Can learning music theory from "Music Theory for Guitarists Volume 1" by Bruce Arnold teach me enough to start composing?

Question

I am a guitar and bass player who has played pop/rock/blues for 15 years. Like a lot of other users I am music illiterate. I am a fan of Frank Zappa, Grateful Dead and am interested in composing rock music with a jazz/music literate influence. After a lot of reading reviews, I bought the book "Music Theory for Guitarists Volume 1" by Bruce Arnold. Although I had read the reviews, I must say that it is a challenging book. It has about 100 pages of exercises of filling in chords. I have finished upto the diminished triads exercise, and then I wondered if I was wasting my time, or if this is the path to being music literate. 1. If I were to finish all the exercises in the three volumes in this series, does that give me a good foundation in music theory to start composing? 2. Is this book more aimed at someone who wants to read/play sheet music (semi-) professionally? Typically I want to be able to able to have enough musical knowledge to understand and compose at the level of Frank Zappa at the beginning of his career (say early 70s). 3. To achieve that knowledge, what is the minimum number of books (and which ones) that I need to read/practise? I do not have access to music teachers but I can buy online courses.

Answer 1

Howdy Partner, here's what I have to say about that. I am a guitar player myself, love jazz and Zappa and a million other players. I went to the Manhattan School of Music to study theory. Not theory as it applied to guitar but theory in general. I was a bit over my head at that school. When I started playing guitar, I was mostly playing by ear or song books with those trusty guitar chords; The Band, The Beatles, The Stones, Joni Mitchell (great songwriter) Dylan, etc.Then, when I wanted jazz I had to study and went to school.

Ok, I'm not familiar with Bruce Arnold's. book. I'd be interested in taking a look, but... Here's the thing.

1) I always found the guitar is pretty difficult to read (musical notation wise), The piano being easier based on it being linear,

and 2) The guitar theory application to the instrument might being difficult for the same reason. That I don't know. But MUSIC Theory an absolute. A major third interval is a major third. It's easy as A-B-C#.

is the same no matter what instrument, it's just a matter of how to apply the concepts.