One of the posters in the recent thread about the many spectacular chord changes in BB songs, and oh, my, aren't there a bunch, asked about books on music theory. One I would recommend for a person with some working knowledge of chords and scales and presumably plays a guitar or keyboard at some level, is "Tunesmith" by Jimmy Webb, yes, that Jimmy Webb, published by Hyperion (
www.HyperionBooks.com). While it is a book covering the broad spectrum of songwriting, from words and verse structure to the business side of the cradt, the several chapters on music composition were very helpful to me. I've been a player since the 60's on drums, guitar, piano and bass (and perhaps even sax 35 years later), primarily self taught with a good knowledge of chords and scales. But, besides not ever becoming a particularly fast sight reader due to lack of practice, there were some things that just stymied me, or thngs I never even thought about. Webb's book was very accessible in its approach, to the point of providing a few of those magnificient "AHA" moments, i.e., "Hey, all right, I knew that was the way that worked!" or "Wow, is that all you have to do"? (Although admittedly, there are some of Brian's songs I've tried to dissect for 40 years and I'm not sure even Jimmy himself could figure them out!) He explains everything very well and before you know it, hey, you really understand music (and a lot of stuff you thought you knew has even been confirmed- or not!). For an extra bonus, you even get a few "Only Brian Wilson" type anecdotes. Anyway, it's a good tool that helped me, and very interesting to read. Thought this may be of use to someone Thanks, Norm C.