Best books about religious & sacred music according to redditors

We found 157 Reddit comments discussing the best books about religious & sacred music. We ranked the 37 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.

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Books about jewish music
Books about muslim music

Top Reddit comments about Religious & Sacred Music:

u/Xenoceratops · 22 pointsr/musictheory

Schenkerian analysis takes everything you learned in harmony and makes it useful. It helped me make sense of counterpoint too. I link some sources in this thread.

Then there's neo-Riemannian theory, which is more or less about chords that don't behave well under traditional analysis. I learned from bashing my head against really dense academic articles, but I hear Richard Cohn's Audacious Euphony is supposed to be good. What you want to do is learn PLR-family transformations and the triadic Tonnetz, learn the concept behind compound transformations, then jump into Cohn's writing on cyclical progressions and wrap your head around Douthett & Steinbach's graphs.

Form is super important, especially Caplin's theory of formal functions. This stuff meshes well with Schenkerian theory, in my opinion. Schmalfeldt's book is also a very useful for the study of form. I always feel a little strange recommending Hepokoski and Darcy, because that book is so dense and I don't want to push anyone into purchasing a 600-page book on the analysis of sonata forms that's just going to end up collecting dust on their shelf. However, it's easily one of the most important music theory treatises of the 21st century so far (and the other ones I'm mentioning are right up there too), so I feel I should mention it.

Question is, what are you into? What do you want to learn? What do you hope to do with this knowledge?

u/meepwned · 21 pointsr/Guitar

My suggestion is to learn on your own, and if you choose to go to college, pursue a major that has more profitable career options. Minor in music theory and invest your free time in practicing your instrument. Here is a reading list I recommend to start getting into serious music study and guitar playing:

u/spoonopoulos · 19 pointsr/musictheory

There are a lot of courses. Any specific topics you're interested in?

Edit: I'll just list a few anyway that I've used in classes (this may not reflect all professors' choices for the same subjects).

Tonal Harmony: Kostka-Payne - Tonal Harmony

Counterpoint 1: A Berklee book by the late professor Rick Applin. Some also use this Fux translation/adaptation

Counterpoint 2: Bach Inventions & Sinfonias (any edition, really)

"Advanced" Counterpoint: The Well-Tempered Clavier (again, any edition)

Early Twentieth-Century Harmony: Persichetti - Twentieth-Century Harmony

Post-Tonal Theory/Analysis: Straus - Intro to Post-Tonal Theory

Instrumentation/Orchestration: Adler - The Study of Orchestration &
Casella/Mortari - The Technique of Contemporary Orchestration

Western Music History - Burkholder/Paiisca - A History of Western Music (8th or 9th edition)

Conducting 1 - Notion Conducting

Conducting 2 Notion + Stravinsky's Petrushka

Berklee's own (jazz-based) core harmony and ear-training curricula use Berklee textbooks written by professors which, as someone else mentioned, come unbound and shrink-wrapped at the bookstore. You can find older (PDF) versions of the Berklee harmony textbooks here. Of course this list only represents explicit book choices - there are a lot of excerpt-readings, and there's a lot of instruction that isn't found in these books even in the associated courses.

u/RMack123 · 8 pointsr/musictheory

Most college music theory texts have a companion workbook filled with quizzes and practice problems/questions. Where I went to undergrad we used Tonal Harmony and the school I'm going to now uses The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis. Not sure if that qualifies as being "accessible," but it's good material if you're willing to part with all those dollars. Text books sure are expensive.

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/disposable_startup · 7 pointsr/diypedals

This book might be good for a beginner hoping to learn about how various effects work. Might not be useful for schematics, but it'll help you understand the fundamentals of effects.

Creative Recording 1: Effects and Processors: Second Edition (Sound on Sound Series)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1860744567/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_0Fp0Ab504DFS7

u/armada127 · 6 pointsr/gifs

In case you wanted to buy it.

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/OnaZ · 6 pointsr/piano

The overall lead sheet is from The Real Christmas Book.

The arrangement I created this morning was:

  • Ballad/semi-rubato intro over first 8 bars
  • Walking bass and melody once through the chart
  • Solo
  • Start referencing melody the last 8 bars
  • Transition to ballad/semi-rubato for the last 4 bars.
  • End a half step up from root (F#maj7) and then resolve to Fmaj7#11.
u/Wezirn · 6 pointsr/FL_Studio

College does teach music theory but theres a lot of resources elsewhere.

the basics

https://www.musictheory.net/

more advanced

http://openmusictheory.com/

for more serious people

https://www.amazon.com/Concise-Introduction-Harmony-Poundie-Burstein/dp/0393264769/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1504284834&sr=8-2&keywords=concise+introduction+to+tonal+harmony

And an important part of learning music is ear training.

Its recommended you have a piano or guitar, or even your voice, and do ear training exercises

https://www.musictheory.net/exercises/ear-interval

I found this guy in particular to be the best source for a video series on the basics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICDPWP6HUbk


College degrees on the other hand is way more than music theory. the actual music theory credit classes will usually account for less than 10% of the entire degree.

u/ILikeasianpeople · 5 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Hey, I’m kind of a book junkie when it comes to common practice stuff, so I’m gonna throw a bunch of em at ya. The common practice era of composition can be broken down into 3 major fields of study: Form/Composition, Harmony and Orchestration. Form/composition is about how music develops over time harmonically and melodically. Harmony is about how vertical sonorities interact with one another, this is one of the most fleshed out aspects of music theory. Orchestration, usually the capstone discipline, dives into how groups of instruments interact with one another on a harmonic level and a melodic one. Harmony+composition can be studied simultaneously considering there is so much overlap, orchestration usually comes after you have a middling understanding of the other two subjects.

There are a bunch of free online materials on these subjects, but here is my personal favorite:
http://openmusictheory.com/contents.html

There are also a few free books on harmony, orchestration and composition, but most of them were published a very long time ago. As a consequence, you may run into outdated or poorly explained concepts.

Harmony:

Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony

Orchestration:

Principles of Orchestration

Composition:

Fundamentals of music Composition

Exercises in Melody Writing

Most of the stuff with comprehensive+up to date information on these subjects is going to be something you pay for. Here are my favorite textbooks. One thing I value in a textbook is an accompanying workbook and/or some sort of exercise based learning, so I’ll be listing the workbooks (if applicable) as well.

