Best music books according to redditors
We found 14,504 Reddit comments discussing the best music books. We ranked the 5,352 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 14,504 Reddit comments discussing the best music books. We ranked the 5,352 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
As a pseudo-musician/sound engineer here's a couple of tips I learned over the years.
Lastly, have fun. Learn to accept your mistakes. Even the best bands in the world don't replicate their album songs exactly for many reasons most of which is because you can't and it detracts from the energy of the performance.
I hope that helps
Well considering you’re probably an adult. I’d recommended the Alfred Adult Level 1 book. I’ve played piano for 8 years and this is what my instructor uses for her beginning high school who have never even touched a piano. There’s 3 levels and all have pretty well rounded lessons. It teaches a lot of chords, note names, scales, and etc. good luck! Adult All-In-One Course: Lesson-Theory-Technic: Level 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0882848186/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_.hRQAb5KQXXJC. If you ever need help shoot me a message
A Rant and Thoughts on Cross-Instrumental Pedagogy
Well, you're in a world of double suck for several reasons. First of all, most people who have previous instrumental experience have an even harder time with piano rather than any easier one. Why? Because they want to jump in the deep end immediately and ignore their fundamentals. It's like saying, "I can drive a car... so flying this plane can't be that much different... let me take over the controls mid flight!" Sure, you understand the basic concept of using transportation to get get form point A to point B and the idea of not running into obstacles, but that doesn't make you any better at knowing how to control planes, trains, and boats.
Even if you have a deep understanding of a lot of things, the technical work still has to be done for every instrument you pick up. If you end up picking up even more instruments, you can generally get better at the process by understanding it, but you just can't skip the fundamentals.
What makes this problem worse is asking for help from pianists. It seems logical, but they tend to exacerbate the problem. Most of them started as children. They have no background in music education and they take for granted so many of the skills they picked up as a kid. Their advice is about the equivalent of handing someone a guitar and telling them just to go transcribe Steve Vai solos to get better when they can't even play a single chord. It's a serious issue in the piano world. Having trouble with and independence? Can't play Mary Had a Little Lamb out of your beginner book with both hands? Just practice this and you'll be fine.
The reality is that you're just going to have to spend a lot of time on basic stuff and likely put the jazz stuff on hold for quite some time until you get more basic concepts under your fingers. I-IV-V, sure. ii-V-I, not so much. On guitar most chords have a similar difficulty. Heck, I'd argue that most of the moveable jazz chord shapes are easier than some of the triads because they require less barring and tend to cover less strings.
The other advantage on guitar is that if you learn how to play chord, or even a progression, you've pretty much learned it in every key. You don't even have to think about how to play that progression in another key. The physicality of a ii-V-I on guitar is enough that you just need to know which fret to start you ii on and the rest falls into place. Sure, you can learn several variations and voicings of various chords, but the principle still holds. If you want to do something cool like put a 13 on a G7 chord, you just learn the shape. You don't need to know that the 13 of G is E. You sure as hell don't need to know what it is for every other key. You just think, "Well, if I play this on the 7th fret I get C13."
That's probably why piano seems overwhelming. I assure you it does get better and there is a certain amount of similarity in that over time progressions feel the same in every key believe it or not. The thing is, if you learn them in every key, you realize the motion is the same. The voice leading is the same. You're just navigating white and black keys more. But if you spend time practicing scales and actually know you key signatures and such, you start to feel home and instinctively get that same feeling of same-shapeness that guitar has. Though obviously on guitar you can learn a single scale shape and play it in every key.
Although, I think guitarists often get the better deal by playing scales modally from different positions where as classically trained musicians on pretty much every other instrument think every scale begins and ends at the octave and really aren't as fluent in their use unless it fits that mold. Ask most people to play their E major scale starting on B or C# and they'll likely run into problems. Guitarists often have less trouble with that due to the physicality of the instrument.
Some Recommendations
You probably won't like all of these and might be afraid they don't fit your goals, but hear me out.
Alfred - You really should start getting used to reading music on the piano. I don't know what your reading background is and I don't care if you think you can skip this step. It really will help. Virtually every resource you use will use notation. Investing in reading now will pay off immensely in the long run just saving you time and headaches when you want to digest new material and all the resources are written in standard notation. Additionally, playing a lot of the concepts in context will help a lot. And if you don't have reading experience now, learning on piano and then maybe going back and applying it to guitar might be a fun thing for you. Spend a little time in this book daily.
Scales, etc. - This book has scales, arpeggios, and cadences in every key cleanly written out with recommended fingerings.
From here there are tons of directions to go for jazz stuff. My go-to recommendation is this one for getting the basics of how to think about, use and apply jazz concepts for those starting out.
There are tons of other resources that might fit your goals better. A purely technical approach approach is this one, but I'd still recommend the Mark Harrison book first. There are also much deeper jazz texts, though I'm not sure it's even worth recommending them at this moment since you're likely months or years away from being able to approach any of that material.
Hey there! I'd like to consider myself a pretty experienced drummer, so hopefully I can be of some help to get you started.
If you aren't too familiar with reading music, I would highly recommend getting Syncopation for the Modern Drummer . It's a great starting book for reading music and familiarizing yourself with common snare & bass drum patterns that can be applied to the drum set.
If you want to learn more how to play the complete drum set, which I'm guessing you'd like to do, check out The Drumset Musician . It provides a basic intro to coordination and ability to use all your limbs separately. (One of my biggest struggles when starting out was forcing my hands and feet to not do the same thing at the same time on the drum set)
Other than those books, YouTube will definitely be your best friend, so don't be afraid to use it!
Best of luck to you, and I hope you end up enjoying the drums as much as I do!
The Sound Reinforcement Handbook by Yamaha
Other great YouTube is Dave Rat
Since everyones just tossing accolades, I thought I'd toss out some constructive criticism.
From a pure mixing standpoint, I'd have to suggest going for more low pass/high pass filters before compression. Everything sounds a bit mushy to me as if it were tracked but not mixed properly.
[This book] (http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807) will really help you get the most out of your mixes in a small studio environment.
Source: I play piano (3 years of lessons, 2 years self-taught) and have started picking up guitar (6mo self-taught)
Piano and violin can be rough to learn without a teacher. If you just want to play music, there are a lot of free resources available for guitar - justinguitar.com is fantastic. There is a subreddit for learning guitar which has a very helpful and supportive community.
Now, if you maintain that classical piano is really your thing, then I can certainly relate, but I will warn you that the available free video lessons are largely missing. There are tutorials on youtube around specific songs or specific topics, but nothing as structured as justin's site (at least that I've found).
My recommendation is to pick up a method book - I used Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One, which is about 10$ on Amazon - and work through it page by page. Join a forum like the adult beginner forum at pianoworld, where you can post videos of your progress and people can help you with the trickier items like posture and hand positions.
There is a subreddit for piano here as well, which is worth subscribing to as well.
Sound reinforcement handbook
The Sound Reinforcement Handbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881889008/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_0ry1DbHK6J2GB
Comprehensive List of Books Relating to Music Production and Creative Growth
***
On Composition:
Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies - Dennis DeSantis
Amazon Link
This is a fantastic book. Each page has a general idea on boosting creativity, workflow, and designing sounds and tracks.
Music Theory for Computer Musicians - Michael Hewitt
Amazon Link
Really easy to digest book on music theory, as it applies to your DAW. Each DAW is used in the examples, so it is not limited to a specific program. Highly recommend this for someone starting out with theory to improve their productions.
Secrets of Dance Music Production - David Felton
Amazon Link
This book I recently picked up and so far it's been quite good. It goes over all the different elements of what make's dance music, and get's quite detailed. More geared towards the beginner, but it was engaging nonetheless. It is the best 'EDM specific' production book I have read.
Ocean of Sound - David Troop
Amazon Link
Very well written and interesting book on ambient music. Not only does David go over the technical side and history of ambiance and musical atmospheres, he speaks very poetically about creating these soundscapes and how they relate to our interpersonal emotions.
***
On Audio Engineering:
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio - Mike Senior
Amazon Link
In my opinion, this is the best mixing reference book for both beginners and intermediate producers. Very in-depth book that covers everything from how to set-up for accurate listening to the purpose of each mixing and mastering plug-in. Highly recommended.
Zen and the Art of Mixing - Mixerman
Amazon Link
Very interesting read in that it deals with the why's more than the how's. Mixerman, a professional audio engineer, goes in detail to talk about the mix engineer's mindset, how to approach projects, and how to make critical mixing decisions. Really fun read.
The Mixing Engineer's Handbook - Bobby Owinski
Amazon Link
This is a fantastic companion book to keep around. Not only does Owinski go into great technical detail, he includes interviews from various audio engineers that I personally found very helpful and inspiring.
***
On the Industry:
All You Need to Know About the Music Business - Donald S. Passman
Amazon Link
This book is simply a must read for anyone hoping to make a professional career out of music, anyone wanting to start their own record label, or anyone interested in how the industry works. It's a very informative book for any level of producer, and is kept up-to-date with the frequent revisions. Buy it.
Rick Rubin: In the Studio - Jake Brown
Amazon Link
Very interesting read that is a semi-biographical book on Rick Rubin. It is not so personal as it is talking about his life, experiences, and processes. It does get quite technical when referring to the recording process, but there are better books for technical info. This is a fun read on one of the most successful producers in history.
Behind the Glass - Howard Massey
Amazon Link
A collection of interviews from a diverse range of musicians who speak about creativity, workflows, and experiences in the music industry. Really light, easy to digest book.
***
On Creativity:
The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
Amazon Link
This is a must-read, in my opinion, for any creative individual. It is a very philosophical book on dealing with our own mental battles as an artist, and how to overcome them. Definitely pick this one up, all of you.
This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel S. Levitin
Amazon Link
A book written by a neurologist on the psychology of music and what makes us attached to it. It's a fairly scientific book but it is a very rewarding read with some great ideas.
***
On Personal Growth and Development:
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
Amazon Link
Although this seems like an odd book for a music producer, personally I think this is one of the most influential books I've ever read. Knowing how to be personable, effectively network, and form relationships is extremely important in our industry. Whether it be meeting and talking to labels, meeting other artists, or getting through to A&R, this book helps with all these areas and I suggest this book to all of you.
7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey
Amazon Link
Similar to the recommendation above, although not directly linked to music, I assure you reading this book will change your views on life. It is a very engaging and practical book, and gets you in the right mindset to be successful in your life and music career. Trust me on this one and give it a read.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Amazon Link
You know the feeling when you're really in the groove of jamming out and all worries tend to slip away for those moments? That is the 'Optimal Experience' according to the author. This book will teach you about that experience, and how to encourage and find it in your work. This is a very challenging, immersive, and enlightening read, which deals with the bigger picture and finding happiness in your work and life. Very inspiring book that puts you in a good mindset when you're doing creative work.
The Art of Work - Jeff Goins
Amazon Link
A very fascinating book that looks at taking your passion (music in our case) and making the most of it. It guides you on how to be successful and turn your passion into your career. Some very interesting sections touching on dealing with failure, disappointment, and criticism, yet listening to your intuition and following your passion. Inspiring and uplifting book to say the least.
***
Happy reading!
Sound Reinforcement Book
I've been playing for a long time now, and have never experienced this thing which you term 'piano culture'. Of course there are competitive people in every field—from music to lawn-mowing, probably—, but do you have to associate with them? Absolutely not.
It should not be at all challenging to find a teacher who is willing to teach away from the exams. You may find that you want to take them down the line, or see how well you're progressing by practicing material from the grades. This is fine, as is staying away from them altogether.
At the end of the day, if you want to learn: learn. Self-teaching is not frowned upon at all, it's just more of a challenge and, on average, you probably won't progress anywhere near as quickly as with guided instruction. If your enjoyment motivates you to learn solo, then do that. Lots of great musicians have, and will continue to.
***
Edit**: If teaching yourself is your favourite option, I recommend the Alfred's Basic Piano Course series! Best of luck :)
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:
That was a fucking wall of text. Hopefully I didn't come off like a negative asshole or bore you to death. If you have any questions or complaints, let me know!
There's a really great scales book out there: The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios & Cadences. It has lots of exercises and scales to do. A good thing to note is that when folks say "doing their scales" they don't just mean actual scales ( G A B C D E F# G) they also mean Arpeggios and other exercises all of which people practice for technique.
DAW
So basically there's gonna be a few things you're gonna need. First and foremost is your DAW. I use and I highly recommend Ableton Live 8. It's powerful and versatile and works both in Mac and Windows. And once you learn the interface, it's pretty easy to get ideas down on the page. Plus it comes with a great set of built-in plugins.
SPEAKERS
The next thing you'll need is a good pair of studio monitor speakers. This is really important because you're gonna need to listen to the full audio frequency spectrum to get the mixdown of the parts of your track just right. You want studio speakers because they have a flat frequency response, unlike say most crappy desktop speakers. A good starting point is M-Audio. Check out their BX8a or BX5a Deluxe studio monitor lines.
SOUND CARD
To go along with that, you're probably gonna need a decent audio interface (sound card). I recommend getting a good external firewire or usb card. The company I like and card that I use is from FocusRite. Check out their Saffire 6 USB Audio Interface. You're gonna want a card that has outputs that will work with your studio monitor speakers. Most of them are balanced 1/4" or XLR connections. I recommend getting something with balanced outputs, as this will minimize any noise that might otherwise be created, and will assure you get the best sound out of your speakers.
SYNTHESIZERS
Next you're gonna want to invest in some decent synthesizers. As a starving college student, I don't have a lot of money to throw around myself, so I only have software synths, but there are some really excellent ones out there. These days, software synths are becoming more and more powerful and give hardware a real run for their money. Most of the soft synths made out there are in either the VST or AU format; these formats are pretty much the standard that basically all modern DAWs like Ableton will be fully compatible with. A couple of the ones I really like are:
Native Instruments Massive
Lennar Digital Sylenth1
U-He Zebra 2.5
U-He ACE
reFx Nexus
reFx Vanguard
FAW Circle
Spectrasonics Omnisphere
Spectrasonics Trilian
Arturia Minimoog V
GForce Software Minimonsta
FXpansion - DCAM: Synth Squad
Rob Papen's Virtual Instruments
One thing to realize is that most of these plugins won't run by themselves. You must run them in a host application, like Ableton to work. I find that this confuses beginners sometimes. You just have to make sure you setup whatever DAW you decide to go with, to look at a specific plugin directory, and then make sure you install all your plugins to that folder so your DAW can see them and they can be ready for you to use (not just your soft synths but other plugin units like fx for example).
As you can see, there's a lot of great synths out there, based on different types of synthesis. And for me this is a really fun aspect of trying to make music. I am still learning myself, as there is so much to learn, but I suggest you try some of those synths out, get to know them, and learn synthesis.
Synthesis is a whole monster onto itself, so I also suggest going online and searching for tutorials on youtube to help with that endeavor.
OTHER PLUGINS
As I briefly mentioned above, synths aren't the only types of plugins you will need in music production. There's other plugins that you will need to use like compressors, filters, equalizers, vocoders, distortion unit, gaters, chorus, and delays and reverb to name a few crucial ones.
There's a whole world out there of these type of plugins, with many great people/companies making some AWESOME plugins. In fact, there are WAY-TOO-MANY to mention here. But alas, to give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I will list a few, in no particular order, that you can check out:
Audio Damage
PSP Audioware
FabFilter
Togu Audio Line
u-he's Uhbik
2CAudio
Studio Devil
WAVES
Camel Audio
Sugar Bytes
SYNTHESIS
Most synths will come with presets. Again, the fun for me is trying to come up with my own patches and sounds, but at first, some of those synths will look like spaceship control consoles. But I promise, once you learn some of the basics of synthesis, most of those synths will have the same basic functions that you will immediately recognize. So when you first start out, go into those presets, and instead of just simply using them in the parts you write, go into the synth, pick some presets that you like, and try to figure out how those patches were made. Play around with the settings and knobs and see how the sound changes. This will help you translate sounds that you might come up in your head, and then translate them "to the page". I could go on forever about synthesis but I've just hit the tip of the iceberg.
MUSIC THEORY
So do you have to have a degree in music to make electronic music? While it certainly helps, you don't need to know music theory to start making electronic music. Honestly you just need to have a good ear. Also, you will need patience, and dedication, because it's not going to come overnight. There's a lot of established electronic music producers out there that started out with basically little background in music theory. You just have to stick to it, and learn on the way!
If indeed you know little music theory and you're just starting out, a great book that I suggest you pick up RIGHT NOW if you're at all serious about starting production is Music Theory for Computer Musicians. It's ~$20 on Amazon. FTW!
MIDI CONTROLLER
Now, the next thing that really helps to have around in your studio, is a good midi controller keyboard. Now with most DAW's you'll be able to write midi parts out just by the click of your mouse, but trust me, this isn't really fun. Having a midi keyboard makes your life, a whole lot easier, it's more fun, and you can get parts down faster onto your DAW. You won't need anything too fancy. I suggest looking at the M-Audio Axiom line of keyboard midi controllers. The 49 key ones are nice ;)
SAMPLES
Now, some people like to create their own percussion elements. Whether by recording their own sounds, or tweaking the shit out of existing samples they might already have. This can be time consuming, and when you're just starting out, you just want to get ideas down. Since you're starting out, and you said yourself you just wnat to start making the beats you hear in your head, I'd suggest looking into getting some solid percussion sample packs. You're not gonna be at the level of making your own, so you're gonna need a little help when you start out. And many established producers use percussion sample packs which will have many single shot drum samples of kicks, hats, snares, claps, fx. Some packs will have loops, but I generally stay away from them. I suggest using the single shot sounds, and try and create your own loops from scratch. The place I like to go to get some solid packs are
Loopmasters
Vengeance Sample Packs
OTHER RESOURCES
Another good resource is COMPUTER MUSIC Magazine. It comes out every month, from the UK, so go to your nearest chain bookstore, because they're bound to have it. CM has great articles and tips, and reviews on the latest software and hardware that's coming out. They also have great interviews, and it also comes with a CD that comes with a lot of good free and trial software that you'll find useful. There's also usually a video interview from a top DJ/Producer/Electronic Artist which are always really insightful and great resource as you can see the perspectives of music making straight from other artists themselves. For these interviews, they'll usually go explain and show you how they made one of their tracks; like I said, an awesome resource from which you'll get some great tips.
IN CONCLUSION
I hope that what I've written you will find useful, and will be a good starting point. If I think of something else, I might yet add it here. And of course like it's been said, you just gotta go in your DAW and FUCK AROUND; that's the only way to get better - through PRACTICE. And go to places like YouTube and search for production videos. You'll find some good tutorials from which you'll learn some good tips, synthesis, and production techniques.
If you stick to it, dedicate yourself, you'll get there in no time. You're gonna find yourself making those beats you hear at night in your head, and turning them into reality.
EDIT: Added Music Theory and Other Plugins section :)
You are in luck because 2 weeks ago, the new edition of Dance Music Manual came out.
http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0415825644/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
You can read the reviews for the previous edition here http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0240521072/ref=pd_sim_b_7
It covers like all the bases to some extent. It does not teach you how to use a DAW though.
Also all the books (Music theory|Composition|Harmony) for computer musician by Michael Hewitt are pretty good if you have no music background.
Just to act as devil's advocate here - I would recommend at least balancing this guy's work out with some of the more standard texts on mixing (listed below). I checked out this video a while back and was a little weirded out by his approach, which often steps into pseudoscientific territory. If you go to the author's company website, you'll see some dubious claims and suggestions about mixing techniques:
-"There are archetypal frequencies that have been used since the beginning of time to affect us."
-"As shown by the research of Alfred Tomatis, every frequency is a nutrient."
-"Tuning A to 432 hertz vs. 440 has been proven to resonate better with the resonant frequency of our cells - Tuning concert pitch to more auspicious frequencies makes the music go deeper."
-"High Frequencies activate the mind; Low Frequencies calm the body."
-"When you relate to frequencies based on ancient Chakra energies, the way you "feel" the balance of frequencies in a mix in a whole different way that goes through your whole body instead of just your mind. "
I'm sure the guy's mixes sound great - and he seems to have been a successful mixing engineer - but I personally wanted nothing to do with this guy. There are other "holistic" approaches to mixing (like Mike Stavrou's Mixing with your Mind) that work without having as much of a "snake oil" flavor to them. But as always, if this guy's approach works for you and you can look past his quirks, then I suppose it's a good resource.
Other resources: Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio, Roey Izhaki's Mixing Audio, Bobby Owsinski's The Mixing Engineer's Handbook
The Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook
Must have for live techs, and chock full of electronics and sound basics.
The definitive soundman's bible.
Alright, let me give you a rundown of my personal library.
Beginner:
Intermediate:
Advanced:
I'm sure others will disagree with my ranking, and obviously my library is rather genre specific. But it's a lot of quality material that will definitely improve your playing no matter the style.
There are so many different aspects to playing that you could spend time practicing.
Here are just some ideas off the top of my head:
Hate to plug my own site, but that is EXACTLY the problem I created the GuitarWOD (Workout of the Day) to solve.
Good luck! Let me know if you need any more detail about how to go about practicing any of these or any other ideas you come up with.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Book-Sixth-Edition/dp/0634060384
It's a collection of jazz standards. A must-have for anyone who plays even a little bit of jazz, but it's definitely not something you could learn jazz guitar from without another aid.
The Guitar Player: Repair Guide by Dan Erlewine is a fantastic resource.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-Player-Repair-Dan-Erlewine/dp/0879309210
I learned by myself largely by by experimentation. It does help if you have a cheap "clunker" to play around with.
Initially I was scared of truss rod adjustment but once I understood how they work it is relatively simple.
Apart from overtightening the truss rod, there's not much you can do that cannot be undone. Have at it!
Link to amazon http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-3rd/dp/0879309210
Great great book.. Way more in-depth than I will ever need but it has tons of diy level stuff that really is simple and moneysaving.
Yamaha live sound handbook!
Edit: Yamaha Sound reinforcement handbook. Link
Not very long at all.
https://www.musictheory.net/lessons - has very clear lessons on notation (the first stage of its theory lessons - I'm surprised you managed to study any theory without knowing notation), and also fretboard exercises to test your knowledge: https://www.musictheory.net/exercises/fretboard
The issue with guitar, of course, is that a note has just one place on notation, but can have several places on the fretboard. That's why most beginner guitarists give up on notation and stick with tab.
In fact, the choice of where to play any one note is a liberation, not a limitation. It's like losing the training wheels on your bike.
Learning the note names is relatively easy, it's reading rhythm where some people have more trouble (the above exercises don't cover that). But if you start with the basics - note duration - and work up, it's not hard.
I recommend looking for sheet music for songs you know (you can usually find page 1 online for free) so you can see how the sounds - especially melodic lines - look on the page.
If you want a book, I recommend [this] (https://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X) - starts with notation as all good theory texts should. Make sure you play everything you read (or at least hear the sounds, as on musictheory.net). Theory is pointless if you don't know how it sounds.
https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-3rd/dp/0879309210/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483563747&sr=8-1&keywords=guitar+player+repair+guide
Buy this book. It will give you pretty much everything you need in terms of knowledge to maintain and repair your own guitars. For less than the cost of one setup at a luthier, you can get the knowledge to do it yourself, and even make some money off your friends.
Came here to downvote any comments mentioning Hanon. So far we don't have any!
Back on topic: Everybody needs a good scale book. I use Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences, but there are many like it.
So... your only technique in mixing is moving your faders?
