Garage Band Theory: Music theory for non music majors - practical, useful theory for living-room pickers and working musicians who want to be able to ... speak coherently about the music they play.
Product ID: 20093902
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Garage Band Theory was conceived, written, proofed, edited and designed by living, breathing musicians, teachers, artists and writers. For less than the price of a single lesson, Garage Band Theory offers a lifetime of learning. It's a gift that keeps giving. GBT covers everything you need to understand, play and make your own music! • lets you listen to hundreds of examples for every instrument. • combines the freedom of playing by ear and the strength of traditional music theory. • assumes you know nothing about basic theory and is written in a conversational, easy to follow style. GBT provides vocabulary that will let you ask your teacher questions you want answers to – and lets the teacher focus on dynamics, technique and applying these concepts to music you want to play It's all in there, everything you ever wanted to know, but didn't know how to ask. GBT is practical, useful theory for musicians who want to be able to think coherently about music in order to ask questions and understand answers about the music they want to play. GBT is about understanding The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and The Grateful Dead. It's NOT about analyzing Bach Fugues - but you'll be able to if you want to. Whether you're a beginner, a professional, studying on your own or with a teacher, GBT has loads of useful stuff for you. Here is a very brief recap of what you get when you order GBT •Multi-genre approach – dozens of musical examples provide lots of variety, which makes you more well rounded musically. •Chapter quizzes and an answer key allow students to measure progress. •Learn to read music — with GBT examples + free software you develop reading skills without having to actually play an instrument. • GBT has hundreds of tabs for banjo, bass, guitar, mandolin, ukulele and standard notation for keyboards and transposing instruments. There are hundreds of exercises and examples using familiar songs and with the free downloads on the book's website you can watch and hear the notes play at any speed you choose. The YouTube channel has over 250 videos so you can listen to every song used as an example. "A full course of study under one cover, Garage Band Theory is impressively informed and informative. It's practical and insightful and should be considered an essential resource for any aspiring musician." James A Cox - Midwest Book Review - Publisher's Weekly "Garage Band Theory is a must for any musician." Rodney Crowell - 2 time Grammy winner "Don't be put off by this giant book - Duke's got the secrets of the universe in here. Quite simply, this is the most comprehensive book on music theory I've ever seen." - Bill Payne (Little Feat) "Something for every musician at any level. Especially helpful is the tablature for a variety of instruments. This book inspires me to learn and practice more." Sam Bush - International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame “ A great resource for musicians young and old no matter what your training. GBT is a veritable encyclopedia of useful tools and tips that lifts the lid off the “black box” of music theory and lets the light shine in and in a fun, practical way. For less than the price of a single lesson, GBT offers a lifetime of learning.” Alasdair Fraser - Scotland's Premier Fiddle Ambassador Review: Best Music Book for Guitar - This book is everything I hoped it would be. I am a pretty new student to guitar and wanted to learn enough music theory to be able to improvise and play by ear. This book is super readable and contains tons of material and examples. Probably enough material to keep someone busy for 9 months or so if they were playing for a couple hours a day. There is also just as much again online supplemental material that I have downloaded by barely looked at. After working through some of this I am able to decipher sheet music quickly (though it still takes me a while to learn the song) and to recognize the different intervals and chords fairly easily. If I really did all the work, I have no doubt it would make me into a "real musician". Review: A wonderful investment, full of insight and information - I am really enjoying this book and I'm sure I'll be trying to absorb and use this information for years to come. A great investment for anyone who wants to get some insight onto how and why music works the way it does. The author's style is casual and perhaps, for some, too casual. But I enjoy his relaxed humor and easy manner and congratulate him on the excellence and thoroughness and hard work it must have been to come up with such a useful and complete product. I'm just getting into making music at the final chapters of my life, but would highly recommend this entertaining compilation of useful information to anyone, young and old.
