Edly's is for anyone, teen to adult, who wants to learn what's going on inside music. This includes players and singers of any level desiring a deeper appreciation of music-- rock 'n' rollers wanting broader musical horizons, jazzers needing more knowledge of chords and scales, theory students needing supplementary help, or classically trained folks wanting to branch into popular styles or to read from fake books.
The 164 page soft-cover book begins by introducing notes, and moves quickly into scales, chords, keys, key signatures and intervals. Also included are modes, ear-training, figuring out music by ear, chord substitution, transposition, improvisation, and song forms. Each topic is accompanied by an explanation of what it is, how it's used, and why it is helpful.
Written to be read and understood by practical people: singers and players of all instruments (even those who don't read music*), Edly's Music Theory for Practical People successfully shows that learning theory is a very, very, practical thing to do. The book's informal, friendly, and often whimsical tone sets it apart from most textbooks, making music theory inviting at last. Lively and plentiful illustrations by artist Peter Reynolds complete the effect. Edly's sports a glossary, index, answer section, and copious workbook exercises, charts, diagrams, notation examples, and scads of illustrations by artist/animator Peter Reynolds.
Here's a more detailed list of included topics:
- Scales: major and all minor scales, natural and artificial modes, pentatonic, blues, diminished, whole-tone and hybrid scales
- Chords: triads through thirteenths
- Quick guide to legible manuscript
- Twelve bar blues forms
- Diatonic and chromatic (including tritone) chord substitution
- Intervallic and chordal ear training
- Interval and chord inversion
- The circle of fifths
- Chord functions
- Secondary dominants
- Transposition
- Cadences
