Welcome
This is the website for a "book" by Paul Barton about how to learn music. To the left (or above if you're on a phone or a tablet) you'll see a table of contents with links to different parts of the "book". You can start at the beginning with Part 1, or jump to whatever you're interested in.
This is a website and not book printed on paper because there are a lot of interactive exercises and recordings to listen to. Almost every section of every chapter (except in Part 1) has an exercise, along with explanations. If you've already read the text, and just want to skip to the exercises, you'll find them if you click "Exercises" at the top of the page.
This book is written with every musician in mind. Whether you are a beginner or a professional, a student or a teacher, I believe you will find this book useful.
There are five parts to this book. Part one explains my philosophy on what it means to learn music and what this book is about. Parts two, three, and four explain musical concepts. They begin with easy concepts and gradually get harder, so if you find yourself reading something that is too easy for you, feel free to skip ahead. If you find something to be too difficult, go back and make sure you understand the earlier chapters. Or, skip the advanced stuff and go to the next part for more concepts at your level of fluency. Part five brings everything together and concludes the book.
If you appreciate what you've learned from this website, please consider donating. It took many hundreds of hours to create.
If you are interested in my albums and other musical work, visit paulbartonmusic.com.