The Science of Music. A Practical Look at Music Theory - Allen Van Wert;Chris Adler

#1 Amazon Best Seller in Music Theory and Music Reference. Over 20,000 copies sold worldwide with nearly 100% five-star reviews.

Music theory books have been teaching the same way for centuries. Rename a long list of effects, recycle the decisions and trends of composers from before they even had toilet paper, and take the same basic ideas and rename them fifteen different ways. They are essentially history books pretending to be theory. That's why people hate them.

This book is different.

The Science of Music teaches the underlying causes and science behind what all of those many effects come from. Once you peek behind the curtain, everything becomes much easier than it has been presented to appear.

Allen Van Wert's original research into modes uncovered fundamental misunderstandings that have been baked into traditional music theory for centuries, including the revelation that the minor scale itself was the biggest mistake in music theory history. These findings allowed him to correct those issues and strip away the complexity and redundancy that have made theory way harder to learn than it needs to be.

The result is a complete rebuild of music theory from the ground up.

No more outliers. No more exceptions patched over ill-conceived opinions based on trends from a long time ago. The theory presented in this book will always be true and will always work in any context.

What makes this book different:

Allen couldn't afford to go to college even with his skill-based scholarship. He studied their books in a tiny room at home and started noticing the flaws in their logic. A part of being autistic is noticing where systems can be built better and also having a strong sense of justice about it. He couldn't just leave it broken. Part computer programmer, part musician who experiences goosebumps and chases that magic. That outside perspective is exactly what allowed him to step outside the matrix and see things for what they really are. You benefit from his life's work and study.

This is for people interested in actually making music.

Composing, improvising, songwriting, and learning songs much faster. Many readers say they have a strong understanding of how music works by page 45. This is the new music theory.

Updated January 2026 with 100% new hand-made art, text upgrades, and formatting.