Music Theory Resources

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Can anyone recommend books to buy for learning music theory?

In case anyone else is trying to learn

I haven't pulled the trigger yet on buying any books but I found a good, free, online reference. http://www.musictheory.net/ It starts out kinda slowly, but as you progress it does an excellent job of explaining how chord progressions work and how to build them. I'm still looking for a reference on the different scales used in regard to soloing (like minor pentatonic, etc, and what kinds of chords they fit in with.)

My music blog, continued:

Tonight I looped a simple one note baseline that switched between two chords. Then I tried to improvise melody lines by playing along in the minor pentatonic scale. It sounded good and it was really fun.

My eventual goal is to compose a song that I'm not afraid of posting up here for others to listen to. We'll see how long that will take

My favorite book is "How Music REALLY Works!" by Wayne Chase

The writing is cheesy at times, but no-nonsense where it counts. Plus, the first half of the book is available for free online, so you can check it out right away.

I also found reading some psychology of hearing books to be informative. "An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing" by Brian C.J. Moore is my favorite book in that space.

Apparently I can't post any URLs because I'm a new user, bummer.

Anyway, let me know how it works out!

i tought myself how to play music (not in a savant way unfortunately) and i can honestly say that if you really want to be creative and outside the box, just play with instruments until you hear one or two things that might almost sound good, mess with those things until they grow and after months your brain will make connections differently than if you learned them from somewhere else and your creativity will be better.

when i started trying to learn theory i realized it was crushing down my creativity by trying to learn how other groups of people think something should work rather than finding my own beautiful way to do it that noone has done before.

self taught (more like self accidents until something sounds good) start out slower but in the end you will have no boundries but the other people will be confined to the walls they were taught to see!

best of luck which ever way you do it!