The Chord Wheel: The Ultimate Tool for All Musicians Paperback – Illustrated, December 1, 2000

I can't say enough positive things about this brief little book!I read through the reviews here before buying figuring that I could use the Chord Wheel but the rest of the book would be unhelpful. So many people said the same thing. I absolutely disagree! The 12 pages in this brief book cover more material, more simply and clearly, than anything else I have ever come across.Most books I have seen start with basics, and build on with excercises that I get lost in for lack of ability to see the big picture. What am I supposed to be learning? How does it all fit together? Why isn't this fun? I would have to practically earn a PhD in music before I would ever figure out how to be creative and actually enjoy playing music with most music instruction books.THIS book, on the other hand, is invaluable.The Chord Wheel itself, as everyone seems to agree, is really cool. Pick a key, play the chords within that chord family (found online or by looking them up in a separate chord reference guide) in any order or combination that appeals to you, and you sound good playing your instrument.The 12 pages of text are OUTSTANDING. The first time I read through it, I couldn't understand it at all. The second time, it took some concentration but I managed to comprehend everything. The third time, I understood it with less effort and it made just a little more sense. After the third time through I started asking questions - what about minor keys? There are minor keys, right? I read more closely and it all started clicking. I may not be able to teach it to someone else just yet, but every time I read it, it makes more and more sense. The thing is, it's only twelve pages, so you can read it in a short time.You don't have to master every concept to at least understand how it all fits together - and once you understand that, everything else is easier to learn. Chord progressions and analysis, circle of fifths, scales, modes - learn what that means here, and you'll have a strong conceptual foundation to get the most out of other music books - the ones I couldn't get through! I may revisit them, but there is enough here for me to work on (actually playing music, not reading and working through exercises), that I don't feel any urgency just now.Just give the book a chance. Read through it more than once. If you don't get it, you will if you keep at it. It actually isn't all that hard, really, it is just that people like me with a minimal to zero musical background are naturally going to have a hard time building a conceptual framework for undestanding the language of music.If you are looking for something to get you up and running, this is it! Combine it with chord reference charts or you won't be able to use it (if you can't play the chords!) but you can find that stuff online or at the library.

Excellent product! It's taking a while to learn the wheel, but this was an excellent buy. Also here's a software program you may be interested in:If you're sincere about playing the piano or guitar or guitars :-), no matter if you're amateur/novice or professional,this bit of software could be for you and enable you to eventually help you to play like a pro, the easier way!EZ KEYS by: ToontrackEZ Keys should help revolutionize the music business. Why? If you can tap out the melody of a song, you can essentiallywrite beautiful music. Indeed, it's just a matter of time until the major DAW's add this important feature to theirsoftware. AlthoughEZ seamlessly integrates and works well within all of the major programs and hardware.Don't just take my word for it, uh Forrest:-) Google it and see what you find. I can tell you now, it's gonna be good!EZ Keys as like having a gifted college music professor sitting beside you everyday as you write and compose your tunesdaily, while slowly but surely learning how to write and play. This college music professor is with you everyday whileyou play, correcting you and helping you to superstardom. or, maybe just stardom. Everyone doesn't want to be asuperstar. The beauty of it all is that you don't have to go online to do all this. Learning this way bends the learningcurve to shorten the time it takes to become professionally proficient at the keyboard. I love this type of on the jobtraining. Hours go by so quickly...........Lot's of times I start writing and toying around with this program, look up at the clock and two hours have gone by.What seemed like thirty minutes was actually two hours. I love this program. All you have to do is write or play whateveryou can mainly create the melody with your right hand, then compile it, then EZ automatically creates the left handchords for you. If you want to you can also change those first few notes you've chicken pecked out (that's how I do iteveryday) and alter them to triad 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths,... on up to 13ths..... and more. Realistically, rarely do youhave to go over 7ths.After that Keys pops up a circle of 4ths and 5ths and let's to toy around with it to see and hear what the neighboringchords look and sound like, then you write some more then compile again, then repeat, then after doing this a dozen orso times, you've got a complete song that sounds way above your current level of play. These compositions actually makesus sound like we really can play the piano:-) And the best thing, it really does sounds good! It doesn't sound amateurishor hokey like those songs we played out of the music books with the finger numbers over and under the notes, telling uswhich fingers to use when playing a song. Trust me! It don't get no easier kid:-)You can play a shoestring, if you're sincere.---John Coltrane---