I don't want to sound rude, but that's not enough to get your mix to sound good. It's only going to get you a starting balance.
I'm not going to write a book here, but I'd like to give you a short overview of what concepts an average mixing process comprises of (in a nutshell and NOT comprehensive,... there's enough information out there to learn about each topic).
Seriously, educate yourself on mixing and your sound will get an enormous boost. There's a ton of resources out there, including some of my favorites:
With regards to mastering, I would really consider sending your mix to an external mastering engineer. You will get a much better result, not only because these people specialise in what they can do, but a second pair of ears is always a good idea.
Hope you find this useful & best of luck!
The first step in mixing any genre is getting a good static mix. Meaning, get your tracks to sound as good as possible using only volume and panning. No EQ, no compression, no bells and whistles. You take your lead vocal track, find a good place for the volume slider, and then leave it there for good.
The second step in mixing is compression, and you do that for when you can't really find a good place to leave the volume fader. For example - the vocalist was singing softly 1ft away from the mic during the verse, then screaming point blank at the mic during the chorus. Obviously, that's gonna leave you with a pretty sizeable volume difference - you can't decide if you should turn it up during the soft verse, or turn it down during the loud chorus. That's where compression comes in. Compression squashes some of the louder parts down to maintain a more even balance throughout the track.
As for how - youtube some tutorials and/or buy Mike Senior's book which has a whole chapter on it.
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio - http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
Sound on Sound Synth Secrets - http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm
Music Theory for Computer Musicians - http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
Composition for Computer Musicians - http://www.amazon.com/Composition-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598638610
Harmony for Computer Musicians - http://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1435456726/
Dance Music Manual - http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0415825644
Also all of the manuals for whatever daw/vsts you have.
the guitar handbook
You'll hear "Get a teacher." on this sub a lot. This is great advice, but not always possible. That being said, check the FAQs for some really great resources for sheet music, online learning tools, and general tips and tricks.
I'd recommend getting a method book, such as Alfred's, a classical composer's 'beginner's' collections or notebooks, such as Bartok's Mikrokosmos or First Lessons in Bach, and then grab a book of scales such as this.
For future reference, if you do get a chance, please get a teacher, especially if you can swing it sometime in your first year, even if just for a few months. They can help prevent poor technique that may come up and can save time in the long run.
Edit: For poor hyperlinking on mobile.
Oh wowzers.
So starting with your gear:
>All the speakers are beautiful wooden cabinets, handmade, w/ high quality neodymium tweeters, JBL parts, etc.
"handmade" means proprietary- they won't meet riders (if you ever encounter one) for the most part. More importantly- they'll be frowned upon because there's no consistent specs that an engineer could look up. I'm not saying they won't work in the long run, but start setting aside money now for a replacement plan. On the same thread, you're going to need to learn about the specs of your PA to set appropriate limiters to protect your speakers going forward.
> Still working on monitors, looking at active EVs at the moment.
Having monitors (if you're looking to provide for bands) is going to be vital. Ideally, they're all the same, but as you grow into this... you might start with two and then add two more once you have money coming in.
> Though part of me is worried about more equipment when I haven’t started recouping investment on what I have yet.
At the same time, if you don't have a "full package," it's going to be harder to recoup ANY of your investment. I'm going to be blunt here: No wedges? Home made boxes? A bit outdated mixer? If there's another option for a provider in your area that does have these things under control, that's who is going to get the business. If you're not getting the business, there won't be a cash flow to allow you to get the things you need to complete your package.
Story time! Couple friends of mine were big into the EDM scene in the area, back ca. 2000-2004 or so. Decent JBL SR-X rig. Now, they weren't getting it out enough to really be viable, but that's not really the point of my story. What happened to them is that one show, they blew out one of the 18" cones. Since they hadn't been charging enough to be setting aside cash for repairs, they didn't have the money to repair it. Because of this, two things happened: They had to charge a bit less going forward because they didn't have all of the capabilities that they previously had, and they had to run their remaining subs a bit harder to compensate. I think they eventually blew at least one more sub-- and the downward spiral continued.
Education Opportunity: Start with the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook. It's dated in that it doesn't cover a lot of more recent developments with types of equipment, but the underlying theory and principles of live sound haven't changed. This will help you to learn gain staging, setting limiters, and really how your gear is doing what it's doing.
Building a Business Plan
So to be candid, this step should have been completed prior to buying ANYTHING. Without a solid plan of how to move forward, you find yourself wasting money on things that don't fit the plan. Believe me, I've been there. My shop has piles of stuff that were purchased in the "early years" that aren't in use now, and most likely won't be used ever again. I have a couple things that were purchased and have never been used on a show; I "thought" they were needed, but they weren't. [We also have a collection of randomly mis-matched cases. That makes a truck pack really challenging, but that's just something I never realised was a thing early on.]
> already been running into issues w/ lots of friends wanting free/discounted use. And my own confusion about whether to focus on renting or producing my own events
Being "the person with speakers" is always attractive to people who want them for free. :-) As for the second part, I think you're a ways off from producing your own (people paying for tickets to attend) events. Being a "promoter" is really something that takes a lot of work to make profitable, and to be blunt, you don't want to also be worrying about the sound at the same time.
> (I think the answer short term is renting w/ a contracted sound guy).
Hiring a sound tech is going to eat into your profits. At the moment, you need to be able to "bank" as much of your event income as possible. So, that's where it's going to be vital that you learn how to best deploy your limited resources. As you grow, and either the events are complicated enough that you need an assistant, or you have a second rig and you need them both deployed at the same time, that's when you'll bring in another person.
This whole situation may seem daunting, but you can do this. Learn about the specs and capabilities of your rig. Figure out how you blew that top (did you kill the whole thing, or just the HF or LF of the top?), and implement protection into your system. And then learn how to repair the damage- those skills will help you in the future, if you can recone a speaker instead of needing to pay someone else to do that!
Feel free to reach out with specific questions, or post "I'm confused!" threads here, and we'll help the best we can.
-Ray
Mixing Secrety by Mike Senior did a great job for me. It covers neaery every topic, goes into depth without getting too technical and it's amusingly written.
I also like Bob Katz's book, but I was honestly only able to understand what he was talking about after I had some basics covered. If you've got no clue whatsoever I'd spare it for later.
Dave Pensado's Into the lair helped me to become more creative and act more freely.
I've also watched dozens of YouTube-videos on various topics, since there isn't that one way to do it right, but many roads lead to Rome.
Anyways there is no way around just getting started, after you understood what all the different processors can do for you.
Here is a big library of multitracks compiled by Mike Senior, which you can use to practice.
And never forget the most important component: fun. ;)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0240815807?pc_redir=1413458104&robot_redir=1
Tada
$150 is insanely high for a setup , as much as people love to hate the place take it to either guitarcenter or samash for a setup it shouldnt cost more then $60 with new strings included and it shouldnt take more then 30 minutes for the tech to do the work and if you can watch the tech when he is working if its ok with them and ask questions . Make sure its setup the way you like and so its comfortable for you to play . But any acoustic and even electric guitars will need a setup after sitting for a while acoustics more then electrics .
Or depending how handy you are check out this book http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide/dp/0879309210/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1410144697&sr=8-2&keywords=guitar+setup+guide and do it yourself with the steps in the book / dvd
You'll have to buy a new switch, open the back of your guitar, remove the old one and mount and solder the new one in.
Any good guitar store will have the switch in stock, and it will be cheap. Just tell them what model your guitar is.
The rest is easy or hard depending on your soldering skills. You could just take careful notes of where each wire is connected on the old switch, and then resolder the new switch in the same way, but i might be good to get some schematics for your guitar.
If your interested in being able to service your guitar, The Guitar Player Repair Guide by Dan Erlewine might be a good purchase.
sound reenforcement handbook for fundamentals
https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0881889008&pd_rd_r=CCG9CPVAPDH3ECTFGHMA&pd_rd_w=C5R8y&pd_rd_wg=5hRnU&psc=1&refRID=CCG9CPVAPDH3ECTFGHMA
system set up and optimization
https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Systems-Optimization-Techniques-Alignment/dp/0415731011/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496423594&sr=8-1&keywords=sound+system+design+and+optimization
deeper fundamentals and underlying theory behind systems,
https://www.amazon.com/Sound-System-Engineering-Don-Davis/dp/0240818466/ref=pd_sim_14_10?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0240818466&pd_rd_r=HSPA70XSS4QNR9DZF1P5&pd_rd_w=5ywPt&pd_rd_wg=X1Td5&psc=1&refRID=HSPA70XSS4QNR9DZF1P5
approachable fundamentals, but not too much deeper theory - kind of a up and running style of book
https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Operators-Handbook-Guides-online/dp/1617805599/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
Books. Start with your local library system and find every book they have on the subject. Scan them all, and read those that seem to speak to you. Ask for book recommendations here. The one that comes up most often for live sound is "Sound Reinforcement Handbook" ( https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008/ref=sr_1_1?crid=32D1J9UME9UQA&keywords=sound+reinforcement+handbook+2nd+edition&qid=1564110323&s=gateway&sprefix=sound+reinfo%2Caps%2C194&sr=8-1 )
There are used copies available on Amazon for less. Even though it's from 1989 most of the information is still applicable.
Mark Levine's Jazz Theory Book is essential reading, and worth the expense, since you'll probably use it a lot. There's also this PDF, which I just found, but it looks to be a decent quick reference (if you can stand reading the annoying "jazz" font).
So many people seem to have this idea that they're just going to "learn theory." Like that's it.
Like there will be this AHA I NOW KNOW THE MUSICAL THEORY I CAN NOW WRITE THE MUSIC.
But in all seriousness. Yeah you will learn theory. If music is going to be a life long pursuit you will never STOP learning theory. Unless you're not serious about it. Then you might just learn what I IV V means write some pop songs and stop there. I digress..
First thing. Learn to read music. DO NOT READ TAB. Learn all the notes on the fret board. Not like you can count up to it and realize that something is a C. Like you KNOW IT. Point to it and you know what note it is. Start reading music here.
Another good way to learn the notes on the fretboard is to pick 4 triads of different qualities. One major, one minor, one diminished, and one augmented triad and play them in all inversions in all positions on the neck while saying the note names. And then pick 4 new triads the next day. Do not just learn the shapes. This will probably take you 2 hours on your first day if you're as thorough as you should be.
If you don't know what any of that means that's fine for now. Those are some pretty basic concepts that you'll learn pretty soon if you're serious about this.
This guy knows his shit. Learn from him. Take it slow. Don't just watch the video and go "Yeah that makes sense." You need to KNOW IT. Drill the concepts a few hours a day.
You could buy a music text book.
Or get an actual guitar teacher. I'd recommend learning jazz because unlike a lot of rock or pop players they actual know their shit about theory and their instrument. You kinda have to know your shit to play jazz. Either that or classical. But jazz theory is more in line with modern music.
Segway: Buy a Real Book
Start off in there with Autumn Leaves or something else easy.
If you're really beginner-y start here.
While that guy's course is good it really focuses on technique. You learn basically no theory from that guy. Just shapes and tabs. Doesn't even use standard notation. His jazz course is ok. It's on his side bar.
This guy's stuff is good for a beginner in jazz. But a beginner in jazz is not exactly beginner level for some other genres. I think you need a pretty solid level of understanding to understand what he's talking about.
That should get you started..
[Edit] Some people have this disconnect. They think that learning theory is somehow separate from song writing. Learning theory will open so many doors to you and show you why and how things work. So that you can actually understand what you're doing.
If I wanted to build a house I could just jump in and start building a house. I'd probably come across a lot of problems. My first house might suck and have a leaky roof or bad plumbing or something. But I could probably learn a long the way. Maybe after I build a ton of crappy houses I could figure out for myself why things work.
Or.. I could look through the writings of the millions of house builders that came before me and see what they found out works and what doesn't. Then maybe my first house will have some issues and it might not be so easy to pull off but I'd be better off learning from the people who came before me than trying to figure it out myself. By doing this I have just saved myself the time of trying to rediscover the wheel so to speak.
That's what learning theory will do for you.
I applaud your courage in posting yourself playing, but I feel that you deserve some semblance of honesty when a stranger can critique you seriously. You are not good... actually pretty bad. I noticed on your channel that you started doing the rocksmith game to learn how to play and I dig that you're trying to learn, but look up some stuff like this or this. Not trying to harsh your mellow or anything, but you deserve an honest opinion. Your amp configuration is bad, too. Check out /r/guitar and this. You also need more inflection, maybe try a different picking style. Learn how to do vibrato as that gives your notes a much warmer tone. Consider investing in some pedals if you want to get serious because some sounds just can't be created with only and amp and overdrive. I would suggest a big muff pi or any cheap reverb pedal to start out. Learn the modes, like look up "Mixolydian Mode" or "Lydian Mode" to start out. I think Joe Satriani has some tutorials for those. Look up JUSTIN GUITAR. That guy is like Jesus on wheels for learning guitar by yourself. However, after getting some chops, move on to getting some real books and maybe a teacher.
Everyone starts out shitty but you just have to keep working it.
The best book on the subject I've ever read is called The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer. It contains everything from the history of the instrument all the way through to diagrams on rewiring your own pickups. My favourite section, though, is on theory where everything from modes to modulation gets covered in quite some depth.
I've had that book for about ten years now. It's worn out and in pieces, but I still read from it everyday and I'm still learning new stuff.
Edit: Found it!
Edit 2: Read a monthly magazine called Guitar Techniques. It's a british guitar mag with lessons by pros like Guthrie Govan, Geoff Whitehorn, etc. Unlike rags like Guitar World which are 90% ads and 10% interviews with celebrity guitarists who can't play worth a damn, GT focuses on improving your playing. Obviously it has a healthy dose of theory for all skill levels covered in every issue.
My two cents:
Have fun and good luck!
Scales. Particularly major. And practicing in all 12 keys. Even when not playing I'd work on memorizing the notes in each key. Once you have that branch to minor scales, modes, and maybe some pentatonic and altered scales for flavor. Again. All 12 keys.
ii-V-I progressions, again in all 12 keys. Start with simple voicings at first, like playing the bass in your left hand and playing just playing the 3rd and the 7th in the right hand. You can add more fingers once you get comfortable with that.
Honestly, that will keep you busy for years, if your anything like me. You can also just dive in and practice these concepts in your favorite DAW. If you got a section with a V-I in it, try substituting the V with a bII7 and see how it sounds. Like any art, you can learn as much as you want, but you gotta get your hands dirty.
Edit: I'd also get a good Jazz piano book. This one by Mark Levine is a great one. Been going through it for at least 3 years now. I can't play as well as I like, but from these concepts, I can take a lead sheet and work out an arrangement of a song in Ableton.
I'd advise working through a method book with him. Something like Alfred's (https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487281958&sr=8-1&keywords=alfreds+basic+adult+piano+course+level+1)
He can work through the book, and you can play the teacher (correcting posture, recommending fingering, instructing on dynamics, helping him problem solve, etc). The method starts with the assumption that the learner has no musical experience at all, so I think it (or really any other method book) will be helpful.
read, "This Is Your Brain On Music"
http://www.amazon.ca/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0452288525
an interesting read for sure
I'd also like to mention it's probably helpful to Mike Senior of you purchase his book, Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio.
He's the one that maintains that resource, also the artists who contribute.
Try this -
http://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0452288525/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376333636&sr=8-1&keywords=this+is+your+brain+on+music
My teacher assigned the Hanon book to me way back in the day. Works well, albeit being a tad boring.
Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook: It's a classic.
http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008.
I started 2 years ago, @25yo. This is how I progressed.
Step 1: I picked up Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One and played out of it for about a month. At the end of that month I felt confident enough to play for my grandmother, who inspired me to begin. She encouraged me to go go no further without the instruction of a teacher
Step 2: Got myself a teacher. We began mostly with scales and exercises, then moved on to Keyboard Musician. This book is made up of smaller pieces ranging in difficulty, and incorporates some theory.
Step 3: Practice, practice, practice. I have been at it for two years. I try to practice on my lunch break on every business day, typically for 45 minuted to an hour. Which usually means I get 3-4 days of good practice in a week. Its not enough but I have been able to make progress, and am definitely glad I made the commitment.
I am now choosing bigger pieces to play, typically spending a month or two on each, but I always have 3-4 things going at once. Here are some examples of what I am currently playing or have played: example 1 (1st movement only), example 2 (not me playing ;) ), example 3
Of course you could be looking to go a different route. Many people learn to play by ear and skip the whole reading music part. Learning to read music has been one of the hardest parts for me. Anyway that you do it, just do it. Good luck to you.
I don't believe there is a good quality website for that. However, this book is an industry standard for adults to learn reading. The lessons are well-organized and it is possible to go through it on your own. It's probably better than anything you'll find online. You can order it on Amazon if you want to avoid stores!
For engineering concepts, and a great general reference on sound systems and how they work, the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook
For sound system design, the best reference is Bob McCarthy's Sound Systems: Design and Optimization
For another great book that discusses both system design as well as artistic sound design, John Leondard's Theatre Sound is top notch.
Shannon Slaton's Mixing a Musical: Broadway Theatrical Sound Techniques is a great picture of how the "big shows" are run.
For a beginner's guide to sound, the [http://www.soundcraft.com/support/gtm_booklet.aspx](Soundcraft Guide to Mixing) is a good primer: not as technically dense as the Yamaha book.
There are others out there, these are my favorite.
Hey there! :)
Your question is a VERY difficult one to answer, as it depends on a lot of variables concerning both yourself and the route you decide to take. However, the EASY answer is to say that you cannot achieve a masterful level of proficiency at the piano on your own. This does not hold true 100% of the time, but MOST of the time it's true.
That being said, you can certainly learn a lot on your own before being held back by your lack of a teacher. It will probably go slower, and take longer, and most importantly you won't know for sure if you're doing things correctly or not (this is the biggest thing) and also you won't have someone to ask questions. But it's of course better than nothing and I would never discourage you from it if it's your only option right now!
When I say that you can't know if you're doing things correctly or not, that really is a huge thing. That feedback which a teacher can provide is essential to knowing that you're learning things right. Teachers also can teach you things that will just be glossed over/skipped otherwise, they can guide you to various things that you'd never think of, and they can tailor your lesson plan to you and adjust it as needed.
Here's what you CAN do, right now:
The most important thing though, is that you need a lesson plan. Since you don't have a teacher to give you one, you need something to replace that. My suggestion would be to look up the Alfred's adult beginner lesson book. Click here for an amazon link to see it! You can just order it online, or find a local music store and look for it/ask for help finding it. Personally I shop at Evolas, I think they may be fairly local though (I'm in Michigan). A piano lesson book provides structured learning and will cover things that you need to know in an ordered way. Lesson books are not perfect; they don't take the time to explain things in TOO much detail because you're supposed to have a teacher going through it with you, and explaining things themselves. However they DO have some explanation of every lesson, and once you know what you're SUPPOSED to be learning about, you can always turn to google for more information about it.
The lesson book is my single huge recommendation to you. It's probably your best bet. It's by no means perfect, but I don't know what you can do better. You will have to pace yourself; do your best to make sure you understand a concept completely and learn the associated song well before progressing to the next lesson. Again, this will be difficult without a teacher but it's doable!
My source for all of this is that I've been playing piano for twelve years, and have been teaching for the past 3-4. I'm generally an observant, thoughtful person and this is the sort of thing that runs through my mind :). I would like to close by making you an offer... I will still maintain that you cannot do better than to get an actual teacher and take regular lessons. HOWEVER! Should you choose to seriously pursue this to the extent possible, I would like to help you as much as I can! So at ANY point, if you have ANY question whatsoever, you are free to PM me, and I will do my best to answer! I will teach you things that you're confused about or want to know more about, or anything at all that you can think of. So I'll essentially offer myself as a teacher over the internet. It's very limiting, but it may help you to have someone who you can ask those questions that hopefully you'll have :).
Good luck, whatever happens!
If you already have the piano this is the book my piano class used.
http://www.amazon.com/Adult-All---One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458688360&sr=1-1&keywords=learning+piano
Go through it begining to end, practice each song until you have it down and be sure to look up musical examples of concepts such a syncopated notes.
(Edit)
Pawn shops will have plenty of cheap keyboards that will be good enough. A proper piano has 88 keys, but in the beginning a 64 key keyboard will work just fine.
You basically need to do two things: 1) start analyzing music that you like, both its form and function (harmony, for instance), and 2) start to study the art and science of mixing. Get a good book on the subject like Mix Smart or even The Dance Music Manual and start studying.
Mixing your tracks well can turn a okay song into a serious floor-shaker simply by virtue of significantly increasing its production quality. A simple tune that sounds amazing can have a huge emotional impact on the listener, and so much the better if the music is really well written to begin with.
This, of course, is where the analysis comes in. Try to identify why you like the tracks that you like. Is it the way the songs build? Then replicate the form of the song. Is it the way the harmony makes you feel? Then learn how to play that harmony and try to understand what's happening from a theoretical point. In my opinion, you should take it upon yourself to learn basic music theory at the minimum, but if you have a good ear you probably don't need to fret about it too much. Producers that can read and write music aren't too common (the really good ones almost always do, though).
For a while, you'll probably just sound like the producers that you like, but eventually you'll begin to internalize what you've learned and your "voice" will develop. It a natural progression as an artist to mimic your heroes — don't fight it.
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1488230648&sr=8-2&keywords=small+studio
There are literally countless books on music theory available.
If you're looking for a specific recommendation, Tom Kolb (a fantastic educator) has a great book called Music Theory for Guitarists
It's a great place to start.
This one is my favorite. It has 2 pages dedicated to each key signature. The page will include a parallel motion scale, opposing motion, 6th interval scale, 3rd interval, cadences, arpeggios at the root position, arpeggios in first inversion, arpeggios in 2nd inversion, major 7th chords in root, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd inversions, and it goes over every chord that's within that key signature.
Then the pages for minor keys have the same thing, but they replace the 6th and 3rd interval parallel motion scales with the harmonic and melodic scales.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a book on scales.
Pics: http://imgur.com/a/Eap3Ev8
Do both at the same time. Even basic keyboard skills speed up your workflow and put a lot if it into context. If you need a book for your Christmas list try this
I think he has a fantastic set to learn on as is. Learning on a simpler setup like this will reinforce his understanding of the basics and the roll of the drummer as a time and rhythm keeper, but that's just my opinion, and my opinions are sometimes stupid. As far as upgrades go, if he likes rock and metal, a china cymbal would be fun, and bigger crashes never hurt. He'll eventually want a double pedal, but I recommend getting a single pedal down first. My biggest piece of advice though is to get him a copy of Stick Control for the Snare Drummer. I "taught" myself how to play for 9 years, neglecting the rudiments, and it really, really hampered my progression as a drummer and a musician. Stick Control is a must-have if you're asking me. I hope he has fun playing!
Edit: typo
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0879309210/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505220704&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=dan+erlewine&dpPl=1&dpID=51lWgXPDTzL&ref=plSrch
This is the book you want.
I'm going to disagree with a few people here. Getting an education to get a job in audio engineering is most definitely a bad idea in my opinion. Is this education worthless? No...but it's usually not worth what they're asking.
Audio engineering is a hard career to be successful in. I should know, as I've been doing it for quite some time. I've finally gotten to the point where as a free-lancer I can afford a car and house note, which is good. But there were plenty of sacrifices along the way. None of which I regret, of course. But I wouldn't have wanted to tack on extra debt going to school to get a job in a field that does not require a degree.
