<p>I want to apply to American conservertory and I am looking for a good music theory book.Could anyone please recommend a systematical and understandable one to me?</p>
<p>Many colleges and high school programs use one of the editions of the Tonal Harmony (Stefan Kostka and Dorothy Payne) book and work book. However, I am not sure how easy it would be to teach yourself from it. Its pretty easy to find an older edition of the book used on Amazon.</p>
<p>You may want to look at [Ricci</a> Adams’ Musictheory.net](<a href=“http://www.musictheory.net%5DRicci”>http://www.musictheory.net) and [teora</a> - Music Theory Web](<a href=“http://www.teoria.com%5Dteora”>http://www.teoria.com) they both have many different exercises and examples on basic to more advanced theory. Teoria also has ear training. The two websites should be more than enough to help you with any theory placement tests or can be used in conjunction with a theory book.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot!!!</p>
<p>I taught an AP Music Theory course last year, and we used Music in Theory and Practice by Bruce Benward and Marilyn Saker. It had a workbook available and it included a CD so there was also a Music Appreciation component as well. I had a hard time locating an answer key. It took us the entire year to get through it. Also, the AP test website had many practice exams which were useful.</p>