The Chord Wheel: The Ultimate Tool for All Musicians | Music Theory Learning Tool for Guitar Piano and All Instruments | Visual Guide to Chord Progressions and Key Changes

I've bought a few quality music theory books over the last few years, inc. ~ Music theory for computer musicians Learn to play keyboards - Steve Ashworth The Keyboard Scale Manual - Leonard Vogler Keyboard guide / Chords, Scales and Modes - Voggenreiter ~ All of the above have given me a good understanding of music theory, but none have really given me the tools to put the acquired information into practice, that is until now. The Chord Wheel booklet may only contain 12 pages but it clearly and concisely puts all the relevant information right infront of the reader, and clearly explains the function of the chord wheel. I am not the sharpest tool in the kit, and to me, written music will always look like tadpoles sitting on a fence, but I now feel confident enough to not only start improvising my own musical ideas, but actually now know what it is that stitches music together. I must say that if the Chord Wheel was the first theory book I had bought, I probably would have felt a little bit lost, but with some pre-knowledge of basic chord structures, scales, and how these two forms are divided into degrees, using the Chord Wheel will give anyone the means to start creating impressive sounding musical textures. When you understand how powerful this simple tool is, you will appreiciate that it is money well spent.

An exceptional book, this not only has the fastest ready reckoner for the related chords in any given key but also has valuable information on composition, chord progressions and the like, all at the interface between the practical and the theory. Not designed for beginners, it is handy for both guitar and keyboard musicians and worthwhile even for people with advanced knowledge of music.

I really liked the book. It is succinct, accessible and straight to the point. I am a former amateur musician taking music up again at a mature age. So being able to have a readily available reference for chord progressions was really handy, as I flexed my musical muscles again. Nothing advanced, yet very useful for the novice-to-intermediate level reader. And it’s a quality print and materials, which means it should last for some time. It does have some incongruences and inaccuracies though, which prevent me from giving it 5 stars: 1) It only applies to Major chords. There are legions of people composing and playing predominantly in minor keys (myself included) and it would be easy to adapt the mask to work for both minor and major scenarios (I actually did it as a DIY project). So I don’t understand why this wasn’t done. 2) The wheel lists the viiº degree as Tonic and the vi as Dominant. This is very different from how I learned degrees but that has been a long while ago so I decided to check. Although there is a bit of controversy on these (musical functions are a bit of a subjective topic) most sources (including Riemann’s prestigious ‘Funktionstheorie’) point to the vii as Dominant and the vi as Tonic. 3) The Composition section lists the chord progression Am - C - F as fitting in the key of F, but this can’t be: that key contains a Gm chord not G. I suppose the author the was considering the V of V degree (which is G in F) but I’m not sure that’s valid, after all the chord is not diatonic to the key. We live in a world of digital solutions, with plenty of apps doing the same thing for a fraction of the price on our phones and tablets. So I’m not sure if there is enough demand for a physical chord wheel to justify a revised edition. But if the author would address the issues above, I would happily buy this book again and give it a 5 star review :)

I've had this book for over four years at the time of writing this review and have been playing guitar since 1991 (30 years). Although most musicians rely on their ears first and foremost, in my opinion, "The Chord Wheel" still offers the easiest way to visualise chord groupings. My son is learning to play the saxophone and is becoming interested in popular music and the chord wheel front cover was the first utility I turned to in order to explain the structure and writing style of well known song writers. I applied it to the songs that Brian May and Freddie Mercury wrote for Queen and considered the different instruments they primarily use to compose music and their different musical backgrounds. This helped me contextualise why there are lot of flat minor chords in Freddie's music, for example, and the structure of simplicity of certain popular guitar power chords and rock progressions.

This book is a great quick glance reference. The contents explain how to use it if you are not already familiar with how chords relate to each other. The real benefit is the chord wheel on the front cover. Turning the dial on the cover shows you the chords in a particular key. This really helps with putting music together. Of course you don't have to use those chords, but it is great starting point. It's useful to figure out the key of a song too. A great, simple tool.

Having played guitar for longer than I care to remember I finally decided I needed to know a bit more about tonal chord scales and composing. This handy book covered everything I had questions on and sits on my desk as a very handy reference tool. I bought two of these all in as my band-mate saw it and promptly borrowed it! The wheel itself turns to allow you to check the chords and variations of chords useable within any key. It also suggests which minor chords can be substituted to major chords, ii and iii, which was a neat tip. Heartily recommend this for any budding music theorist or player. As I am self taught there were huge gaps in my knowledge that this book helped fill and in a roundabout way it has improved my playing as it opened new avenues of practice and application.

....as it will help build a visual picture of what can be horrendously complex for beginners when written out as a wall of text. It will show you visually how each note fits together with others to produce a chord.

Si vous comprenez le principe de cet outil, vous ne serez pas déçu, je l'utilise régulièrement. très simple d'utilisation.Franchement c'est une belle trouvaille.

This is exactly what I needed. It’s simple and easy to use. 使いやすくて簡単です。願う通りです。

This is the book that have if you want to solve the puzzle of music I would also suggest that you get a college Edition text on first-year music theory and that will make this book more relevant and using the lessons caught and this text should help you it's definitely a place to understand the important rules of music and apply them while practicing just play around with them put the rule in use when you're playing the piano or the guitar or whatever your instrument is and like a video game or any skill that you undertake the more that you do that the greater your understanding will become and the more skilled you'll become but it will take effort but this text of the Circle of will help you leap I had and writing the songs that you've been wanting to write Another idea that you might want to pursue which was beneficial to me was to actually take a class at the local University 38th and music theory the way that that can be helpful is I learn more by sight then I Do by reading text it's what it's called kinesthetic learning and just the discussions the testing the going over the rules drawing things examples on the Whiteboard that your professor will do when he or she are discussing the rules of music was very helpful to me it is a hard class I'm not talkin about Elementary music theory classes I'm talking about the first class that a music Major would take in college in the study of Music Theory and you will work for you grade but you could also take it and request it be not for a grade but you're doing it simply to learn music theory and the participation with the other students and with the professor and going through the readings and the test 4 a quarter or semester whichever the school decides is the best way a grading. Should take place I found very very helpful and it's something that will stick with you and if you don't use it a little bit of refresher in from the book which I would suggest you keep and not sell back to the bookstore and this book will get you right back in the saddle again should you have to detour away from music for a little while but this particular text is a pretty good place to start if you want to hit the beach running in music I apologize for this being a long evaluation of this book but I thought it was also a good opportunity to give a few ideas about how to become solid in understanding the Mysteries that are the rules of music and with that in mind the Beatles did not know how to read music studied very little music theory and became the most prolific and greatest band in history but I threw the ideas out there so that you can decide which is best for you you might think and if you want to pursue things like the Beatles this book will give you a little bit more than they had and help you write those number one hits and break into stardom a little bit quicker :-)

Excelente !!!, mejor de lo que yo esperaba. El chord wheel es todo un compendio de teoría musical hecho de forma simple y amena, resume varios libros de teoría musical, tiene muchísimas aplicaciones prácticas, me ha servido muchísimo.

La rueda de plástico duro de la portada es muy útil. Para mí con eso habría sido suficiente, si bien las hojas que le siguen se utilizan para explicar cómo funciona.