Rating: 
Summary: Advice in the previous review is horrible
Review: This is a pretty good book if you don't know much theory and are looking for something understandable and useful. The reviews posted by the publisher are fairly accurate. The previous reviewers criticisms about "tone color" and terminology are somewhat true, but this is a small portion of the book. If you are a beginner to theory DO NOT BUY THE BURNS BOOK (Pentatonic Scales for the Jazz-Rock Keyboardist). It is nothing but four pages of advanced theory and then lists of scales.
Rating: 
Summary: Add the reviews below together and divide by two.
Review: This is a very small, short gloss. Quite a few topics in music theory are briefly touched on, a significant number fairly esoteric, especially given that it assumes (sort of) that the reader knows next to nothing about music. It might be worthwhile as a sort of overview, but it occurs to me that the innocent novice might come away with a rather distorted idea of music theory--maybe not. (Click on the author's name, and see what other disparate titles he has published. I wonder how much this book really cares about music.) On the other hand, it may be just what you're looking for, just what you need.For some reason this is being compared below to a different sort of book altogether, essentially a jazz and rock technique book. I happen to be familiar with it too, and I wouldn't suggest it (primarily, at least) as an alternative to the book I'm reviewing. On the other hand, that other book doesn't just "list scales": it shows you right hand and left hand fingerings in every key (the fingerings depend on the key, you know) for conventional pentatonic scales, as well as for pentatonic scales you haven't heard of before and says how all these scales mesh together. In addition to the "theory" section at the beginning--which, incidentally, can be understood by pretty much everyone with enough technique to attempt the scales--it shows as it goes along how you might put to use each kind of pentatonic scale. In so doing, it demonstrates briefly and concisely the essential tonal material of the blues--what I suspect someone below is getting at--but this is not its main intent. In any case, as possible alternatives to this book (if one is desired), that is, to AN UNDERSTANDABLE GUIDE TO MUSIC THEORY...etc., I suggest THE ABC OF MUSIC by Imogen Holst (isn't it silly we that we can't post italics?) for beginners and TWENTIETH CENTURY COMPOSITION by Leon Dallin for intermediate "students". Just a couple of ideas.
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