Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsSo, It's OK. A Few Things to Note
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2022
UPDATE 2 4/6/22: The author has told me some of my criticisms of earlier parts of the book have been taken care of in the new edition.
UPDATE 4/3/22: I finished the book. Some of the issues I mentioned are present throughout, but the author has gotten in contact with me and we went over them. I believe he has released an updated version of the book. I have yet to look over it, but it seems as though he took my criticism and put some of it in the revised version. Here's a summary of what I experienced going through the book:
Days 1-15: Hardest in the whole book. I think some lessons in here may need a bit of revision (but that's just my personal opinion, as everything else I say).
Days 16-24: Easiest material, well-written and easy to digest.
Days 25-30: About medium difficulty. Might need a bit of brushing up, but overall better than the first 15 days. Well packed with plenty of material.
I'm still sitting at 3/5 stars for now (good). I might look over the revised version in the future. I plan on starting the second book (30 day music theory) by the same author and reviewing that one as well.
OLD REVIEW:
I haven't finished the book yet, but I am on day 13. This is my opinion on the book up to this point. My opinion might change depending on how the rest of it goes.
The biggest issues I have is some of the lessons are a bit verbose, and I feel like the author could've explained certain concepts in a more concise and clear manner. Instead, I would've also wrote the book as "How to Read Music in x Pages" instead of 30 days. Some material was confusing and, even after rereading certain lessons, certain concepts were still left unanswered or vague and up to interpretation. Not a fan of that. I wish they would've taken more time to explain certain things without getting overly technical about them, but oh well.
1. Make sure you have a good internet connection (ideally on a PC or laptop too) so you can sign up for the free course on the internet to follow up with exercise answers and audio examples.
2. Depending on your learning level, be ready to look things up on your own/read or listen to other material. Later parts of the book get a bit confusing and the contents of certain pages don't clearly explain how certain things work.
The sad thing is I feel like this book is almost perfect in concept, but it's execution is a bit lackluster. Again, be ready to really focus and pay attention to the contents, and I STRONGLY suggest looking up other information about them on the web. That being said, I wouldn't call this a beginner's book, some concepts definitely felt more intermediate-advanced IMO. It definitely seems like a good road map, though. Just be ready to have other resources on standby.