Melody in Songwriting

Craft of Musical Composition Parts One and Two

Models For Beginners in Composition

Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music

Workbook for Harm Practice

The Study of Orchestration

Workbook for The Study of Orchestration

This isn’t an exhaustive list but it’s pretty solid.


Recording orchestras is out of reach for most, so you’ll probably need some good VSTs to use and some knowledge of how to make them sound ‘real’. Building an orchestra template is key to making music quickly and efficiently. It’s a massive headache to have to wait for Kontakt to load and instrument every time you want to add a flute or violin to your score. Here are the basics of what you’ll need:


Woodwinds:

Flutes

Clarinets

Saxophones

Oboes

Bassoons



Brass:

French horns

Trumpets

Trombones

Tubas

“Low brass”


Strings:

1st Violins

2nd Violins

Violas

Cellos

Bass

First chairs of each


Others:

PIANOS

Harps

Choirs

Guitars

Vibraphones

Glockenspiels

Etc


Orchestral percussion

Concert Toms

Taikos

Snares

Concert bass drums


Here are some places to get all of that:

Audio Bro (the ARC system is awesome)

Spitfire

8Dio

Orchestral Tools (my favorite)

CineSamples

EastWest Sounds

Heres a resource to make all of that stuff sound ‘real’. It’s a lot more difficult then you may think.

The Guide to MIDI Orchestration 4e

u/itzmattu · 5 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers
u/vornska · 5 pointsr/musictheory

IV. Voice-Leading Parsimony

("Parsimony" means "thriftiness, frugality; unwillingness to spend money.")

One interesting fact about P, L, and R: they leave 2 notes untouched, and the voice that does move only moves by a step. P and L only move one note by a half step, and R is a little more extravagant by moving a voice by a whole step. So these transformations are "parsimonious" (frugal) in the sense that they can get you new chords for very little effort (motion). It turns out that the triad is pretty cool for being able to do this: very few other chord types in the world can. (For example, you can't get from one French 6th chord or fully diminished 7th to another just by moving one voice a tiny amount.)

The next thing that Neo-Riemannian theory asks is "What happens if I chain a bunch of transformations together?" For example, what happens if I make a sequence by alternating P's and L's? Each step along the way changes only 1 half-step, but how many different notes does it use total? How long before I get back to my starting chord? (Will I go through all 12 major and all 12 minor triads? Or do I only use a fraction of the total?) Neo-Riemannian theory maps out the possibilities and describes them using a concept from modern algebra known as an algebraic "group." The transformations P, L, and R form a "group" of things that you can combine to make new things (e.g. imagine considering L-then-R to be a single transformation of its own). Group theory is used to explore the structure of the possibilities there.

V. Enharmonic Equivalence

(That is, the assumption that there are only 12 notes and that spelling doesn't matter, so G# = Ab.)

This doesn't sound very exciting, because we're pretty used to it by now. But it was a radical notion early in the Romantic period, and composers like Schubert got some cool effects out of exploiting it.

Earlier I asked "What happens if I make a sequence out of alternating P's and L's?" Well, it turns out that I go through 6 different chords, like this: CM - Cm - AbM - Abm - EM - Em (then back to CM). Every L takes me to a chord with a root a M3 lower, so that after 6 steps I've gone down by 3 major thirds and end up back where I started. This needs enharmonic equivalence to work, because without it I'd go C - Ab - Fb - Dbb... so that, in some weird conceptual world I'm actually not where I started. We're used to making that enharmonic shift, but it was relatively unfamiliar at the time. Partially that had to do with tuning, but also it had to do with the fundamental role of the diatonic scale at the time. Every interval had a meaning within a major or minor scale, and there were some combinations of intervals (like 3 M3's in a row) that couldn't be accomplished in any single scale. So shoving them all together like that, and forcing enharmonic equivalence on you, came very close to being a moment of atonality within tonal music!

This, again, is why the Neo-Riemannian approach of ignoring tonality and diatonic scales is useful: because there are pieces that do just that, in order to combine triads in weird ways (like the P-L sequence) that require enharmonic equivalence to make sense.

VI. The Tonnetz

In order to visualize the universe of possibilities that we've opened up with all this theorizing, Neo-Riemannian theory likes to create visual maps of the chord layouts that are possible. This kind of map is called a Tonnetz (German for "tone network"). Here's an example of a Tonnetz. Each letter represents a note (not a chord). Horizontal lines connect notes by perfect 5ths; diagonals that go up-right (or down-left) connect minor thirds; diagonals that go up-left (or down-right) connect major thirds.

The triangles that are formed in this picture represent triads: triangles pointing up are minor triads and triangles pointing down are major triads. So you can see the triangle framed by C, Eb, and G bolded in the picture, which of course is a C minor triad. Below it is the C,E,G of C major.

The nice thing about a Tonnetz like this is that it can also show our transformations. Consider the C major triad (just below the bolded triangle). Now look for the triangles that share a side with C major: they turn out to be exactly the 3 triangles that I can transform C major into via P, L, or R. So we can imagine those transformations as ways of flipping one triangle onto another inside the Tonnetz; we can make analyses of pieces by tracing out their chord progressions as if on a map.

---

That's pretty much all I've got stamina for, tonight. I've left a bunch out, so I'd be happy to get corrections/additions (or questions!), but I hope this has been a plausible overview of the basics of Neo-Riemannian theory.

If this stuff piques your interest, here are two books that are very much worth taking a look at:

Audacious Euphony by Richard Cohn, who is one of the founders of the theory, and who explores its possibilities through many nice analyses in this book.

A Geometry of Music by Dmitri Tymoczko, who is critical of standard Neo-Riemannian theory in many ways. His book (which builds two articles he helped write for Science in, I think, 2006 and 2008) offers another perspective on some of the same issues, drawing on geometry rather than algebra for his underlying mathematics.

u/jbibby · 4 pointsr/WTF

May I highly recommend you check out his other vids? Apparently he considers himself quite the standup comic and has a whole routine.


EDIT: His book'o'poems are on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Im-Statue-Book-Lyrics-Slogans/dp/0759613419/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250601557&sr=8-1

u/disaster_face · 3 pointsr/musictheory

harmony is far more complex than any one post can explain to you. get a good book. i recommend Tonal Harmony. you can get it used for a good price. you will need to know some basics, like how to read music.

u/jdwilsh · 3 pointsr/CasualUK
u/frontseatdog · 3 pointsr/DebateAnAtheist

Obviously you've never seen hymn dance.

u/Yeargdribble · 3 pointsr/Accordion

>Since I'm really new to jazz in general, I am not good enough to substitute chords on my own or come up with my own jazzy fills and lines.

