Hack Music Theory, Part 1

Book excerpt: Theory is a six-letter dirty word to most musicians, but hey, musicians love dirty words, right? And just like all the other dirty words, theory is easy to learn and fun to use! After studying 'popular' and 'classical' music theory, Ray Harmony created a unique approach that he uses to compose his songs, which feature multi-platinum Grammy winners Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), and many more. Ray Harmony is an award-winning music lecturer and multi-instrumentalist, who is now sharing his top-secret music theory and songwriting hacks through this book series. Drawing on his two decades of teaching experience combined with his minimalist methods of explaining, Ray breaks down music theory into its simplest form via a series of simple hacks, deep insights, and bad jokes. Tuck in at HackMusicTheory.com"e;The most brilliant, fast, easy, and fun music theory book I've ever seen!"e; -DEREK SIVERS, CD Baby founder, TED speaker, musician, author of Anything You Want"e;This is the kind of book I wish I had when I first started out."e; -IHSAHN, Emperor"e;Trust Ray, and in no time you'll have a watertight music theory skillset you once thought impossible to obtain."e; -PAT LUNDY, Modestep, ex-Funeral for a Friend"e;Ray manages to make learning music theory fascinating, digestible, and damn right cool!"e; -JOE COPCUTT, AxeWound, Zoax"e;If you have been put off music theory in the past, then this is the book to inspire and empower you."e; -VICTORIA WILLIAMSON, PhD, Vice Chancellor's Fellow Researcher and Lecturer in Music at the University of Sheffield, UK, author of You Are the Music"e;Ray has a totally unique approach of hacking music theory, which gives you the essentials in a fraction of the time."e; -VESPERS, Warp Academy founder, music producer