Music theory

Can any recomend some good books on music theory for the beginer? I just got back from boarders and they didnt have a single book.

Alfred's essentials of music theory complete. great book, used it as textbook once. very easy to understand but at the same time very informative.

here's a link

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0882848976/qid=1073784666//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i0_xgl14/002-6878846-0888810?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

here's the best one around, IMHO.

Harmony and Voice-Leading

I used it in my theory classes. Very intuitive, very informative.

-G

Originally posted by shallow Can any recomend some good books on music theory for the beginer? I just got back from boarders and they didnt have a single book.

I guess the first thing that I need to know before making any kind of a recommendation is whether or not you have any music reading skills already, or if you're starting from scratch? If you have little or no music reading ability, then I would suggest going to a music store that does a lot of lesson business and look through their books. A lot of the piano method series have decent beginning theory books that are a lot easier to start out with. If you're past the point of struggling to read the notes on the staff, you might find that going to a college book store at a school that you know offers music theory classes is your best bet. Pick up whatever text they're using in their beginning theory class. while some of them are a little easier to grasp with the help of a teacher, you can still pick up quite a bit of information from teh text on your own. And if you find that that doesn't work for you, then consider taking a theory class somewhere.