In all my time doing this, probably around 15 years professionally, nobody has ever asked me how to prove I know how to do this stuff. My resume speaks for itself. I've worked in studios in LA, Hawaii, Az, and now I'm a production sound mixer in Louisiana. I run sound for bands in venues around my city when I'm not on a movie. I own a recording studio for music and for foley and ADR for films. Currently, I'm on a shoot in Florida where I've been for 3 weeks. I got to shoot foley with one of the worlds greatest foley artists (Ellen Heuer). it's a great life!
My advise is do what most of my peers did. Get an internship at a studio. Or if your interested in movie work, assist a sound editor or a production sound mixer. Offer to be a sound utility for free. Or approach a local sound venue and offer to assist the live sound guy, wrapping cables and plugging in mics. Or call a local sound company that does festivals and other events, and offer to clean the snake at the end of the night.
Even if you do decide to get an education, the school will always be there, waiting for you if that's the route you decide to go. But a healthy amount of time in this field not paying for that education will both help you do better in school if you decide to go, and help guide you into a program that's right for both you and the specific set of skills you want to garnish. Or, you might find you don't need it.
The point is that yeah, just "looking things up on the internet" is not a good way to educate yourself. It's a good supplemental thing to do, to be curious and read. But hands on experience is much more valuable than any education I've ever come across in this field, and worlds ahead of just reading a book.
Now, not going to school isn't an excuse to not work. You simply have to take responsibility for your own education. Read books, talk to people who are doing the things you want to do. Learn from them. Help them, and make yourself invaluable to them. Make them wonder how they every got along without you there.
There are far too many opportunities to learn from within the industry than on the outside of it in a classroom or technical college. My career has been quite all over the map, ranging from music production to movie work. Here is a list of books that are about those various fields that I recommend.
The Daily Adventures of Mixerman - A great look at a recording session, and honestly one of the funniest books I've ever read.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Daily-Adventures-Mixerman/dp/0879309458
Zen and the Art of Mixing - mixerman
http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Mixing-Mixerman-ebook/dp/B004CYE7OU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397229955&sr=1-1&keywords=zen+and+the+art+of+mixing
Zen and the art of Producing - Mixerman
http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Producing-Mixerman/dp/1458402886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397229992&sr=1-1&keywords=zen+and+the+art+of+producing
Behind the Glass vol 1 and 2 - Howard Massey - Great interviews with producers and engineers. DEF check this one out. one of the best books i've ever read about recording.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Behind%20the%20glass
The Recording Engineer's Handbook - Bobby Owniski - General information about gear, mic placement techniques, fundmentals of sound, etc...
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Engineers-Handbook-Bobby-Owsinski/dp/1285442016/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397230109&sr=1-1&keywords=recording+engineering+handbook
The Sound Reinforcment Handbook - Live sound techniques
http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397230178&sr=1-1&keywords=Yamaha+Live+sound+manual
The Location Sound Bible - Ric Viers - Great entry into sound for TV, Film, ENG, and EPP. Pretty much covers the bases of recording on location
http://www.amazon.com/Location-Sound-Bible-Record-Professional/dp/1615931201/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397230229&sr=1-1&keywords=Location+Sound+bible
That should get you started. Whatever route you choose, good luck!
Thing is, that sort of thinking doesn't really work too well in jazz - there isn't really "repertoire" in the same sense as in classical music. Some standards are more complex than others, sure, but the difficulty is really what you make of it. In jazz, you generally work from what are called "lead sheets", where all you have is the melody and the chords. Here's one for When I Fall in Love. Pretty simplistic, right? Here's Oscar Peterson playing it. The lead sheet is the basic framework for what he's playing, but all the embellishment and runs and extra chords and everything is just coming from him. So you can't really say whether When I Fall in Love is an "easy" standard or not.
As for how to learn, the single best way is to get a teacher. But if you just want to start dabbling, I would suggest getting some books of transcriptions of famous jazz pianists, just to start getting the feel and sound of it in your mind. Those books will have real performances transcribed note-for-note, so you don't need to know how to read lead sheets or improvise to play them. I would also check out Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book to start learning the theory behind it all, and a Real Book to start practicing with. If you're good at teaching yourself things, the combination of those two books will give you years and years of material.
But I want to re-emphasize that getting some kind of teacher or mentor will help enormously. It's good for classical music, as you know, but jazz is even more like learning a foreign language, because it's improvised. If you just want to dabble for fun, that's fine, but if you get serious about jazz, find someone to guide you, even if it's just an hour a month.
Fretboard Logic has been the best book I've seen that sets a great foundation and builds on that. The guitar grimoire series is good for reference, but but that's about it. It will map out any scale or chord you can imagine, but fretboard logic will give you the tools to figure it out yourself and you become better for it.
I'm not sure I'd agree. In my case for instance, I didn't have any prior music experience when starting, and learning the way my to emulate the music I loved was not only rewarding, but also educational... where as "use your ears and play around with it" is a much steeper climb with absolutely zero prior experience. 99% of the time I had no idea where to go or what to do.
When you're still at the bottom end of the learning curve, doing practically anything to familiarize yourself with your DAW and music theory is going to be a good step.
Although I will agree that shitty tutorials are indeed frustrating, there's quite a few content producers out there who release quality tutorials. KillParis for instance used to do some awesome tutorials, PeepNTom also do some cool ones.
Really though the turning point for me was this book.
I'm assuming you're in high school. If you get a chance, go see your All-state (or All-region) Jazz Band. See how you fare against those guys. Also, chances are you are going to need to know how to read music, have some chart-reading skills, and improvisation chops. For guitar, bass, or drums, they are going to expect you to know jazz fundamentals. Pick up a Real Book, learn some charts and be able to hold your own in a combo.
I don't have much experience with Garage Band, but also do not frequently hear much about its use amongst solid engineers. My first suggestion is to download another DAW before you put too much time into learning ones ins and outs, keyboard shortcuts, etc.
A solid option if you are of humble beginnings is to go with Reaper. They give you an unrestricted demo version on their website. When you inevitably love it and get the hang of it and get your paycheck do go back and pay them for their hard work making it.
Next I'd say learn to download plug-ins. There are many free options online that sound fantastic compared to even paid ones just a few years back. Browse this sub and others, and by all means I always advocate Sound on Sound because man have they got the slew of articles.
Just use the googs. Find some sites you like and learn, learn, learn. Finally when you're speaking of "prepping for release" I would say don't try to learn mixing purely on your own.
Go find someone who is willing to talk about their mixing theory and talk to them about how they go about it. Even if it's just someone from Reddit in a Skype session there are people who have done it and who do it and they're usually willing to talk. That way your questions can get some answers and you get better faster. However, if you're taking their advice make sure you hear their stuff and know you like how it sounds.
Finally, if you're pretty sure you've got the mix and want to release a few songs in an EP or good gracious even a CD (ahh!) then have a mastering engineer get their hands on it. That's how it goes. They don't have to be the $2000 a day kind of guy but someone who identifies as a mastering engineer who you research and read good things about will be helpful. Always always always listen to someone's work before having them do a service you're signed up to pay for. If they do it and you don't like it you still owe them money.
In the way of direct answers:
Q: What is the common practice to EQ'ing everything?
A: Start with subtractive EQ (cuts instead of boosts) and cut out spots that overlap on two instruments so that one shines bright and the other shimmers in the background. You want to cut out all of the sounds with EQ so they fit together like a nice little puzzle. When two instruments are competing too closely maybe shift the octave on one. (Yes, when you're the artist it pays to be thinking of EQ blends as early as the songwriting and even brainstorming process.)
Q: What sort of compression should be looked at for all the instruments?
A: It shouldn't. If you don't understand compression you will not make it sound good by flipping on compressors on everything. Tweak tweak and tweak anything and everything and go online once again and learn the compression. In the meantime put your vocals in a 2.5:1 ratio with a fast attack and medium release and barely use the compression as need and leave the rest alone. Let that mixing engineer we talked about do the compression, and ask again what their theory or ideas when setting compression are.
Q: other general 'effects' and alterations that should be made
A: Use those plug-ins we talked about. Also in the way of phasing it sounds like you don't understand phasing. I'll let you dig up the articles this time. You should have some sites you like now. Phasing is about how time and space affects the way sound waves line up with one another and also flipping the phase can do things. You'll figure that out. But in the mean time you can also play with plugins that do interesting stereo effects.
I don't really know why I chose this to respond to, but if you do these things you'll be off to a good start. If you have Half Price Books (or the Internet and a finger that can click these links) go find yourself a copy of the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook and become a master. Or Modern Recording Techniques. Or even a Dummies book. as there are good ideas everywhere. You find them by hearing things and deciding what you like and what you don't. Information is a buffet! Take what you need and leave the rest.
Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer - Ted Reed
This is still THE book for drummers on all levels.
You need to start counting rhythms. You don't need a guitar to do this necessarily. There are a number of books with written out rhythms to practice, such as Louis Bellson's Modern Reading Text in 4/4 For All Instruments, Ted Reed's Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer, and Gary Hess's Encyclopedia of Reading Rhythms. There are numerous ways to practice the rhythms in these books - counting the rhythm while clapping a steady pulse, counting a steady pulse while clapping the rhythm, tapping a steady pulse with your left hand while clapping the rhythm with your right while also counting, and so on. When I say "count" I mean count out loud. Your goal is to learn to keep your place in measures while accurately executing and eventually feeling rhythms.
You can also do these steps with a guitar in your hand. Just pick a chord - maybe one you're trying to work into your repertoire - and play the written rhythm with that chord while you're counting.
This will probably seem awkward and "unmusical" when you first start, but trust me when I tell you this is going to radically improve your rhythmic vocabulary and time feel over the long haul. This is the kind of thing band and orchestra kids learn as a matter of course and most guitarists don't get because we don't learn to read in ensembles.
Mixing Secrets for the Home Studio is a pretty great primer aimed at the home user.
Websites
Gearslutz Forums
ADSR
HTMEM
Syntorial
Sound On Sound
Somewhat Helpful Tip Lists
List 1
List 2
List 2's Main Site
Books
Music Habits - The Mental Game of Electronic Music Production
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
Music Theory for Computer Musicians
Dance Music Manual: Tools, Toys, and Techniques
This is Your Brain on Music
First, I would highly recommend a teacher if at all possible. Piano technique is a lot more subtle than it would seem.
Get a decent piano method (I recommend the Alfred Adult Method) and some technical studies (Hanon and/or Czerny).
Well, first off let me say, fuck that bitch. Second off let me say that as long as you enjoy what you're doing, enjoy doing it. Don't let anyone steal your joy. But it depends on who you're doing it for: for you or for the fans? I started making music myself about 10 months ago to cope with a recent tragedy. I know only really how to sing. I don't know piano at all. But I bought a DAW and MIDI keyboard and noodled around until I found something that sounded cohesive. I didn't know my scales or what key the song was even in. I just did what felt right. I think they turned out okay despite my lack of knowledge.
I tell you what helped me immensely was this book:
Music Theory for Computer Musicians
I found it to be fairly comprehensive and fairly well written. The chapters are relatively short and build on each other nicely. You can easily get a good grasp on the basics with this book. Now, it's a theory book so it's light on piano technique. But it will help you learn the scales and understand the rules of the harmonics of sound.
Anyway, chin up. Get back at that piano and get some knowledge.
If you're curious about what my early stuff sounded like, feel free to peruse my soundcloud: brabdnon. Starting at the bottom of my playlist is me just fumbling. But I wanted to make something dramatic and sad. And if nothing else, it's not a technical marvel, but I think I hit my feels mark. If you make music striving for that feeling first, you can't go wrong.
Best of Luck.
Dariusz Terefenko - Jazz Theory: From Basic to Advanced Study
Others will undoubtedly recommend Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory Book, but I advise against it until you have a much more developed understanding of music because it assumes former knowledge and does a poor job of presenting topics in a progressive ordering. Plus, Levine's approach is idiosyncratic and requires you to learn terminology and concepts that do not form bridges to other areas of jazz or other music study. Terefenko, on the other hand, assumes no former knowledge and takes you deeper than Levine, even making explicit connections between jazz and other areas not traditionally covered in jazz pedagogy (such as reductive analysis and pitch-class set theory). In other words, Terefenko takes you far beyond the little box Levine draws.
How's your theory? I'd recommend The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine. It has lots of examples of most concepts taken from classic jazz recordings and simplified for piano.
"The Jazz Theory Book," by Mark Levine is a great place to start.
The Jazz Theory Book https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883217040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_VAffzbVAAS6WH
These two books would be a good start.
​
https://www.amazon.com/Ray-Browns-Bass-Method-Excercises/dp/0793594561
https://www.amazon.com/Evolving-Bassist-Millennium-Comprehensive-Developing/dp/0967601509/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+evolving+bassist&qid=1573349247&s=books&sr=1-1
​
Also lots of jazz students have this book which would be good.
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=mark+levine+jazz+piano&qid=1573349459&s=books&sr=1-2
If you can spare the money I most definitely recommend finding a teacher. You will want to start with rudiments (they can be boring, but you'll be glad you did them in the long haul) and while you can pick them up from books, having a teacher giving feedback helps a lot. You don't have to stay with a teacher on the long-term, if you make it clear that you just want a solid base most teachers know what you mean and want.
If you don't have that money, these are three books I highly recommend to anybody who wants to play any percussion instrument:
http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764040/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
Description: This book is full of rudiments. Like ctrocks said: This book is evil. You will most likely both grow to hate and love it. Hate it for both how boring rudiments can get (to me, at least) and how hard they get. But love it for the results and seeing how all those rudiments advance your playing immensely. I suggest picking this up as soon as possible.
http://www.amazon.com/Accents-Rebounds-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764067/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343162586&sr=8-1&keywords=Accents+and+Rebounds
Description: The 'sequel' to Stick Control. This book adds accents and even more difficult rhythms. I would suggest picking this up at an intermediate level.
http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Steps-Syncopation-Modern-Drummer/dp/0882847953/ref=cm_lmf_tit_5
Description: Don't let this book fool you. It all starts out really simple. But this is one of those books that really lays down a foundation you will be very grateful for. And when you're getting to a more advanced level, you will see how you can translate a lot of these syncopated rhythms to the entire drumkit. I suggest picking this up as soon as possible.
http://www.amazon.com/4-Way-Coordination-Development-Complete-Independence/dp/0769233708/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c
Description: This book is very well named. You will want to grab this book after you got the basics down, imo. You want to work on the independence of your limbs as soon as possible, but not too soon. Yet again: rudiments. But now rudiments that require all limbs.
http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Techniques-For-Modern-Drummer/dp/0757995403
Description: We're starting to get into the bigger leagues with this book. I honestly don't quite know how to describe this book except for the word: challenging. Challenging in a very, very good way. I recommend picking this up once you're starting to get into a more advanced stage.
These books are for the basics, imo and in the opinion of many fellow drummers as far as I know. But don't forget: the books are merely tools. You don't want to be only playing rudiments, you'll go crazy. I tended to go for a trade: every half out of rudiments rewards me with a half our of putting on tracks and rocking out. Resulting in one-hour sessions a day. Hope this helps!
Edit: Feeling bored so added more books and descriptions.
My suggestion would be to figure out which console is going to be at your church and search google for a .PDF manual. Those are always super helpful. Also, I'm sure this book has been referenced a lot, but the Sound Reinforcement Handbook should do wonders as well.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151
Music theory is kind of interactive since you should play the notes and listen while learning scales and chords. So you can use a book but you can also learn most of the stuff online.
This site is great for learning music theory from the ground of. Those a step-by-step tutorials and are just nice to start with:
https://www.musictheory.net/lessons
If you're looking for tips to actually write and compose melodies, this is a more abstract but still nice guide:
http://www.haydockmusic.com/composing_tips/writing_melodies.html
Experimentation is always the key. You need some theory yes, but more importantly you should play your keyboard and listen to the notes/chords and find out what sounds nice.
If I would have to recommend a book, this is piece here is old but still gold:
https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034/
Everything this guy said is gold. I would add a couple things.
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269624397&sr=8-1
You can get a lot of this info on line, but the book is a classic.
It's hard to recommend an actual paperback, but the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook is a must-have. If you're into Kindle it's available that way too. I think you'll find answers to all your questions and more.
Also agree.
I've been producing for ~6-7 years and sound design is still my biggest challenge by a huge margin.
There are two approaches that work for me:
The Dance Music Manual helped me too. I still refer back to it when I'm stuck.
1 year isn't long at all. There are some gifted individuals that seem to get it from the go, but usually it's a lot of work.
Keep at it, and as Neutr4lNumb3r said, practice!
Hey Bjeaurn,
I'm a struggling techno producer myself as well. The main source of learning will, I guess, always be already existing music. Listen carefully and try to understand what is going on in the tracks you listen to. How many instruments do you hear? What effects are there used when and where?
I cannot listen to any music without figuring out what is going on.
Also I'm reading these books at the moment. http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Second-Edition/dp/0240521072
and
http://www.amazon.com/Ableton-Live-Power-Comprehensive-Guide/dp/1598639757
It's a really great help, you learn so much from it.
Also /r/edmproduction is a place you need to go.
And it's obviously important to just make music as much as you can. It's not something you are gifted to just do. You will have to put a lot of time in it.
Music theory:
Start from the basic videos
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTUtqcDkzw7bisadh6AOx5w
Rick Beato's channel is also decent.
Cheap and everything explained clearly.
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-3E-Idiots-Guides/dp/1465451676/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1465451676&pd_rd_r=GF5SHDNNXVSHYD85SBMA&pd_rd_w=N6uHQ&pd_rd_wg=baHRW&psc=1&refRID=GF5SHDNNXVSHYD85SBMA
Or print the lessons of this site:
http://openmusictheory.com/contents.html
Mixing: MixbusTV ; recordingrevolution
https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Presents/dp/0240815807/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0240815807&pd_rd_r=71AA09DB5BSM6697CVWQ&pd_rd_w=fruKp&pd_rd_wg=JTmnE&psc=1&refRID=71AA09DB5BSM6697CVWQ&dpID=51eoJadnMbL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail
Edm production tips: type "Lessons of KSHMR" - it's uploaded by a used named Splice (which is an audio samples related site)
Future music magazine: in the studio / Steinberg sessions
Tons of free vsts: https://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/
http://vst4free.com/
Recommended DAW is Reaper (60 USD), because it's the most stable, the cheapest and has the most options and custom skins, so you can replicate any other DAW's key commands/mouse modifiers and skins, while having cheaper and more stable DAW - the only negative is that it doesn't include synths and samples, only fx plugins.
Reaper tutorials (around 340 videos )
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq297H7Ca98HlB5mVFHGSsQ
Free samples:
http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/free-music-samples-download-loops-hits-and-multis-627820
Paid samples:
https://www.loopmasters.com/
https://splice.com/
Recommended payed synths:
Serum (CPU killer, so don't buy it, if you don't have a good computer) or Massive for dubstep. These 2 are easy to learn and there are tons of presets for them - free and paid.
For non-dubstep anything goes as long you know what you do. You may like Syntmaster - tons of presets, cheap (100 usd) and many synthesis modes (but is very ugly and cluttered GUI). But whatever, the sounds are great (there are also cutdown versions of it, so care). The synths with that many different synthesis modes are usually way more expensive (200-500 or more USD)- but like I said, Synthmaster has pretty bad UI; still, it's a steal for that price.
At some point you will probably want NI Kontakt, because of 3rd party soundbanks, but better buy it in a Komplete bundle - it's cheaper.
Nexus is OK, if you are after some of the latest soundbanks (and they are super expensive). Factory sounds are overused and somewhat dated, so it's not worth it, if you don't get any of the latest expansions.
Tips are nice when you know the basics. I found this book very comprehensive and easy enough for a beginner.
http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
http://www.cambridge-mt.com/MixingSecrets.htm
I really liked "Mixing Secrets in the Small Studio" for generic mixing:
http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_sp-btf_title_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1381813853&sr=8-5&keywords=engineers+handbook+mixing
This is due to the [overtone series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_series_(music). Basically there are resonant frequencies when you play a pitch. You'll notice in the examples on the Wikipedia page that the first couple overtones are the octave, the fifth, and the fourth. So those intervals tend to share overtones, making them sound better together to our ears.
For example, the first couple of overtones where C4 is our fundamental are C5, G5, and then C6. For G4, the overtones would be G5, D5, and G6. That's an interval of a fifth.
A lot of this is related to the Western tuning system. Most Western music is equally tempered. Basically, when a piano is tuned, you're making a bunch of compromises so that everything sounds good together, even if it's not perfectly in tune. You could tune certain intervals perfectly, but then others would sound really bad, so we compromise.
Another thing about Western music is that we're all about building tension and then relieving it ^justlikesex and you can see this in a lot of common chord progressions. Take your standard cadence, G7 to C, for example. G7 is a fairly unstable chord and it's built so that the third and seventh, B and F, collapse really naturally into C and E, giving us a nice, stable C triad.
Music also operates similarly to comedy in that it's all about delaying and overturning expectations. Like three men walk into a bar. You've heard that before and have some idea of what will follow. But then someone says "the third one ducks" and that's a new one and that's funny, so you laugh. Music works the same one. Let's say we set up the classic I-V-vi-IV chord progression but instead of IV we do something else. That's new, that's interesting, and we like it.
Disclaimer: I'm really sorry if I screwed up some of the overtone series stuff, I have only a vague idea of how it works.
You can read an entire book on why we like the music we do -- check out This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin -- it's a great read!
This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin.
im not trying to be a commercial at all, but i used this book and i think it is great for anyone who wants to learn guitar
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011
you can learn the fretboard easily and logically and "shred" without having to know anything but 5 patterns.
here's how you learn (very paraphrased):
there are 5 patterns that emerge up and down the fretboard.
these are the 5 different positions of root notes, essentially. for instance, using C as the root, the first pattern would be C on the first fret of the second string and including the C on the third fret of the fifth string.
now memorise that scale and fingering for the major and minor.
the second pattern would be the C on the third fret of the fifth string and the C on the fifth fret of the third string - the octaves.
memorise that and so on.
do this for all 5 patterns and you will be able to jam knowing virtually nothing.
dance music making manual
Also, make sure to inject your own playing around in your DAW between every step. Your biggest hurdle will be becoming comfortable with the software you choose because they are HUGE.
ps; If you pirate something, please buy it before you release a song. Don't be a leech.
I got you homie.
This book is an awesome resource when starting out. I've read through probably 6 times and I still pick up something new every read through. Also, take everything you read on forums like gearslutz with a huge grain of salt. There are many audiophiles out there that don't know any hard sciences, and for some reason try their damnedest to convince people to believe in their myths. Also also, audio is subjective, do what sounds good.
I'm definitely no pro; I started playing about a year ago. But I would not recommend trying to start on either of these, they are relatively advanced, assuming you've never played before.
I would suggest starting with this book:
http://www.amazon.ca/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-All--Course/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1453527118&sr=8-1&keywords=alfred+piano
It will help you to understand what you're playing, not just how to press buttons.
Best of luck learning, it's a lot of fun!
Mark Levine Jazz Piano Book!
That, and a teacher (If you're not down with jazz harmony to begin with)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151
And of course, Real Book :)
The Mark Levine books The Jazz Theory Book and The Jazz Piano Book are both good resources.
When I was younger, the concept of improvisation in music gave me a reason to live. I was 17, I didn't want kids and there was no point to middle-class suburban life. But if I could come home from whatever my job was, even if I hated it, I could sit at my piano and play how I felt... if I could express myself through music, in a way I could never do so in words - then I would be happy.
