I am an expert at having a good time with music

My illustrated music theory books

I'm Brian Callipari. I write and draw books for understanding music visually: with diagrams, colors, and chord symbols, no sheet music. There are eight PDF books, translated into eight languages (Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Turkish, and Japanese), with interactive apps and example videos.

• Illustrated Harmony

  153 pages + 2 apps + Videos

  Why one chord sounds good after another, drawn with arrows and colors. I show you tonal functions, the circle of fifths, secondary dominants, tritone substitution and how to modulate. All you need is to play the basic chords and follow arrows.

• Illustrated Modes

  190 pages + 1 app + Videos

  Fourteen modes, taken from the major scale and the melodic and harmonic minor scales, on a single map where each one sits next to the mode that changes just one note. I show you which chords and notes define each mode and how to compose with them. All you need is to know what a scale is.

• Illustrated Harmony 2

  218 pages + 2 apps + Videos

  Picks up where Illustrated Harmony leaves off, without repeating anything. I show you inversions and drop voicings, suspended chords, neighbor chords (neo-Riemannian theory) and Bartók axes, and I transform the chords of Pachelbel's Canon. For anyone who has read the first one.

• Illustrated Chord Extensions

  209 pages + 4 apps + Videos

  When, how and where to add 9ths, 11ths and 13ths to a chord. I show you which ones work on each degree of the major scale, what polychords are, and my method for adding them by borrowing notes from the next chord. For anyone who already plays triads.

• Magic Glue for Guitar Players

  180 pages + 4 apps + Videos

  For guitar players stuck in the pentatonic. I teach you to improvise with the notes of the chord that is playing, using triad shapes on the fretboard, and to move from one chord to the next through the closest note. It works for jazz, blues, rock and metal.

• Arrangements Illustrated

  142 pages + 3 apps + Videos

  To stop trying chords blindly in your DAW's piano roll. I show you how to arrange for four voices with the basics of counterpoint from Bach's chorales, in colors: voice leading, chromatic bass lines and harmonizing a melody. Intermediate level.

• Illustrated Scales

  154 pages + 1 app + Videos

  I start from every seven-note scale that exists, discard the ones that don't work and sort the rest, from major scales to clusters, by their characteristic chord and note. It follows Illustrated Modes, but you don't need to have read it.

• Illustrated Music from Scratch

  To start from zero: what a note, a scale and a chord are, all the way to playing chords in time. I use guitar and piano so you can see how music works, but it applies to any instrument. It has a chapter on how to approach each book in the collection. Pre-order now: out December 10, 2026.