Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory: Complete

Alfreds essentials is a tried and tested music theory method, it’s also made interesting and fun plus easy to follow. They are also videos on YouTube that support the book, I’m so happy I made this purchase.

I bought this for my daughter who is 10 as we were struggling through another music theory book and had grinded to a halt. I have purchased the ear training music cds which go with this book from another site, musicroom.We have started again at the beginning and so far we are finding it thorough and easy to understand. It is an American book so it describes some things differently, for example, it calls quavers, eighth notes which could be confusing for someone without any musical knowledge.

The listing should make it clearer that the £20 CD is required for this book. The cynic in me believes this might be intentional, because I probably wouldn't have paid £30 for a book on basic music theory. Incidentally, I won't be buying the CD; I'll probably side eye this particular publisher going forward.Also, a CD? I haven't owned a CD player for 10 years. See, they invented this thing called the internet a while back and it essentially demotes CD players into the same appliance league as things like toasty makes and alarm clocks that make your morning tea for you.

I was looking forward to receiving this book but I was very disappointed to find out that one really needs the cd or some other support material to check whether your answers are correct.I’m disappointed that this is not specified in the book information, and it’s not clear where you can purchase the support material from - or if it’s even available at all!Unfortunately I’m hugely disappointed. The book looks good but it’s not enough for self study.

This looks like it would be a good option if you also had the teacher’s answers and audio cd’s otherwise the majority of the book is exercises which you can’t tell if you’ve got right and / or listening exercises which are useless if you don’t have the cd’s. Having checked online for the cost and availability of the answers and CD’s it would amount to about another £40. I’ve returned this to Amazon and will find another option for learning which doesn’t rely on having to make supplementary purchases.

I was taught piano by a back street teacher for a few years when I was a child - no music theory involved! Have taken up piano again (much) later in life - but couldn't play anything I hadn't heard before. This book has opened up a new world! Very well constructed course, enjoyable and easy to follow.

I received this for Christmas as I wanted to progress my music theory. I can already read music so I was able to skip the first part, although I found a few sections to be a useful refresher.The book seems to cover everything you're ever likely to want to know, but it remains to be seen whether the later subjects will be covered in any great detail, as I thought that the first part whizzed through many of the concepts very quickly.As others have stated, this book really requires the CDs and answer book to progress properly, which I don't have, and it isn't made clear that these are separate and "necessary" purchases. I'm really disappointed that these aren't included, or made available as a free online download. I guess the publisher just wants to squeeze as much money as they can out of their readers.