This is usually my suggestion, but barring that, I'd go with /u/JacksonParodi's recommendation. The Real Christmas Book isn't my favorite, but it's probably the closest. The Ultimate Christmas Fakebook is another I like, though most of the chords are more traditional and you'd have to jazz them up yourself.

If you really want to get into jazzier playing you'll have to slowly invest in the chord knowledge though. It's especially crucial on accordion since there is no maj9 button and common things like 7#5 are physically impossible to play with the left hand alone. You'll need to know how to build these chords so that you can either combine basses in the left or supplement appropriately with the right to get the chord quality you're after.

Lead sheets are wonderful, but they require this bit of knowledge. Unfortunately, I'm not aware specifically of any songbooks with standard accordion notation that cover jazzy Christmas tunes (though I have some that are jazzy tunes in general). Lead sheets are pretty much always going to be your best bet and barring that, reading piano music and being able to adapt it (once again, through some chord knowledge) to accordion is the next best option. There are a ton of jazzy Christmas books for piano (and just music resources in general for piano as opposed to accordion). On the bright side, usually when something is arranged in a jazz style, they provide chords symbols over the top so that essentially turns it into a very fleshed out lead sheet. Books like this one are a good example.

u/optigon · 3 pointsr/IWantToLearn

Happy cake day!

You’ll want to learn music theory. A pretty standard book that I read was called Tonal Harmony. It may be a little heavy, but it will give you the underpinnings of Music theory in a comprehensive way.

With that, songs usually have lyrics, which that book doesn’t explain. In fact, I’m in the middle of a pretty good book on songwriting called Tunesmith It really gets into meter, rhyming, etc. that goes into how lyrics are put together with quite a few examples.

u/marcusnorris · 3 pointsr/makinghiphop

I know a lot as well. I'm a music composition major and play piano. The theory didn't really become applicable til I started pairing it with piano tho, before that it just seemed like stored knowledge. To be honest, I'm not sure it's extremely useful with hip hop, but it does make for some funny stuff sometimes. Here's an a capella 4 part vocal arrangement I made of Big Sean's "Guap", bored during my spring break.

If you're looking for a starting place, I really like this book, it's the one that I started on.. It's arranged in a way where you can fill in your answers, and then check them to make sure you're on the right track.

u/president_josh · 3 pointsr/Songwriting

Review this and spend 10 minutes "writing a song" the way a child would not caring how good it is. Don't try to put any clever words or fancy sounding modifiers/adjectives in it -- don't even try to make it rhyme. A line or two per verse will suffice. When you're done you will have a song you could build upon. But the goal of the exercise won't be to come up with a song you'll use. You'll simply see if you can make a basic song by following one of the plot outlines on that web page. Since a child can make up a story, I assume that all of us can do that.

If you don't have anything to say, people may not want to hear it as much as if you have something to say and good music to go with it. Note how in each plot outline example on that web page, things "change."

Novelists, movie script writers and playwrights keep people coming back by saying things that change over time. They tell real stories that have a narrative arc which can almost be like a formula. But as you've heard, a song doesn't have to have an obvious story to engage listeners. It can consist of nothing of dialog where the singer talks to someone else.

How well you learn to have something to say and how you say it will probably impact the way people in the future review your song on sites that rate lyrics. They teach classes devoted to nothing but engaging listeners with stories and words so there's a lot you could learn in the future. CW and folks songs have lots of stories in them and great songwriters know how to tell them well.

For now, you might see what you think of song plots because even if you decide not to use them, they exist in real life. You may have lived one. Then, check out YouTube for videos that explain more. A goldmine of tutorials exist on YouTube that cover all kinds of songwriting topics.

You might also check out the Song Maps book. The author shows you how to write a song that tells a story. Here is a free overview of a map he calls "Gradual Reveal." As you'll see, there's a method to song construction that employs techniques used to take your listener on a journey from point A (the beginning) to point B (the end) ..

>**Excerpt - "**Gradual Reveal is a brilliant alternative to Timezones, Places and Roles if you want to tell a story without being specific about any of them. I love this Map because it enables us to create a deliberate sense of anticipation and suspense until the payoff, which is saved for later in the song, e.g. the Bridge or last line of V3. It also enables us to paint a picture that starts with a blur and ends up in HD Quality before landing the payoff. "

Note the word "deliberate." That sounds like a deliberate methodical process that a movie scriptwriter might try to do to make his movie more engaging. Audiences may never even know it's happening.

This link should take you to the "Read Inside" section of the book where you can preview part of it at Amazon. A child can tell a story, but it may not be one people will pay money to see in a theater. There are things you can learn, just like novelists to, to create great stories. Show, don't tell is a popular one. You'll read about it in that book as well as lots of other places that teach writing - even in college writing classes.

SamyieYouTube mentions a technique that writers ranging from bloggers to sermon writers use. That's brainstorming / freewriting. Note how he says "it doesn't have to be good." That's the same attitude you might take if you try the 10-minute songwriting challenge based on a song plot you choose. Your task when writing a real song will be to balance coming up with ideas with constructing a story / song which has a structure (verse chorus, etc). Not only that, you have to throw in meter, rhyme, hooks, pitches and patterns as well. But it helps to eventually know where you're headed when writing -- starting with a song plot is one way - not the only way - to do it.

u/17bmw · 3 pointsr/musictheory

Sure thing! This is going to be a bit of a doozy length wise because there's some background I should give first. You'll find some pictures in this link that will help you visualize some of the stuff I'm talking about here.

So let's start with the three basic transformations of Neo-Riemannian theory. We can use these transformations to turn some triads into others. A parallel transformation (P) will preserve a chord's root and fifth while swapping the quality of the third. So P applied to a C major triad will create a C minor triad and applied to an E minor triad will create an E major triad.

Then there's the leading tone transformation (L). When L is applied to a major chord, it moves the root down by half step to the leading tone (e.g. C major becomes E minor) and when applied to a minor chord, it moves the chordal fifth up a half step as if that chordal fifth was a leading tone (e.g. Bb minor becomes Gb major).

Finally, there's the relative transformation (R) which moves the chordal fifth of a major chord up by whole step (e.g. C major becomes A minor) or the root of a minor chord down by whole step (e.g. E minor becomes G major). This transformation relates relative major and minor keys.

