12 Music Theory Hacks To Learn Scales & Chords

by Ray Harmony

This is a hacks-only version of Part 1 in the Hack Music Theory. Each hack delivers all the vital info you need to know about each topic. Read through all these hacks in a half hour, and you’ll be making good music in less than an hour from now. However, you’ll miss out on a bunch of bad jokes and deep insights that are only revealed in its companion, so go grab a copy at HackMusicTheory.com

Ray Harmony is an award-winning music lecturer and multi-instrumentalist, who draws on his two decades of teaching experience to break down music theory into its simplest form. After studying 'popular' and 'classical' music theory, Ray 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.

“The most brilliant, fast, easy, and fun music theory book I’ve ever seen!” –DEREK SIVERS, CD Baby founder, TED speaker, musician, author of Anything You Want

“This is the kind of book I wish I had when I first started out.” –IHSAHN, Emperor

“Trust Ray, and in no time you’ll have a watertight music theory skillset you once thought impossible to obtain.” –PAT LUNDY, Modestep, ex-Funeral for a Friend

“Ray manages to make learning music theory fascinating, digestible, and damn right cool!” –JOE COPCUTT, AxeWound, Zoax

“If you have been put off music theory in the past, then this is the book to inspire and empower you.” –VICTORIA WILLIAMSON, PhD, Vice Chancellor’s Fellow Researcher and Lecturer in Music at the University of Sheffield, UK, author of You Are the Music

“Ray has a totally unique approach of hacking music theory, which gives you the essentials in a fraction of the time.” –VESPERS, Warp Academy founder, music producer

Genres: Music

52 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 24, 2016

About the author

Award-winning music lecturer, YouTuber, obsessive tea drinker!

Reviews

[Moriah Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful, very quick, and pretty hilarious.

[Mert Erol · Rating 4 out of 5]

easy to understand, short and on point. good source for beginners to build a fundamental. experienced musicians might also take a look to see things from a fresh perspective.

[Andrej · Rating 3 out of 5]

"When we compose a chord progression (i.e. the chords you string together to tell your musical story ), we can eloquently communicate our inner narrative both by the chords we select and by their order 29p."

[Tejas Shirodkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book and it’s teaching style were excellent and it delivers what it promises. Just in a couple of days of intermittent reading and little bit of practice, I understand and can build scales, chords, triads and feel very confident of the basics of music theory! Highly recommended for a quick start into music theory!

[Saurio Saurio · Rating 5 out of 5]

It contains nothing I didn't knew before. Nevertheless, it is explained so clear that it is awesome and I understood several things I'd never quite got about music theory.

Thanks, Ray! Your YouTube Channel is my present favourite watch .

[Sammi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who would previously flinch at a sudden mention of music theory, this book helped me fill in some of the gaps in my overall understanding of music theory, which is exactly what I needed to actually start to *get it*. It's short, sweet, and a fun read.

[Roland Munyard · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy short read useful for revision: A companion book to Hack Music Theory, Part 1: Learn Scales & Chords in 30 Minutes which I also enjoyed.

[Bill Zhang · Rating 5 out of 5]

cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!

[Naomi Hamstra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Super quick read. Too basic and simplified.

[Roel]

Kort, bondig en leuk uitgelegd. Maar omdat ik alle concepten reeds kende, was het voor mij niet zinig én kan ik ook niet oordelen of dat voor andere wel zo is.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this booklet on Hoopla. It is a really basic introduction to music theory (scales, intervals, triads, etc). I looked at it more as a refresher than as someone completely uninitiated. Perhaps too basic for my purposes but not bad for what it is.

[Manuel Humberto Rios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice!

I have been studying music theory for nearly 10 years and I found answers for things I adopted but never understood. Did you know that flats exists only so every major and minor scale contain all first 7 letters of the alphabet?

[Sergei · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you leave out the introduction and conclusion parts, the book is concise, brief and surprisingly visual. Reading the book feels almost like cheating in a good fast-track way.