Basic Music Theory, 4th Edition Audiobook By Jonathan Harnum cover art

Basic Music Theory, 4th Edition

How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music

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Basic Music Theory, 4th Edition

By: Jonathan Harnum
Narrated by: Jonathan Harnum
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About this listen

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
Instruction & Technique Music Funny

What listeners say about Basic Music Theory, 4th Edition

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A great introduction!!

loads of information very well presented and with a great focus on how to make it practical!!!

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2 people found this helpful

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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!

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

painless theory

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

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2 people found this helpful

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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 ,

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10 people found this helpful

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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.

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5 people found this helpful

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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.

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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.

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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)

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Music Theory

I can always learn something new from a book that teaches me something I think I already know.

This book contains everything you need to know about music theory with free access to online materials.

My favorite part of the book was the advice on practicing. Go through the musical alphabet, forwards and backwards, slow to fast. Then practice skipping intervals by 3rds, 4ths, and 5ths, forwards and backwards, slow to fast. Say it and/or play it on your instrument.

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This book made music theory possible for me!

At the the age of 49, I decided to not only learn guitar and bass but to also study music theory. I've listened to this book so many times over the past year that I would have worn it out had it been a cassette tape. The thing is, it works! I actually understand what I'm learning on guitar and can finally read music notation. Jonathan Harnum is not only an excellent author (be sure to check out his other titles on Practice...also repeated to the point of wearing out the cassette) but an outstanding narrator! How good is this book? I've purchased it on Audible and listen to it nearly every day, bought the Kindle version, AND purchased the paper copy of the book from Amazon. Want to learn music? There's no better starting point!

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