and scale substitution). I'm sure there's still more advanced stuff that it doesn't cover... but I'm not there, yet, either. I started using this as a supplementary reference, to dig deeper into some theory I was being taught by a jazz guitar teacher, but eventually got familiar enough with the material that I could effectively read and understand, from the book, topics that he had never gotten around to discussing. In other words, I went from looking something up in the index, and reading a few pages, to reading whole swathes of the book. It has taught me a lot. (By the way, it has a really excellent index, also. That is becoming increasingly rare, in books on all subjects.) The one downside is the book isn't very well constructed (it is cheap, after all), and the pages are kind of falling out. Not something I'm going to take off a star for, though.

"Pocket Music Theory" is a wonderful little theory book. After playing the guitar for many years, I can find the right places for lead accompaniment on the guitar's neck for just about any song. But I finally came to the realization that it was time to figure out more about why those were the right notes. Bought and tried various systems that ensured an easy understanding of musical theory. They didn't. "Pocket Music Theory" explains it. Music is complicated stuff, and this book doesn't hide that fact. You probably won't be skimming through this one. I didn't. If you're curious about what makes music work, consider this little book-- it can't help but reap big benefits!I got the pocket version in both paperback and Kindle versions: Hal Leonard Pocket Music Theory: A Comprehensive and Convenient Source for All Musicians There is also an expanded version available for the Kindle: Harmony and Theory: A Comprehensive Source for All Musicians (Essential Concepts (Musicians Institute).)

This is a handy guide, whose small size makes it great to include with in your instrument bag/case. I'm picking up music after many years, and this reference helps me consolidate what my music instructor is teaching me in our sessions. I may have it spiral bound at Staples so i can lay it flat while i play. It's not quite shirt-pocket size because it needs some room for the graphics, but this is about as compact as it can get, and the price is great for its practicality. Highly recommended!

I wanted a music theory book that gives me a quick sanity check so I can ensure I'm not learning incorrectly. This book is well organized and covers most all chord, progression, scale, rhythm topics a player would need for sanity checks.This book isn't a college textbook nor the complete musical reference but it fits in my pocket so I can't imagine ANY book being all of these things.I would recommend this book (paperback not kindle).

I knew this book was going to be small, as I saw the dimensions of the book before I bought it. What I didn't realize is that the font would be soooooo small that reading the book would be more challenging than learning the theory within. The text, aside from the headings, was light grey print and, being so small, was difficult to read for me. The index looked like it contained a nice wealth of information, but wasn't all inclusive. Didn't see anything about Circle of Fifths or Cadences, and more, but not having read much of the book I couldn't tell how well written it was, or what may have been missing. Unfortunately, I had to return the book. So, if you have very good eyesight, don't be too put off by my 2-stars.

An incredible example of saying only just enough. Collapses western harmony into a short read.Highly recommended.It had the effect of making me want to pick up my guitar.

It's a good book but it's a shame that it apparently has now become the norm to use words like half step and whole step instead of semi tone and tone. Is it really too hard to just stick with how music has been taught for centuries.

Contains what you need but is in small type

A very handy little book, small enough to carry around, with a wealth of useful information.

This book is great just what i needed. Really pleased. Item was well packaged.Thanks very much.

New Great value for the money. Thanks.