Rating: 
Summary: An excellent book, even for beginners
Review: I am an adult beginning keyboard and music student, learning on my own at my own pace. I am in the process of reading this textbook (the first 100 pages or so of more than 400) and have found it most helpful in explaining in detail difficult musical concepts. I also plan to use this book as a reference.
Rating:
Summary: Everything you always wanted to know about tonal harmony¿
Review: I first encountered this book when I already had done my master's thesis in music theory and considered myself as quite competent in the field of tonal harmony. Nevertheless, reading the book produced several experiences of finally apprehending clearly something that earlier had only been more or less vague practical knowledge. For this reason I enjoyed every section of the book, even though it starts from the very basics. Yet, its way of expression is so simple, even artless, that surely nobody will find it hard to follow. In fact, at first I was a little irritated by what seemed to me as somewhat patronizing style of the book - occasionally it seemed to me as being written for schoolchildren rather than adult students - but I soon learnt to ignore this stylistic feature (which seems typical of American textbooks in general). In any case, I think the book is simply the best ever written on tonal harmony, containing practically every harmonic usage of classical tonal music and integrating them to a grand overall view. This is a classic book in its field.
Rating: 
Summary: Ehh....zzzzzz............
Review: I just can't fully explain how silly this book really is. For the most part, if the disorganized format won't annoy you, then the use of "scholarly jargon" certainly will. You know what that is. That's where some nerd wants to make himself sound prolific so he writes an entire paragraph where a couple of sentences would've worked just as well.
Other nonsense includes the amount of/lack of pages spent on certain topics like rhythm and meter for example (9 pages? THAT'S IT?! Huh...I would think the major difference between Western music and all else deserved more then THAT). At any rate, without going into too many details, this book is simply bad. It's just going to confuse the beginner. There's no need for that.
...I would say that the most 'user friendly' is called Tonal Harmony by Payne, Schindler, and Kostka (ISBN #0-07-035874-5). It's easy to understand; it has a FABULOUS format and its cheaper then the above dribble. The authors defiantly understand that the reader will most likely be a BEGINNER and so it is written that way.
Rating:
Summary: This is the basic western common practice *BIBLE OF THEORY*
Review: I've never found an undergraduate theory text book that I didn't have some problems with, but this one isn't bad. This text has a good table of contents, indices of terms and musical examples, and an appendix of keyboard progressions. There is a fundamentals section suitable for review, but not for teaching. Curiously, after the fundamentals section, rhythm and meter are never discussed, except in relation to harmonic rhythm and dissonance placement.Harmony and Voice Leading takes a Schenkerian approach, concentrating on harmonic function. There is no introduction to post-tonal music, although there are sections on chromatic voice leading techniques and equal subdivision of the octave. There is also no discussion of form. The strengths of this book are (1) the order of the concepts; and (2) the comprehensiveness of exposition of the topics. Harmonic topics are presented in logical order according to the functional approach of the text: first root position dominants, then embellishing dominants, structural pre-dominants, then less common pre-dominant chords. There is also an excellent section on diatonic sequences. Each topic is presented in an extremely detailed manner. The authors have determined that students can handle a large number of rules, examples and exceptions for each harmonic entity they present. The only danger is that the students may be overwhelmed by the level of detail. Thankfully, however, the broadest principles for each concept are presented at the outset, and finer detail is added as the chapter progresses. The primary shortcoming of the text is the use of all-capital roman numerals for harmonic analysis (instead of capital and lower-case roman numerals that reveal the quality of the chords they symbolize as well as their root and function). Obviously, this is a result of the Schenkerian perspective that dominates the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good overall
Review: I've never found an undergraduate theory text book that I didn't have some problems with, but this one isn't bad. This text has a good table of contents, indices of terms and musical examples, and an appendix of keyboard progressions. There is a fundamentals section suitable for review, but not for teaching. Curiously, after the fundamentals section, rhythm and meter are never discussed, except in relation to harmonic rhythm and dissonance placement. Harmony and Voice Leading takes a Schenkerian approach, concentrating on harmonic function. There is no introduction to post-tonal music, although there are sections on chromatic voice leading techniques and equal subdivision of the octave. There is also no discussion of form. The strengths of this book are (1) the order of the concepts; and (2) the comprehensiveness of exposition of the topics. Harmonic topics are presented in logical order according to the functional approach of the text: first root position dominants, then embellishing dominants, structural pre-dominants, then less common pre-dominant chords. There is also an excellent section on diatonic sequences. Each topic is presented in an extremely detailed manner. The authors have determined that students can handle a large number of rules, examples and exceptions for each harmonic entity they present. The only danger is that the students may be overwhelmed by the level of detail. Thankfully, however, the broadest principles for each concept are presented at the outset, and finer detail is added as the chapter progresses. The primary shortcoming of the text is the use of all-capital roman numerals for harmonic analysis (instead of capital and lower-case roman numerals that reveal the quality of the chords they symbolize as well as their root and function). Obviously, this is a result of the Schenkerian perspective that dominates the book.
