Can anybody recommend me some decent books/websites on learning music composiiton/theory? I know basics, I play a bunch of instruments but I've never gotten down and dirty with the majorly boring stuff that you have to learn for everything to be put together and compose the cool stuff.. I tried looking in my Barnes And Noble booksellers but they just had those X for Idiot's books and I'm not the biggest fan of the series.

I'm only a beginner too, but the only book I've got so far is "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory". I wasn't a big fan of the Idiot guide too, but I saw this book had pretty good reviews so I picked up a copy, and it isn't bad for the beginning composer. The first third of the book will be useless to you since you already know how to read music, but the later chapters on chord construction and melody might be useful. But since you are already a musician (and don't like the "Idiot" series) I'd check the table of contents in the "Look Inside This Book" option at Amazon first to see if you already know all that stuff.

I'm afraid that's all I can recommend. I've looked at some other theory books but they all assume some background knowledge that I didn't have at the time, and weren't very clear to read.

Most books you are going to find are probably going to be textbooks--I don't think enough people are willing to casually learn music theory for a "Theory for Dummies" set. That said, if you want a text to learn out of, there is an excellent set called "The Elements of Music" by Ralph Turek that I was taught from. It's pretty technical, but very, very good. I recommend taking a class at your local college, though--you can probably take a class for about $500.

Agreed that taking a class would be best.

If you can't do that, I'd suggest getting something on modern jazz/pop harmony. I think that would be more interesting, relevant, and useful. Moreover, jazz and pop harmony are mostly a subset of traditional Western art harmony, so it would all carry over if you continue studying theory.

There are a lot of websites with free theory lessons. Just google for exactly what you're looking for and you'll probably find it. Here are a couple that can get you started:

http://www.musictheory.net/
http://www.dolmetsch.com/theoryintro.htm
http://www.emusictheory.com/

Good luck :)