Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Composer's Lounge Online Music Theory/Harmony lessons???

Hello folks,

Could someone please help me to find an online teacher for learning music theory and harmony?

Thanks

Secret,

I just did an advanced Google search for the following words:

music theory, harmony online instruction

Plenty of links pop up. You may want to check out some of those links.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

I just picked up a book called "The Everything Music Theory Book" by Marc Schonbrun. It's really a basic introduction to music so I'm not sure how advanced you are.

Thanks guys for the help, what I'm looking for, was actually a composer maybe here on the forum who is willing to teach me harmony/counterpoint via skype or so.

Shakesbeer, I am a beginner, I can't read music yet, so teaching myself would be difficult from an book. I think with the help of a mentor, I would progress faster.

Secret

But surely the start of that is learning how to read music? What are you envisioning at the moment when you write that you want to learn harmony and counterpoint?

I want to be able to write for piano and the orchestra, I have so much ideas and music inside of me, with a solid knowlegde in harmony and counterpoint, I think I can write them down and make music out of them.

I agree with Keystring in that your very first step is to learn how to read music. I recommend you purchase a beginning Adult Piano Method book. (Faber and Faber, or Alfred are good books) You can work from that book by yourself and learn how to read music. After that, you will be ready for more advanced music concepts.

Thanks, I will order one of those books today from amazon and see how it goes.

Secret

Barb, I don't know too much about method books. I thought they were for learning how to play the piano. Do they also teach theory?

keystring - those method books teach music reading and some theory regarding chords. I felt it would be a good start coming from ground zero.

Thank you, Barb. I asked because I'm not familiar with method books. One thing about theory is that it should not be divorced from experiencing music or else it can be rather meaningless, so what you say makes sense.

Once you can read music, there are two pretty good self-study theory books. Paul Harder: "Harmonic Materials in Tonal Music I and II". Newer verions have Greg Steinke as a co-author. They're programmed learning but well done. They sometimes turn up in used book stores. I think these are a bit expensive new. You don't need the newest edition (or even matched edition numbers); but you do want books that are not marked up. (Don't mark the up youself, just write on notebook paper. Then you can review the course.)

While searching for the previous answer, I came up wit the following site: http://www.mymusictheory.com/#list. It's a British site (I think) with free music lessons.

Thanks for link, really appreciate all the help.

I've ordered the Alfred piano method from Amazon. I hope to fire up my music reading and theory learnings in the future.

Secret

Hi Secret -

I have been planning on offering theory and composition lessons online/over Skype for sometime now. You could be my first!

I have 2 Master's degrees and taught piano/trombone/composition/conducting lessons for over 4 years - in the "real" world

Send me a message if you're interested and we can work out the details. That goes for anyone else who is reading this!

cheers,
adam