Now notice, that the transformations all have something in common; no matter what triad we apply them to, we get a triad of opposing modality. If we use them on a major chord, we know a minor chord is the result and vice versa. Also notice that each transformation requires very minimal voice leading; the "biggest" transformation moves only one triad member by a whole step.

We can actually map all twelve chromatic pitches so that any equilateral triangle formed by immediately adjacent pitches is a triad. When we do this, we can arrange our map such that any two triangles that share an edge are related by one of our three transformations. Look at the first image here to see what I'm talking about. Technically, however, this pitch space is better thought of as a torus (Image 2) but I'm not trying to go too left field here.

Alternatively, we can just map all major and minor triads such that any two adjacent triads are related by one of our three transformations. Doing so gives us this hexagonal, chicken-wire fence shape that charts paths between chords via our transformations (Image 3).

Either/both of these representations help us visualize musical geometry, tonal relations, and voice leading in a very clear way. Before going on though, I should say that other maps are possible. For example, Allen Forte, in his Structure of Atonal Music, creates a neat map for trichordal set space. And tangentially, Klumpenhower and his networks operate like spiritual siblings to the same idea. But let's just worry about triadic and tonal spaces for now.

We can play around with these transformations and spaces a bit to see if we can't create a cycle. Cycles are any pattern of repeated transformations that (eventually) start and end with the same chord. Let's see what I mean. For this, you'll probably want to follow along on either the Neo-Riemannian pitch space or triad space maps.

Start with an E minor chord. Apply the P operation and get an E major chord. Apply the R transformation to get a C# minor chord. Apply P again, C# major. Apply R, Bb minor. Apply P, Bb major. Apply R, G minor. Apply P, G major. Apply, R, E minor.

So by just chaining P and R transformations back to back, we've managed to wind up back where we started. Hey, wait a minute! All of the pitches of these eight chords fit neatly into an octatonic scale!!! Because of this, we can call this P-R cycle an octatonic cycle because this chain of transformations produces an octatonic collection. You can see this more clearly in Images 4-6.

We can do the same thing to create the hexatonic collection, just by using a different set of operations. If we instead chain P and L operations together applied to any triad, we'll end up with a hexatonic cycle because again, we'll end on the same chord where we began. I'll leave it to you to map out all the changes for yourself but check out Images 7-9 to see what I mean.

I'm naturally skipping over a lot of juicy stuff in this discussion but I hope it at least sheds light on the basics of what I mean when I say crazy sh%t like "hexatonic cycles." There's this really nifty youtube video here that does a nice job of introducing plenty of the same concepts; please watch it! One of our Eternally Luminous Theory Monarchs has collected some resources for Neo-Riemannian theory that you can check out here and here.

There's also tons of lovely books and articles on the topic. Here are links to three; I would start with the Mason because it's designed to be a beginner's textbook in the field.

Cohn's Audacious Euphony

Tymoczko's A Geometry of Music

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

Finally, there are some sweet videos on youtube that model chord progressions from real music on the tonnetz as the music plays. It shows just how audible this stuff is and it's also just cool to look at and listen to.

Adams: https://youtu.be/edyM_iH0jJc

Satie: https://youtu.be/nidHgLA2UB0

Chopin: https://youtu.be/c-HDDiWWWTU

I hope this helps and take care!

u/GMZoe · 3 pointsr/tipofmytongue

Disapproving Rabbits? I have the book, but the website listed on the book isn't coming up anymore disapprovingrabbits.com

u/dcandap · 3 pointsr/piano

I'm not sure The Real Book is what you're looking for, since you've asked about hymns. TRB might be a bit complicated, with its emphasis on songs that feature extended and more robust harmony. This is the right track, though. A "fake book" of any variety is definitely going to help- perhaps The Hymn Fake Book.

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/obsessedwithpenguins · 3 pointsr/funny
u/TheThirdLife · 3 pointsr/musictheory

Music Theory Remixed by Kevin Holm-Hudson, is a great book that covers all the typical concepts of a four semester university theory course (Theory I through IV) but supplements all the concert music examples with music from pop music. It's pretty fantastic. Sort of like a more relevant Tonal Harmony... I think it's fun to hear modern examples of cadences, modulation techniques, etc. along side examples from Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.


Tonal Harmony, by Kostka and Payne, is in my experience the most commonly assigned text for Theory I - IV courses. It's very good.


Straus' Introduction to Post-Tonal Harmony, is incredible. This book helped me fall in love with post-tonal music. If you need to study post tonal music, this is the book to get.

u/alessandro- · 2 pointsr/musictheory

The progressions

I IV vii° iii vi ii V I

and

i iv VII III VI ii° V I

are the major and minor versions of what I was taught to call a "descending-second" sequence. (Some people call the same thing a "descending fifths sequence".) The latter bits of these sequences seem pretty similar to the progressions that you've provided for us here.

In a sequence, you can repeat the same melodic pattern on different scale degrees. An example of the minor-key version of this sequence in popular music is Fly Me to the Moon.

There are other kinds of sequences as well, such as the descending-third sequence that you'll see in the first six beats of Pachelbel's Canon in D (I V vi iii IV I).

It's good to practice playing sequences, as they're a common harmonic pattern. A popular voice-leading textbook includes these keyboard exercises on diatonic sequences which you might want to practice. The textbook recommends practicing these in every key up to four sharps and flats, in both major and minor unless otherwise specified.

u/superbadsoul · 2 pointsr/piano

Learning theory does involve a lot memorization, but it's more about learning musical function. And yeah, it can be, as you put it, agonizingly slow if you're still at a beginner level. Much of theory practice involves reading and interpreting notes and chords, which is much easier when you can read notes and chords very quickly and have an instrument you are proficient in to work things out on. But if you're seriously interested, it can be learned by anyone and it will enrich your piano experience.

Be sure you're not just learning random factoids one at a time. Context is very important for putting together musical theory. Use a theory book (here's the book I learned from in college for reference) and take things one chapter at a time. You can use your flash card study method to help memorize important concepts from there.

u/foggyepigraph · 2 pointsr/mandolin

It's sort of a combination of simple note reading, experimentation, and adaption to the instrument. Process:

  1. The key is key. Figure out the key. With the sheet music in front of you this is really a matter of reading the staff notation and then figuring out whether your piece is major or minor (C and Am have the same key signature, G and Em have the same key signature, etc.). You can usually figure this out by listening to the last measure of the piece for its flavor, major or minor (usually).

