Anyone recomend books to learn music theory/composition?

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...bearing in mind I have never played an instrument in my life nor have a clue about music other than listening to it.

I downloaded a free program called MuseScore and I find it fascinating... to be able to write music and LISTEN to it on the computer blows me mind away.

only problem is.. I don't know how to write music or what all the symbols mean XD

Been looking at Music Theory for Dummies ... but not sure if thats the way to go.

Suggestions?

I used Robert Gauldin's "Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music." Not sure if it's the best, but it's a starting place. It's recently in its 2nd edition, so 1st edition will still be available and very cheap. Good luck!

Try these programmes:

GNU Solfege

LenMus

I have a master's degree in music composition. I like to think I know a little bit about it!

I'm pretty weak in theory pedagogy, sad to say. I'm thinking about going back for a doctorate in composition--but there's this thing called LIFE that keeps getting in the way. I used the Benward/White theory textbook and workbook as an undergrad, which I think MAY be out-of-print now. I think the current one by Benward is the "Music in Theory and Practice" 8th edition. It's really pricey, though, and is oriented more towards undergrad music majors. Good stuff, but you really need to be pretty hard-core to get it. Here's an amazon link that will help clarify:

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Practice-Audio-CD/dp/0077254945

You can also find volume 2 on that page.

If reading music at all is a problem, I'm afraid I won't be much help. I teach piano lessons, a great deal of which is teaching kids to (guess what) read music. But my approach is that I only teach what students will need to know to play from the page. I skip a lot of stuff in the method books until they get a pretty good bit of performance ability down. The advanced theory stuff doesn't seem quite so complicated once you can already communicate musically.

Once you have a pretty good handle on reading music and functional harmony, I recommend studying orchestration. I use the Samuel Adler orchestration book. It's been my best friend since my undergrad days. The Strauss orchestration book is also highly prized by composers.

As for teaching composition--there's really no such thing as a good textbook on composition. I've changed my approach many times over the last decade, and I've never been quite so happy with my craft as I am now. My approach is generally to sit down at a sequencer, hit record, and just start playing. I might have a click track, a drum machine, or I might just be freely playing without any kind of sense of tempo at all. I refine my sequence in stages and proceed to notation software in order to get it in "written" form. Mostly all that is is cleaning up the sequence, adding dynamics/expression markings, articulations, etc. Sequences that are recorded freely appear horribly sloppy, so sometimes just a complete rewrite is in order. But at least I have the notes down and some sense of timing, which makes writing out my ideas a lot easier. I use a Synclavier nearly the entire creative process. I capture MIDI output to Logic, use that for quantization, correcting wrong notes, and so on, and transcribe the result in Finale.

I'm going through some ugly writer's block at the moment because I've been writing/arranging for handbells duet. My partner and I are beginners at this and have just started playing 4-in-hand, so I'm waiting until practice to actually write handbell parts, learning them as we go. In the meantime, I'm keeping busy creating soundscapes and recording my own space music. That's mostly timbre/texture, so I'm not really all that concerned with notating these compositions. I like getting into unusual ways of doing things. I love vintage electronic instruments. So when the Fairlight CMI app came out for iPad, I immediately got it. Just tonight I transferred most of my first Synclavier FM timbre library to the iPad. With spring and summer coming up fast, it will be impossible to keep the Synclavier running and keep the house cool. So having matching libraries in Reason (using the NN-19 sampler) and on the iPad is going to be really cool.

I'll just say this: if you can play an instrument at all, you can compose. I prefer electronic composition to traditional--even though I CAN do both. There's just not any "how-to" on composing. When I applied for grad-school, I was worried about my lack of formal training in it. In the end, it didn't really matter. Just write.

If you like, I'd be happy to give you some pointers online about basic music theory and beginning composition. I strongly recommend you get this: https://www.finalemusic.com/NotePad/Default.aspx

That's about as basic as you can get with music notation. You get to write music point-and-click style, but for just learning composition it's a good start.

I'm a strong advocate of "hands-on" learning, which means I have a nasty habit of throwing students in the deep end without really telling them much. Learning composition is like that. You just do it. The only thing a composition teacher really does is help you find what's going to be the most effective way of communicating your ideas musically, suggesting other possible directions the student might go. If you get any kind of notation software that will at least allow you to print PDFs, I'd be happy to give some input.

thanks