Decided to take this a bit more seriously.

tekbow

As opposed to tentatively poking at theory with a stick.

viz

tekbow said:

As opposed to tentatively poking at theory with a stick.

That’s a great book. There’ll be a bit of Italian you might be tempted to ignore, but it’s a brilliant intro to theory in the classical tradition. 

Barquentine

You'll need the companion volumes - CD, EF and G.

tekbow

I'm reading thru it in advance of starting to work on it. I can't believe I was clueless to this stuff and broadly unconcerned with it.

I don't get how there's people who say it's not important. It seems important.

I also have a new found respect for what drummers do. Even basic concepts seem like real 'rub your belly and pat your head' type stuff.

Except rub your belly 3 times for every 5 times you pat your head.

tanihhiavlt

music notation is a written representation of a language, people say it's unimportant in the same way that most people learn to speak prior to learning how to spell or maybe learn what a subjunctive is. Learning music theory will enable you to describe things you hear - which will help catalogue the information - it may add vocabulary for your creativity, but be wary of thinking it is a set of rules with which to make music -  enjoy 

beed84

It really is a great book. Rather than just read it, though, I would get the ABRSM: Music Theory in Practice, Grade 1 to go with it and go from there. The theory in practice books are broken down into sections and tell you what part of the theory book to read before presenting a series of bitesize exercises for you to do. Maybe get some manuscript paper to practice writing notation and some past papers, too. Doing it this way will help you consolidate what you're learning and make the process much more enjoyable. 

thing

tanihhiavlt said:

music notation is a written representation of a language, people say it's unimportant in the same way that most people learn to speak prior to learning how to spell or maybe learn what a subjunctive is. Learning music theory will enable you to describe things you hear - which will help catalogue the information - it may add vocabulary for your creativity, but be wary of thinking it is a set of rules with which to make music -  enjoy 

Have a wis for that. You don’t need to be able to read and write to have a conversation but if you want to communicate ideas in a permanent form then it’s pretty essential.