  2. In each measure, read the notes in each voice and write them down. The notes will tell you which chords are likely.

  3. Now a little guesswork. You need to figure out which chord is appropriate to each measure. Usually this involves knowing a bit about chord progressions and phrasing (generally simple in hymns). If you can sing the melody, guess the chords and sing while playing them. Let your ear be the guide; if it sounds right, you are good to go. Also, it is not necessarily the case that only one chord will work with a given measure (if this was a functional relationship, someone would have written a computer program to deduce the chords for each measure).

  4. Chord voicing. You will want to find the best way to play the chord on the mando. This gets into questions of voice leading, maintaining a good bass line, etc. Often your ear will be a good guide here.

    Step 3 can involve adapting your chord to your instrument. For hymns, you probably won't have to worry about this a huge amount except for seventh chords, and there are pretty extensive charts available for mando seventh chords.

    But really, after all is said and done: This is a pretty easy thing to do, if you know some basic music theory. If not, I think the closest I can get to ELI5 is (a) go read this and this, then (b) go arrange the hymns for mandolin.

    I'll try to post an example later this week (arrgh, not on vacation anymore, so much less reddit) for a simple hymn. Or PM me with a scan of a hymn and I'll try to mark it up and show you what I am talking about in steps 1-4 in the context of an example.

    EDIT: Another way to practice this chord writing skill: Get a book of hymns with guitar/piano chords already marked, and try out the process I outlined above. This way you can check your answers. This is not a bad start. Heck, it may have everything in it you want already.
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/icantfindadecentname · 2 pointsr/BuddhistParents

I've thought about buying this book: https://www.amazon.ca/Planting-Seeds-Practicing-Mindfulness-Children/dp/1935209809/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1463778926&sr=1-4&keywords=thich+nhat+hanh You can preview some of it...
Anyone have a review of the whole book? Was it useful? And the CD?

u/s0t1r2d · 2 pointsr/piano

I don't think you've learned incorrectly, just differently and in perhaps a really good way. From the way you described your sight reading, you see the notes on the page and play them, but do not translate them into letter names in your head. That's kinda awesome - like learning French through immersion and just knowing the french word for something, instead of having to translate it in your head from English to French.

In terms of sight reading, you could try a few things:

  1. Work on your theory. Analyze your sheet music. What are the chords you're playing? What's the structure of the piece? Maybe you're playing a piece that has an ABA form, maybe the A section has a chord structure of something simple like I-iv-V-I. Once you have that pattern in your head, it gets harder to slip up.

    This book is standard for teaching music theory in college. Tonal Harmony by Kostka


  2. Use "starting points." Pick out several logical places to just start a piece. Could be a section, a part of a section. For a Chopin nocturne, you might have starting points every 16 or so bars. For a Bach 4 part fugue, it might be every 4 bars. The point is, if you get lost, you can always jump ahead to a starting point. Try to play from the point "cold."

  3. Don't take your ear for granted. Listen to the piece, hum the piece - the theme and then the bass - while you play. This will get the song in you head so you know where you're going. It can also make your line more musical because you will intuitively play more like a singer sings.

  4. Practice smaller sections. This goes back to number 1. Do not try to memorize the whole piece at once. Memorize 8 bars. Memorize 16 bars. Start at the next point. Can you play that 8 bars cold?

  5. Play the penny game. This game is sadistic, but it works. Take five pennies, put them on the left side of your music stand.

  • Play a part - a few bars, whatever.
  • Did you play it "right"? The way you wanted it? Right dynamics, articulation, memorized, whatever you're going for this time around. If so, move a penny to the right.
  • Do it again. Made a mistake? Put the penny back to the left.
  • Keep doing this till all the pennies are to the right.

    This game makes it to where you're playing the part right, the way you want it more than you flub the part.

    Hope this helps and good luck to you.

    edit: Formatting - fml.
u/SimplyTheJester · 2 pointsr/musictheory

Part 1

https://www.amazon.com/Harmonic-Materials-Tonal-Music-Programmed/dp/0205629717/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/132-1931752-2639066?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0205629717&pd_rd_r=07bf0802-67a9-4bd7-959b-c29b8a462315&pd_rd_w=7pxDw&pd_rd_wg=7Y6o3&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=A5YH2NY8B0BJRFE2X6DT&psc=1&refRID=A5YH2NY8B0BJRFE2X6DT

​

Part 2

https://www.amazon.com/Harmonic-Materials-Tonal-Music-Programmed/dp/020562975X/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=harmonic+materials&link_code=qs&qid=1563943772&s=gateway&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-2

​

Bridge to 20th century

https://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Twentieth-Century-Music-Programed-Revised/dp/0205287581/ref=sr_1_9?qid=1563943844&refinements=p_27%3AGreg+A.+Steinke&s=books&sr=1-9&text=Greg+A.+Steinke

​

They have a "Part 0". I have a feeling you might be able to start with Part 2 and skip Part 0 and Part 1, but I can't be sure.

These are the books I used to build my foundation and I loved them. I just found the titles, but you might want to make sure you get the latest editions. Get the CD that comes with it as well.

These will probably get you into the intermediate stage, but I've never really been able to quantify where that stage begins and ends.

​

I'm just sharing what I know as a good foundation. It really isn't in the jazz realm of music theory. Classical and Jazz are similar but also very different. Best to learn both. Classical is probably better to begin with, as you've already started with it.

u/WeDaBestMusicWhooo · 2 pointsr/musictheory

This guy is a college music theory teacher and he's uploaded like 50 videos of his classroom lectures and he's excellent at explaining things. Every lecture is very clear, concise and too the point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICDPWP6HUbk&list=PLw9t0oA3fHkxx1PgYpiXrMUPXaOiwh6KU&index=1

​

I think his lessons are based around readings from this book, which is a little confusing to some people, but is a very standard college level music theory texbook https://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Stefan-Kostka/dp/0078025141/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1550514584&sr=8-3&keywords=tonal+harmony

u/BrandonAdamPhoto · 2 pointsr/piano

You can buy the books for every individual grade online. Either in PDF form or an actual copy. Most grades are a series of scales or arpeggios to play and an assortment of pieces suited to the difficulty. Most if not all can be found here http://shop.abrsm.org Schirmers Library also has books of exercises (which can be found free). If you’re interested in theory this is a pretty standard college text book on the subject Tonal Harmony

u/TheBlackDrago · 2 pointsr/APStudents

I wouldn't recommend self-studying this. A lot of the test is based on skills that you pretty much need from music as u/ChubbyMonkeyX said. Honestly, it is an extremely hard exam if you don't have a solid background in music. But it probably possible. If you need a textbook for self-study, I recommend this. If you need a review book, I recommend Barron's AP Music Theory Review book.

