MUSIC THEORY

RESOURCES

© Daniel Farrant 2021

 Contents
Introduction

Starting Out

Learning Music Theory

- Books

- Video Courses

- YouTube Channels

- Other Websites

- Finding A Teacher

Practicing Music Theory

- Workbooks

- Worksheets

- Apps

- Quizzes, Flashcards & Games

Passing An Exam

Other Resources

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 Introduction
Hello and thanks for downloading my Music Theory Resources eBook.

I hope you find the information included useful.

Whats in this guide?

This guide contains dozens of pages of advice, tips, useful links,

resources, book and app recommendations plus loads more to aid

both students, parents and teachers to make learning about and

passing a music theory exam easy.

Who wrote this?

This guide was brought to you by me, Dan Farrant. I run a website

called Hello Music Theory where I help people learn music theory and

pass their exam.

Do I need to read the whole thing?

Of course you don’t, but it depends on where you are at in your music

theory journey. Hopefully, there will be something in here that you find

useful whether that’s links to books to start learning or apps and

revision resources to use as your exam day draws near.

Good luck and get in touch if you have any questions,

Dan Farrant - Hello Music Theory

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 Learning Music Theory

Everybody learns in different ways. Some prefer books and things

they can hold, where as others need someone to explain it to them

and are more visual learners. Below I’ve listed a few of the different

ways along with some of my recommended resources for learning

music theory both off and online.

Starting Out
What is music theory? – What even is music theory?

Why Learn Music Theory? – Why should (or shouldn’t) you learn

music theory?

MusicTheory.net free lessons – A brilliant set of free music theory

lessons going over all the fundamentals.

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Music Theory Books

Books are a great way to learn and are essential for reference. There

are a lot of music theory books available so finding one that’s well

written and accessible is key. Use some of these as a starting point.

First Steps in Music Theory – This small and handy music theory

guide by Eric Taylor is definitely worth checking out. Not too in depth

but easy to digest and takes you up to grade five.

AB Guide To Music Theory – A very comprehensive guide that I refer

back to often. The only downside is it’s quite hard to understand.

There’s a part two that covers grade six and above.

The Ultimate Guide To Music Theory – I’ve written some music theory

study guides to help people learn for the ABRSM theory exam.

Currently available as PDF ebooks to download and I’m looking at

getting them published into paper backs soon.

Music Theory For Dummies – A good general music theory text book

with loads of examples and written clearly.

Music Theory Video Courses (Premium)

One of the best ways to study music theory is with a video course.

You can do it at your own pace and it can be a lot cheaper than 1 to 1

lessons with a music teacher. Here are a few of the courses that I’d

recommend.

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Music Matters – Wonderful video courses taking you through the

ABRSM syllabus from educator Gareth Green. I recommend these

courses a lot!

Hello Music Theory's Video Course – If you're looking for a step by

step walk through of the fundamentals of music theory then I've put

together a video course that'll teach you everything you need to

know for grade 1.

Music Theory Comprehensive on Udemy – The online course

platform Udemy have a huge selection of courses available on music

theory but I’ve tried this one and it’s pretty good!

Music Theory Youtube Channels

If you’re on a budget and don’t have the money for an online

course learning music theory on YouTube is a great alternative to dip

your toe in and get up to speed with a certain topic. There are

hundreds of different channels dedicated to teaching music but here

are a few of my favourites.

Music Theory Guy – One of my most recommend teachers on

YouTube is Stephen Wiles. A big range of videos covering lots of

topics explained simply and clearly.

Michael New – Well made videos teaching music theory

fundamentals in a clear and logical way.

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 Dave Conservatoire – A good selection of simple and well explained

YouTube videos covering everything from basic rhythms and

harmony to how to use MuseScore.

Adam Neely - For the more advanced music theorists I’d highly,

highly recommend Adam Neely and his youtube channel. He’s a

content machine and has published well over 300 videos covering all

sorts of topics from music theory to copyright infringement.

Other Music Theory Websites

For free lessons and other music theory related tips there are a

number of good websites to check out. Here’s a selection that you

might find helpful.

MyMusicTheory’s Blog – This great website from Victoria Williams

has lots of free and premium guides talking about all things music

theory.

HelloMusicTheory’s Blog – I’ve written a lot of free lessons on lots of

different topics that you can find here on the blog.

LightNote – A very visual set of lessons taking you through sound

waves, harmony and music theory.

Teoria – Music theory tutorials covering the fundamentals and more

advanced harmony.

