Rating: 
Summary: Good teaching; poor typesetting
Review: "CMT - Level 1" serves it's purpose wonderfully. It taught me many things clearly where other books failed (such as intervals, and the Circle of Fifths/Fourths). Mr. Harrison is a good teacher, and I would recommend this book to my friends. But I will keep the praises brief seeing as there are many reviews here that do just that for me.The reason I give this book four stars rather than five is because of the typesetting used. The text is very large, and there is a *lot* of wasted real-estate on each page. If the typesetting had been improved, this book could have been truncated by at least 100 pages, allowing for cheaper production, and finally, a less expensive book for the public. If it's any revelation, I was able to complete this book in only four days, with two-three hours each day (this includes doing half of the exercises). Also, there is one more complaint. Mr. Harrison is a great teacher, but is not as fortunate in his writing skills. Although this does not take away from the things learned, it is a bit annoying at times. For instance, about every other sentence is terminated with an exclamation mark. There were times I felt like I was reading a chat log from an AOL channel. Also, there are numerous places where paragraphs (and sometimes several pages) were copied and pasted into another area of the book, with a few [music] notes changed here and there. About one-third of the book is a result of copy and pastes from the other two-thirds. All of that aside, it did exactly what it was meant to do: give me a clear introduction to music theory.
Rating:
Summary: Good teaching; poor typesetting
Review: "CMT - Level 1" serves it's purpose wonderfully. It taught me many things clearly where other books failed (such as intervals, and the Circle of Fifths/Fourths). Mr. Harrison is a good teacher, and I would recommend this book to my friends. But I will keep the praises brief seeing as there are many reviews here that do just that for me. The reason I give this book four stars rather than five is because of the typesetting used. The text is very large, and there is a *lot* of wasted real-estate on each page. If the typesetting had been improved, this book could have been truncated by at least 100 pages, allowing for cheaper production, and finally, a less expensive book for the public. If it's any revelation, I was able to complete this book in only four days, with two-three hours each day (this includes doing half of the exercises). Also, there is one more complaint. Mr. Harrison is a great teacher, but is not as fortunate in his writing skills. Although this does not take away from the things learned, it is a bit annoying at times. For instance, about every other sentence is terminated with an exclamation mark. There were times I felt like I was reading a chat log from an AOL channel. Also, there are numerous places where paragraphs (and sometimes several pages) were copied and pasted into another area of the book, with a few [music] notes changed here and there. About one-third of the book is a result of copy and pastes from the other two-thirds. All of that aside, it did exactly what it was meant to do: give me a clear introduction to music theory.
Rating:
Summary: Good teaching; poor typesetting
Review: "CMT - Level 1" serves it's purpose wonderfully. It taught me many things clearly where other books failed (such as intervals, and the Circle of Fifths/Fourths). Mr. Harrison is a good teacher, and I would recommend this book to my friends. But I will keep the praises brief seeing as there are many reviews here that do just that for me. The reason I give this book four stars rather than five is because of the typesetting used. The text is very large, and there is a *lot* of wasted real-estate on each page. If the typesetting had been improved, this book could have been truncated by at least 100 pages, allowing for cheaper production, and finally, a less expensive book for the public. If it's any revelation, I was able to complete this book in only four days, with two-three hours each day (this includes doing half of the exercises). Also, there is one more complaint. Mr. Harrison is a great teacher, but is not as fortunate in his writing skills. Although this does not take away from the things learned, it is a bit annoying at times. For instance, about every other sentence is terminated with an exclamation mark. There were times I felt like I was reading a chat log from an AOL channel. Also, there are numerous places where paragraphs (and sometimes several pages) were copied and pasted into another area of the book, with a few [music] notes changed here and there. About one-third of the book is a result of copy and pastes from the other two-thirds. All of that aside, it did exactly what it was meant to do: give me a clear introduction to music theory.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent intoduction to music theory.
