Book Review: The Chord Wheel – The ultimate tool for all musicians by Jim Fleser
If you have ever tried to learn chord theory and keep it all in your head then you will know that you need a very good memory or years of practice before your brain has figured out what to do, the chord wheel decodes all this for beginners because it is a visual display, suitable for musical students and advanced musicians. Not really a book but an excellent little tool that comes with twelve pages of instructions.
I went through a number of different reviews before I understood that I could be using the Chord Wheel but whatever book I bought, the rest of it would always turn out to be useless. The best thing about this book is that the 12 pages it contains is simple a guide to how to use the gadget.
The book explains things in a simple and clear manner. As you would know, there are a number of books available in the market for the same purposes, but all these books begin with the basics and then go on to the different ways and exercises which make it hard to keep track of the information. It is hard to identify how the information is useful or how it is relevant to subject. It often feels like we need a whole new bout of education before we can figure out everything we need to know.
In this case though, the gadget turns out to be beautiful. Most people agree that the chord wheel is highly useful. All you need to do is pick a key and play the chords that are included in the family. You can find these online or in reference guides. You can play the chords in a particular family in any order or combination that you find appealing. You need to ensure that you like the sound that you are producing of course.
Some advice, Do not try and understand each and every concept but try to understand how things fit together. Basically, you should focus on trying to build a strong foundation by learning the concepts properly.
This brief little book and the chord wheel gadget are arguably one of the best practice tools of all time.