8Notes – Another good option for music theory lessons and tutorials.

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 Find A Music Theory Teacher

The sheer amount of available information online can make knowing

where to start overwhelming. Sometimes getting an in person music

teacher, while more expensive, can be good to get you started and

on your journey. Here are a couple of places to start looking.

MusicTeachers.co.uk – A huge directory of UK based music

teachers.

MusicStaff.com – Worldwide directory of music teachers

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 Practicing Music Theory

Like most things, music theory begins to make a lot more sense when

you actually start using it and putting it into practice. Here are some

of my favourite resources to use with students.

Music Theory Workbooks

Looking for a workbook with exercises and questions to practice as

you’re learning? There are a couple of options that I can recommend

very highly.

Music Theory In Practice – Growing up, I used this set of workbooks

by Eric Taylor. They’re one of the most popular options when it comes

to workbooks.

Music Theory Made Easy – Aimed at younger kids, this series of

workbooks is a great alternative to the music theory in practice

series especially for children.

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Theory Of Music Workbook – This series of workbooks is written with

the Trinity Syllabus in mind.

Music Theory PDF Worksheets

PDF music theory worksheets are very popular with teachers and

students who want some extra practice on certain topics. Here are a

few of the best ones I’ve found.

Hello Music Theory Worksheets – I started this website by making

worksheets to help my own students and now they’re available for

everyone to download as PDFs here.

My Fun Piano Studio’s Worksheets – These worksheets are very

colourful and have some nice illustrations to keep a younger

audience engaged.

Opus Music Worksheets – A big selection of worksheets covering all

the basics and available to download as PDFs.

Music Tech Teacher Worksheets – A good selection of worksheets

covering all the general topics and available as PDFs.

Music Theory Apps

Learning and practicing music theory everyday is key to learning and

using music theory apps is a great way to make it easy to practice.

Here’s a couple of the best ones I’ve come across.

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 Theory Lessons by MusicTheory.net – Priced at only $2.99 this app is

amazing value and comes highly recommend from me.

Music Theory Pro – Another good option for practicing on the go this

app has been downloaded over 130,000!

Theory Works by ABRSM – While it’s priced slightly higher than some

of the other available apps this one is pretty good and comes with

over 6000 questions to test yourself on and practice different topics.

Music Theory Quizzes, Flashcards and

Games
Practicing with quizzes and games if a great way to make music

theory fun for you or your students. Flashcards are also essential for

memorisation so below are some of the ones I’ve used and liked.

Quizlet – I’ve got a set of flashcards and quizzes that I’m slowly

adding to on Quizlet page covering lots of different topics.

MusicTheory.net’s Exercises – Massive collection of online exercises

that are also available as a mobile app.

Music Cards – Simple set of online flashcards.

Print your own – Printable set of theory flashcards.

More online flashcards – Another site with online flashcards that’s

okay.

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 Passing An Exam
Which exam board to take – The most popular exam boards

are ABRSM (which is the biggest), Trinity, LCM and AMEB (Australia).

ABRSM music theory syllabus – Make sure you know the syllabus for

the grade that you’re taking.

ABRSM Past Papers – The best way to prepare for a music theory

exam is by using practice and past papers. Here’s some from ABRSM

but you’ll need to purchase the answer papers additionally.

ABRSM Sample Papers – You can download a few sample practice

papers direct from ABRSM website.

Hello Music Theory Practice Exams – I’ve put together graded music

theory practice papers based on the ABRSM syllabus that you can

download and print out.

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 Learning the foreign performance directions – When taking your

exam you’ll need to learn a lot of Italian, French and German

performance directions. Here’s grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade

4 and grade 5.

Other cool resources

And finally, here’s some other miscellaneous websites, videos or

resources that I really like.

Harmony explained in five levels of complexity – This video

from Jacob Collier explaining the concept of harmony to five different

people; a child, a teen, a college student, a professional, and jazz

legend Herbie Hancock.

Bobby McFerrin Explains The Pentatonic Scale – A quick video of one

of my musical heroes Bobby McFerrin demonstrating the power of

the Pentatonic Scale.

Music People for Musicians and Normal People – I love these PDF

posters by Toby Rush which explains some music theory concepts in

an almost comic book style.

Anyway, I hope you find these music theory resources helpful. I add to

them regularly when I find other useful sites. Do have any other

suggestions of resources you think that should be on this list? Let me

know by filling out the contact form on this page and I’ll take a look.

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