I found that learning music theory is a lot like learning electronics or math. The fundamentals are really, really, really (did I say really?) important. Rick's book is nearly 500 pages long. But THE most important pages of all of those are the first 12. It is very, very important that every single term and the relationships that those terms describe in those first 12 pages is thoroughly understood with no "gaps" whatsoever in that understanding. That doesn't mean just memorizing it, it means really taking the time to think it through forwards and backwards and even meditating on it in as many ways as you possibly can to really grasp how the different intervals feel within musical movement.
As a part of that process, read additional material about how the history of the Western form of music came about in the first place and why the human brain responds to it in the way that it does. It's not really that complicated in the end. There are only 12 notes whose fundamental relationships are defined in just 12 pages. But there is a lot going on in those first 12 pages in terms of how those 12 notes can move amongst themselves in an almost infinite way in musical composition.
Rick isn't going to do this for you in most of his material. But I guarantee you that if you really master those first 12 pages and everything that it implies including how these concepts map to real polyphonic instruments like both the piano and then a little differently to the guitar, you will get so much more out of all the rest of Rick's material. He makes the assumption that you really, really get what the 12 tone intervals and harmonic relationships are and how we perceive different meanings in them. That insight really needs to become first nature to you like just breathing before you can go on. That is why it is difficult to follow him as he sometimes rips through concepts that are all so critically piled on top of those fundamentals.
It does get more complicated as you build understanding. But you have no hope if you just gloss through those first 12 pages. Maintaining that "Beginner's Mind" perspective is critical. His ear training thing is also a very important part of it too. It really helps to get that intrinsic feel for intervals by actually hearing different ones over and over again. If you have ever watched how Rick can seemingly so easily deconstruct the harmonic structure of say a Pat Metheny piece that is full of quite complicated movement, then you know that there is a real payoff to getting yourself even close to Rick's level of fundamental understanding of intervals and how interval passages can begin and end in their movement through time. INTERVALS, INTERVALS, INTERVALS! Just look at what he has helped to teach his son to do if you haven't seen those videos!
Just my two cents. Rick doesn't even know me. But personally, he has helped me a lot in my musical journey.