I wrote about that idea in a college entry essay, and it has never left me, 13 years later I still feel the same way. Granted, I feel a bit more responsible about many things in life, but at the end of the day I still hold on to that belief.
Initially, jazz was the vehicle through which I learned improvisation, so I feel very close to the music, even if I really don't play in a traditional jazz style. Improvisation was the outwards expression of my feelings; before I learned about jazz, I could only read notes on a page to play music, and I was way too shy to talk or even write about how I was truly feeling, let alone share that with other people.
My "life" has essentially revolved around music ever since high school. I've played gigs, gone on tour, recorded/put together an album (doing the artwork, manually putting together the CD jewel cases), taught music theory/composition/performance, organized shows/event calendars, funded bands/projects, ran venues/music spaces, produced music for video games... I work a regular day job nowadays, but my #1 passion is and will always be music, whether I'm performing it or enabling others the opportunity to perform.
***
I took classical piano lessons as a young kid for ~6 years, then I quit. I had a little bit of technical knowledge and form but I never really "enjoyed" the music I was playing.
I played drums in grade school. While in drumline (marching band), another drummer asked me to play some keyboard parts for his band. Like 3-4 chords during a Pink Floyd song ("Wish You Were Here" actually, you can hear the synth towards the latter part of the song), and some bird chirping sounds. For other songs, I would swing a hockey stick around while wearing a hooded coat (kinda like a grim reaper) while the band played some Black Sabbath covers.
Well it turns out that we won a Battle of the Bands in front of a few hundred high schoolers, got some money, and I had my young ego blown up then, going from unknown nerd to "piano player with the hockey stick" - but at least people knew who I was. I even bought a keyboard so we could gig around town (I still have it, this ridiculous thing, even though the screen doesn't work anymore)
As I practiced with the band, I was introduced to the idea of "soloing" - other classically trained musicians might understand the helpless feeling I had when I was told "just jam over this blues" - I had no idea what I was doing. One of the guitarists in my band told me about the blues scale, a set of 6 notes that I could riff endlessly over and somehow they all sounded great to me.
A year later (and another battle of the bands won), I was invited by the same guitarist to hear one of his friend's dad's jazz trio. I was told his dad, a drummer, had once opened a concert for Parliament. I get to hear this trio, and they are playing Miles Davis' "So What" according to my friend. I'm ask my friend, "How are they playing all that, improvising?" And he says "Yeah"
At this point I'm like, "Well let me jump in there, I know the blues scale!" And my friend is like "Nah dude, you can't do that!"
Later that night he plays me this recording of Thelonious Monk "Epistrophy" and is like "this is jazz, man, you can't just play blues scale over it"
My classical ears heard this song and I thought to myself, "This is some bullshit music. Sounds terrible. This guy sold records? I can do this!"
I went home and realized quickly that I had no idea how to actually play "randomly" - my fingers would not allow me to. I needed some sort of direction, short of just riffing up and down the blues scale.
The internet was starting to become a thing at this point, so I jumped online and looked up how to improvise jazz on a hip new search engine called "Google" (lol). With a little digging and the help of Napster, I ended up finding an mp3 of Keith Jarrett "The Koln Concert Part IIc"
I listened to that shit so many times. How could someone just sit down and PLAY that?
The summer after my senior year, I used two websites (Jazz Improvisation Primer and LearnJazzPiano.com) and Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book to learn about jazz and how to improvise. I spent 4-5 hours a day going through the book, listening to music from the websites, reading about music theory, and practicing on my parents' upright.
When I went to undergrad, I sold my drum set and brought the keyboard along. Really glad I chose that path.
On campus, I found other jazz musicians and tried to hang out with them whenever I could; even though I wasn't a music student, I lived in a dorm really close to the music department, and my classes were also relatively close. I ended up going to my first jam sessions my freshman year, and while I struggled to keep up (I was literally pushed off a piano bench once), I found a few kind souls who were willing to be patient with me and let me play with them. Many of them are doing great musically/career-wise now, and my heart warms up SO much whenever I think about them
Anyways, I transcribed solos, played off lead sheets, and listened to jazz all the time that year, trying to practice an hour or two every day or at least every other day. The first tune I ever completely transcribed was Cannonball Adderley "Autumn Leaves" and it took at least half a year, I probably spent a month alone on the first 4 bars of Cannonball's solo
I don't know exactly when it happened, but my girlfriend at the time was really into Prince/Michael Jackson and the summer of my junior year, during an internship in California, I somehow found myself watching the Britney Spears' "Toxic" music video and figuring out how to play it on piano. Sure it was "pop crap" but something about the little string riff caught my attention. That summer I started learning a ton of radio songs and I realized that I could use my jazz transcribing skills to learn almost any rock/pop tune, since the basic harmonies/melodies were generally much simpler than dealing with something like the changes to Coltrane's "Moment's Notice".
I filled up ~200 notebook pages of chord changes and reharmonziations of pop/rock/musical/video game songs I had grown up with, thinking to myself, "Isn't this what all those bebop heads did in the 40s? Take their favorite childhood tunes and turn them inside out?" Around this time, I started playing solo piano gigs, quoting these familiar tunes occasionally, enough to grab an audience, but keeping the whole "cool jazz" feel to them.
When I came back to school I started playing around town a lot, and by the end of undergrad, I finally felt like I could sit down and just play how I felt. I can't pinpoint exactly when this happened, but it was a big turning point in my musical life. I had a friend record me at the on-campus music studios, which became my first album. I decided that I would go "on tour" around the country, playing at venues in college towns/big cities, partly to prove to myself that I could make it as a musician, partly because road trips!!!!!
I could write a book about those 4 months but basically at the end of it all, I had played in ~50 cities, smoked a ton of weed, realized I could "keep up" w/some of the best jazz musicians (playing in New Orleans, LA, and NYC for a week each), and was broke as shit. The money thing scared me. I grew up what I considered to be middle class, but I couldn't stomach having $20 in my bank account with no paycheck in sight. As a musician, playing jazz, I realized how difficult it would be to live comfortably.
At the same time, I knew where I wanted to settle down. I moved 2000 miles, took a corporate day job near San Francisco, and was incredibly lucky to find relatively affordable housing out here (prices were high a decade ago but not as bad as they are now, I think).
Most "new" stuff in my life from that point on (in terms of music) didn't really specifically deal with jazz, although I did play a lot of jazz gigs both solo and with a quartet (clarinet+rhythm section) over the next few years. Got into lots of other kinds of music, started DJing a bit, saved up money from my day job to find other musicians gigs/avenues to play, eventually got into electronic dance music, raves, music production, but anyways. There's a somewhat related post about that here
I stream improvisational piano on Twitch occasionally, and there are definitely touches of jazz, although I would never compare myself favorably to anyone who practices and studies jazz consistently. Over the last 5-6 years, not playing with other jazz musicians has kind of dulled my chops, plus I don't really practice that way anymore anyways... but I'm quite OK with that. I still love sitting down and just playing how I feel, and it's kind of cool in this modern age that people all around the world can listen and enjoy it if they want - good for the ego heh ; )
Music is fucking great. Keep listening, keep playing : )
Learn music theory. I've started going through this book recently and it's helping me get the basics down and a lot of stuff is starting to make sense.
Other than that learning the ins and outs of your DAW and the workflow makes everything easier, even if it takes some time and effort.
I have a few recommendations for you to get you started:
/r/edmproduction/
/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/
/r/abletonlive/
I hope at least some of that is helpful...Good luck with everything!
This is the best one I have found. Everything is very, very well explained.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
I was in the same boat as you a few years ago, I played classical my entire life then started to pick up some jazz when I entered college. This is super useful, as it has really helped my playing overall and now I can make a decent amount of money playing around town because i have diversified my skillset. As a classical player I can understand where you are coming from when you say you want to learn scales. I was definitely the same way when I started, very obsessive with the theory and involved in jazz, and I think that if you have been training your brain to approach the piano a certain way your whole life, you shouldn't try to change it now. I agree with OnaZ on his book choices, and you should start picking up your modes, but don't worry about them a whole lot, they are not the end-all-be-all of jazz music. Modes are just a tool you can use to achieve a desired sound or color. If you understand the way you find modes (different configurations of a major scale) then you don't need to spend hours and hours drilling them into your head. I think you'll find that once you start playing jazz and picking up tunes, etc, the modes and bebop scales will kind of fall into place.
More than anything, I suggest you find a teacher! And a good one! One that plays jazz primarily. I would suggest contacting a university nearby and see if you can get connected with some people in your area for lessons.
So! If I had to go back in time and give myself some advice to how to really pick up jazz it would probably go something like this:
Only recently has jazz become something that you can learn in a school/university. Throughout the majority of jazz history, jazz was learned by people listening to jazz musicians. It is, more than anything, aural tradition. Find jazz that you enjoy, not just stuff that people say you should like (although you are going to have to listen and learn to appreciate some albums you may not care for). Definitely check out An Introduction to Jazz Piano (Although it leaves out my main man Red Garland:( )
Start picking up licks and riffs from your favorite players. Just steal them. The first step to becoming a good jazz musician is emulation. You don't have to transcribe whole solos (although this is ideal) you can just grab parts of them and learn some riffs here and there. Blatantly rip off the greats and start building up a bag of tricks. If you are already a little comfortable with some blues scales, I would highly suggest maybe doing a few transcriptions of Horace Silver. He is a great guy to start on and his timing/feel is impeccable. He plays a lot of blues that you check out on youtube or grooveshark.
Listening and transcribing are going to probably be the most helpful, I find that a lot of players (especially guys coming out of classical into jazz) have more trouble with the rhythm and timing of jazz, and not the scales or notes. Honestly, I like to make the argument that rhythm is superior to harmony/melody in jazz (but that's just my opinion). The Jazz Theory Book is a great place to start. I would definitely recommend picking that up, although it is cheaper than a teacher, it definitely will not replace a good one!
Wow, that is a pretty intimidating wall of text (sorry about that)! I tried to edit it down as much as possible, I could talk about this stuff all day. Although jazz can seem very intimidating at times, don't get frustrated! Your classical chops will really help you out. I really hope you find this music to your liking, I think it is the best stuff around. Good luck!!
People smarter than I will come along with useful advice, but I have found this book to be overflowing with jazz knowledge:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1883217040
Bass Fitness is, for me, the golden standard to which I hold all guitar practice books. It's a no-nonsense text that offers little in the way of guidance or assistence, but stick with it and you will notice a difference in your playing in due time. It's not perfect by any means -- in fact it is quite rough around the edges -- but it works.
For more general resources, check out 101 Bass Tips, which features of a plethora of different tips and tricks for the working musician -- everything from set-up and maintenance, to technique, to recording and tone, and much more. It's also accompanied by a CD with examples and practice songs you can play along to.
Once you've got the basics down and you're ready to move into the more advanced facets of bass playing, you might want to try out some books on musical theory. I suggest this, this, and these. Hope these help!
Listen, transcribe, analyse. Also, the Mark Levine jazz theory book has some great stuff in it.
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040
The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine is a great place to start.
i don't know about an online course, but i do know this book by Mark Levine is fantastic. the book is a jazz theory book meant to be applicable to musicians of all instruments, so it's not guitar oriented, and all of the examples are in standard music notation. but that should not discourage you. if you've been playing guitar for years and already know your way around the fretboard with some basic knowledge of music theory, then you shouldn't need pages of neckboard diagrams anyway to learn jazz theory.
this book single-handedly demystified jazz music for me. previously, i was trying to learn by a 4 book long jazz guitar method series by Jody Fisher, and i can honestly say that the Fisher series is shit compared to the Levine book. while the Fisher books were all about giving like a paragraph or two of explanation, followed by scale diagrams then practice songs you were expected to learn, the Levine book is more about giving pages of explanation, followed by a few very small examples that you are not expected to learn necessarily, but are just there to illustrate the point.
i don't know. i think the "method" books/courses just leave too much out. you need to read/learn something theory and explanation driven to really understand jazz. all the scales and exercises you can figure out on your own. so that's what i would suggest looking for in a course, in whatever form of teaching you learn best with.
You should start studying actual music theory if you'd like help with that. Music theory will teach you how to start coming up with good chord progressions, and how to develop more complicated ones than you would naturally come up with. There is jazz theory, and classical music theory, and both would be helpful. You could start with a free resource like http://learnmusictheory.net/. Eventually you might want to pick up a book like https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040 or a comparable one for classical theory. Once you start learning you want to start looking at chord progressions in songs you like.
There really is no useless information to pick up from all of this. I blew off learning from my jazz theory courses, thinking it only applied to jazz, but now I see the same information in endless modern pop songs and am re-teaching myself all of it.
If you can find a place, this is a great option because it is a low cost, low risk (like you said, what if you learn drums aren't for you and lose motivation - you don't want to be stuck with a bunch of expensive drum stuff) way to play on a decent kit. This is what I did for a long time before buying my first kit.
If you can't find a place or if you're insistent on buying you're own, I would look for a cheap used starter kit (high hats, snare drum, bass drum, maybe one tom, and a cymbal - should be able to get a decent kit for <$200) on craigslist or your local music store. I would not recommend a new kit, those will be significantly more expensive and you won't really even know what you're looking for in a kit anyway. I'm not personally a fan of electronic kits, but if you want to, try one out at a music store and if you'd like to learn drums that way, by all means do so.
Even with all this, I would still recommend that you get a couple of lessons. Even if it's just 1 or 2 lessons, it will really help you a lot to have someone to help you get started. The first time you sit down at the kit will be the hardest, and having someone to talk to and converse with will do wonders. If you can't get lessons, it will be harder but certainly not impossible. Remember that it's only going to get easier as you play more, so don't get discouraged.
Do you have cymbals? Do you want lessons? Honestly I would go to craigslist and search up a full kit (look for decently kept pearl forums, tama swingstars, pacific x7, yamaha stage custom). If it comes with everything for $500 then great. You might have to spend around $100 for some new heads but that's okay. Then take that extra cash and get some lessons, stick control and a metronome.
EDIT: added lowest available prices on Amazon, shipping (which may or may not be free) not included
I just got these - I ordered books 1, 2, & 3.
The reviews were good, so I thought I'd give them a shot. Anyone have their own reviews on them for a self-leaner?
You will find more recommendations in the FAQ on the Sidebar, but a short version would be that most people recommend getting a teacher if in any way possible. If not:
Comments on general technique:
If you have any questions, you can always ask us here. Cheers!
Ok this is the path that nearly everyone recommends and (I really would too) so I'll go through the ups and downs.
Get this book
Then go through the lessons with this guy
That's the cheapest way to learn piano. He's got dozens of complete method books that he teaches through.
Downside, the alfred books aren't super inspiring pieces. However they teach you the fundamentals VERY well. For $10 you can't beat it. You'll know all your scales, key signatures, hand independence, chord theory, and most importantly you'll be able to sight read. There's three levels. It'll probably take two years to go through all 3 and that's ok! After you finish the first book start adding in some Repertoire pieces from IMSLP
My two cents as a lapsed classical pianist: If you want to go old school and learn to read music a bit too, struggle your way through the Hanon exercises for piano, specifically the scales and octave scale progression through all keys.
The book is cheap on Amazon
It is boring, dry stuff. But I will be damned if I don't still remember every scale once I start off on the right note, even if I don't remember any of the classical pieces themselves. Because of that bastard Hanon and his exercises.
I’d start with this: Sound Reinforcement Handbook
Anytime you ask about a book, someone is bound to mention the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook. This is essentially the bible of sound reinforcement. It has all the things you need to know about a sound system. It is a bit dated with the lack of topics on digital systems, but physics hasn't changed so all that is still good.
I firmly believe that an understanding it the basics of how sound works is essential to being a good sound person. I run a University tech crew (full time supervisor) and I don't let any of my students use the digital boards or larger systems until they've proven themselves on smaller rigs.
That said, another thing you could do is download the offline editor for the Profile. get used to Menus, routing, effects, etc. And if you're allowed and there are no events happening, get your hands on the desk and just play.
The [Guitar Fretboard Workbook](http://www.Guitar.com/ Fretboard Workbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634049011/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Ejz.AbBA1QA0S) is what I started on, and I can't recommend it enough if you like the workbook format. It takes you from knowing absolutely nothing about theory to understanding scales, triads, extended chords, modes, and how all of it applies to the fretboard in shapes and patterns.
I'd recommend Jazz Guitar: Complete Edition by Jody Fisher. It covers all the important topics in a fairly straightforward way and comes with a CD of examples and backing tracks. It's aimed at intermediate guitarists, but your experience should be sufficient.
The old standard was Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar, but I'm not a huge fan. The learning curve is extremely steep and there's not a great deal of theory or explanation. It'd be a really useful companion to lessons with a teacher, but I think that most beginners would really struggle with it.
A good alternative to the Jody Fisher book is A Modern Method For Guitar by William Leavitt. The learning curve is fairly gradual, but it's tough going - everything is written in standard notation and there's no real instruction as such. It seems to be inspired by the Suzuki method. Everything is taught through progressively more demanding examples. You probably won't get stuck on anything, but you will need to do a bit of thinking to figure stuff out for yourself.
If you want to learn jazz theory in depth, I'd strongly recommend Jazzology by Rawlins and Bahha. It's the clearest, most elegant explanation of how everything fits together in jazz. It's not specifically written for guitar, but the theory is universal. The Jody Fisher book covers all the theory that you really need to know, but Jazzology would be a really good supplement if you like to understand things in detail.
In your jazz guitar journey, you'll probably come across The Real Book. It's an essential reference text, containing lead sheets for hundreds of the most popular jazz tunes. It's how most of us learned our repertoire and most of us still have a copy in our gig bag pocket. Today, you have a huge advantage in learning tunes because of the fabulous iReal Pro. It's an app version of The Real Book, but it can also play backing tracks for any tune in any key and at any tempo. It's an absolute boon when you're learning to play solos.
Finally, I'd suggest just listening to a whole bunch of jazz, not just jazz guitar. You should know Joe Pass, Ted Greene and Wes Montgomery, but you should also know Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie.
this one has been good for me
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Hal-Leonard-Corporation/dp/0634060384/ref=pd_sbs_14_1/137-3999734-2361828?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0634060384&pd_rd_r=3a832c6d-71c2-11e9-a563-4fe76fa75f96&pd_rd_w=kQPQY&pd_rd_wg=GGCbY&pf_rd_p=588939de-d3f8-42f1-a3d8-d556eae5797d&pf_rd_r=B0QS47ACR22PTWZE6QXR&psc=1&refRID=B0QS47ACR22PTWZE6QXR
Get a copy of The Real Book and start learning songs. This isn't a hardcore technique workout but more of a way to A)build repertoire and B)get your hands more familiar with playing jazz changes.
The word you're probably looking for is "accompaniment". However, you probably don't want to search using this term.
Any popular music that is published is usually arranged for "Piano/Vocal/Guitar", and I don't really know of a standard term for this type of sheet music. For what this looks like, check out any of the popular sheets on http://musicnotes.com. These are arranged so that you can play the song as a piano solo if you want, but if you want to just accompany someone else or play in a band, you would just look at the guitar chords placed above each line of music (e.g. "G", "Cm7", "D", "Bsus4").
The other type of notated music used for accompaniment is called a "lead sheet". This has only the solo line (the tune/melody of the song) and the chords. So it's basically just the top half of what you see in a "piano/vocal/guitar" arrangement.
The other term you'll see is "Fake Book". A Fake book is just a book containing a large number of lead sheets. If you're playing jazz, the most popular book of lead sheets for jazz standards is called "The Real Book".
Finally, on many "guitar tab" sites, you can find just the chords for songs (although there are often lots of errors). Look for versions that say "chords" instead of "tabs". Here's an example
No matter what type of sheet music you're looking at, if you're playing with others, you'll need to learn to play by reading chord symbols instead of notes on a staff. When searching for music, you'd want to include one of these terms: "chords", "tabs", "sheets", "lead sheet", "fake book", "piano". Don't worry too much exactly what type of sheet music you get, even if it's for solo piano; as long as there are chord symbols on it, that's all you need.
Here is a list of links for you to get started:
If you're into jazz, get yourself a Real Book! It's reasonably basic sheet music, and full of classics.
No. If anything, just get a book on music theory. Most guitar lesson books are just a collection of tabs with a few unhelpful paragraphs thrown in.
Here is a good music theory book written by a instructor at Musicians Institute (arguably the best guitar school in the U.S.). It won't teach you how to play, but it will give you a firm grasp on music theory that will aid in your learning.
Hope this helps...
I think this is pretty well written, it's stickied in the BHO Theory subforum and covers the essentials well: common chord progressions and scales that go well in the context of the particular chord in the progression (and somebody also asks about what keys songs are in) http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/71709.
That theory subforum doesn't get a lot of threads but there is a lot of good explanations in older threads
What book/s are you using with your teacher? Most of them cover chords and scales in the context of soloing and playing backup rolls or vamping. You could look at the books by Ned Luberecki and Janet Davis and Trischka's Complete 5 string wehre they gradually introduce basic bluegrass chord progressions, pentatonic, blues and diatonic (8 notes/octave) scales.
Also if you play guitar i remember Kolb's book being good: https://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X
[This book is great IMO]
(http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X/ref=pd_sim_b_4/191-7497975-6024957?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=111254SQ76TZK81AYP3R)
I've had this book for years and use it all the time.
I'm very interested in this one as recommended by grampageoff up there.
The Guitar Book, by Tom Wheeler is one of my favorites:
https://www.amazon.com/guitar-book-handbook-electric-guitarists/dp/0060145595
I suspect there must be an updated edition from this century.
I also like The Guitar Handbook:
https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Professional-Acoustic-Electrice/dp/0679742751
I'm sure there are others, but those are the books that first came to my mind.
Ralph Denyer's 'The Guitar Handbook'
I had a copy of this book back in the late '80s that I'd lost at some point. Bought a newer edition a few years back when I found it. Takes you through all aspects of the instrument, and the basics of playing it.
You mentioned you like jazz, feel free to hang out with us /r/Jazz
Internet is great, and there is a lot for good free ressources. You'll have to go through a bunch of crap though, it can be confusing for a beginner and takes valuable time away to an already time consuming hobby.
So here are a few books I personally recommand.
Jazzology, an encyclopedia of theory centered around jazz that you can use with any genre. It's really good.
The real book, a good way to learn jazz standards with sheets that aren't so painful, using solfège for melody and letters for chords. This is the format I use with students.
The Jazz Theory book, or anything from mark levine.
The Complete Musician is good if you can find it for cheap, which is no easy task.
The definition of perfect pitch includes knowing the names of the notes. Without this knowledge, it's just "having a good ear". A good way to practice it is picking random notes and visualizing what the chord will sound like before playing it. That vizualisation aspect is the amazing thing about absolute pitch and helps with composing. The tuning or knowing what key you're in things are cute but fairly irrelevant.
Anyway, have fun.
At my school everybody takes classical theory for at least 2 years.
We used this book
Here's the work book
You'll probably need the answers too since you're teaching yourself
Really what I got out of it was being able to just instantly know chord spelling. I don't really have to think about a lot of things any more. It's just second nature. You don't really use classical counterpoint rules unless you plan on composing classical music. But it's a good vehicle for learning theory since it's rather specific and you have to consider a lot of things at once.
We use this book in our jazz theory class
But mainly I learned most from the lectures since our professor is really good. We also have to write a jazz tune every week and learn and improvise on it. As well as the ear training.
