Help Your Kids with Music

Gr 8 Up—This in-depth book surveys music theory and composition, with examples from multiple styles, and contains concise sections on musical instruments and history. As with all DK titles, it's visually appealing, featuring short chapters, clear fonts, and numerous attractive, colorful diagrams, charts, and pictures. The book includes a CD of brief musical extracts (although it is very limited) and handy reference guides to scales, key signatures, and so on. However, the text reviews so much material so quickly that it becomes overwhelming—and, despite claims to the contrary in the foreword, it is not for those "with little prior knowledge." Many terms are not indexed or defined, and the vocabulary is advanced (chancel, for instance). Michael Pilhofer and Holly Day's Music Theory for Dummies (For Dummies, 2007) is a simple, black-and-white production, but it is readable and informative; it also relies on mnemonics and the use of clapping/tapping out rhythms, which DK's title does not.