Reddit Reddit reviews Tonal Harmony: With an Introduction to Twentieth Century Music

We found 20 Reddit comments about Tonal Harmony: With an Introduction to Twentieth Century Music. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Tonal Harmony: With an Introduction to Twentieth Century Music
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20 Reddit comments about Tonal Harmony: With an Introduction to Twentieth Century Music:

u/wastedatx · 8 pointsr/musictheory

I studied out of Tonal Harmony by Kostka and Payne. I found it pretty easy to approach, and the accompanying workbook really reinforces the lessons.

u/meepwned · 6 pointsr/Guitar

My standard advice for this matter is to avoid any guitar-specific theory books. They tend to focus on the wrong things, teach everything in a confusing manner, and overemphasize modes in a nonsensical way.

This is a great general introduction to tonal harmony, which is where you want to start. It might seem a little stuffy and tangential to guitar, but learning a solid foundation from this point will help you have a great understanding of music.

u/dissonantharmony · 6 pointsr/classicalmusic

This is definitely not a rule for how to write music now, just a rule for how to write music in the style of Bach/Mozart/Beethoven/Haydn etc. If you're interested in Tonal (read: Common Practice) Harmony, here are a few good theory books used in Freshman/Sophomore college music curriculums (in my order of preference):

The Complete Musician


Techniques and Materials of Music


Harmony and Voice Leading


Tonal Harmony

I'm also a composer, and I tend to write more modally (and sometimes without a strict tonality), so I just teach these, I don't necessarily follow them in my own writing.

u/itzmattu · 5 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers
u/EmelGreer · 3 pointsr/musictheory

That Laitz book is the one they use at a music school in Germany I’m looking to apply to. When I sporadically sat in on some classes at Peabody Conservatory through JHU, they used this one , which is fine but I’m curious about the difference between music textbooks.

My question is about figured bass notation. I never understood why just writing „42“ or „65“ can give you the notes. How do you know if the interval is a major or a minor 4th or 2nd etc? I.e., if the 7 chord is a dominant 7, or flatted 7, or major 7? That’s why I find jazz notation clearer—it always tells you precisely the quality of the chord (aside from those sneaky and vague „alt“ chords which I hate :). Are you just supposed to know the position of the chord in the scale (ah, it’s a chord built on the 7th scale degree so the 7th must be B7b5? Or this 42 refers to the V chord so we know it’s seventh is flatted?) and that seems like it would not always be a sure bet to tell whether the 7th is flatted or not.

u/aaronpw · 2 pointsr/Music

Music exists to be made and that's all there is to it.

You missed 2-8 years of constant exposure, performance opportunities and lots of cool classes, but if music is something you love just do it as much as you can. Ear training, sight singing, transcription, these are very important tools but it takes the repeated application of them to make you "better." I have a BM, it was 4.5 years of immersion. I can tell you that most of the things I "learned" I could point out to you in a few minutes each. Lots of little tricks and tips, neat combinations and things like that. Figuring out how to really apply them is what's so difficult.

If you want a good introduction to harmony and tonality, Tonal Harmony is very thorough.

Make what you want. Fuck everybody who says you can't.
Edit: phrasing

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/piano

This is a wide array of questions for which you're going to get as many different answers as you get responses. Here's one set, though, I suppose.

I will preface everything by saying that, yes, time, practice, and listening to others are the three main things that will make you better. But it helps to listen to the right things and practice things the right way. I've played for about 21 years now (seriously for the last 10) and, as with any field, you never really close the gap between things you know and things you don't know: you just watch it widen and resign yourself to the fact that you can only improve in so many things at one time.

  1. It's hard to recommend anything other than the standard music theory textbook Tonal Harmony (6th Ed., 5th Ed.). I used the fifth edition, and I can't imagine theory has changed too much in the last ten years, so you probably can't justify dropping over $100 on the sixth edition.

  2. If you weren't gifted with perfect pitch, do interval ear training (there are probably better resources out there, but that was the first thing Google came up with). Recognizing intervals is the most important part of being able to play by ear.

  3. I doubt everyone will agree with me, but I'd say to focus on one or two at once. That way you don't get overwhelmed by having to deal with seven different styles at the same time, and you can build strong foundations in just a couple of them.

