Okay, so, I've taken a break from practicing my playing for about 3-4 years after getting frustrated with the Alfred text that I was using (which was very rudimentary).

My main purpose this time around is not to play songs already notated but to compose my own works, mainly R&B.

Now, I've just bought two books in the past week:


FastTrack Keyboard Method - Chords & Scales

Master Scale & Chord Guide For Keyboard - 2nd Edition

Although both are pretty good in their own right, I'm looking for something that can be more of an all inclusive tome for me to use in order to learn my scales (everything from the traditional major and minor to harmonic minor, melodic minor, blues scale, pentatonic and even exotic scales), chords (especially which chords can be built on each degree of each scale and their inversions).

These two books do list each chord and it's possible inversion and the Fasttrack book does have the harmonic minor, melodic minor and blues scales, but amazingly, no pentatonic.

Neither one of these books details that the chord built on the second note or supertonic of the major scale is a minor scale, etc...

Also (although I know this may be asking for much in just one text), I would also like chord progressions to be discussed in the book.

Ideally, although I know this doesn't exist, I would like a book that grabs each scale (let's say the C major scale), provides fingering, discusses the chords that can be formed on each degree, suggests progressions, substitutions and other keys that are great for modulation to from that respective scale.

So, my plan is to practice each scale, get the chords and progressions down, possibly compose a song in that key and then move onto the next scale doing the same. I know it sounds like the long way around to things, but, that's kind of how my mind works.

If you know of anything close to what I'm looking for, or even a combination of books, I'd appreciate it.

My plan definitely doesn't not learning a repertoire of a few songs that I can play or relying solely on lead sheets in order to play something. I've tried that route before and it has only led to the frustration that I mentioned before.

I spent quite a lot of money on books in the past the either have bits and pieces of what I'm looking for or nothing of use to me (at least at this point in my progression) at all. I'm willing to provide a list for those interested. smile Warning, though, it's lengthy.

Thanks beforehand.

PS

I posted this here in an attempt to get some insight from those of you that teach these materials as my post in the adult beginners forum basically tanked.

Thanks again.

I think the problem is that the book you describe isn't really necessary.

Think of it in terms of this saying:

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

The book that "gives you the fish" would be huge! A book detailing every scale, corresponding chords, and possible progressions would be hundreds of pages!

The book that "teaches you to fish" is rather small. You could teach someone how to build all their scales and chords, and give advice on standard progressions, in well under 100 pages.

Or think of it like math. You could fill a book with all possible multiplication problems, or you could give someone a multiplication table up to 10x10 and teach them how to handle the bigger stuff in a year or two.

I would like to suggest, quite seriously, that you compile the book you want yourself. I don’t mean that you should copy information from other sources. Rather, find out how to construct or work out the various components that you want in your book and write each page or chapter yourself.

Find out how to construct major scales using tetrachords. Find out how to modify a major scale to make it minor. Find out how to construct a pentatonic scale. Find out how to build the chords that flow from each scale etc. Really, it is not too difficult. The how to information is readily available. It is quite likely in the books you already have.

By the time you have the book completed you probably won’t need it, but it would be there if you did.

You probably want to get on with composing and you think that this book you want would give you the tools to shortcut the process, I suspect that it would be difficult and cumbersome to use, and would in fact be of very limited value with your present knowledge.

I don’t want to discourage you at all. I am quite confident that if you got started on your book you would find it very absorbing and quite fascinating. Do you have notation software? That would be useful if you do write a book. It would also be a great help if you are into composing. A good knowledge of theory is probably also required to enable you to transcribe your own songs.

If you want to progress the important thing is to get started.

Ron