I wouldn't really even say that theory is "extremely challenging." You just have to spend a lot of time on it. There was a lot of assignments from the work book every week during classical theory. Probably spent like 6+ hours a week just on the homework for those classes. And that's not even including ear training. With any of this stuff you just have to be consistent, I don't think it's really that hard to understand and I started playing music much later than a lot of my peers.
But if you're trying to understand jazz before understanding really basic concepts like knowing your key signatures, how to spell basic triads, the chords in a given key, simple time vs compound time, etc, you're going to have a lot of trouble. Everything builds on to itself so you really have to understand the basics first which might be a little boring but you have to do it.
7th and 9th chords are the most common in jazz. I'd say if you have some theory knowledge already this book is an invaluable resource http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040
Otherwise start with musictheory.net and get a grasp on basic chord progressions first.
It's not free, but I've heard a ton of people recommend this book. I haven't even gotten partially through it yet and I've learned a lot.
http://smile.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1452998111&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=jazz+theory+mark+levine
I subscribed to Mark Michell's (Scale the Summit bassist) website Low End University that covers a myriad of topics both bass and non bass related, I'd say its a little more advanced material than what Scott Devine offers but both are great and have some good stuff for free.
As for books, I'd always been really interested in music theory behind jazz and certain video game OSTs and I can't recommend Mark Levine's The Jazz Theory book if that's your sort of thing. As someone else posted, Alex Webster's book is marvelous for not so much composition but being able to fluidly play intense rhythms and using three fingers.
Coordination and timing are big obstacles to overcome, but the more you play, the more naturally it comes. I never took lessons until I could get college credit for them (roughly 5 years after I started playing), and most of that was so I could learn to read music and maybe pick up on a few things. The biggest help for me was the fact that I could learn by ear, so if I heard it enough and tried it enough, I could figure out pretty much any song I wanted to play.
I would definitely invest in Stick Control, even if you can't read music. It's easy enough to read and it's really helpful in breaking habits when you have to think about what hand you're supposed to be striking with.
Really, the most important thing is just keep playing. Tap along to the radio. Tap along to everything. The more you play, the faster you'll break yourself from coordination/timing issues and the better you'll be. /u/crabjuice23 suggested trying different genres of music. I 100% agree. Play along to anything you can. If you hear something you like but can't quite stick it, slow it down in your head and keep playing it until it's comfortable and you'll have it full speed at no time. Patience is huge.
Rudiments are a good place to start learning drums, as well as some notation / music theory. Here's some free websites that I use:
http://vicfirth.com/40-essential-rudiments/
http://www.snarescience.com/index.php
Around here, every one recommends Stick Control and Jojo Mayer's Secret Weapons for the Modern Drummer DVD, but I have never used them.
Music wise, I'm sure there's something you like that is approachable. A lot of Alt-rock like The Strokes, the White Stripes, Black Keys has pretty straightforward drum parts.
As for lessons, it isn't a bad idea to take even just a month of lessons to assist you in basic hand / foot technique as well as musical notation.
Good luck on your drumming journey!
I definitely recommend drum lessons if you can. Especially since you have no real knowledge of drumming, this will help immensely. Someone to tell him "No, hold the stick like this" will help in the long run and save him from making habits out of bad technique. This doesn't mean that he can't learn by himself, it just means he will learn quicker, and hopefully have good technique.
Yes. As soon as he starts lessons I'm sure the teacher will recommend a few good books. They aren't really textbooks, though, as much as drumming exercises. I don't know a whole lot about different books, but I have heard good things about Stick Control for the Snare Drummer. Other than that, any basic rudiments book will be fine something like this.
Interesting question. I'm not really sure how to answer this. Does he want to play hand drums or a drumset? I know when I first started I thought hand drums were dumb (My only experience was playing a djembe in a drum circle in 6th grade music class with a bunch of rhythmically challenged idiots). There was something about all the drums and cymbals put together that just made it so powerful and awesome to me. I'd say whatever he likes to play, let him play. If he falls in love with the bongos, so be it.
This is a tough one too. I've never really messed with kid's drums, but I'd say take him to guitar center and let him play the full size kits. If he can play it comfortably and is able to hit all the cymbals with a little adjusting, I'd say get a full size kit. I just wouldn't be a fan of getting a kid's kit that he'll grow out of in a couple years. If you have the extra cash, though, it'd probably be more beneficial to get the kid size drumset.
To echo what others have said, I couldn't have played drums to save my life when I first played Rock Band. I would fail songs on medium. Now I'm actually a pretty decent drummer, at least for someone who has never owned an acoustic kit.
The key is not to expect Rock Band to teach you everything, which you seem to have figured out already. Rock Band combined with independent research on actual playing techniques (grip, sticking, the parts of the kit, etc.) will absolutely turn you into a passable drummer, just as it did for me.
A couple suggestions: first, get some new sticks. Even the better Rock Band sticks are okay at best. You're not tearing them up on tour every night; you can splurge on something nicer like these. The dip is really nice if you're prone to dropping them, and the nylon tips won't wear the way wooden ones sometimes do.
Second, get a practice pad. A book on sticking patterns like this one can be valuable too but isn't crucial. A practice pad lets you practice sticking patterns. A few minutes a day playing to a metronome will make a big difference. As you improve, you can gradually raise the BPM of the metronome and train yourself to be faster.
stick control if you don't have already have it
Vic Firth's rudiment videos are great, though the site is a bit difficult to use these days.
All American Drummer (the Wilcoxen book) is a great way to get your chops back up to snuff. Even the first solo has challenges if you don't have your hands together.
Stick Control - I don't even have to tell you why. Do read through the introduction and practice it in the way that Stone specified.
For inspiration watch Thomas Pridgen show how he practices rudiments around the kit.
Music Theory for Computer Musicians & Dance Music Manual in books. You could use Musictheory.net to learn the basics.
I started DJing first then have recently been doing some production. Here's my recommendation in priority order:
Finally just a word of advice: stick with it, take your time and believe in yourself. Try to resist copying whatever is the most popular and make what you like the sound of. Find your sound and your DJing style. :)
http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Second-Edition/dp/0240521072
http://www.audio-engineering-courses.co.uk/audio-mixing.php
http://www.vintagesynth.com/resources/glossary.php
http://www.markwhite.com/vsp/glossary.html
http://www.sweetwater.com/expert-center/glossary/
http://www.sequencer.de/synthaudio/synthesizer-basics.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/11435645/Glossary-of-Audio-Mixing-Terms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesizer
http://www.wannaplaymusic.com/get-started/keyboard-terminology
Some advanced and very in-depth mixing resources:
Mike Senior was Editor for Sound On Sound magazine's "Mix Rescue" column, where you could listen to mixes submitted by readers. Mike fixes the mix, and give his reasoning to why he makes each change that he does. Great concept, great articles.
Dave Pensado is just a class act. You have to love the guy. Grammy awarded, and a great teacher. His interviews with other professionals are always a blast, but for very in-depth technical discussions, go watch his "Into the Lair" segments. You won't be disappointed.
I realize that these two resources are not EDM centric, but the fundamentals are rock solid and you'll be able to use them wherever you go.
I highly recommend this book for mixing: https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-small-studio-Presents/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539751292&sr=8-1&keywords=mixing+secrets+for+the+small+studio
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The author has also compiled 345 multi-track recordings that you can use for mixing practice: http://www.cambridge-mt.com/ms-mtk.htm
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Practice is important!
Def want acoustic Treatments for sure. I've stumbled across some pretty crazy deals on Ebay from time to time. Upgrade your monitoring next and get a small sub. Try to get monitors and subs that are the same series, as they are often built to work together and have easy cutoff switches that end/start at the others frequencies. Something like this is ideal for a great price: https://www.ebay.com/i/182475564279?chn=ps&amp;dispItem=1
Avoid monitors that are ported in the front (i.e. rokit krk's). If you want bass traps, make your own. Just goolge the process. Keep in mind a bed is already and excellent bass trap, if there is one in your room. Generally want monitors at ear level. This book is a wealth of information on this topic and many others. Maybe check it out as well: https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Presents/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1501967590&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=mixing+secrets+for+the+small+studio
Good luck with everything! Enjoy yourself!
Get an audio interface and a DAW.
Choose the most inexpensive or used audio interface and a free DAW to start with.
Youtube will provide you more than enough tutorials to learn from scratch.
Ask and discuss stuff on reddit and gearslutz :D
Read this! There is also a "Recording Secrets" book from the same guy, but I didn't read it as I'm not recording stuff.
Not specific to DJing, but I found This Is Your Brain on Music to be an invaluable resource. A few pages in and I was already a better producer/DJ.
Have you seen their Highlights for High School feature?
Also, there are sites like Academic Earth that might be useful.
Here are a few blogs with potential. You'll have to decide for yourself if they have inappropriate content.
Here are a few book recommendations covering various fields, in no particular order (though they should all read #1):
And here's a video interview with Richard Feynman they might enjoy.
I honestly think that learning some music theory will help. It gives you a deeper understanding of why things sound good when they do, and what things are likely to sound good together. To me, learning theory isn't really learning "someone else's music." Think of music like a language. Learning grammar and syntax won't stop you from making unique and beautiful sentences.
Also, I recommend reading This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levintin. Good luck! :)
Oof, that's a tough one. I really like Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber, This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin and Whipping Girl by Julia Serano.
I was in a similar situation as you are, I played piano since I was young and when I took up guitar the fretboard was a bit daunting to me. It clicked for me when I imagined that each of the six strings was like its own separate piano so six dimensional if you will ;). Since each fret is a half step, its like the keys on a piano going up a half step. So the 'piano keys' on the lowest string start on E and go up by a half step, the next string is A so the 'piano keys' start on A, then go up and so on.
Once the set up of the fretboard made sense to me, it's all about memorization to know the exact locations of notes off hand. I think that this is going to be different for each person you need to figure out what makes sense to you. Memorize 'landmarks' such as each open string, the 12^th fret is an octave up, and the odd frets are good ones to start with memorizing.
I used this: http://www.guitarhabits.com/learn-the-guitar-fingerboard-thoroughly-in-16-days/ as well. I found it pretty helpful.
Also if you're looking for some books, http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1313039330&amp;sr=8-1 & http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1313039376&amp;sr=1-6 were both really good and helped me with understanding the fretboard and general mechanics of guitar.
Hope this helps! Good Luck!
You need a method, not random bits of knowledge. You may use Justin's, or you may look for a book.
The secret here is structure, which is only provided by a method. Otherwise you'll always feel your knowledge is scattered all over the place and hence barely usable.
A good method should at least:
Once you have a structure, the Internet truly becomes an awesome resource, because now you can research the issue at hand with a better sense of purpose and more specifically.
So don't fret, this isn't a stupid question, it actually shows you are ready and willing to progress, you'd be amazed how many people become dismissive at this stage, and think they've achieved mastery, because it's "all feel and talent, man," and don't even see how much there is to learn and improve.
TL;DR: get a method by trying several, then stick to the one you choose.
Step 1. Buy this book
Step 2. ?
Step 3. Fretboard mastery
Seriously though, that book is the best thing you could ever work through. I've been playing years, but never got the notes down. 3 months working through that and now I'm an expert.
Alfred's All in One or Faber's Adult Adventures are common suggestions.
It's hard to find stuff on Jazz Theory on Google for sure, much less recommendations for music transcription. I really can't think of a good place to start with regards to the songs you should try to transcribe, but there are books I've used that have plenty of suggested reading/listening listed. Hopefully you don't already know about these...
The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine (it can be kind of pricy, here's a link to it on Amazon) which has a whole regimen of listening suggestions in its curriculum, focusing a good amount on jazz harmony, and melodic improvisation.
I learned a lot about jazz chords and voicings from
MiracleVoicings by Frank Mantooth. Working through these books will help you understand better how to approach jazz chords, which should help you better conceive of what you're hearing when you try to transcribe them.EDIT: The book has been republished as Voicings for Jazz Keyboard by Frank Mantooth
As others are saying, I think you're going to be hard-pressed to put together a solid audition in six weeks if you don't have any jazz experience. But you've got four years, right? There's no reason you can't go out your sophomore year. If you really want to get into jazz piano, I recommend checking out Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book. Each chapter represents months, if not more, of practice, but you'll have a very strong foundation to build on if you keep with it.
I think going out for choir would actually be a great idea. Singing in harmony with others is one of the most satisfying musical experiences you can have, and it's GREAT ear training. Plus, there's no reason you can't continue playing solo repertoire, right? If you hang out in the music department a bunch, you might even be able to pop in on jam sessions or start a band with some like-minded musicians. Not to mention what's out there if your school is near a major metropolitan area.
IMO, you can't really start tackling theory and go straight to jazz, you really need to understand the basics of music theory before you can move on to advanced jazz harmony. There are a number of theory books our there that explain the basics well, I have a couple of music degrees and a good overall text used in many schools is Tonal Harmony. As far as jazz the best book I've come across in regards to explaining harmony is Mark Levine's The Jazz Piano Book.
Both of these are pretty involved books, they might be a bit much for the casual player. But they are the best I know of.
Check out The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine.
Jazz is less about learning pieces and more about knowing your theory and being able to improvise. Can you play a 12 bar blues? You can use simple voicings in your left hand using the 3rd and 7th of each chord and use your right hand to improvise. Or you can practice walking a bassline in your left hand while playing chords with your right hand.
I'm not a jazz musician, but I know some jazz theory and can play a little bit, it's not my thing though. Hopefully some jazz pianists will post here with more helpful advice.
Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book is considered the standard jazz piano book. Between that and a good teacher you should be set.
This is the fretboard logic book that I have:
http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1321469011&amp;sr=1-1
The Guthrie Govan book I have:
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Guitar-Advanced-Techniques-Vol/dp/1860744672/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1321469051&amp;sr=1-2
https://www.amazon.com/Scales-Chords-Arpeggios-Cadences-Complete/dp/0739003682%3FSubscriptionId%3D06KMPSHEDSXXQMQVT482%26tag%3Daskcom05-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0739003682
Hanon exercises are great for strength and independence of fingers.
The Virtuoso Pianist by Charles-Louis Hanon. It's not fun or musically interesting, but if you purely want to improve speed and technique, it's exactly what you need.
If you want to really go down the rabbit hole: A Modern Method for Guitar.
There are a couple of great books by Dan Erlewine, "The Guitar Player Repair Guide" and "How To Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great".
One of the biggest downsides is your intonation will change especially on a guitar with a trem system. so essentially your guitar will no long play in tune all along the fretboard. your action may also become lower causing fret buzz or possibly notes fretting out on bends.
it's worth it to learn how to take care of your guitar yourself. its going to be your best friend for the rest of your life, take some time and effort and learn the in's and outs of guitar maintenance.
here is a good book to learn from
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0879309210
Dan Erlewine's book covers this repair, if i recall correctly.
Also, enquire at /r/luthier. This I a fairly common repair and you might find a thread over there that addresses it.
May as well get a copy of the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook. I've been tinkering/fixing/modding stuff for years and every time I pick it up I am reminded of something I had forgot or learn something new.
Learn how to solder like a boss.
I used to buy cheap stereos/stereo components at the thrift store just to tear apart and dick around with; I learned a lot by destroying stuff (accidentally).
Also, building guitar effects pedals are a good way to jump in and obtain a grasp of the basics. Plenty of free schematics on Google. As well as how to mod cheap gear. (For instance- an ART Tube MP pre-amp are going for $25 on Amazon, you can find instructions on how to mod it for $20 worth of parts and end up with a decent sounding pre-amp) (Well, 'decent' is subjective, but you get the idea).
You might start with this book
/r/livesound is the subreddit that covers this, mostly professional types. /r/soundsystem caters more to the DIY/hobby side of big sound.
Yes that gear is available to consumers, it's very expensive and there is a lot of knowledge and experience that goes into designing/deploying/tuning that type of rig. It's really quite a lot of material to cover - if you're interested in doing your own events then you can find local companies to hire for sound/lighting. If you're looking to build your own rig then start small or preferably hook up with some local crews who are already doing this sort of thing. Not sure if this helps, might be able to help if you have any more specific questions.
It's not just experience, it's training and an in depth knowledge of acoustics and audio engineering. There is a huge amount of information about this on the internet, so I might guess that you just haven't found the right search terms. One oft-mentioned resource is the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook, which is about as comprehensive as you can get, if very technical.
You may also be interested in /r/livesound ...
As always, grab yourself a copy of what many professionals and amateurs alike call The Bible.
It's a very indepth overview of the world of sound. Unfortunately it doesn't go up to the digital age but the basics and physics don't change much! If someone could write a version 2 that covers digital desks, line array systems, and sections on bit rate and sample rate, I know many many people who will buy the book again without hesitation!
Buy yourself the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement book.
Sound Reinforcement Handbook https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0881889008/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_B.XCzbBZSTH6Z
It will give you so much more information and is a useful reference book.
IMHO everyone interested or doing sound should own a copy.
A couple of good books for you to check out are the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook and Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. Together they'll cost you about $50 at Amazon.
There's also this book, linked from /r/audioengineering.
Mics- 414s are fantastic mics no doubt. But there are many,many other more affordable options out there that are competitive in quality. I'd suggest checking out some higher end MXLs, they are super versatile and pretty too.
don't worry about thunderbolt. people were recording low latency drums and etc....long before thunderbolt came out.
monitors...well, the NS10s are pretty standard. if you can make a mix sound good on those it will sound good on anything.every major studio but one (studio a in dearborn) I've been in has them. If you are really burning for something new I'd suggest some genelic 1030a there the older model but they were used on pretty much every hit song in the early 2000s. Everybodys got them. I know the speakers and trust thier response. and they're affordable.
preamp- This is where I personally invest the most money... there are as many preamps as snowflakes. I like the Focusrites ISAs, Rupert Neve designs, go high end... but honestly I have been fooled by the stock original MBOX pres. You're not a true engineer till you have fiddled with a non functioning micpre and thought "that sounds better" lol.
compressers- plug in compressors are great. which is why i suggest spending the money on the preamp. however it never hurts to have a hardware tube compressor/limiter handy. I recommend the ART VLA II.
plugins- trident EQ, fairchild 660, old timer, PSP vintage warmer, 1176, LA2A, smack!, MC77, there are a TON of good plug ins to choose from.
headphone monitoring? Not to sure about that one, Headphones are for performing only. I have the 80 dollar sonys for clients. ,they come with a nice bag to store them in. I don't mix with headphones( thats a whole can of worms dealing with psychoacoustics)
drum mics- shure makes good durable kits, I see them in use all over the place. CAD aren't to bad either. don't go cheap..but don't go overboard either. Approach it like preamps, go with a trusted brand name, they're selling a set of mics specifically for drums, kinda hard to fuck that up right? (IMO its more important to have a good room.)
this kind of reminds me of a joke.
how many drummers does it take to change a lightbulb?
none. they have machines for that now. just throwing it out there.
computer and software- I say go protools. but thats all i know, i was certified in 2002 and havent had a need for anything else. I have never been in a studio that wasnt using it, there are a couple in nashvile that use sonar...well, that was a few years ago.
I am not here to shit on mac. but i have used both in the industry throuought the years and they both perform fine. The last studio I was at used a quadcore w 4 gigs on XP with PT8 and never had so much as a hiccup, recording 24 tracks at once @ 24/96. I take the policy of if it isnt broken, don't fix it. I also have a person issue with avid, I refuse to upgrade to 9 or 10 because they allow any interface to be used...except there older ones. bullshit.
Trust me on this one...the client isnt going to give a shit what OS you are using until it your computer crashes. if you load up your computer with tons of cracked plugins and have poor organization and maintenance, its gonna take a shit on you.
further reading- this is probably the most important advice i can give you. read a little bit and get a total understanding on what everything does, because there is a lot of bullshit in this field.
http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers-Handbook-Audio-Series/dp/0872887235
http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008/ref=pd_sim_b_10
http://www.amazon.com/Master-Handbook-Acoustics-Alton-Everest/dp/0071603328/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1348852030&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=room+acoustic+music
http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Glass-Record-Producers-Softcover/dp/0879306149/ref=pd_sim_b_24
good luck
Take this and this; that's all I needed to read, play and write music.
Paying for lessons is recommended, they are a shortcut.
My advice: You have to keep your motivation alive: Watch videos of other people playing pieces you would like to play, it's as important as brushing your teeth. You require ambition but also you must acknowledge the nature of the process of learning; you will invest time, emotions and money to get there, keep that in mind.
Enjoy your journey, music is a beautiful investment.
👍
The best way I found so far is to do this guys lessons in order : https://www.youtube.com/user/Lypur
I supplement with
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167
The Art of Bop Dumming by Jon Riley
Progressive Steps to Syncopation by Ted Reed
Jazz Drum Studio by John Pickering
Buy any or all three of these. Perfect place to start. And start listening to a lot of jazz. Good luck, dude. Jazz is great.
I've been going through Syncopation for the Modern Drummer to come up with melodies that use syncoption. It has like every permutation of syncopation you could imagine. I think it was written with a jazz drummer in mind, but you can use the ideas for type of music.
Stick control is a great book. another good one for developing Independence in your hands and feet is this one
http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Steps-Syncopation-Modern-Drummer/dp/0882847953/ref=sr_1_cc_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1293738221&amp;sr=1-3-catcorr
Very basic beginner tips:
You're spot on with picking up sticks and a pad first (I should also mention a metronome because drumming is ALL about keeping time, but this is bare basics so for the sake of my bad typing skills and your wallet I'm going to omit it, but know this HAS TO BE YOUR NEXT PURCHASE (also there's dozens of free metronome apps FYI)).
This is all you will need to begin drumming and it shouldn't cost you more than $30. As far as for what kinds/brands, just buy two matching sticks that feel comfortable in your hands and a pad that's 'bouncy'. (Don't worry about wood types or tips for the drum sticks yet, you're still a far ways away from that being a concern)
Now that you have sticks and a pad, the next move is to learn how to hold them. This is going to be hard without any visuals, so bear with me here lol. Hold your right hand forward as if you were to accept a handshake. With your left hand, place the stick in the center your palm so that the blunt end of the stick is facing the ground. Now close your fingers around it to create a fist. Adjust the height of the stick in your fist so that only 1 inch of the blunt end is protruding(sp?) from the bottom of your fist. At this point, it should seem like your holding the drum stick the same way that you might hold a hammer; you're close but there's two more VERY IMPORTANT steps. Next, adjust your thumb so that it rests on the shaft of the stick. (Imagine that with your fist you're trying to now give someone a thumbs-up and that your stick is just a big extension of that thumbs-up, that what this should all look like) Finally, while maintaining this hand position, turn your wrist 90 degrees so that your palm and stick are both facing the ground.
Now repeat with your left hand.
If done correctly, you should be making a 'V' shape with your sticks. As well, if done correctly, you should be able to hold both stick with only your thumb and fore-finger. (Just to cover all bases, your middle, ring and pinky fingers are simply there for minor support, most grip strength and stick control comes from finding the fulcrum (or balancing sweet spot) of the stick and pinching it with your thumb and fore finger)
Confused yet? Good! Just a few more things and I'll feel like I'm really doing you justice here lol:
Just start off at first by trying to get your sticks to hit the pad and bounce back at you. Don't 'bury' them into the pad; make them work for you, not against you. Don't worry about speed, intensity or consistency just yet, it will all come in time.