  4. What do you mean by "How do I get out of the 4/4 mentality?" Do you mean performing or composing? If performing, there's no trick it, honestly; you literally just count to a different number each bar. If composing, well...yeah, practice, I guess. Try to write some simple things in 3/4 or 5/4 or 6/8 or 7/8 or something. Think about how to expand or contract a melodic line so that it fits into a certain meter.

  5. I use an M-Audio Oxygen 88 for composing/recording. It's definitely not the same as a real piano, but it's pretty solid. Don't pay the price on their site: I got mine for substantially less on Amazon and would wager that you can find a good deal, too. I'll warn you that it's a MIDI controller and not a digital piano/synthesizer, meaning that it doesn't have speakers and can't make sounds on its own: it has to go through software. If you want a digital piano, this link in the sidebar may help.

  6. I use REAPER. It's wildly inexpensive, and if that's too expensive, the free trial is full-featured and lasts forever. It's got a pretty steep learning curve, but it's an extremely powerful piece of software.

  7. Sergei Rachmaninoff, Nikolai Medtner, Sergei Prokofiev, Nikolai Kapustin (evidently anyone named Sergei or Nikolai =P), and, more recently, Avishai Cohen (the bassist) and Hiromi Uehara. I'll likely forever acknowledge Beethoven as the greatest composer ever to live, however.

  8. Yes. Write them down. If nothing else, write down at least the chord progressions and the melody and the bits that never seem to change. For improvised parts, I don't know if there's a standard notation: if I'm writing by hand, I just draw squiggly lines that follow the general shape of what I usually improvise.

  9. I'm incredibly new to improvisation, being classically trained and just now finding myself very interested in jazz, but I'd say: know the style, know your theory, and listen, listen, listen. He talks about jazz in particular, but Mulgrew Miller has a series of several YouTube videos in which he discusses improvisation, and I'd wager much of it can be applied across many genres: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyRGB_x7VSg#.
u/scithion · 2 pointsr/IWantToLearn

Apparently you want a textbook, but know that music theory and composition demand tons and tons of practice. My suggestion is to get yourself educated with legit basic theory resources (note that Jazz is sufficiently complex and different from everything else that it's a very bad way to start).

Lectures - here (someone else in this thread has posted this).

You will need both auditory and written practice. Musictheory.net is great for "ear training." You should also have a physical instrument. If you're willing to blow cash on a textbook, Stefan Kostka's Tonal Harmony (older editions are less than half the price listed there) is a common university choice that starts from nothing and goes far. It's important to also complete the exercises in the workbook, and get a music notebook for practicing your chops. As soon as you know how to write music, you can make up your own melodies, and you can garnish and revise them as your knowledge grows). If you're poor, I see little harm in breaking copyright law and obtaining a free electronic copy of the text - but it is still in your interest to obtain the workbook.

One might consider using iTuna ($3, a note recognizer app for mobile devices) and eventually Sibelius ($100+, a score-writing program) but it is important that you train your brain to audibly recognize objects, and premature use of computer resources can make you dependent.

u/krypton86 · 2 pointsr/Learnmusic

Yes, counterpoint assumes that you have a foundation in 18th century harmonic practice, also known as "common period" practices, e.g. voice leading as practiced by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc.

Harmony by Walter Piston is very thorough, but it's a serious treatment and perhaps not for the faint of heart. Also, you may want to get an edition before the fifth as it's substantially different from a pedagogical standpoint than the earlier editions. I can also recommend Kostka's Tonal Harmony very highly, but also a serious treatment. In fact, it may be best just to start with the Kostka and pick up the Piston later if the fancy strikes you.

These two books teach harmony in very structured way, and in many ways that's the best for learning counterpoint. Eventually, depending on how serious you want to get about composition, you may want to read Schoenberg's book Theory of Harmony. It covers the same material as most harmony books, but it does so from the perspective of the composer. It's even a little philosophical (and dense). It's not unusual for graduate students to re-learn harmony using the Schoenberg text as it forces you to think like a composer. Of course it's a more difficult read, but only if you're unprepared.