Review: Contemporary Music Theory is a well paced thorough introduction to music theory. It starts with the basics and then builds on them in a very strightforward way. Each step is explained in depth with simple and clear examples. Beginners should already know note names on the keyboard and music staves, but that's about it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for self-teaching and classroom work
Review: I am using this book to teach music theory with highschool students. The text is very readable, the graphics are very intuitive. His methodology is very helpful for broad understanding. I highly recommend this book for individual learning or classroom support.
Rating:
Summary: I love this book!
Review: I have 3 of mark's books. This one, the second one and the pop piano book. The one I like most is the pop piano book but this book is almost required reading. On with the review! This book teaches music theory and it is what you will get. It is very clear and moves in a slow steady pace. If you pay attention you will never lose yourself. It is ideal for someone learning alone because it has exercises at the end of each chapter you can use to brush up on what you just learned. Just like chemistry (which is what I always read!) theory isn't going to take you anywhere. You need to use it too. This is almost prequisite reading for the "pop piano book" unless you already have a good grasp of music theory. I use it in conjunction with my keyboard playing. If you just read and go through the exercises, you will learn but you will forget too! So it is recommended you actually use what is learned in conjuction. This will not tell you how to "use" the theory. That is up to you. Play your instrument frequently! So if you always wanted to know the background about music get this. Stop memorizing chords having no idea why they are what they are. The print is clear, large, easy to read. But I don't like the binding on the book. kind of weak.
Rating:
Summary: I love this book!
Review: I have 3 of mark's books. This one, the second one and the pop piano book. The one I like most is the pop piano book but this book is almost required reading. On with the review! This book teaches music theory and it is what you will get. It is very clear and moves in a slow steady pace. If you pay attention you will never lose yourself. It is ideal for someone learning alone because it has exercises at the end of each chapter you can use to brush up on what you just learned. Just like chemistry (which is what I always read!) theory isn't going to take you anywhere. You need to use it too. This is almost prequisite reading for the "pop piano book" unless you already have a good grasp of music theory. I use it in conjunction with my keyboard playing. If you just read and go through the exercises, you will learn but you will forget too! So it is recommended you actually use what is learned in conjuction. This will not tell you how to "use" the theory. That is up to you. Play your instrument frequently! So if you always wanted to know the background about music get this. Stop memorizing chords having no idea why they are what they are. The print is clear, large, easy to read. But I don't like the binding on the book. kind of weak.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for jazz theory, but not concise - skips music notation
Review: I teach college level music and was experimenting this semester with this text. I was initially drawn to it because I was looking for a little more modern approach as I also strongly gear students toward being able to play by ear as well. I thought that it would be a good reference for my students to have later in its explanation of theory, too.
But I was very disappointed when I got to the section about the Circle of 5ths. It's diagram explains it so that the flats circle clockwise and sharpes circle counter-clockwise. This is backwards to me! I could not teach my students something I felt was unconventional, so I had to avert to a supplemental text. Also, it totally skips introducing music notation (counting rhythm of notes,etc in written music) in the first book entirely! Even though I agree that contemporary and jazz music is best expressed by introducing chord structures,and jazz music is more liberal than what is just written. I just can't personally totally eliminate rhythm altogether and ignore it as if it weren't a foundational element.
Also, overall I found it too wordy to make reference to while explaining the topic during class. Good for individual study but not classroom. IT was not concise enough and on some topics skipped around illogically on explaining it.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: I'm not really a musician, so I can't compare this book or its method to other books on the same subject. But I found this book very clear and understandable and I read it all the way though, did all the exercises. And it taught me a lot. This really is an excellent book, and I would recommend it to anyone who can read music but doesn't know the theory behind it.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: I'm not really a musician, so I can't compare this book or its method to other books on the same subject. But I found this book very clear and understandable and I read it all the way though, did all the exercises. And it taught me a lot. This really is an excellent book, and I would recommend it to anyone who can read music but doesn't know the theory behind it.
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