Learn Music Theory: The comprehensive step-by-step guide to music, from your first note to college level (Paperback or Softback)

Understand how music works, from the notes on the page to the harmony behind them. Learn to read music, build chords and melodies, analyze compositions, and develop practical music theory skills with confidence

Key Features

• Build from notation and rhythm to advanced harmony, counterpoint, and modulation
• Develop skills in scales, chords, SATB writing, songwriting, and composition
• Connect theory to real music through step-by-step examples and analysis

Book Description

Learn Music Theory takes you on a step-by-step journey from reading your first notes to understanding the ideas taught in a college-level music theory curriculum.

You will begin with the building blocks of written music, learning how pitch, rhythm, notation, scales, keys, and chords work together. From there, the book gradually develops your understanding of melody and harmony, showing you how to recognize patterns, build chord progressions, and make sense of the music you read and hear. As your skills grow, you will explore how different musical lines work together, how harmony creates movement and resolution, and how composers develop richer musical ideas. Later chapters introduce more advanced techniques for writing, harmonizing, and analyzing music, including counterpoint, four-part writing, harmonic development, and changing keys. Throughout the book, practical examples and analysis of classical and popular music connect each new idea to real songs and music.

By the end of this book, you will be able to read music more confidently, understand how melodies and harmonies are constructed, analyze musical passages, and apply a connected understanding of music theory from beginner fundamentals through college-level concepts.

What you will learn

• Read traditional music notation
• Understand how music works and why we like certain sounds over others
• Songwriting, composition, and producing
• Understand seventh chords, inversions, and harmonic function
• Write melodies, chord progressions, and song structure
• Create and harmonize a melody
• Use cadences, sequences, tonicization, and modulation
• Analyze harmony and form in classical and popular music

Who this book is for

This book is for aspiring and practicing musicians, songwriters, composers, producers, instrumentalists, students, and self-learners who want a structured understanding of music theory. It starts from the fundamentals, so no prior music theory experience is required. Readers who have struggled with theory before will find a gradual path from notation and rhythm to harmony, counterpoint, voice leading, and college-level analysis. It is also useful for learners preparing for formal music study or theory examinations.

Table of Contents

1. Working in the MIDI Grid
2. Octaves, Fifths, and Keys
3. Thirds, Triads, and Chord Progressions
4. Diatonic Chords and Inversions
5. Seventh Chords and Other Intervals
6. Minor Scales and Minor-Key Harmony
7. Writing in Minor Keys
8. Key Changes and Expanded Chord Color
9. Melodies, Progressions, and Basslines
10. Modes, Pentatonics, and Chromatic Color
11. Non-Chord Tones and Moving Harmony
12. Suspensions, Appoggiaturas, and Cadences
13. Sequences and Fast Key Turns
14. Form and Section Mapping
15. Standard Forms and Section Variety

“I don't treat learning music as a set of rules to memorize. But as a set of tools for hearing more in the music you already love. That's how I like to teach: always connecting back to the songs that made you fall in love with music in the first place.”

Dr. J. Anthony Allen, Ph.D. (Music), is an Apple Distinguished Educator, Ableton Certified Trainer, and former tenured university music professor. Through his Doctor J Teaches Music brand, he has taught theory to over a million students worldwide, from people learning to read their first note to those working on their doctoral dissertation. As a composer, he ranges from orchestral and chamber writing to dance music production, with music licensed to television and film.