Basic Music Theory, 4th Edition

How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music

By: Jonathan Harnum

Narrated by: Jonathan Harnum

What do all those lines and squiggles and dots mean? Basic Music Theory takes you through the sometimes confusing world of written music with a clear, concise style that is at times funny and always friendly. The book is written by an experienced music teacher using methods refined over more than 30 years in schools and in his private teaching studio. Lessons are fun, well-paced, and enjoyable. Whether you're a beginner of any age, whether you're an experienced player who wants to bone up on your theory, or whether you teach music and need a fun way to do it, you'll find this book valuable and will refer to it again and again.

©2013 Jonathan D. Harnum (P)2017 Jonathan D. Harnum

A good intruduction and academic book.

Thanks God I finded this book. It is very helpful, undestandable, practical and simple. Thanks.

Great intro and review of music theory

Even as an audio book, this is a great intro to many theory concepts for most amateurs like me. I knew just a little theory before reading this, but am confident enough to research more complex concepts.

Not particularly useful as just an audio book

No music was used in the making of this AUDIO book about MUSIC. Constantly referring to supplemental printed material but never uses any examples of actual music. Seems kinda silly.

Amazing

For someone who is an intermediary guitar player , I have some familiarity with reading music , so this book will help me reframe , and remember stuff I forgot
Is amazing how the author was able to make a subject that is completely visual , and transcribe to audio
I really appreciate , thanks for the author , and audible making this available in audio format ,

ok reference, hardcopy probably better

the book continually references illustrations in the hardcopy version as well as material on the website, which makes it challenging if you are listening without access to those materials (walking along or driving in your car). i found it somewhat helpful. his other book, The Practice of Practice, is much better.

Really well thought out

I throughly enjoyed this audiobook. It gives an excellent intro to music theory and is presented in easy consumable blocks. There is not a lot of fluff here and the author is straight to the point. I also enjoyed the quizzes at the end of each section.

I also purchased the Kindle version for $7 which is a great way to read the concepts and practice them after being introduced the concepts from the audio version.

Highly recommend.

Helpful to build your library of concepts

If you don’t know what a dominant 7 is, might be worth your time. If you do, you might not need this book.
Author very nice guy and informative. But you’ll need more if you’re serious about theory. He spent too much time on easy stuff, and only scratches the surface of the difficult stuff.

painless theory

he seems like a nice guy, gives lots of resources. The book seemed well researched.

Missing PDF

It is regrettable, that PDF with visual references is not included with the book. Author repeatedly sends listener to his website for necessary visual information, but that website is truly unusable and just persistently tries to lure you in more subscriptions. Poor job!

Finally someone I like to learn from !

My quest to master music theory starts this decade and after two previous book I thought that this route would be fruitless.
But I want to thank Mr. Harnum for creating a very good course here.
Sometimes... silence makes the review.
I have never left a review for a audio book, till now! I feel you should give this book a try! Darrin B)