u/thelonious_ · 2 pointsr/Jazz

how about the christmas fakebook? or another book of sheet.

u/theOnliest · 2 pointsr/musictheory

Ditto to this...learning Schenkerian analysis is more like learning to play an instrument than learning to use Roman numerals, for example. It's nearly impossible to get good at it without a Jedi master holding your hand, as it were. Most of the noted Schenkerians working today can trace a direct line back to Schenker himself, and it's rare to find someone doing really good Schenkerian analysis today that didn't learn from one of the 2nd-generation Schenkerians. The C&G text is the best out there, but there are very few hard and fast rules with Schenkerian analysis, so it's exceedingly difficult to learn from a book (do, however, avoid the Forte & Gilbert textbook, and absolutely do not attempt to learn Schenkerian analysis by reading Free Composition).

Incidentally, what textbook did you (OP) learn from originally? I'd recommend getting a copy of the Aldwell/Schachter harmony text. Carl Schachter is the most important Schenkerian alive today (he learned from Felix Salzer, who was a student of Schenker's), and this harmony textbook, while not actually Schenkerian, will help a lot in grasping some basic concepts. You might also take a look at Robert Gauldin's textbook, which includes some basic Schenker instruction (if I remember correctly...I don't have a copy handy). There are plenty of us Schenkerians hanging around here in the wings, so we can probably help a lot (and I haven't gotten into a good Schenker argument in a while!).

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/tenshon · 2 pointsr/Buddhism

Planting Seeds by Thich Nhat Hanh, and

A Pebble for Your Pocket also by Thich Nhat Hanh

u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/Learnmusic

I actually just found out last night that Reddit user stathibus is currently offering a class in /r/universityofreddit on basic musical theory. Here is the link. Hes doing a very good job so far and hes going at a pace thats very manageable to all skill levels, so I think you might have some luck subscribing to his class.

As far as textbooks go, there is none other than Tonal Harmony. This is what they've used at every high school or university I've ever visited, and its what I learned from. Its a fairly comprehensive book and I highly recommend it, although I understand that the price point might be a deal breaker.

Other than that, my go-to online resource is always www.musictheory.net. It's not perfect, but its the best free resource that I know of, and its fairly well written and accessible. I'd definitely recommend going through a few lessons on that site and seeing if its for you.

u/Sir_Tableflip · 2 pointsr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

I don’t know if this will help with edm. But a decent textbook for theory is the Kostka.
https://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Introduction-Twentieth-Century-Music/dp/0072852607
That’s what I used in college

u/Weather_d · 2 pointsr/MechanicalKeyboards

Do you know how to dance? If not, I'll leave you with this: Dancing with Jesus: Featuring a Host of Miraculous Moves

You are welcome sir and madame.

Also, DSA

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/usmellofweewee · 2 pointsr/synthesizers

Start at the beginning, the synth secrets series in sound on sound was excellent

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

I would also recommend Paul White's Creative Recording Effects and Processors.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1860744567/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/278-4460500-1027753

If youve managed to work your way through those two sources by the end of the summer and you understand synthesis and something about the studio and the recording process, you're going some.

While youre at it you could check out the future music / computer music tutorials by professionals on the video sites.

u/psyyduck · 2 pointsr/Buddhism

I've seen this book recommended a few times, though I haven't gotten around to reading it.

u/ummmbacon · 2 pointsr/Judaism

> Reform trope

I had a conversation with a Reform Rabbi recently about it, and she says it's actually Binder A (mode 1) and Conservative is Binder B (mode 2).

Although the TropeTrainer Software says it's Wolff/Portnoy which is a variation on Binder, and that checks since they write the URJ's book on Trope

But yea I think they are both E European, although I think they are adding in Germany to that in this paper.

I found the help section that explains which is which after I wrote the above post.

u/kingpatzer · 1 pointr/Guitar_Theory

Knowing theory won't really help you create better songs. It will help you understand what's going on in a song and can help you solve many compositional problems for arrangements. But that's not the same thing.

I'm not trying to dissuade you, I'm a theory geek myself. But I do want to convey what theory will and won't do for you. Having a good ear for melody and a sense of song structure is far more important for making a great song than theory is.

If you want some great theory books, I can heartily recommend the text Tonal Harmony, by Kostka and Payne as well as Harmony and Voice Leading, by Aldwell, Schacter and Cadwallader

While pricey because of their academic audience, these texts avoid much of the confusion rigorous texts demonstrate, particularly with regard to the importance of modes to understanding the relationship between melody and harmony.

For really expanding your understanding of harmony on the guitar, and if you like Jazz, Johnny Smith's "Mel Bay's Complete Johnny Smith Approach to Guitar" is an amazing book, but requires a lot of hard work on the part of the student (not least of which due to Smith's insistance of writing the music in actual pitch using bass and treble cleffs.

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/whynotziltoid · 1 pointr/musictheory

http://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Stefan-Kostka/dp/0078025141?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

A book refering mostly to classical music (probably exclusivly) but its an immense source of knowledge of music theory and practice in general. It's written for academic purposes but is easily read by laymen :)

if you want a book that covers classical theory and harmony this probably the best.

Phillip Tagg's 'Everyday Tonality' is also good but a bit more advanced :)

u/satanloveskale · 1 pointr/musictheory

Great, hope it was helpful. To better understand voice leading try a book like Harmony and Voice Leading (3rd Edition), or another book on tonal harmony. I bet your local library will have some, and a universiy/college library with a music program def. will.

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/stanley_bobanley · 1 pointr/musictheory

When I was a student we used Harmony and Voice Leading by Aldwell & Schachter. It's an incredibly robust textbook.

I will say that having been through that book (and already having a BMus) really made diving into The Jazz Theory Book an absolute joy. You're right that having a strong foundation is helpful before reading it.

u/puzzlevortex · 1 pointr/Learnmusic

I went to berklee and this was our textbook:
https://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-B-Music/dp/0078025141
Also ear training helps, it is pretty hard though, you have to practice alot. Im sure you can find some youtube vids to help.

u/Sermoln · 1 pointr/musictheory

Hey, similar situation here and this is what I recommend

The Everything Music Theory Book has lined up pretty much exactly with my high school music theory class, but I haven't finished yet. It seems to be a great baseline to make sure you know what you need to: it has the same tricks everybody uses, workbook questions/answers, and you could look back in it anytime you need to remember something. (I have the second edition, not sure if it's superior)

Although I don't own it, my teacher has taken a lot from it: Tonal Harmony, apparently any music theory class you'll take in college will use this book, and my director says there's no need for the newest edition.