Rating: 
Summary: 2 hours on average per chapter, very slow going!
Review: If you are learning the concepts of harmony and voice leading for the first time prepare to read the same paragraph over and over and over again. On average it took me between 2-3 hours to read a chapter and fully comprehend it. I found that the writing was a bit difficult to understand and it took me longer that usual to understand all of the concepts. The really good thing about this textbook is the way in which all the information in it is organized. It starts with the most basic information and gets progressivly more difficult, each chapter builds on the preceeding chapter. All the information is delivered in a sequential manner so that each time you grasp a new concept you are a little bit closer to seeing the big picture. I would recommend this textbook to those who already have a solid foundation in basic music concepts, key signatures, intervals, rhythm and meter, triads, chords and figured bass. It is an advanced textbook which would suppliment music lessons or a theory course. I would not however, recommend it to someone who was learning about theory and harmony independantly as some of the concepts are very difficult to fully understand without asking someone else (like a theory teacher) for help.
Rating:
Summary: Important text, but not for beginners
Review: One thing to understand about this book - it was not written with amazon.com beginners in mind. It is a college-level theory textbook, and is probably one of the few books that present basic theory concepts in a coherent, unified fashion. The "restrictions" some reviewers complain about, are actually part of a time-honored approach to teaching theory (think "species counterpoint"). To understand the book, a teacher needs to understand something of the ideas and approach of Heinrich Schenker (Schachter was one of Schenker's students). Unlike many theory books, which are into quick summaries and labels, this book is based on a deep understanding of how western tonal music works (at least from the Schenkerian perspective). Even basic concepts like scale degrees, intervals, and triads, are presented in such a way that important relationships among tones become evident. Chords are not merely chunks of notes that deserve a label, but are part of a larger, contrapuntal whole. Sticking with the early chapters, and especially getting a good grasp of the contrapuntal nature of even the most basic chords (insights gained into the similar "passing chord" functions of the V4/3 and viio6 chords, for example) are well worth the effort. Upon successful completion of the first 10 or 11 chapters, a student should have a new understanding of how tonal music works.
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult book should be read backwards
Review: The best part of this book are the points for review at the end of each chapter. Study happens best when starting with these points, and then reading their elaborations in the chapter itself. It's difficult to read, and boring, but informational.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but don't expect it to cover everything
Review: The main reason that I want to write a review here is on the off-chance that any AP music theory teachers or students are coming across this and are considering buying the book. My teacher made the mistake of using this as our primary textbook for the year, hoping that it would cover the AP curriculum. Well, it doesn't. It only helps on about 20% of the test, and for the rest you will be dead in the water. That said, it does a pretty good job introducing and expanding the concept of basic four-part voice leading. It doesn't expend very many pages teaching the absolute basics like major and minor chords, so it helps to approach the book with some understanding of chords, intervals, and the like. The progressions and rules that it allows do seem a little bit stringent and antiquated considering the many changes in classical music over the past century, but at least you can voice-lead like Bach after reading this!
Rating:
Summary: Good, but don't expect it to cover everything
Review: The main reason that I want to write a review here is on the off-chance that any AP music theory teachers or students are coming across this and are considering buying the book. My teacher made the mistake of using this as our primary textbook for the year, hoping that it would cover the AP curriculum. Well, it doesn't. It only helps on about 20% of the test, and for the rest you will be dead in the water. That said, it does a pretty good job introducing and expanding the concept of basic four-part voice leading. It doesn't expend very many pages teaching the absolute basics like major and minor chords, so it helps to approach the book with some understanding of chords, intervals, and the like. The progressions and rules that it allows do seem a little bit stringent and antiquated considering the many changes in classical music over the past century, but at least you can voice-lead like Bach after reading this!
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