Obviously, alternate your hands. You'll find that you have a dominant hand (99.99% chance it's your writing hand) but don't forget that, unless you plan on starting a Def Lepard cover band, your going to need both hands, so give them both the appropriate amounts of attention they deserve!
Once you got both hands hitting with equal confidence, just go back and forth with your right and left hand and try to focus on making them both sound, look, and feel as even as possible.
New drummer LPT's:
-Buy a metronome ASAP.
-Forget about speed, it WILL come naturally.
-Buy, download, torrent, steal, GET this book and go through it. It is the golden standard for pre-drumkit drumming. If you master this book, you have mastered the concept of drumming.
-Hold off on a drumkit. They're big and expensive; you'll really want to make sure that you REALLY want to commit to drumming first.
-Finally, YOUTUBE will teach you all this and more for FREE!
Good luck, sorry for the novel but I really hope this helps.
Sources: drumming 12 years, currently professional touring drummer, tried to teach a friend how-to a while ago and he's... not terrible :P
Everyone is right about getting a teacher, particularly for the basics and more advanced concepts as well. I personally started playing through a high school class for a semester then was taught all over again by a guy from my church.
Since then however I have been playing on my own (with books) and learning by ear as well. Here are my recommendations
I'm currently using Alfred's. https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_267_bs_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=TRV8VN58287JY0698CNH
I've posted this a few times but I think its well worth repeating:
I am using Alfred's Adult all in one and there is a guy on YouTube that covers each lesson with good instruction and tips.
Here is the link:
Alfred's Video
I also hired a tutor who I meet with every two weeks, just to make sure I'm not picking up bad habits.
Amazon link to Alfred book
FAQ
http://www.reddit.com//r/piano/wiki/faq
I'd skip skoove.
http://fundamentals-of-piano-practice.readthedocs.io/en/latest/chapter1/ch1_topics/
Discussion, summary of some parts here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/5mn8fi/fundamentals_of_piano_practice_some_boiled_down/
Taubman technique
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHpGYrNMpSxgcftnjYolpGrnTpNzlM8Qu
https://www.golandskyinstitute.org/blog/teaching-rotation-with-robert-durso
Plenty of beginner piano videos like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSs0dBjGpv4
All in one method books can work well too, plenty of others.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/
http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/30/1/Adult_Beginners_Forum.html
Plenty of overlap in these links. Try some out, figure out what works best for you. One important thing you can miss not having a teacher is sitting and moving the right way so you don't hurt yourself. With nobody to critique you as you go, a few different videos, careful reading beforehand, and doing your best to be mindful of any tension and discomfort that develops is advisable. That way you figure out when you're sore and need to reevaluate your style with a few days of minor discomfort instead of a couple months. Certainly possible to get by without a teacher. But with the right teacher you might be able to get a lot out of a lesson once every month or two.
The first couple of chapters of Mike Senior's mixing book is on room design http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
All around a good reference book to have regardless
So this is what you learn:
-How to create an 808 Kick
-How to arrange a track
-How to create a "lush sparkling mix"
-How to use reverb
-How to create a build up
-Basic sound design
-How to use distortion and compression
NOPE. Not for $40.
For mixing: http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1427666706&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=small+studio+mixing
Sound design, arranging, etc.: http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0415825644/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1427666724&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=dance+music+manual
The first book I linked to is literally the bible of mixing. It's a truly great resource. The second is a great cursory overview of music theory, sound design, and several aspects of the big electronic genres: arrangements, keys, percussion. It even tells you settings for synthesizing kicks in each genre it covers.
If you want more in detailed information, buy this book and read chapter 1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807#reader_0240815807
I've got yet another book! "This is your brain on music" by Daniel Levitin
http://www.amazon.ca/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0452288525
Online Articles
Designing a movie for sound by Randy Thom
The sound of Star Wars by Ben Burt
Plus most other articles on filmsound
Books
Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound by David Yewdall
Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema by David Sonnenschein
This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin Not directly sound design but still very interesting and useful.
Websites
Sound Works Collection
Designing Sound
Film Sound
These are just some of my personal picks but I'm sure there are plenty more resources out there.
It’s cool to play, but you also have to practice. Sounds like you are just playing and never practicing with a specific focus in mind. Learn music theory and the fretboard.
I bought this Guitar Fretboard Workbook book in the recommendation of another Reddit user and feel like I always have something to be practicing. He mentioned to work through it slow and it should take at least six months to a year to complete. I am roughly a month in and only on chapter three and have done the exercises over and over but on the side I am also learning music theory so I am working on what I learned there too.
This + This
also
http://www.learnjazzstandards.com/
plus listen a bunch
(not a pianist, just fiddle with piano enough to help myself)
The Real Book is what most people that I know use when jamming with other musicians.
So this is a pretty awesome contest idea!
Here is my list:
Something I want - A gift card was the only thing I would decide on for this category. Why a gift card? I'm indecisive!
Something I need - This soldering tip is something I very much need.
Something ^^(for ^^my ^^cat) to wear - This bow tie would be hilariously awesome on my cat Lovey.
Something to read - This book on music theory is something I want to read to learn a bit from.
Something to watch - The Big Lebowski is one of my favorite movies, and I don't own it!
Something to listen to - This is the new Modest Mouse album I have been waiting (literal) years for!
Here is your clue:
It's time to relax, it's time to kick back,
It's no longer time to hold back!
Let loose the gates, release the hounds,
And grab a chair to sit around.
It's in the air, it's in my head,
And soon my opinion will be set.
I like it, I hate it, I want more of it!
But in the end, my thirst is fed,
And nothing more than thanks can be said.
I tried! :D
The Guitar Handbook is one of my favorites.
Even cheap guitars can be real players if they are set up properly.
So, either get it set up properly (much cheaper than a new guitar) or learn to do it yourself (even cheaper and not terribly difficult). There are lots of books that can tell you how to do it. I learned from Ralph Denyer's Guitar Handbook
As a classical musician already, I suspect this would be a good place to start, for you more so than for non-musician beginners like me. I read a lot of recommendations for this book so I got it.
Think this is exactly what you're looking for, also aviable as an eBook.
Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences: Complete Book (Alfred's Basic Piano Library)
I took advanced music theory all through High School and other than reading the odd bit of notation when I am trying to remix a song, my ears and basic understanding of chords is what I mostly use. I hardly ever use the skills taught to me in that class. I refreshed myself a few years ago with this book, very good:
http://www.amazon.ca/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
I am surprised this one hasn't been mentioned yet: Music Theory for Computer Musicians.
https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
This book is amazing. It takes you step by step to understanding music theory, in a simple way. No complicated sheet music, everything is explained in a simple way for someone like me who never learned music before. It helped me a lot to understand what I was doing on the keyboard and further diversify my use of different scales.
Great book to check out is the jazz theory book. Here's an amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1883217040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_YLNAzb4MBCS34
The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine
rudimentary technique book, one of the standards.
another rudimentary book, another one of the standards.
first metronome i pulled up under 20$. essential.
DVD by Jojo Mayer, who has (imo) one of the best stick techniques in the business. Really great video examples of proper stick grip, and various techniques regarding rebound and bounce.
edit: me not word good. changed #4 around for redundancies.
The only thing you really need in the beginning is a practice pad like that one, this book and a pair of sticks.
If you can bear practicing like this without giving up because of the boredom that is learning the fundamentals, a second-hand e-drum kit is an inexpensive and space-saving way of getting into playing on a whole set. It also means you won't annoy your neighbors too much.
https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040
$10.79 @ Amazon. You can probably get it for $6-7 from random book resellers on Google. If you approach this book with discipline, the return for your $ will be immense.
https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040
This, these, and one of these will get you started for $53.10
Or if you want to go nuts, one of these.
I don't play double bass much so I haven't tried it, but I would imagine that stick control would work just as good with your feet as it does with your hands
If you’re new to music in general this book is awesome. even for adults.
This one is another good resource for scales and chords.
a; a minor; b; b minor; c; c minor; d; d minor; e; e minor; f; f minor; g; g minor
Then there's flats and sharps.
You can buy a hannon book for $3 or $4 http://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1457979356&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=piano+scales
Since you are just starting out, your emphasis right now needs to be on developing a solid basis of technique, . For the next 2 years I recommend you alot your practice time as follows:
After 2 years, once you have built up your dexterity, then you can begin alotting a greater portion of your time to practicing pieces.
Please note that this time estimate is based on my experience, playing for 3 hours/day during my formative training years. If you are practicing less, it may take longer for you to build your dexterity.
https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446
Ask your teacher about Hanon before buying, many don't care for his exercises while many might prefer to give exercises to you individually rather than having you practice from a book. Nevertheless progress slowly through the book, play the exercises slowly and steadily over quickly and unconfidently. Vary the exercises' rhythm as an exercise(For example you can make every other tone dotted while halfing the duration of the others). Follow the fingerings written out and get help from your teacher if something hurts or feels tense/wrong rather than just powering through it and lastly remember that Hanon exercises are NOT a substitute for other content such as learning pieces you're interested in. Hanon exercises lack in musicality and other elements that you need to learn through learning actual pieces of music that you enjoy.
A Modern Method for Guitar by William Leavitt is what you are talking about.
if you can read sheet music decently I'd recommend William Leavitt's Modern Guitar Method - It's fairly tough for new guitar students because most of them don't know how to sight read, but if you can do that then this is a really great resource and will teach you scales and chords in different areas all over the guitar. This book doesn't hold your hand, so go in expecting that it's dense and might take time a long time to get through.
Outside of working through books, it sounds like you want to know the fretboard notes more than anything, so I'd recommend learning in this order:
playing vertically is important to know but isn't very efficient
my advice for this is to learn E shape, A shape, and D shape barre chords, assuming you already know CAGED+F open chords. That paired with a good knowledge of the E and A string and you are off to a great start. Guitar takes a lot more work than piano in order to see chords and be able to move around efficiently.
Tl;dr get the app Tenuto, also available on pc here and work through William Leavitt's Modern Guitar Method (i'm in no way affiliated with either - I'm a professional musician and teacher and they're both tools that I use daily)
An oldie but a god-damned goodie, The Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook. Very well written and packed with the basics of analog technology.
When I was doing audio at a church as an absolute amateur I found it to be indispensable. I keep it nearby and still refer to it from time to time.
I can highly recommend "The Jazz Piano Book". It covers a lot of ground and is very readable. Best jazz book I ever bought. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151/
The Mark Levine Jazz piano book has been known to be a good one. I"m just starting too and i had the jazz instructor at my university recommend it. here's an amazon link.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0961470151/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&amp;condition=used
Get Fretboard Logic SE from Amazon or somewhere else. It's a book that teaches you how to memorize & navigate the fretboard easily. It's all broken down very well and very easy to understand. It doesn't have any biases toward a specific genre.
The best part is that it teaches you how to understand the fretboard in a logical way, so it's not just hard memorization of an abstract concept.
http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1322260893&amp;sr=8-5
Fretboard Logic goes over the CAGED system quite a bit. And I think it gets into scales too, but my copy is packed away somewhere so I can't verify.
Very good method. I suggest checking out the book called Fretboard Logic.
http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060
Here you go, these are arranged according to their importance:
These will get you on track, then you can dive more into complex synthesizers, start buying some loops and manipulate them to be unique, read more about compression (because it's an endless topic), start making collaborations, mixing, mastering (limiters, multi-band compressors and stereo-imaging).
https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
This book teaches you everything you have to know about the fundamentals of music theory and even how to play the different scales on the piano. The chapters are in a logical order, so you don‘t get overwhelmed. After each chapters you can test your knew knowledge with some excercises.
I‘ve read it twice and i think it is an easy way to learn the basics without spending much money.
First thing: READ THE FAQ. It covers a lot of things like how to get a good teacher, how to self-learn if needed, etc. I am going to leave this post below from before, though.
> Once again, I have to plug the FAQ's thing of at least try to get a teacher or a lesson, since the biggest challenge with self-learning is technique. That said, if you must self-learn, I would recommend getting Alfred's Adult All-in-One course and learning more into theory. The Royal Conservatory of Music has some great things, including a syllabus for piano (as well as the same syllabus for popular music) and a theory syllabus. I'll link it all below. Work through the first book until you have that material down. Also check out musictheory.net for their tutorials, as the theory can get tough very quickly. Once you have worked through those pieces, try looking at some real piano literature (e.g. Pezold: Minuet in G major) and complementing it with the scales, arpeggios, broken chords, etc. that the RCM syllabus can provide. If you are into classical music, there is a published called G. Henle Verlag that grades all of their pieces on a scale of 1 to 9 that helps a lot if needing help choosing pieces. Escalate the difficulty bit by bit. Links below!
>
> &nbsp;
>
> Alfred's All-in-One course
>
> RCM's piano syllabus
>
> RCM's popular music syllabus for piano
>
> RCM's music theory syllabus
>
> musictheory.net
>
> G. Henle Verlag
>
> Some beginner/intermediate classical pieces graded by difficulty
While some things translate well it's not as much as you think. You need a method book. Either Alfred's or Faber's
These are the standard methods of learning piano. There are many others, but these are the standard for a reason. They work. Go through books 1-2 then pick a track that you want to learn.
Classical pianist for 15 years, and I'm going on 3 years as a self-taught jazz pianist. I can honestly say that the book I have used the most is The Jazz Piano Book. Learning modes, memorizing the circle of 5ths, 3-note voicings, left hand voicings (a la Bill Evans and others) are all things included in the book. It will teach you how to interpret lead sheets, taking basic "scale/chord" theory knowledge and applying it to improvisation, and it also will teach you a variety of tricks used by the professionals. Mark Levine, the author, writes in a cohesive, down-to-earth voice (although sometimes a little corny), and it makes it really easy to understand what he's talking about. Other books you may want to look into are A Creative Approach to Jazz Piano Harmony, A Classical Approach To Jazz Piano, and of course, LISTEN TO GREAT PLAYERS! There's a saying in jazz - probably the most true of them all - the textbooks are the records!
Hope this helps get you started.
Remember, knowing the fundamentals is the key to learning the complexities of jazz. Seriously, I can't stress this enough. Always pay attention to your technique, and always play with the best possible sound. And more than anything - enjoy the process of learning. Have fun!
Cheers.
A few key things will help you:
Practice everyday, at least 30 minutes. Most of us can't afford the time to practice hours and hours a day, but 30 minutes consistently is necessary.
Get a piano teacher to work on improvisation with. This is THE best way to develop yourself.
Although I'm a big proponent of improvisation NOT being exlcusive to jazz (I think a musican should be able to improvise regardless of instrument or genre) there is an excellent book for piano you should definitely have: The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine
Make sure you know all your scales very, very well. Every type of scale - major, minor, modes, diminshed scales, etc. And practice improvising around the circle of 4ths (or 5ths) with a metronome on beats 2 & 4. This will help your rhythm and everything out a great deal.
When I was in college, I took jazz piano lessons on the side as an extra elective, even though classical was my main focus for my major. Also, I played in a few different jazz bands on campus, which really helped me to learn. I know your goal is to play solo, but it's much easier when you are starting out to play with a band who can keep time, a bassline, and the chord changes going for you while you ease in.
I've found it hard to learn on my own, and learned more from playing with others, but this book (The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine) is a great resource to start to wrap your mind around the approach.
Sounds like the problem isn't music theory, but applying it to composition.
I can recommend two things. First of all, you have to spend A LOT of time noodling around on an instrument. I'm sorry to say, but while the push may be useful for its purpose, it will not train you to recognize and spontaneously create melodic elements that deviate from simple chord progressions and leads. I learned on a piano, and I spent hours a week just jamming and noodling around to see what worked, what didn't, and how to add different elements like passing chords, dissonance, counterpoint, bass composition, modal improvisation, and so forth. This is just stuff that you naturally pick up after practicing a while. Try something new here and there, and you may find that it works quite nicely.
The second is to study the music of other composers. For this, I can't think of anything better than jazz. Classical music can help too, but it gets a bit more complicated and doesn't apply well to electronic music. Jazz is modern and simple enough to study, but can be musically complex (using those things like passing chords, modes, etc). It teaches one to get out of comfortable poppy chord progressions and melodies.
You might want to try this book http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151. I've heard good things about it.
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151
well I'm not so sure about specific genres, but if you want to get into Jazz piano then The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine is a great place to start. That along with a fake book, backing tracks (like the ireal app), and actual recordings will get you far. Also, check out r/jazztheory/ if you haven't been there yet.
edit: for what its worth, in my limited opinion bossa nova is more of a rhythmic variant and gospel is more about voicings and specific progressions (I'm not too familiar w/ gospel but do hear minor thirds and block chords alot)
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151
get this:
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1369855129&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=jazz+piano+book
and a copy of The Real Book.
The Mark Levine book will tell you which songs to practice and how to practice them. If you really want to learn jazz, don't simply imitate it by learning pre-written arrangements on sheet music. Learn to play from a lead sheet and you will have much more fun.
This book is a great resource for jazz theory and piano chords.
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151
start small and work your way up. Elementary Rudiments of Music. Learning theory is about learning music, not just guitar. http://www.amazon.ca/Elementary-Rudiments-Music-Barbara-Wharram/dp/1554400112
For learning guitar, I like fretboard logic.
And as a reference guide and rut breaker the Guitar Grimoire
My advice is to buy some books. There's a lot of info on the internet, but it's all spread out and often chopped up into pieces, which can make it a bitch to make sense of. If you're going to go the internet route, though, check out guitarlessons365.com (not affiliated in any way). The vast majority of the lessons are free and the music theory section is completely free, not to mention very good.
http://www.guitarlessons365.com/lessons-archive/music-theory-lessons-archive/
Regarding books, this is a great, easy to read book on music theory that won't hurt your head. I'd start either here or with guitarlessons365.
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Music-Theory-Book-understanding/dp/1440511829
For guitar books, Fretboard Logic is a must read. Definitely buy this. It focuses on the 5 position system (CAGED). If you're interested in learning the 7 position system for the major scales and other 7 note scales, check out guitarlessons365.
http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1348759781&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=fretboard+logic
After that, I'd check out this as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1348759708&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=guitar+theory
Worth checking this out as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1348759937&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=guitar+theory
Here's another important book. I'd probably buy this last, though.
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1348760257&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=jazz+theory+book+by+mark+levine
https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Dance-Music-Production/dp/0956446035
https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
https://www.udemy.com/music-theory-for-electronic-musicians/
Specific to this, you can study tonal harmony, what constitutes a major and minor scale, including natural, harmonic and melodic minor, and studying the circle of fifths and it's reasoning, including understanding what relative minors are, and how keys relate due to their construction.
https://www.musictheory.net/
google-fu
search related forums
If you'd like to get a foundational understanding of music theory that's friendly to people who aren't classically trained, this is the book I'd recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1467063989&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=music+theory+for+computer+musicians
Alternatively, just watch this video a bunch. He gives you some nice bare bones practical use of the circle of 5ths, that you can apply right now.
I found this book " Guitar Fretboard Workbook" to be helpful.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0634049011/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1501090842&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=guitar+fretboard+workbook&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=51zV7bok4fL&amp;ref=plSrch
Guitar Fretboard workbook by Barrett Tagliarino
I picked it up a few months ago and have made great progress using that and taking private lessons.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0634049011?ie=UTF8&amp;force-full-site=1&amp;ref_=aw_bottom_links
For jazz get a Real Book.
A fake book is just a book of lead sheets. A lead sheet is the chords and melody of a song with usually little else. They're called fake books because they can be used to fake a tune one does't really know. By and large, the most popular jazz fake book is called the Real Book. There are 3 volumes and 5 editions; it was produced by students at Berklee School of Music in the 70's. That jazz style that is so often in music notation software is based on the Real book's handwritten sheets. It's illegal as the songs are unlicensed, but Hal Leonard has created a 6th edition that is updated and fully licensed. You can get it at amazon. You can find versions of the original at your local seedy music store and online with a bit of searching. There are a whole bunch of others. One really excellent one is the New Real Book published by Sher. The tunes are dead accurate and contain most of the arrangements.
Pick yourself up one of these and start playing around with the tunes.
I'd probably suggest this one, or maybe this one
In terms of walking bass, the only to get better at it is unfortunately just to keep working at it. Start on a not-too-complicated tune such as Satin Doll, or something else with lots of II-V-I progressions in it, or a 12-bar blues, and work up to more complicated charts.
Here's a "quick and dirty" method to work out some walking bass lines. It's a bit simplistic perhaps, but it will at least get you started, and it does work. Assuming a 4/4 time sig:
ON BARS WHERE THERE ARE TWO CHORDS PER BAR:
Beats 1 & 3: On the beats where the chords fall (1 & 3) play the root (at least at first).
Beats 2 & 4: On the other beats (2 & 4) play an approach note that gets you to the root of the next chord, so a note either a half-step or whole step above the note you want to get to. Use your ear to judge which is best. So if the chord on beat 3 is G7, on beat 2 you could play either A, Ab, F# or F.
ON BARS WHERE THERE IS ONLY ONE CHORD PER BAR:
Beat 1: Play the root (again, at first)
Beat 4: Play an approach note as above, so either a half or whole step above or below, whichever sounds best.
Beats 2 & 3: You have a few options:
a. outline the chord notes. For example root, 3, 5 then, or root, 3, 5 then to your approach note.
b. move by step (don't be afraid of chromatic notes, you'd be surprised how often they work). So going from Dmi7 to G7 you could move up be step playing D, E, F, F#.
c. Try going from the root on the first beat up or down to the 5th on the second beat, then keep going in the same direction to the root an octave above or below on the third, before hitting your approach notes.
d. Do something else entirely.
So a sample bassline for the first 8 bars of Satin Doll might look something like this. Note that in the last bar it moves completely by step while in the three bars before that it uses that root-fifth-root pattern. Obviously that's just one way to do it. When you're new to walking bass and learning a tune don't try and go right through straight away. Get from bar 1 to bar 2, then from 1 to 4, and so on. Build it up in stages, and try different ways to get there. If you can figure out how to get up by step to the next chord, then try moving down by step the next time.
Now, before anyone tells me that I am the awful spawn of satan and I have killed Jazz by explaining things this way and thus downvoting me to the diminished 7th circle of Hell, I know it's a very simple way of explaining it, I also know that walking bass can be a wonderfully nuanced thing with infinite variety. But we've got to start somewhere and the above will work. As with everything, the ear has to be the final judge.
Jazz is a very wide subject. There are some good Real Books you might wanna buy to learn some jazz standards:
The Real Book
http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Book-Sixth-Edition/dp/0634060384
The Real Book vol. 2 Low Voice
http://www.amazon.com/Real-Vocal-Book-Vol-Voice/dp/1423451236/
There are a ton of fake books out there, I would suggest buying one called The Real Book Sixth Edition. It's the most popular one to my knowledge and is a great resource. I'd say its a little better for developing harmony than it is melody (since most melody that actually gets played in jazz is soloing), but it's a great tool for familiarizing yourself with jazz standards as well as seeing what kind of chords appear in jazz and how they function
"Music Theory for Guitarists" by Tom Kolb is popular. http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X/
The above-mentioned Fretboard Logic is good, but it isn't quite what you're asking for, if you were to buy only one book.
The above Mikrokosmos is a classic, but aimed specifically at piano. For some people that's not an issue, it can be a plus. For other people it is off-putting or confusing.
I really couldn't say what the best non-instrument-oriented music theory book is; there are so very many of them -- and I've got a whole bunch, just not one in particular that I think is an absolute must-read. There are a lot of topics even in basic music theory, and lots of approaches (very formal and academic versus casual writing style, for instance).