These two books should be enough of an entrance to music theory, without boring you. Supposedly there's plenty of resources online; I especially love the youtube community around it.

u/sarah-yentel · 1 pointr/Judaism

I learned from this book with CD amazon
it's not bad, when I had some question, I asked my rabbi. It's eastern ashkenaz which is used in US (so it's not so practical here in Europe). It teaches the principle-the melody of each cantillation mark (or group of cantillation marks), so when You learn this, you can lein almost everything (there is another book for haftarot and megilot)...

u/DavisonY · 1 pointr/Composers

Hey, hope I can help! Music composition and theory background -

 

It is great that you can come up with melodies - that is one of the hardest battles. To be quite honest with you, there is proper ways of doing voice leading in tonal (and atonal) harmony, but really no one cares if it is "proper" anymore outside of some collegiate settings. Basically, if it sounds good to you, chances are it will sound good to others (tonally speaking - atonality is not liked so much here in the west).

 


The textbook I used in school was called "Tonal Harmony". It was a good textbook, but I didn't think it was worth it outside of learning the basics. What has really helped me as a composer has been learning to play and improvise on the piano. Even musicians like myself with little piano training should be able to go up to a piano and "bang" out notes and add simple left hand chords to them. Piano music (and choral scores) are all about voice leading - it is what makes the instrument (and voices) sound good.

 

Next time you have a chance, play a melody on the piano. Try and identity what chord sections of your melody use and try that. Keep in mind that just because your melody has "C E G" in it does not necessary mean you have to use a C major chord. Try an A Major (there will be dissonance with the c/c#), an A minor 7 (A C E G), etc. Let me know if you have any questions. =)

u/wanderer333 · 1 pointr/Parenting

> I have a history of mental illness. I was also a highly emotional child and had a lot of the same issues we see with her. My family NEVER discussed feelings, nor did we ever hug or kiss and I grew up pretty messed up from that. Was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in my early 20's, did DBT, and have been symptom free for almost a decade.

Awesome that you put in all that effort and it paid off! It's not too early to start teaching her some of those DBT skills, in kid-friendly ways, to help her regulate her own emotions. (See my other reply for some ideas). There are also some great approaches to mindfulness for kids, you might check out Sitting Still Like a Frog, Mindful Games, or Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children. Should have mentioned this in my other reply as well, but there's a beautiful picture book called Visiting Feelings that takes a mindfulness approach to exploring emotions as well.

u/EntropyOrSloth · 1 pointr/piano

> I'm especially hard on piano about this, but it's true for lots of instruments. Most wind instrument programs have a focus on orchestral auditions despite there being very few jobs there. This leads to a lot of neglect of skills in improvisation and playing in contemporary styles which are very important for serious wind players who are looking for freelance work or even full-time gigs.

...and when they do get an orchestra gig, they never leave (voluntarily). :) I hear you. Wife's friend is bass in a military orchestra and is hanging on for dear life. :)

> The goal is just to refine that ability you already have. And much like developing good proprioception for sightreading, a lot of it will just be slowing down and actively thinking before going full trial and error at the keyboard. Hear a thing (STOP) think about what you think it might be... then see if you were right. Over time and after making lots of mistakes... you'll eventually be right more often than not.

Wow, you've given this alot of thought. And obviously, you've the experience which a lot of pure academics might lack. Have you thought about writing your own book about this? You could probably touch on a lot of vital needs for contemporary musicians. Sort of an out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new, but not musical genre specific - just broader than classical music, or any other specific genre for that matter. Or do you think that this sort of thing does need to be musical genre specific?

Thanks for the theory book recommendation. I am finishing the Snell Piano Theory workbooks now, but those are really for kids. Lots of repetition over and over and over and... LOL. I've now read about baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century musical history now 5 times. 6 more to go! haha. I'd say Snell believes in "spaced repetition" but actually it's not. Because repeating the same info with an incremental addition once per workbook is not "spaced" repetition!

I had planned to read Stefan Kostka's Tonal Harmony text w/ workbook afterwards because it came recommended by some classical pianists, but you've made a compelling case for the Mark Harrison series, so I will get that instead.

> The same author has A Contemporary Ear Training book that I think is pretty good and goes into detail about using the method of hearing tension I covered, but I think the book is lacking in a lot of ways compared to most of Mark Harrison's great books. It also doesn't come with the audio that's to be used with the book and I ultimately just have trouble recommending it for that reason.

So I did find the MP3 files for his book, but then saw the following Amazon customer review and decided this book is not for me:
"After purchasing many of Mark Harrison's excellent books I thought I'd found the perfect resource for walking me through the ear training process. I am a complete beginner when it comes to ear training, so I purchased both the book and the accompanying .mp3 files and waited anxiously for my order to arrive. When I opened the book, I immediately knew something was wrong. There is no explanatory text in this book! There is no narrative that describes what's going to be taught, or the process that will be used to train my ears. Instead, the book contains a series of exercises with very little explanation. In fact there isn't a word as to WHY you're performing these exercises or WHAT they intend to acheive [sic]. I contacted Mark Harrison via email and he informed me this book is meant to accompany a student being taught ear training by an instructor and was used as a textbook in the Grove School of Music. What a disappointment! If you're attending an ear training class or have an instructor this book will be of value to you as an exercise book, but there are no lessons or explanations to be found here. If you're a beginner like me and you're looking for a easy to follow text that will guide you through the ear training process... this is not the right book for you."

But I am on the look out for a new ear-training book which follows the system you outline and can work with the Mark Harrison books you just recommended which I will start on after I finish the (Snell's Piano Theory)^11 LOL. Let me know if you think of anything.

u/shakeBody · 1 pointr/Songwriting

Since music covers such a broad stylistic range there cannot be songwriting "rules". Genres can be broken down into idiomatic terms but I think what you're looking for is related to tonal harmony. The foundational "rules" of music theory can be applied to all musical styles and will teach you how to analyze a song to extract the patterns that indicate the musical style.

https://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Stefan-Kostka/dp/125944709X

This is a pretty standard book which will teach you the basics of theory from the ground up. Hope this helps :)

u/Shadomatrix · 1 pointr/Christianity

Here's a good book you should read.

u/Oriamus · 1 pointr/musictheory

Hmm... The only things that come to mind are textbooks that can be harmful to your wallet like Tonal Harmony. It has a workbook to go with it, which sounds like what you're looking for. That book will teach you just about everything you need to know about tonal music theory (If you want to learn more than that then I'm sure there are other books.).