If you'd like something a little more easy, there's no shame in getting the Dummies series book on harmony. It does the job with a minimum of depth. Frankly, though, it's in your best interest to start with a solid, university level textbook like the first two I mentioned if you want to tackle counterpoint. Eventually, it's a good idea to read more than one book on tonal theory anyway, so it can't hurt to start with the Kostka and just put it down and use the "Dummies" book. You can always just come back to it later.

u/imgonnasaysomnstupid · 1 pointr/musictheory

goodreads gives it a 3.9/4

classical.net which is the first review to show up on google, gives a glowing review

amazon buyers gave it 4.3/5

booksaboutmusic has nothing but positive things to say

I'm struggling to find all these negative reviews you are speaking of. Other then the typical bad apples on the various sites, I was unable to find a large amount of people saying bad things about the text. I do not mean to say they don't exist, but rather that it's not as widespread as you would like me to believe. I think this more a case of me upsetting the hive-mind here on reddit then this book actually being widely disliked by music scholars.

u/keakealani · 1 pointr/musictheory

If you have the budget for it, there's always grabbing one of the many theory/aural skills textbooks and doing some of their self-tests. This is one of the textbooks we used for my aural training class, and it comes with a CD that has a ton of listening examples; I think all of them except the quizzes have an answer key in the book, so that can be good for self-testing.

The Kostka textbook also has a workbook with some exercises - see this review for some critiques of that textbook series, but if you're using it for self-practice as opposed to first-time learning, I think it would be okay and it does cover a pretty broad base of topics for studying.

Of course, as someone else pointed out, musictheory.net and teoria.com are also good online resources for a lot of this stuff as well, so check out those self-tests. I also agree that grabbing music on IMSLP can be really good practice that's easy to access. In addition to Bach, try looking at some of Mozart's piano works, since those tend to be fairly straightforward but offer a slightly different texture for identifying harmonies.

Otherwise, I mean - I think most of these topics are things that fall into "the more you do it, the better you'll get" category, so I would just encourage you to immerse yourself in whatever music you're participating in, and focus on these topics. When you have downtime in a rehearsal - analyze. When you're waiting for a bus/picking up your kid/dinner to finish cooking - analyze. Listening to music on the radio - analyze. You get the idea. :) The more you build it into your life and the music you're actually doing, the more relevant it feels and the better you'll learn it.

u/FluteSiren · 1 pointr/musictheory

If you are planning on teaching yourself (which it sounds like you are) I would highly recommend working through the Elementary Music Rudiments series. I would recommend the all incluisive one as it is more economical and allows you to advance to where you need to be. http://www.frederickharrismusic.com/FHMCsite/capricorn?para=showPage&docId=catShowProd&section=**&prodCode=TSCR&fromCatCode=CATHEORY3&actionType=show&treePath=Theory >&categoryDesc=Theory Publications by Mark Sarnecki&fromTree=Y&pageNum=&level=2&code=CATHEORY3
This book can also be found on amazon and at many local music stores.
If you're not on a super tight budget another great theory resource is Tonal Harmony by Stefan Kostka
http://www.amazon.ca/Tonal-Harmony-Stefan-Kostka/dp/0073401358/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376420694&sr=1-1&keywords=Tonal+Harmony
This was my university text book for my first two years of theory classes. It explains everything from basic rudiments (it covers it slightly) and goes through the harmony methods used into the 21st century.
If you are serious about writing music and learning about the different compositional methods I would recommend going through and doing the exercises in each of these books as they will allow you to devlop a much better understanding and you may find it allows you more creative room.
The benefit of a book is that you don't get lost in duscissions and work sheets that are way over your head as you do online (I know I got into this situation a few times).
It is very important to be very confident in your rudiments before moving on to more complex harmony study so my recommendation would be to first go through Elementary Rudiments and then move on to Tonal Harmony. That's my two-cents, hope it helps!

u/teatime61091 · 1 pointr/Music

How Music Works by John Powell. It is a good breakdown of many elements of music and how we hear sounds and read notation. Other than the, look on Amazon for a used music theory textbook and go from there.


I used this on in college classes.

Another decent theory book.

u/shortbusoneohone · 1 pointr/jazzguitar

Alright. Well, whenever you're ready, just PM me, and I'll get you my cell number and Skype info. This theory text has made the most sense to me — http://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Introduction-Twentieth-Century/dp/0073401358/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1450929787&sr=8-2&keywords=tonal+harmony. It'll get you through all of the basics and some of the advanced stuff as well!


As far as jumping into playing stuff like CHON, depending on your technical ability, it's not that big of a leap. But understanding what's happening theoretically is the tricky part. Most people don't understand what's happening in the music that they play. What many of those people don't realize is that having a sound understanding of the theory can help articulate the music that they make more efficiently.