The one you found seems to cover a lot of the important topics, and is well-rated by 37 reviewers on the U.S. Amazon site, too, in addition to the 6 on the U.K. site.
You could always combine that one with the guitar-centric one.
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1478698332&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=guitarist+music+theory
This is the greatest music book I have ever used.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/063406651X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1485268950&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&amp;keywords=guitar+theory&amp;dpPl=1&amp;dpID=51c94gsdGUL&amp;ref=plSrch
by Tom Kolb
by Desi Serna
by Michael Pilhofer et al.
---
Read some/all of some/all of the following resources to help yourself with music theory. /r/musictheory also exists to help those with theory questions.
http://academic.udayton.edu/tobyrush/theorypages/
http://www.musictheory.net/lessons
https://www.basicmusictheory.com/
http://www.learnmusicfree.com/
http://www.oolimo.com/en/course.php
https://www.musictheoryforguitar.com/scalesandmodesguitarlessons.html
https://mymusictheory.zenler.com/
http://www.popularmusictheory.org/index.htm
---
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_musical_terminology
Yep, this book recommended to me by my teacher 17 years ago is my bible. But I guess these days you could probably youtube anything.
I believe Justinguitar has a theory series. If you can afford to buy a book, Ralph Denyer's The Guitar Handbook will give you a solid start on theory and includes other information that's useful to someone at your stage.
The Guitar Handbook should be handed out with every first guitar.
Piano is actually very easy. You just need to pick up the fundamentals to a functional level. Alot of the rest can be picked up if you have a decent ear. Much like anything there's a learning curve. You dedicate yourself to slog through the initial frustration of the curve and the rest comes pretty easy.
Pick up this book and work through it:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739003682/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_U.UbAb21EDKZK
This book has helped me out tremendously and I recommend that everyone should have it.
Ok. That is much more manageable!
As far as dry, academic sources go, the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook covers a ton. It covers the physical aspects of making and treating a studio, along with a million other things.
For software, your best bet is just to cover the big ones (protools, logic, cubase, studio one, reaper etc.). Honestly, I wouldn't really spend much time on this besides saying that they can all pretty much do anything you need them to, and it is mainly an issue of user preference.
Pensando's Place and The Recording Revolution have been great sources for me as far as actual production techniques. There are some lectures on youtube by Steve Albini that are pretty awesome, too. Really- recording and producing goes from a science to an art at a certain point, so your paper will likely have two sides to it: the stuff everyone 'agrees' on, and the stuff where an engineer breaks with the conventional wisdom to do something their own way.
Not to belabor the point, but sound engineering is about as broad a term as 'painting' is, and you will find people who do it have as much or as little in common with each other as painters do.
As long as you approach it as a combination of art and science, you should be able to do a decent job. Just look up some lectures by reputable engineers, compare & contrast.
Per rule 1, please do not post links to pirated content.
You may link to an Amazon page where a user can buy that book like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008
If you are looking to do sound I would definitely pick up a copy of Yamaha's Sound Reinforcement Handbook. It is a super helpful book for giving you a basic knowledge of systems, how they work and how to make them work for you. It is somewhat out of date but is still super useful. The Audio Dictionary is also a very helpful resource.
Also make sure to get a very good knowledge of power and electrical theory. I'm always amazed at how lost a lot of audio engineers/sound designers seem to be when it comes to power. It is an extremely important part of what we have to do.
Ditto on above. Also, https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008
Get yourself one of these and read it like it's the ten commandments. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0881889008?pc_redir=1397818753&amp;robot_redir=1
Oldie but goodie, the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook
Basic repairs would be covered more by learning how to read circuit diagrams, and/or a basic electronics course.
Do you want to play jazz? The real book is a lead sheet book that lists chords and has single melody lines. This will not help you to read sheet music.
Start with a primer book like Alfreds. This will work you up through reading.
Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One https://www.amazon.com/dp/0882846167/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_N3cgAbNWPYG4M
In order starting with the book on the top left:
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Keyboard-Chord-Piano-Method/dp/0793551447
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Essentials-Complete-Training-Workbook/dp/0882848976
http://www.amazon.com/MIDI-Book-Syntharts-Steve-Furia/dp/0881885142
http://www.amazon.com/The-Total-Keyboard-Performing-Electronic/dp/1586637037
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Theory-Volume-Sandy-Feldstein/dp/0882842161
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167
http://www.amazon.com/Welshs-Synthesizer-Cookbook-Programming-Universal/dp/B000ERHA4S
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167
If you click the Look Inside link here you can see the table of contents. On page 18, you start learning chords.
If what you really like is classical Indian music, why not learn the sitar? Although I don't know much about sitar playing, it may have all of the things you hated about the guitar. There are other Indian instruments though.
If you have a pretty low drive, I don't see how you'll get anywhere self teaching. Doesn't your low drive mean you need a teacher pushing you to practice every day, etc?
Rudiments, and a metronome are great suggestions.
Id recommend getting going on some sight reading too.
Here are a couple great books I used starting out:
Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer -I still use this one regularly 20 years later. It's a classic.
The Art of Bop Drumming
Here's a great list from Modern Drummer of some other good instructional books. YouTube is great, but don't forget the basics.
https://www.moderndrummer.com/2013/04/25-timeless-drum-books/
Unfortunately it's not very cash-valuable, especially if you're in the US. Maybe $75-$100 to the right buyer. If you're after a cheap kit, get this cleaned up (Outside with a rag and some Steelo/whatever metal cleaner you can get your hands on) and go to a music shop, and buy a batter and a resonant head, snare wires and a snare stand. Look up how to put on heads and tune a snare drum online, or ask any other drummers you know. It'll be a great beginner snare - much better than what you'd get with a normal budget kit - and honestly, it's not valuable enough to worry about ruining it.
EDIT: Also, for a beginner percussionist, a snare is really all you need to start out. Look into books like Syncopation and Stick Control, they're just big sets of different snare drum exercises to teach you basic stick control.
Syncopation and Stick Control are books you will never grow out of and are a must have for any drummer in my opinion. You can use these exercises around the kit as well as implementing feet.
If you want something like drum set notes it very much depends on what genre you are interested in.
For (3), I'd also say this.
my favorite book was "Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer"
It's been probably 10+ years since I bought that book, and I'll still pull it off the shelf and play through pages.
Another really fun thing to do is to go through the Syncopation book and play the quarter note and eighth note pages with just your left hand and kick drum while playing jazz time with your right hand and hi hat
Definitely something used, don’t buy new. You can get a decent used set with stands/cymbals for probably $300-500 that will be fine for a first kit for someone with little-to-no drumming experience. Maybe even cheaper.
Edit: a good book
Yes.
If you can't find a teacher, I recommend the Alfred All-in-One Basic Adult course. Should get you going while you find a teacher (do this).
I've been playing for six months and it's the best decision I've made in years.
Hey I'm doing the same now, been learning and practicing for about 2 months.
SCALES. Learn your scales and chords and that's what you'll be able to immediately take into making your own original music.
I've just gotten this book, which is part one of 3 and it's been very helpful for me with technique and theory.
I'm fond of the Alfred Adult All-In-One book. It emphasizes both theory and technic. When I was in the business of helping musicians find the right resources for them, this was my go-to book for players like you, who had moderate experience back in the day, but were looking to pick it back up again. It's going to start with pretty basic theory, so you might want to supplement the theory with a more theory-centric book. There's a nice accelerated version of the Theory Time series.
You're likely to find these at popular music retail chains.
I found a version for you: https://sites.ualberta.ca/~mmlau/sheetmusic/fearnotthisnight.pdf
It's not Lara's, but it sounds convincing enough (and the chords are not really difficult). Also, I highly recommend this book for beginners: Alfred's Adult All-In-One Piano. That's what I learned with and it was a foundation for branching out on my own.
Hi there! I'm also a beginner. I've been using Alfred's. It's a book that's used in my piano classes, and I personally think it's good~
https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1500507658&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=alfreds+adult+all+in+one+piano+course+level+1
Alfred's All-In-One is a standard recommendation, get the spiral-bound book as it sits well on the piano.
How to make a noise is a great free ebook to start you off learning synthesis. The dance music manual is another great book with a section on ambient and chill-out
Since we're in EDMProduction:
Rick Snoman's Dance Music Manual gets recommended a lot, I've only read a bit but like it.
Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook is a splendid read on how subtractive synthesizers work.
Rick Snoman's Dance Music Manual
Also check out his Dvd courses, he's a brilliant teacher!
Learned more here, than 4 years of Youtube tutorials, reading articles, and lurking forums.
http://www.dancemusicproduction.com/
Not really a tip/trick, but something that really helped me was reading Mike Senior's "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio."
https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
That books does an excellent job of breaking down the process, and the purpose of different tools. Once you really know what FL's different plugins are meant for, and how to use them, making music will become much easier/faster. I really recommend reading through that book to familiarize yourself with all the powerful tools you have, I promise you that your music will improve dramatically after utilizing all the knowledge and skills presented in that book!!
Sorry if that's not necessarily what you're looking for mate, but it's something I feel will really help get you where you want to be!
This one by Mike Senior
As u/HoneyD said, you're overthinking it, imo. Not a whole lot of intricate mixing was done on most of those 90s beats. The gear they used and the vinyl sampling is what sculpted that sound.
I consider EQ, compression, and distortion to be basic level stuff. If you know the basics of those then you should be able to somewhat identify the tonal characteristics of a mix. Listen to those tracks you mentioned and try picking them apart yourself. What is the high-end like in those drums? Is it clear and 'sparkley' like modern songs? It's probably boxy (as in not much high-end past 10khz or so) and a little crunchy, which you can get from applying a low-pass filter and distortion. There's also probably not a whole lot of stereo information, so thinning the samples and drums can help to get that old school sound.
I honestly prefer Decimort2 over the S950. Sounds great, has a lot of versatility, and no hassle. You gotta remember that all of those classic machines were digital, so in theory you should easily be able to emulate them, but part of that special sound came from the inputs and outputs, most famously the SP1200 and MPC60. Read about the characteristics of the SP's output transformers and try applying what you gathered into the chain in your DAW. A lot of that dark, muddy sound comes from those outputs, and when you push them they get crunchy. A good distortion plug like Saturn, Decimator, AudioThing Vinyl Strip, Trash, etc., followed by a low-pass filter. If you have any vintage-style filters then that would help even more, as they can add some nice saturation.
If you haven't read this, I would highly suggest picking it up. It's not geared towards hip-hop, but mixing is universal and will help a ton in whatever genre you are making.
I heard this was a good book for improving your mixes. I like the author's work in Sound on Sound.
http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-small-studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
You won't have much luck finding a job, skills or not.
I always recommend [Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio by Mike Senior.] (https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1473187120&amp;sr=8-5&amp;keywords=home+studio+book)
Vocoders and formants are kind of specific, not sure if there's a lot of books that cover those in depth. I'd probably google around for some online literature for those. Or once you understand audio fundamentals, reading a plugin's manual will give you all the info you need to know.
I learned a ton from this book. Good luck!
When you're done with YouTube there are quite a few books written in the past ten years aimed at getting people started in production as effectively as possible.
As much as I hated his eMarketing-style sleaziness, Marc Mozart's book, Your Mix Sucks, is the best “starter” manual written in the past five years.
Another amazing resource is Mike Senior (of Sound on Sound fame)'s book, Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. This nails what audio production is like in 2018. No large format studio nonsense, no old geezers waxing about mixing Diana Ross albums in the 70s.
Wow, ALL of these replies are gold :)
I'm reading [this book]
(https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Presents/dp/0240815807) about mixing, and it has some nifty ideas for arrangement as well. It says when you think about your mix in parts (be it verse, chorus, bridge etc. or otherwise) you might want to think about what instrument you want to be the focus of a part and make sure it shines through and any other competitive instrument makes way for the focus one, esp. if they are in the same frequency range. This seems like a "duh" idea but often times we are not that conscious in our decisions. The writer also mentions the ear can process only 3 things at a time, so it makes sense to choose our battles wisely in each part of the song :) Here's the full quote from Jack Joseph Puig in the book: "You have to consider the fact that the ear can process only three things at once. When you get to the fourth thing, the attention drops away somewhere.”
Edit: Added quote.
Mixing Secrets by Mike Senior is a pretty sweet read on everything from prepping your track for mixdown to home mastering and everything in between: http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1342531444&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=mixing+secrets
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
Mastering Audio
http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-Science-Bob-Katz/dp/0240818962/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1425940414&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=bob+katz+mastering
I just ordered Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio yesterday from Amazon. It looks pretty damn promising.
Too many focus on plugins or hardware, and not enough learning and knowledge. Get a book or two. This one is on my wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240815807
There's a book I've been wanting to read but haven't yet: This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
If you've got more free time than me go for it, but I'm extremely interested in studies on the subject. I think music is something bigger than we understand so far and I want to find the answer.
I would strongly recommend looking up the book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by the late and inimitable Dr. Oliver Sacks. Also the book This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Prof. Daniel J. Levitin
Not sure the right answer is, would assume it’s oscillator As I think freq of vibrations is the first thing our brain registers. Check this book if you have not already. https://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0452288525
Whatever music you grew up listening to[1], your brain will basically wire itself to recognize things about that music as "good". Although vynil can provide quite high audio quality, most of the reason that people still like it years later is that it has a 'warmer' sound, that is, the ways in which the sound is imperfectly played are picked up by the human audio recognition system, and even if you don't realize it, this familiarity makes the music sound better to you. Same goes for 8-bit -- if you grew up in the 80's, you probably were dosed with heaps of the stuff, and adding it to music in the right way, whether 'it' be the static-fuzz percussive sounds, the kinds of filters on simple sin waves that a typical 8-bit sounds system wound up with, these things probably sound 'good' to someone who grew up with them.
[1] This is your brain on music, daniel levitin
This is a really short description of each, but hopefully will help.
CAGED system is a way of knowing how to play chords all over the neck. If you know the notes of the fretboard and where the root note is in each chord shape, then you can use that to play any chord, in any position using only the C, A, G, E and D chord shapes. If you're looking for a C chord near the 13th fret, there's an C on string 2 fret 13. The D shape has the root note on the 2nd string, so if you play a D chord shape at the 12th position (which uses the C root note on the 2nd string), that'll be an C chord. Alternatively, you could think about it this way... if a D chord is at the 14th position, slide a full step down to the 12th position and you'll have a C chord.
Next, if you know the scale positions and the root note within each, you can combine the CAGED system with scale positions and blend them.
The keys to understanding this are 1) understanding the CAGED system, 2) knowing scale positions (you mentioned pentatonic and mixolydian - just pick one scale type for a start), and 3) knowing the notes of the fretboard. Once you have a solid understanding of those, a bit of practice will get you over the hump with combining them.
The thing that helped me put all of this together (apart from hours of practice with backing tracks), was a book called Guitar Fretboard Workbook. The exercises are short and helped with memorizing note positions on the fretboard, and it has a good explanation of the CAGED system as well.
I hope this helps.
Edit: corrected chord name.
The book "Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences: Complete Book" gets posted here a lot. Does the book contain some information not easily available somewhere else, or is its major selling point only having everything printed in a nice format? I don't see the value of having e.g. C major scale with fingerings printed out, compared to simply having "RH 1231234, LH 1432132" written on a paper/tablet screen/whatever.
It doesn't really sound like you want a theory book, but rather a book to help you identify and practice scales, chords, etc. For that, you might want to check out this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0739003682/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
It has a twenty page intro explaining some theory and then goes on to list all of the major/major scales, arpeggios, etc., in an easy to practice format.
Second the recommendation of scales and arpeggios, in all keys, major and minor. You can start off with just a few, the easiest ones (go in order of the circle of fifths if you want), and continue to add on. Start slowly and, most importantly, EVENLY, building a good foundation for speeding it up later and applying it to technical passages. But there's no real recommendation anyone can give you for "X amount of times," because scales and arpeggios are things you'll continuously practice no matter how high of a level you get to. At a higher level once you've mastered them, you may not have to do the entire set every day, but you can then apply them to pieces by choosing from your arsenal certain exercises that practice the techniques needed in a tricky section of Rach or such.
A good resource for other technique exercises is the book of Hanon exercises. It's been used for many decades, and includes lots of scale/arpeggio-type exercises, and you can work your way through them. Be aware, though, that they're VERY tedious (literally just pattern building through each key), but it sounds like you have the ability to self-motivate yourself. Be careful not to treat these just as exercises, though, and go through them robotically and monotonously, because it's very easy to see them as such. They're just tools developed to help finger agility, speed, and recognition of patterns so you can apply them to full-blown pieces. It's like a tennis player who practices a certain type of grip for 50 serves a day. Great if she can do it through the exercise, but if she reverts to her old grip when she starts playing a game (putting it into action), the grip practice was wasted. Application of theory into pieces is sometimes the hardest thing to do.
I know this has been a giant essay, but lastly, none of us can really give you an individual recommendation. It seems like you've got the self-motivation to learn yourself, but if you are interested in really getting a structured routine, get a private teacher, if only for a few lessons, to help you develop what kinds of things you need to work on.
The Hanon book might be what you are looking for. But your best bet is to get a good, dedicated teacher and see what he/she thinks you need.
Buy a Hanon's exercise book. I'm 22, and was given my grandfather's copy (from the 1930's) when I was around 11-12, and it really makes a difference in technical sections. Even though I've been playing them forever, I still use them as a tune-up when I feel a little slow. Recently just used them to prepare for a Bach obsession I'm in
edit: Here's actually the PDF of the book
Modern Method for Guitar is great for learning to sight read. It's a hefty tome, coming in at 424 pages it's the largest book on my music stand right now.
It's got a lot of stuff to read and practice, and all of it is aimed at guitar (whereas some music theory books may be for Piano or Violin, the music in this book is primarily written for Guitar).
The author notes the book can be supplemented with others, it's primary purpose is to teach you how to read music and apply it to the guitar mechanically.
There are lessons, exercises, along with some nice melodies which are mostly duet (here is the first song after the first 4 Exercises for example).
My advice would be to focus on learning music theory, and applying said theory to your play. Everyone here loves to recommend justinguitar.com, and I'd agree. I'd also check out Steve Stine on YouTube (index of playlists). Best theory teacher I've seen in a long while. I'd also absolutely recommend musictheory.net.
Lastly, the Berklee guitar method books will simultaneously teach you to read music and to play your instrument. These books are the single best thing I did to progress my guitar skills.
Reading music helps greatly with understanding theory. Despite what you may hear from old-timers, reading music is extremely useful.
Another very useful skill to practice is ear training, which when combined with your theory knowledge, allows you to play music by ear. I'd suggest playing back some slower jazz guitar tunes on YouTube and figuring them out measure-by-measure. There's also Matt Warnock's Play Jazz Guitar group on Facebook which combines all of the above. Matt has a doctorate in Jazz Guitar Performance. He picks a tune each month, and everyone in the group works on it throughout the month, starting with the melody, to comping chords, to improv soloing. There are players of all skill levels, and I mean all. He provides excellent, free critique to everyone. I'm going to throw him a bone and buy a few of his books shortly since his excellent group has helped me so much.
Edit: I'd like to add as well that I don't really consider myself a jazz player; it's just that jazz skills are very useful and may be applied to virtually any genre.
I learned from this when I was a teenager, and it stuck with me to this day: A Modern Method For Guitar Volume 1
This is such an important (and IMO urgent) question for so many.
Sadly, the vast majority of guitar instructional material is either a) written for the unserious learner or b) written to not scare away the up-until-now-unserious learner.
That's why you see so many books and blogs on understanding theory (or playing jazz) that are full of TABs––in order to get the now-serious student to buy the book (or sign up for the course, etc) you first have to reassure them that everything is tabbed out and they won't have to read music, as if TAB and theory weren't at odds with each other.
Kudos to /u/igotthejack for this:
> While doing this focus on the note names while you play so by the time you're done you've also memorised all the notes on the fretboard.
And Ben Levin's youtube series is one of the few instructional pieces that doesn't make me want to stab myself in the face with one of the many pointy ends on a shredder's guitar.
Other quality standouts include:
First, Learn To Practice by Tom Heany
Music Reading For Guitar By David Oakes
Modern Method For Guitar Vols 1, 2, & 3 by William Leavitt
The Real Easy Ear Training Book by Roberta Radley
But there's good news in this too:
Because the vast majority of talented guitarists are so busy chasing their tails trying to figure out how to sweep pick faster or two-handed tap in the LandoCalrissian mode, even reasonably talented players with mediocre reading skills and a halfway decent knowledge of practical music theory get hired to play really great gigs.
That's my experience anyway. And getting hired for those gigs put me in contact with so many world-class players, which a) did as much as anything else to make me a "real" player, and b) helped me realize how so many of the things in the guitar-teacher-circle-jerk-echo-chamber are unimportant.
I think if you can get your practicing organized, fall in love with the metronome, record yourself (and listen back) often, and train your ear, you will be one badass player in a reasonably short time.
And if you learn the instrument in a way that lets you communicate with other non-guitarist musicians, you set yourself up to get actual paying work (and music theory gets waaaaaay easier).
My suggested order is:
Shameless plug, but I built a system that teaches these in a tiny daily lesson delivered by email. 1-4 are done, 5 & 6 are on their way soon. Free for now, just sign up for the first one (Note Names) and it'll walk you through all 6 in order (I'll be done with 5 & 6 by the time you finish 4).
After that, read through the David Oakes & William Leavitt books mentioned above and you'll be 80% of the way to professional musicianship. A dedicated student (who already has a fair amount of technical proficiency) could pull that off in 6 months.
TL:DR - The fact that you are even asking a question like this leads me to believe that you'll do just fine. Good luck!
https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114
This is a great book. If you can, buy it and devote a little bit of time to it every day. It will keep you busy for quite a while.
Is it this one?
It certainly looks like something that might be able to help me, I'll probably get my hands on a copy! Thanks for the input!!
Check this out. Dan Erlewine is the the author of the guitar maintenance bible/koran/talmud; this should put you on the right path.
It's not dust. It's the string vibrating against one or more of the frets. Tuning won't help. You need a pro set-up. They will adjust the bridge height, check the nut height, and adjust the curvature of the neck. It's all stuff you could do yourself but you need to read-up first. I use this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-3rd/dp/0879309210/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1454246945&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=guitar+repair
Have a look at Dan Erlewine's book:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide/dp/0879309210
It's the bible. Your library will probably have a copy and it will explain everything in far better detail than anyone else can explain.
Guitar Player Repair Guide by Dan Erlewine
For mixing: The Mixing Engineer's Handbook is my favourite resource for learning the mix engineer's craft. Also many people recommend Mixing With Your Mind, but I can't claim to have read it.
For tracking: The same author of the Mixing Engineer's Handbook has one on tracking which is also quite good. I learned tracking as an apprentice, so I have read very little in the way of published books on this topic, but for guitars specifically some person archived the posts of a person named Slipperman here which I've found to be a valuable resource for information and entertainment(!).
In general: Get yourself a copy of the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook, and read it cover to cover, twice. It is an absolute building block of audio engineering and probably the best single resource I can suggest for the theory and practice of audio engineering and sound reinforcement.
Live sound is such a hands on industry, I imagine it would be near impossible to base an entire degree around it. SAE Sydney do an intensive 7 week course based almost entirely around live sound. This is as good as you're going to get in actual live sound.