| Best Sellers Rank | #1,355,658 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #1,084 in Music Theory (Books) #1,305 in Music Techniques (Books) #5,395 in Music Instruction & Study (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 142 Reviews |
J**4
Best Music Book for Guitar
This book is everything I hoped it would be. I am a pretty new student to guitar and wanted to learn enough music theory to be able to improvise and play by ear. This book is super readable and contains tons of material and examples. Probably enough material to keep someone busy for 9 months or so if they were playing for a couple hours a day. There is also just as much again online supplemental material that I have downloaded by barely looked at. After working through some of this I am able to decipher sheet music quickly (though it still takes me a while to learn the song) and to recognize the different intervals and chords fairly easily. If I really did all the work, I have no doubt it would make me into a "real musician".
F**N
A wonderful investment, full of insight and information
I am really enjoying this book and I'm sure I'll be trying to absorb and use this information for years to come. A great investment for anyone who wants to get some insight onto how and why music works the way it does. The author's style is casual and perhaps, for some, too casual. But I enjoy his relaxed humor and easy manner and congratulate him on the excellence and thoroughness and hard work it must have been to come up with such a useful and complete product. I'm just getting into making music at the final chapters of my life, but would highly recommend this entertaining compilation of useful information to anyone, young and old.
J**0
Very complete music theory book!
Very in depth music theory book that is guitar centric but adds reference to other instruments that adds even more to the level of learning music theory.
G**T
Something for everyone
I like many novice to intermediate guitarists continue to look for "the way" to playing naturally, based on a broad set of practical knowledge and theory. This book is comprehensive, but is set in the language of every day people... but it can still be complicated. So as Duke says read through it...use it as you need to use it, take something from every section and move on, or go back rereading and replaying sections as you need to...but I believe you can find your path here. I have several books on theory and this by far is the most approachable. The author himself is approachable and I have had several email conversations with him. Also don't forget to reach out and get all of the digital resources he provides. Like anything regarding developing guitar skills persistence and patience pays off when using this book.
O**Y
Excellent resource.
I never heard of "Duke Sharp" before now, but he's obviously put a lot of work into this book, and it is great. I really enjoy the breezy attitude, but as a reference this book is no joke. Very handy, very useful. It is BIG, and chock-full of great information, really nuts-and-bolts stuff. I wish I'd had this when I started playing music many decades ago, but I'm happy to have it now. Great job, Duke!
P**A
Really Informative
I am not a musician, but in trying to pick up the guitar, I became interested in music theory. I've tried leaning about it on the internet, and my daughter bought me a book called "music theory 101". Things start out OK, but the other sources I've tried soon start to use concepts they assume you are already familiar with. Duke's book has, by far, the clearest explanations of some of the music theory concepts I’ve come across. It is packed with great information about training yourself to "play by ear," and seems like it will be a great theory reference for many years to come.
D**Z
Might be great for some, but I hated it
This book is like a music teacher who makes everything feel daunting and hard vs one who makes you feel excited and inspired. It's not at all geared toward explaining musical concepts for non-technical musicians, which is what I thought it was. It's fat as a phone book with seemingly every thought about music the author has ever had, presented with no clearly discernible logic. Probably makes sense if you already know all this stuff, but not to the beginner. I know that doing the hundreds and hundreds of hours of exercises in the book would make me a better musician, but there are lots of options in that line. On a purely practical level, good luck propping this massive slab of paper on a music stand to actually do any of the exercises. Mostly, I just didn't dig the tone, which was gatekeepery and not welcoming. It's like, "This is important, you better learn it or you won't be a legit musician." But it could be great for some people. It's very impressive. Just not at all useful. For me anyway.
M**R
A Massive Book Full of Information
I have a LOT of music books. Some of them are good. Some, well, not so good. I'm happy to report this book is AWESOME. It's huge, full of great information for several instruments, and is a great reference. Definitely a favorite part of my music book library!
M**R
Takes ages to read and action.
Fascinating and comprehensive
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