The Complete Idiot's Guide to
Music Composition
Corrections and Clarifications

As happens with any printed work, a few errors slipped into the initial printings of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition. These errors will be corrected in subsequent printings.

This page lists all the mistakes or confusing passages I know about. If you happen to come across any other errors or confusing sections, please feel free to email me at books@molehillgroup.com. I appreciate your feedback!

• Chapter 3, p. 28: Third paragraph, second sentence, the text reads "Because ii also leads to IV..." It should read, "Because ii also leads to V..." The following chord progression is correct.

• Chapter 3, p. 28: Working Backward from the Final Chord, third paragraph, the IV doesn't lead back to the ii chord, nor dues the vi lead back to the iii chord (the IV does, instead).

• Chapter 3, p. 34: Final sentence on the page, should read "the key of A natural minor" -- not C minor.

• Chapter 4, p. 44: Third paragraph, second sentence, it should read "When you write a chord in the root inversion" -- not first inversion.

• Chapter 6, p. 69: Pentatonic Scale, final paragraph on the page, note that the text states that C pentatonic is C-D-E-F-A. This is incorrect; C pentatonic, as noted in the accompanying musical example, is actually C-D-E-G-A.

• Chapter 7, p. 86: In the musical example illustrating non-neighboring connecting notes, the second note in the first measure should be an E, not a D.

• Chapter 7, p. 90: The items in Exercise 7-2 are slightly mislabeled. They should go a, b, c, d, e, as you would expect.

• Chapter 15, p. 191: In most modern bands and orchestras, the A clarinet is actually more common than the E-flat clarinet. (The B-flat clarinet remains the workhorse, however.)

• Appendix B, Chapter 13, Exercise 13-1e, the answer is incorrect. The notes should be A#, D#, F#, G#, A#