Like I said though textbooks can be expensive. Hope this helps anyway!

u/mladjiraf · 1 pointr/edmproduction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuWMSMvvsa0

​

Dude, your hooktheory book is a complete garbage, I'm not surprised that you learned everything wrong. I even told you the name of the youtube channel... how ignorant can a person be on reddit?

Check any real music theory books

https://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Stefan-Kostka/dp/125944709X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1538029216&sr=1-1&keywords=tonal+harmony+kostka&dpID=41v9WBjdbJL&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Musician-Integrated-Approach-Listening/dp/0199347093/ref=pd_sim_14_16?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0199347093&pd_rd_r=4a1cee19-c21d-11e8-bcaa-d5dbd61d2792&pd_rd_w=N7ADP&pd_rd_wg=8dbTF&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=56838e6b-66d4-41e0-a762-743f1a1a628a&pf_rd_r=3YXER0X7XFGE6FM96NJ8&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=3YXER0X7XFGE6FM96NJ8

https://www.amazon.com/Musicians-Guide-Theory-Analysis-Second/dp/0393930815/ref=pd_sim_14_32?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0393930815&pd_rd_r=4a1cee19-c21d-11e8-bcaa-d5dbd61d2792&pd_rd_w=N7ADP&pd_rd_wg=8dbTF&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=56838e6b-66d4-41e0-a762-743f1a1a628a&pf_rd_r=3YXER0X7XFGE6FM96NJ8&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=3YXER0X7XFGE6FM96NJ8

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to see what people in England and USA use (Germany and North/East Europe use slightly different system).

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Also, there doesn't exist such thing as progression without a tonic, that's why your progression is wrong when you try to analyse the key. One of your chords is I or i (Im in another notation system). And progressions in minor use flexible scale degrees, that's why such tables can't be made or they will have to include several different chords.

u/DetromJoe · 1 pointr/classicalmusic

Oh boy do I have a textbook for you. Tonal Harmony is the most widely used freshman theory book, as far as I know

u/wafflesarebetter_imo · 1 pointr/musictheory

I super recommend reading Tonal Harmony! (I'm sure you can get a better price though, amazon is notorious for overpriced textbooks). It explains things really well in an easy to understand way, and it still goes deep into harmonically challenging and interesting waters.

u/n3gro_amigo · 1 pointr/gifs

The reviews for this on Amazon are amazing

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.

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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/MrFishy5555 · 1 pointr/violinist

Beautiful violin!

I don't know how well-received this book is, but it's what my university uses for it's music major Theory courses. I've enjoyed it so far. I also really enjoyed this book when I used it in high school. The Suzuki volumes are a decent place to start repertoire-wise - especially if your teacher doesn't use the Suzuki method. Depending on whether you're interested in pop/classical/etc. different books can be recommended as well.

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/mattguitarcoach · 1 pointr/guitarlessons

This isn't specifically guitar, but this is a great book - a little on the expensive side though: https://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Stefan-Kostka/dp/0078025141

Have you looked at doing some cheap courses on Udemy? There would be some good information on there! I've been thinking about making a course on there myself

u/yesyepyea · 1 pointr/makinghiphop

There really isn't a sure fire way to write and I think both of your approaches are good. I started reading this book https://www.amazon.com/Song-Maps-System-Write-Lyrics-ebook/dp/B01FIJKZNY . Though I don't completely write this way, it really helped me find a faster way to finish songs with specific themes. Hope it helps.

u/booger-picker · 1 pointr/Guitar

Ok lessons would def help but if u take your time a book like Tonal harmony is a college textbook but all the basics are in it and I think like some maths books some answers are in the back plus since I believe there are many editions u can get them used for cheap. Just go slow and pay attention tonal harmony

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/RationalKek · 1 pointr/self

I gotcha, sorry there. I was thinking content rather then delivery. Delivery is important. I can be as snarky as anyone, but I try to reserve it for what I feel are appropriate times.

Maybe a guide book on etiquette as a gift? Does the 'for dummies' series have a how to not be a dick edition maybe?

Edit - searching amazon for 'how to not be a dick' gets some funny results. I don't know how the reddit Secret Santa thing works but there's a bunch of good candidates for gifting kindle or physical book/s.

There's no need to feel bad because you have standards

https://www.amazon.com/Quotable-hole-Comments-Comebacks-Aspiring/dp/144052565X/

https://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Jesus-Featuring-Miraculous-Moves/dp/0762444142

https://www.amazon.com/Do-You-Want-Play-Balls/dp/098594871X/

https://www.amazon.com/Images-You-Should-Not-Masturbate/dp/0399536493

u/kril · 1 pointr/WeAreTheMusicMakers

Harmony and Voice Leading, Aldwell & Schachter.

u/DebtOn · 1 pointr/musictheory

For any particular style? It sounds like you're more interested in classical -- the text for my first two years of music theory in college was this one but if you're at all interested in jazz theory I can't recommend this one enough.

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/mattfbasler · 1 pointr/cringe

You can buy his book! I'm a statue.

u/ShatteredLullaby · 1 pointr/promos

This popped up as a suggested item. I lost it.

u/cookieIsaac · 1 pointr/piano

Harmonic Materials in Tonal Music I am using the older 9th edition right now.

I am actually really enjoying this book despite of this tiny glitch. Progressive in a fast yet digestible pace.

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/breisdor · 1 pointr/musictheory

The Complete Idiot's Guide is a surprisingly good resource. I taught myself from this book in 6th grade and ended up with a strong command of theory before high school.

Once you get what you can from that, try
Kostka and Payne. From my understanding this is a very popular book for college theory classes. It also has a workbook that can be useful.

If you spend 20 minutes a day studying theory, you will have a solid foundation in no time.

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/65daysofslumber · 1 pointr/classicalmusic

Tonal Harmony is the standard for music students

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0078025141/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687782&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0073327131&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0PNRPDC4XH3KGDR045MK

Some of the examples given in the book are meh, but it will definitely cover pretty much everything you need to know

u/sorrowfulfeather · 0 pointsr/blackmagicfuckery