The price is $60.00 (includes postage). Included below are the Forward and Table Of Contents from the course.
This is a college-level music theory course for chordal/improvisational musicians that a grade schooler can understand. Concepts are clearly explained in step-by-step order and visually represented. (Reading music is not required.) Twenty-one chapters cover basic definitions, the musical system, major scales, thirds and triads, the diatonic progression, the anatomy of a key, circle of fifths, the number system, transposing, modes, modal progressions, improvisation, conceptual learning, time organization, perfect practice, and music as self improvement. The course Includes a 50-minute audio tape, 120-page workbook, and Keywheel (patented working scale model of the circle of fifths) with manual.
FORWARD
The KEYWHEEL™ THEORY SYSTEM is a quick effective course in diatonic
(seven-note) music theory for "ear" musicians. It covers the "nuts-and-bolts"
of scale and chord construction without having to read music*. If you already
know some music theory you will find that the KEYWHEEL™ THEORY SYSTEM
will fill in your "gaps" with new understanding and insight.
*Reading music is a valid skill, however, it is not necessary for most popular band situations.
It does have value for playing classical music, learning songs you have never heard, and for
playing complicated melody lines that are too complex to differentiate by ear. Also, some
ensembles and studios require that musicians be able to read written charts.
Music theory deals with music as measurement and concerns musical
structures. In the KEYWHEEL™ THEORY SYSTEM every concept is explained,
shown with visual representation, and related to the whole. Unlike other
theory courses it is completely hierarchical and in context as one musical
concept integrates with others to form a logical matrix. Most musicians who
play popular music (rock, country, folk, blues, jazz) do not rely upon reading
music. Because of the simplistic and improvisational forms of these types of
music "pop" musicians rely instead upon hearing , memorization, and under-
standing. This course focuses on the musical elements that need to be
understood to be successful at playing and improvising with popular music.
The explicit goals of this course are to: 1) learn the anatomy of a key;
2) analyze chord progressions in the context of a key; 3) understand how to
use modes (scales) to improvise with chord progressions.
A common myth concerning accomplished musicians is that they are "gifted"
and did not have to work to achieve their ability. This misconception defies
the law of cause and effect. A musical instrument is an honesty machine--
the level of a musician's proficiency is the direct result of focused effort.
Having taught and played with hundreds of musicians I have observed a clear
distinction between the musical abilities of those who have exerted the effort
to learn and apply theory and those who have not. (A conceptual person will
always outperform one who is non-conceptual.) The material in this course
requires two kinds of effort, intellectual and applied . The exercises are
designed to consciously ingrain musical concepts. They are simple at first
then gradually become more complex as the musical ideas expand and
integrate with previous concepts. If you currently understand how to play
half steps, whole steps , and octaves on your instrument you will probably
have success in applying the concepts without the aid of an instructor.
However, if you do not comprehend these three basic concepts on your
instrument then you should seek the help of a qualified theory-based
instructor.
COURSE OUTLINE
Listen to the KEYWHEEL™ cassette tape before you start the course
to get an overall sense of what music theory is all about. The tape can also
be used at any time as a "refresher".
MUSIC = NOTES + TIME + CONSCIOUSNESS
The most obvious element of music are notes . Their relationship to each
other and the musical structures which they create are the crux of music
theory and are the subject of Chapters 1-14. Like mathematics music
theory must be learned in a hierarchical order, therefore these chapters
must be completed in order. (At the end of some chapters a short quiz will
test your knowledge before you advance to the next chapter.) Occasionally
written exercises are to be completed in the Appendix , a series of circular
key-charts in the back of the book. These exercises will recreate the
information from every key on the KEYWHEEL™ .
Another obvious element of music is time . Chapter 19 (Time Organization)
should be referred to before you practice any musical structure (by
completion of Chapter 2).
The third, least obvious element of music is consciousness . Chapter 18
(Conceptual Learning) applies to all other chapters. It may be read before
you begin the course and should be reviewed ocasionally. Chapter 21(Music
As Self-Improvement) deals with subjects of a psychological nature in
regards to practicing and performing.
IMPROVISATION
Chapters 15-17 are on improvisation, or how to use musical structures in a
creative sense. Directions to refer to these chapters will be given as the
information becomes applicable. Chapter 20 (Perfect Practice) explains how
to practice musical structures to get maximum benefit for the purpose of
improvisation.
A manual is included at the back of the book that explains the data on the
KEYWHEEL™ and musical calculations that can be performed with it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: THE MUSICAL SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Basic Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Twelve-Note System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Chromatic Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
CHAPTER TWO: MAJOR SCALES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Major Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Key
Key of C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Keys With Sharps
Keys With Flats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Key Signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Enharmonic Keys
Accidentals
CHAPTER THREE: THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS . . . . . . . . . . 11
CHAPTER FOUR: BASIC HARMONY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Thirds
Triads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
CHAPTER FIVE: THE DIATONIC PROGRESSION . . . . . . . . 18
Dominant Seventh Substitution
Diatonic Progression Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
CHAPTER SIX: THE NUMBER SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Transposing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Summary of Chapters 1-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
CHAPTER SEVEN: MODES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
CHAPTER EIGHT: MODAL PROGRESSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
CHAPTER NINE: THE MIXOLYDIAN MODE . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Mixolydian Progression Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
CHAPTER TEN: MAJOR MODE COMPARISON . . . . . . . . . 38
Progression Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE AEOLIAN MODE . . . . . . . . . . 42
Aeolian Progression Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
CHAPTER TWELVE: THE DORIAN MODE . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Dorian Progression Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: MINOR MODE COMPARISON . . . . . . . 54
Progression Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: MODE COMPARISON . . . . . . . . . . 58
Comparative Mode Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Modal Progression Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Summary Of Chapters 7-14 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: SINGLE SCALE IMPROVISATION . . . . . . 66
Using Scales To Improvise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Melody Improvisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Pentatonic Scales
Major Pentatonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Minor Pentatonics
Blues Improvisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: MULTI-DIMENSIONAL IMPROVISATION . . . 70
Modal/Chord Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Playing A Mode With An Altered Dominant Chord
Pentatonic/Chord Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Relative Pentatonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Playing A Pentatonic With An Altered Dominant Chord . . . . . . . 74
Triad Arpeggios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Extended Harmony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
Harmonizing Modes
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: IMPROVISING USING ACCIDENTALS . . . 77
Major Jazz Pentatonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Minor Jazz Pentatonics
Playing Against Seventh Chords
Mixolydian/Seventh Chord Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Jazz Mixolydians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Chromatic Outlining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Summary Of Improvisation
SPECIALIZED CHAPTERS
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: CONCEPTUAL LEARNING . . . . . . . . 80
Memorization Vs. Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Percepts
Concepts
Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Learning Vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
CHAPTER NINETEEN: TIME ORGANIZATION . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Beat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Measure
Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Progression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Rhythm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Walking And Chewing Gum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
CHAPTER TWENTY: PERFECT PRACTICE . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Theory-Timing-Technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Repetition
Visualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Ear Training
Chord Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Practice Devices
Set Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Practice Outline
Sequencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Building Speed
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: MUSIC AS SELF-IMPROVEMENT . . . . 102
Focus And Relaxed Concentration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Quit Trying
Examine Your Beliefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Projection
Learn From Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104
The Gauntlet