Learn Music Theory in 30 Days: A Guide for Beginners on How to Read Music

Amazon Customer: Best book to understand music

United Kingdom on Jan 22, 2024

John M.: I bought it for a friend with whom I sing. She didn't know how to read music. The book is excellent and particularly great for beginners.

United States on Jan 14, 2024

Kasi: It is well written and easy to understand. Due to some bug in the kindle for iPad I have skip to the end as I need to catch up another book.

United States on Dec 26, 2023

Marta: This book helped me so much! I joined a choir last September and I did not know how to read music! They allowed me to join because they were singing many songs in Spanish, my native language. It was so hard to try to follow my voice (alto) without understanding the scores!!! I decided to try harder and got the book! I cannot explain how much it helped me to understand rhythm, notes, pulse, tempo etc and follow our director!!! In January, to continue with the choir for Spring, I had to have an audition and I was successful. I ow this course (book and online companion) 80% or more of that success. Thank you so much! Now I am using book 2, Music Theory in 30 days. It is a challenge for me, but I love the way Matthew Ellul combines the written lesson, with the practice in the online companion and the listening experience!!! Thank you so much!

United States on Jul 02, 2023

Raül Cassinerio: FANTASTICO LIBRO PARA PRINCIPIANTES.

Spain on Jan 30, 2023

Diana: Just finished day 10 on grouping today! 1/3 through. Yeah!!! I used to have anxiety when i saw music sheets with lots of eighth and sixteenth groupings/beams. But I feel so much more confident now.

Though I am familiar with the content in the first 9 days lessons, the author introduced the concepts in a very logical way and order that really helps connect the dots together for me. The other music theory book i used before just tells you what it is, but this book will tell you what and why it is the way it is. And the way he builds each lesson on top of the other to tell a whole story is just brilliant. Thank you so much for all the thoughts, efforts and intentions that you put into this work!

The complimentary online material includes additional contents from the author's blog, audio examples, listening challenges, answers to exercises and what's more there is a forum for you to ask questions. The author is very active answering questions and giving advice there. He is definitely very passionate about music as well as helping others to enjoy music. The book and the complementary online course are an immense value. Everything is so well organized and...

United States on Nov 16, 2021

Schweinebärmann: Helped me a lot to learn to read notes. It’s everyday a challenge for I guess 30 days. Hint. They offer the same content on there website as an web application for free.

Germany on Jun 19, 2021

Jash: Written in a lucid manner, the book is worth the money spent. Sight reading can be intimidating for beginners like me, however this book made it easy and fun to learn. Filled with exercises, audio examples and an online community for support, readers will have rich learning experience using this book and will feel confident reading music.

India on Apr 29, 2021

Amazon Customer: This book has two elements that other books either don't have or don't do as well: breaking down certain aspects of music in a way you will understand forever and audio examples that accompany each and every single lesson.

The best way to use this book is to have your browser opened on the online companion (called "school of composition") and go through each lesson, listening to all the samples provided and going through the listening challenged and quizzes.

I suppose that the people wondering whether to buy this book or not are new to music and want to start somewhere, find a course or method that isn't too demanding or intimidating. But there is no such thing. Learning music is not like learning a new language, it is learning a new language and it requires effort, focus and dedication.

Some will find certain lessons in this book easy to understand and apply, others will have to go through them again and again.

But it's worth it and at the end of this book you will have fairly good knowledge of the basics of music theory and a solid well-rounded knowledge of how to read a music sheet. This is just one of many many books and courses you should go...

Canada on Nov 16, 2020

Celeste M: I bought this book because I'm currently studying voice (with a teacher) and piano (myself, primarily from Alfred books) and decided I needed a much better music theory foundation for both. I'm happy to say that after completing the book I feel that I have that.

Separated into three basic sections — rhythm, pitch, and expression — it takes you from the most basic "this is what a quarter note looks like" to increasingly more advanced (but still appropriate for beginners) lessons in understanding how to read, write, and hear the different aspects of music.

The structure and division of these concepts is well-paced and laid out. In each lesson, there are audio examples (which you're given a download link for when you get the book) which really help you understand the application of the concepts being discussed. Most of these are excerpts from well-known classical pieces. At the end of each lesson, there are written exercises (an answer key is provided in the download for these and the book's final test).

On many days, there are additionally "listening challenges" where you're given a set of excerpts (some included in the download, others you can look up on...

United States on Apr 29, 2019