"Harmony In Practice" By Anna Butterworth

[buck]

Hi all,

Just cleared my grade 5 theory last Saturday.. whew!   

Going to start on grade 6 theory, so need some advice on which books to get..

Is this book good? --> "Harmony In Practice" By Anna Butterworth

Doing self-study mostly so going to need an easy to read/understand book with lots of questions + solutions.  Heh.

Any other books I can get?  Thanks! 

[bernhard]

You can try

Eric Taylor – “The AB guide to music theory” (ABRSM), 2 vols. (Volume 2 covers the material for grades 6 – 7 – .

There is also a collection of exercise books that complement the above:

Eric Taylor – “Music Theory in Practice” (ABRSM) (one volume for each grade). They have a lot of solved exercises and examples taken form previous exams.

You can actually buy past ABRSM exams (unfortunately they do not come with answers).

Outside the context of exams, I strongly recommend the following books:

Robert L. Jacobs –Understanding harmony (Oxford University Press).

This is one of my favourite books of all time. A very fresh approach to harmony (if you compare it with other harmony books). It answers a lot of questions that most theory books either ignore or take for granted that you already know the answer. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. And as if this was not enough, it is also well written and accessible to complete beginners.

W. A. Mathieu – Harmonic experience: Tonal harmony from its natural origins to its modern expression (Inner Traditions).

This is an amazing book. Everyone should read it. Read some more gushing reviews of it here:

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0892815604/002-7643341-8252845?v=glance

Best wishes,
Bernhard.