Which course would you recommend for beginning music theory texts?

I am looking to buy music theory books for my husband, who is a self-taught musician. While he’s been playing for 18 years, he’s never done any theory work and can’t read sheet music. I am debating between the Alfred’s Essentials Self-Study and the Prentice Hall « Programed Course » series. I have some of the other prentice hall series texts, such as « Harmonic Materials in Tonal Music » by Greg A Steinke and have been pleased, but I don’t have any experience with their beginner texts. I know that Alfred’s is generally a good line, but I’m wondering if it is comparable to the Prentice Hall. There is a $50 difference in the price of the books. Does anyone with experience with either, or both, have an opinion? Any other recommendations? Hubby’s birthday is in a week and a half, so was hoping to get it for the occasion.

There are many good fundamentals* books out there. Because learning how to read music and how to figure out scales, key signatures, and chords requires a lot of memorization and developing speed in note-reading, you will want to use whichever textbook has the most drills for the student (flash cards or computer quizzes).

A nice supplement to a rudiments exercise book is Gerald Eskelin’s « Lies My Music Teacher Told Me: Music Theory for Grownups ». This book clears the air about some of the misconceptions about music that traditional music teaching tends to encourage.

Because your husband plays by ear, he will simply be learning labels for aural experiences that he has already gained some intuitive understanding about. My final piece of advice for his study of music is always to *play* and *listen to* the theory exercises in the book (even if it’s frustrating and tedious to do so). There’s no point in learning the basics of notes, scales, chords, and intervals if it doesn’t link in with what these things sound like!

* Just a point of clarification: Your husband isn’t really going to be learning music theory—which is the study of the structure and meaning of music—, but rather musical rudiments or fundamentals. The study of fundamentals is in fact a legitimate *branch* of music theory, as is the pedagogy of musical fundamentals, but only in relation to the main goal of music theory, which is the analysis and interpretation of music.

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