Do you understand how to construct chords and determine the quality of chords? If not, I would recommend checking out /r/musictheory for now. The sidebar has some great resources for a basic understanding of chords / harmony. I would check that out; play through the major scale w/ triad chords and identify the chord qualities (Major, minor, diminished etc); then, do the same thing and identify all of the seventh chords and their qualities. That'll get you off to a good start!

u/laughlines · 1 pointr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Heres the textbook my college uses for all of theory (1-4):

http://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Stefan-Kostka/dp/0073401358/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382458576&sr=1-1&keywords=tonal+harmony

I believe it's the standard for quite a few colleges as I know a couple other people who used it, as well as the teacher who taught theory at my high school. You could also acquire a copy somewhere probably....

It uses examples mostly from either classic rep pieces or twentieth century and romantic works so if thats not your thing or your looking for specific jazz voicings there's probably other resources that'd work better. If you want knit-pick specifics for voice leading with all the types of chords, going into more exotic and strange chords, some 12-tone stuff, and tetrachords, it's probably a good book.

The chapters are stand alone in terms of what they teach, but they will rely on basic concepts and possibly concepts covered in other chapters.

-----

If you're an electric. music minor (Though I'm not sure exactly what that entails) you probably have a theory teacher or someone you could ask for similar texts?

I only reccomend a textbook because it will go far more indepth and pull together a huge breadth of information compared to most internet resources (which are geared more for rock/pop normally).

u/MusikLehrer · 1 pointr/musictheory

http://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Stefan-Kostka/dp/0073401358/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1332857444&sr=1-2

Time to move off the websites and into some books. This is a good overall intermediate/pre-advanced textbook

u/Xenoceratops · 1 pointr/musictheory

Laura Felicity Mason - Essential Neo-Riemannian Theory for Today's Musician

Although I think that a standard harmony textbook like Kostka & Payne (much maligned on this sub, but it does cover the chromatic harmony you're talking about) is probably more of what you need at this point.

u/LudwigVanBeethoven2 · 1 pointr/musictheory

There is no one size fits all bible of music theory. To be extremely well rounded you need to look at a few different books:

For just starting out in the sense that you don't know how to build chords or intervals, Carl Fischer's grimoire books are excellent.

For classical harmony this is the book I used in my classes:
http://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Introduction-Twentieth-Century/dp/0073401358/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1465247193&sr=8-2&keywords=tonal+harmony

For jazz harmony:
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465247235&sr=8-1&keywords=jazz+theory

For deeper classical/counterpoint:
http://www.amazon.com/Counterpoint-4th-Kent-Kennan/dp/013080746X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1465247274&sr=8-3&keywords=counterpoint


Also, try to get lessons with a university teacher because none of these books are comprehensive or perfect.
I remember in one of my beginning classes we went over the omnibus, and the deepest the book went was "this is an omnibus".
It wouldn't be until college where a professor ACTUALLY explained to me what the omnibus is and how to make one.

Also, the mark levine book can probably be condensed into 20 pages of meaningful material. He uses a lot of filler/examples...

u/superbadsoul · 1 pointr/piano

If that's the case, then don't worry, learning to jam is something you can learn on your own, especially if you continue taking formal lessons to keep building your fundamentals.

First, catch up on your music theory in your spare time. I have no idea how much your teachers have taught you already, but you should learn enough so that you know how to build any chord in any inversion, and you should understand the relationships of chords. Like if you see an F#m7 or an Asus4 or a D9, you should understand what notes make up these chords. You should know what tonic, subdominant, and dominant chord functions are, and you should know that a G7 functions as the dominant to a C. You should know what a I-IV-ii-V7 chord progression is and how to plug that progression in to different keys.

If you know most of that stuff already, then you're already set to go! All you need to do is pick up some charts and start playing til you get the hang of it.

If you don't know this stuff yet, time to buy a music theory book and get studying. When I learned theory in school, I used this textbook but I am sure there are plenty of others to choose from. Your piano teacher should be able to assist you with your theory studies, and if they can't, you definitely need a new teacher.

Also, you should ask your teacher to start you on basic chord progression practice right away to supplement your scale work. When you see people "jamming forever" on youtube, basically all they're doing is repeating a chord progression over and over and improvising with various matching scales on top of that, so getting familiar with your chord progressions now will help you achieve your goal faster. Again, if your teacher doesn't know how to teach you this, you need a more qualified teacher (even purely classical teachers should know how to teach this stuff).