In my opinion the only real way to gain knowledge in this field is to get out there and do it. If after 15 years you still don't have the knowledge you need to teach, perhaps you need to figure out what you're lacking and seek it out yourself.... If it's the actual physics part, you can study acoustics at Sydney or NSW uni's . If it's the electrical side of things you can do an electrical engineering at any branch of NSW Tafe.
Otherwise just fill in the gaps yourself by reading books such as the Yamaha Live Sound Reinforcement Handbook.
As I've already stated though, it's not really a skill that can be taught in a classroom... You have to get out there and train your ears as to what sounds good in a particular environment, how to problem solve fast and efficiently under pressure, how to pick a particular frequency if it is feeding back, how all varieties of mixing console work, what the difference between a group and a VCA is, proper gain structure, how to set compression and gates effectively, how to deal with band and management politics, how to keep your cables from getting wrecked, how to repair things on the job, how to tune a PA... The list goes on and on, and honestly these are things that you can be shown, but can only truly start to master by getting out there and figuring it out for yourself.
Good luck.
The +15 to -15 how much the EQ is boosting or cutting. The RTA overlay is in dBFS or dB Full Scale.
This book has a lot of information on live soubd systems https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008
Grab a copy of The Sound Reinforcement Handbook. It explains how to run live sound in great detail. It was the textbook from my Sound Reinforcement class in university 18 years ago and still sits on my bookshelf today.
Read the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook
The Sound Reinforcement Handbook
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881889008/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_NBtDDbV6TBG8X
It has all the fundamentals you need to work with live sound.
You’ll do well to find someone who already knows how things work and shadow them on some gigs, preferably in different venues, indoor and out. Church sound can be a good place to start, but remember that any installed system has already been set up and configured so things go pretty easy.
If you play an instrument, get out there and play as much as you can, so you understand how it feels on stage and can relate to the musicians you’re running sound for.
Good luck!
If you are interested in more depth on this topic I highly recommend this book, widely considered to be "the bible" of running sound:
Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook (2nd edition)
The Sound Reinforcement Handbook would be pretty nice. It lays out a lot of information and you can learn all kinds of stuff.
It also provides a lot of diffusion in the high and mid ranges, which arguably is better than thick full-spectrum absorption panels. In other words, it doesn't sonically "shrink" the room. It just makes it sound "nicer".
For anyone curious about DIY treating their room, this was my Bible back when I was mixing and mastering for a living: The Sound Reinforcement Handbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881889008/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_21GODb6B4EGSV
> BTW, that wiki song structure article is a mess
Agreed. I linked to that wiki article without even really looking. Personally, I like the following books that go into a lot more detail in regards to production and EDM:
All the above are solid books.
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Computer-Musicians-Bk/dp/1598635034
Thanks. Would an online course suffice?How about something like this: https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-music-theory-berkleex-oharm100x
Regards to books , I'll definitely give that one a check . Not sure if you've come across : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
Or Hook-theory(http://www.hooktheory.com/)
Would you recommend giving these a shot aswell?
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Computer-Musicians-Bk/dp/1598635034/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1368350033&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=music+theory+for+computer+musicians by Michael Hewitt
Check out this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1510250111&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=jazz+theory+levine
Great theory in this book, and I think it would be interesting even if you don't play.
If that's too technical then my advice would be to listen, listen, listen! Miles, Monk, Coltrane, etc didn't have these music theory classes and technical books, they listened and played to learn the craft. If you can't/don't have time to invest in learning to play then keep listening
Do you already have The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine? That starts from first principles and goes through to fluent proficiency.
If you have an understanding of music theory this is a great book to check out:
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040
This book changed my life
if you don't have a copy of the jazz theory book, i recommend it highly for theory and examples. the index of the book contains a list of about a thousand songs. about 300 of those are starred, with a footnote implying you better learn them or you'll be run of of new york on a rail, or something to that effect.
one thing i did that proved very useful was to make a playlist of those 300 tunes to start. i would listen to it often (i love jazz so this was definitely not a chore), and remove any song if i could hum through the entire head and name the song. after a few months i knew what all 300 sounded like, which makes it a lot easier if someone calls something random on the bandstand.
as for what to memorize and know cold:
my book 2 memorize list, made from the one's i've had to play fairly often:
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1301952085&amp;sr=1-1
I'd recommend The Jazz Piano Book or The Jazz Theory Book, both by Mark Levine. There's a ton of great stuff in both, and they'll teach you how jazz musicians conceive of how they play—not to mention give you a foundation to play pretty much any popular style that strikes your fancy.
Other books mentioned in this thread are good, but so is the Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine. Even if you're not interested in jazz, this book is useful for most styles of music, though for classical you're better off with something like Tonal Harmony
If you want to learn some basics and beyond if jazz theory I recommend The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine
The Jazz theory book is pretty good (UK Amazon link: The Jazz Theory Book https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1883217040/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_1iIPBb6419EEZ)
Otherwise the ABRSM music theory books are pretty good as well but a little boring to read...
get all of your scales down. And I just mean like major/minor or Ionian/Aeolian. Just know your way up and down all of them, as well as all arpeggios. Knowing these shapes will help you to navigate charts easier. Second just start looking at charts, and don't even start playing in time with the music right away. Go through slowly and play the arpeggios (up to the seventh) of every change. Then play the song at speed and just go up and down each arpeggio. Eventually just start adding notes in between here and there and keep going like that until you are a master, and are ballin for shock calling. Seriously though, after doing that for a while start to look at things like major minor scales, and the altered scale, which are both very common in jazz (herbie hancock, wayne shorter). A good piece of literature on the subject is a book by Mark Levine called "The Jazz Theory Book" here it is on amazon for like thirty bucks, but well worth it imho. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1883217040/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_5?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;smid=A2D0XUFQTHPTMU Best of luck.
The beginning of this part of learning jazz always sucks but it will be as much fun as you make it. Don't give up. This is a genre very worth learning how to play well.
Also, get this rudiment book according to my drum teacher. It is called "Stick Control: For The Snare Drummer" and teaches you essential rudiments ($10 shipped). https://www.amazon.com/dp/1892764040 and watch rudiment videos online. I am just learning rudiments but he showed me how important they are to learn.
Stick Control is probably the best book for building up chops and, well, stick control. https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040
Practice pad, metronome, sticks and "Stick Control" by George Stone. That's where you should start.
http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764040
How about spending some time working through a book?
I have been working through both and am enjoying them! Another thing that has really helped me is transcribing drum parts and learning to play them that way. I did this with a Tool song and it was unbelievably illuminating. Really makes you think about what the drummer is doing.
PS: Nice username :P
keep it up dude! Seeing as you are a young drummer, I want to offer some advice for you to improve. You seem to lose some stick control throughout the song . I would highly recommend you work on improving your technique by going through books such as Stick Control for the Modern Drummer. You can use this as a warm up and play like 4 lines perfectly multiple times or something similar. This book is only a suggestion, there are many ways to improve technique. You just have to make a conscious effort to work on it. A good mixture of practice vs playing will keep you engaged and feel great about improving at the same time.
When I was your age, I spent a lot of time focusing on different patterns and independence and didn't really work on technique until a bit later, and I can say from experience that even though I was practicing a lot, I wasn't practicing near max efficiency because I didn't make technique a priority early on. Working on your rudiments and having great technique makes basically anything easier to learn and makes it sound 1000 times better.
I hope you find this helpful. I use to teach mainly beginners and intermediate players and if you ever want some advice or guidance feel free to shoot me a pm. Keep drumming!
edit- I looked through some of your other videos. I think your stick control was a lot better in some of them. You definitely have talent and I hope you keep at it and keep improving!
https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040
My advice is don't use more force than you have to and play pick closer to the bridge, there's more tension there and the resistance of strumming the string is more consistent when you start.
I personally recommend starting with pretty thin picks, but try different thicknesses to find if there is a gauge that feels better.
One of the big aspects is that you have get very good at muting strings with your left, or fretting hand when playing since you can't really mute strings while holding a pick.
For dexterity take some exercises from a drumming a booking like this one, but instead of alternating right and left hands alternate down strokes and upstrokes at low speeds and then slowly speed up. Then start to incorporate plucking string next to each doing down strokes on one and up strokes on the other. The best one to start with is paradidle (RLRRLRLL), or Down-Up-Down-Down-Up-Down-Up-Up. The goal when doing this type of practice is to make each stroke even and full.
http://eric.frap.net/sa/bible/profsound.shtml - drum tuning bible
http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764040 - classic book, endless applications
remember to stay loose and relaxed.
www.vicfirth.com has technique videos
Play through Stick Control ^you ^own ^Stick ^Control ^right?
with your feet. After you get that down try left foot-right hand or left hand-right foot while keeping a quarter (or half or etc...) pulse with the unused hand. Play with a metronome, start slow and have fun.
This book is great for better stick control http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1892764040/ref=redir_mdp_mobile
You can learn from books if you the type of person that likes to
Marching snare player here!
I would recommend learning the 40 P.A.S. Rudiments
By Matt Savages Book (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0757902251?pc_redir=1412330082&amp;robot_redir=1)
I know Matt Savage personally and he's a great guy with a lot of experience in marching percussion.
Also buy the book stick control (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1892764040?pc_redir=1413605838&amp;robot_redir=1)
Those two books should get you started with marching percussion because they lay down the basics for everything that you will end up doing.
Lawrence Stone's Stick Control & Master Studies by Joe Morello
Great books to utilize while simultaneously working your sheet music skills. Good luck
I'm a self taught drummer also, but I think the main thing to remember is you never want to stop learning new stuff. Start with the basics and move up from there. Like others said YouTube has great tuts. Every new drummer wants to play fast, but speed is nothing without control. Your job is to keep time, that's the main thing to remember, I sometimes forget that! This is probably one of the best books to help you: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1892764040/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
I was in the same boat a couple of moths ago, went to musical school from ages 6-13, stopped when I moved to another country. Haven't touched piano for 6 years. Decided to get back into it, bought a digital piano 2 months ago.
For key signatures, I recommend practicing scales and arpeggios, acquiring this book can certainly help. For music theory, I highly recommend checking out Dave Conservatoire. He has made a bunch of videos about general music theory.
Sight reading is something you pick up with experience, a good exercise is to sightread absurdly easy pieces (start with grade 1). I was never much into sight reading, but I do have this PDF which might be helpful. There should be plenty of sight reading exercises on the web.
I am not sure what you mean by this, is it training relative pitch or improvising on spot and playing exactly what you have in mind you want? I seem to improve both of these things while transcribing music into a score. I guess composing could work as well. I started out painfully slowly, (took me 5 hours to transcribe first 20 seconds of Come on Eileen). But, just like any skill, you will get better at it with experience. The software I use for ranscribing is called Sybelius, but if you can not afford it (or if you do not support pirating) there are free alternatives.
Arguably, the most important thing is staying interested. Playing scales, learning music theory, listening to the same song 50 times because you can not figure out a chord or timing can be extremely boring at times. So playing a piece that truly challenges your hands will reward you much more than practicing tedious scales.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739003682?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0739003682/
This book is the answer to your troubles.
This book has all the scales in it, with fingerings. Fairly easy to print that information out yourself but if you don't have access to a printer or want a bound copy, it might be worth getting: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0739003682/
This one has a variety of classical pieces. They're all pretty easy arrangements, but unfortunately I don't think they're ordered by difficulty:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486410927/
This is the main reason why scales, arpeggios, and cadences are part of daily warm-up repertoire, so when they come up in songs, all that practice carries over effortlessly. This is the book I used for years.
It is an issue with Synthesia videos in that it's hard to determine what fingers would work. Are you able to read sheet music? I'll try making a quick video for the fingers I will use for that song after work.
Edit: Also, with that many notes in the low register, less pedal is better if any, as they resonate quite a bit anyway. Also, try to play the bass notes as quietly as possible, as they stack up, they are not the main melody, and serve the undertone ambiance role.
It depends on what you are trying to do.
Definitely scales, major and minor, hands together, four octaves up and back.
Definitely arpeggios, of both major and minor, triads and sevenths.
If you are trying to do improvisation, learning pentatonic scale exercises are really important. I do one like:
1235 2356 3561 5612 6123
Up the piano separately as well as hands together, major and minor.
(Going down would be: 5321 3216 2165 1653 6532)
(And those are scale degrees, not fingerings.)
And then there are classical exercises such as this and this
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;url=https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiKosmdlMzNAhWLOSYKHU0YDTUQFghxMAk&amp;usg=AFQjCNFdItV_cTSzTFwtY_uszIdXP2pM5w
That's an exercise book by Hanon. As far as I know, it's pretty well known. The begining exercises are super easy, but towards the middle and end, they are good at making your fingers do paterns and things they don't commonly do. I'll pick one out and do it as a warm up kind of thing regularly. They are good for flexibility and dexterity. I would recommend, especially if you don't have a piano teacher making you do runs, arpeggios and everything else.
Two of my three piano teachers have recommended Hanon exercises to me. The basic idea is that you play the simple patterns as evenly as possible (all notes the same volume and the rhythm constant).
I found that they really help to build muscles in your fourth and fifth fingers, which tend to be the weakest, and help to control your thumb which tends to be overly strong.
There may be other places to get the exercises without buying the full book. I never actually progressed further than the first few exercises, but they made a huge difference to controlling each finger individually.
Hope this helps!
Playing evenly requires strengthening your finger muscles. Like the other comment mentioned, each finger has different strength depending on your usage. Hanon books are usually very good for practice. Another very good book is the Hal Leonard Schirmer's Library "Scales & Finger Exercises". Each exercise tells you which fingers it's focusing on. I honestly don't believe in the tapping on table method.
I think it's pointless to keep tapping one finger to strengthen it over and over again. You need to move that finger in a context with the OTHER fingers as well because usually it's 'alternating' between fingers that demands the most control. You can develop the muscle memory for a particular finger but when you alternate/change it become even more challenging. Hanon and the book I mentioned have the same idea. They focus on strengthening your weaker fingers alongside neighboring ones.
Link to the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Scales-Finger-Exercises-Schirmer-Schirmers/dp/149500547X/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=Scales+and+Finger+Exercises%3A+Schirmer+Library+of+Classic+Volume+2107+%28Schirmer%27s+Library+of+Musical+Classics%29&qid=1557982300&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmrnull
&#x200B;
https://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Virtuoso-Exercises-Complete-Schirmers/dp/0793525446/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=Scales+and+Finger+Exercises%3A+Schirmer+Library+of+Classic+Volume+2107+%28Schirmer%27s+Library+of+Musical+Classics%29&qid=1557982300&s=books&sr=1-1-fkmr0
&#x200B;
Bach pieces or Handel are usually also very good exercises :)
Goodluck!
Buy the Hanon book, it's a really good exercise/method book for 6 dollars. Every pianist has a copy of this.
Piano teacher for 5 years here. This is more or less a directly copy and paste from a previous comment of mine.
Obviously, I'm going to recommend you find a teacher as soon as is possible if you really want to advance. BUT there are a lot of things you can do on your own to learn effectively.
I hope this helps a little. Remember that you have just started and you have to crawl before you can walk. Take it easy and make sure you understand everything before moving on to the next step. Good luck and have fun!!
That's good that you recognized it. It's always tempting to rush past tough fingerings, but you get the most out of practice when you can isolate a technique, break it down, and focus on it.
Check this video out: http://youtu.be/AoLvhHjacMw?t=56m14s
It's Valentina Lisitsa working on a brand new piece (to her).
Here she repeats a single section repeatedly until it's almost 100% before moving on. Even the top pianists have to replay sections until it's in their fingers. Hold yourself to a similar high standard when you practice. Really try to get at least get one solid pass without mistakes, even if it's at a much slower tempo. Here's a story about Rachmaninoff practicing a Chopin etude so slow it was unrecognizable: http://www.practisingthepiano.com/enjoying-ultra-slow-practice/
Also, I recommend you get Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises. Lots of good exercises. Even Rachmaninoff recommended them. Good luck.
I'd agree with all of this, I honestly can't remember how I learned the notes myself. I think it just came naturally from playing.
In terms of finger exercises a really good book I have is "The Virtuoso Pianist" by Charles-Louis Hanon. As you can see by that link it seems to have a good few criticisms but I found it really good myself. I'd say you should go over them with your piano teacher now and again just to ensure you aren't drilling them incorrectly. A possible way you could learn the notes as well could be by saying them out loud as you are doing the exercises.
You can check it out on IMSLP here anyway and decide for yourself, or if you'd prefer a hard copy of it there are plenty on amazon too.
There's a Hanon book of exercises, I used it when I was taking lessons. It will help primarily with dexterity, but it can help you learn to read music as well.
edit: http://www.amazon.com/Hanon-Exercises-Acquirement-Independence-Schirmers/dp/0793525446
cheap, worth it.
Give YouTube a shot. If she is musically inclined and puts in the time they might do the trick. I was surprised by the number of quality, free lessons out there.
I also recommend this book. Follow the directions exactly, put the time in, and the results will come. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0793525446
Depends on what you like. I was big into metal and hard rock when I was starting out. Black Sabbath is easy enough that you could be playing songs within the first couple months, if not just weeks.
If you're interested in actually learning guitar and not just memorizing songs I'd recommend working through these as well:
You'll want to take the Berklee book someplace to get it spiral bound. Also note that it's not a tab book. You'll have to read standard notation. It starts off super easy and gets progressively harder, page by page. A looper pedal for the duets will be helpful.
I've been playing for 11 years and had classical training before that. What I've been using to learn sheet music (finally after all of these years) is the Berklee Modern Method for Guitar.
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1318729831&amp;sr=8-2
A link to amazon for you.
The Bill Leavitt books are also great for learning to read. Some of the music sounds a little old-fashioned now, but these books really helped me when I was studying music at college years ago: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Modern+Method+for+Guitar&qid=1566384088&s=books&sr=1-1
Best $23 you'll ever spend on learning material A Modern Method For Guitar. Teaches guitar playing as well as music reading.
Se vuoi imparare a suonare bene uno strumento il primo consiglio che posso darti è quello di studiare lo strumento stesso e parallelamente di studiare la musica.
Quando io cominciai mi trovai molto bene con questo libro
(Qui la versione PDF del primo volume)
If you wanna learn to read music try this book!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114
Super helpful and recommended by a lot of people! Helped me a ton
Sounds like you're at a good place to learn a little music theory to help with composition.
I've been doing roughly the same thing having had (and still having) the same experience as you. I can play technically difficult music, but cannot create something more than a short passage, or add a chorus/bridge/verse to whatever I've created.
I picked up the Modern Method for Guitar by Leavitt:
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374083268&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=modern+method+for+guitar+william+levitt
And this started pushing me to the limits of my playing. I realized I couldn't sight-read, couldn't read music, and it was keeping me from improving in a totally different direction that I was used to. So I started learning how to read, and started picking up on some music theory.
So I'm still working on music theory, and sight reading, and technical challenges, and in the meantime I've noticed my ability to create has improved. It's not a huge improvement, but very noticeable to me.
I've been stuck in a rut for over 10 years because I've never sought to expand my horizons musically and try new things. I wasn't going to learn a chord if it wouldn't be useful in some riff I was trying to learn, and I certainly wasn't going to learn to sight read when I could teach myself with tab.
Anyway, my suggestion is to push yourself and learn new things. Learn some weird chords, learn how to put them together with some theory, record yourself playing some chords and then play the notes in those chords over top of them as a lead. The more knowledge you have of music and the guitar, the larger a pool you have to pull from.
I am currently using this. It has been very good for me so far, but I don't know if you will learn "tough" sheet music in a month. I have played the piano for nearly 20 years, so I definitely understand standard music notation. This book doesn't go on and on about notation, it just gives a brief explanation and makes you go at it. Since Christmas, I feel pretty comfortable sight reading individual note lines, somewhat comfortable with intervals, and pretty good with the chords that they use most in the first 50 or so pages.
So yeah, my overall opinion is that it's effective. It's not the most exciting music to play and you might have to spend quite a lot of time on it if you hope to read notes from the whole fretboard (after almost 50 pages, I'm still only in the first 5 frets).
The Berklee Method books are highly praised. They have a lot of great information about learning theory and sight reading. Alternatively if you dont want to buy them you can just download the PDF here
Of course having an instructor to really guide you along is the best way to learn.
Is this it?
Get this book
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114
In truth, I'd try to add sight reading somewhere in there, perhaps subbing out the initial use of your music theory flashcards. For one, most music theory you'll want to learn will be in notation. Learning theory in the absence of how it immediate relates to your instrument will stall learning.
If you focus on working out of something like Modern Method for Guitar for the first six months, not only will you be compounding a lot of good practice technique, but you'll start providing yourself a strong foundation to play the theory that you learn.
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114
Used by many universities for guitar students. $20 for the same education you'd get for thousands.
I've heard good things about The Modern Method to Guitar. I haven't actually bought it but it's on my wish list.
Edit: Fixed Link. My Reddit markup really needs help, I keep messing up. Sorry about that Dream_on
I started about a year ago with justinguitar. I was kind of losing focus so I up picked Rocksmith for PS3 which made just playing more fun rather than like a class. I recently picked up A Modern Method for Guitar which goes the other direction but will hopefully have me reading sheet music and understanding theory in a few more months.
The biggest thing for me was just being consistent in playing as much as possible.
I wanted to improve my sight reading so I got this book and worked through it. Highly recommended and I think it will work better than an app.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0876390114?keywords=%26%2334%3Ba%20modern%20method%20for%20guitar%26%2334%3B&amp;qid=1453607443&amp;ref_=sr_1_1&amp;sr=8-1
I'm going to guess any answer will be controversial, but you could try Dan Erlewine's book. Erlewine is affiliated with Stewart-MacDonald.
I wouldn't be too worried about the nut. Chances are that they didn't need to do any change to the nut when going from factory 9s to 10s. I've put 10s on all my Fenders and haven't had any issues with the nut action. Even if it was filed slightly, the chances are that it isn't going to really cause any issues going back to 9s, but you won't know for sure until you get it strung up and see what the nut action is like. As for the rest of it, basic setup on a strat is pretty straight forward. You may need to adjust the truss rod slightly in order to get the proper relief, but it isn't difficult. Just do it slow and make small adjustments at a time. The most tedious part is really adjusting intonation and/or if you want the trem to be floated. It isn't difficult, it just takes patience as you have to keep re-tuning after every adjustment.
As for taking all the strings off, you shouldn't have any problem with this. I've never had any issue with taking all the strings off when I restring, because I usually do a fret board clean (and oil if it is rosewood or ebony) and a quick fret polish. The only real worry is the need to reset the trem if you want it floated, which in this case you would have to do anyways since you are changing gauges. It really isn't difficult to do a setup. Just read up/watch some how-to videos and take your time. Also, if you plan on doing your own maintenance I highly recommend checking out this book. It is definitely a great reference/guide for most repair/maintenance work.
I read (here) that BB King puts the whole string on -- ie, puts the very first bit of string and just wraps the whole peg with it. I find that to be really annoying and sort of nuts.
I pass the string and leave a bit of slack and then tie the string (bending it around the peg and then under itself) so that I have to give like two or three full turns of the peg to get to pitch.
consider changing your gauge, or better using a mixed gauge (lots of places will sell individual strings) esp if you're going to keep it in the new tuning and note you're also goign to have to re-setup the intonation. If you change the gauge, you're also probably going to want a new nut cut (or your current one recut).
I feel comfortable adjusting intonation, action and pickup height. But, I won't do truss rod adjustments, nut or fret filing. However, I recently ordered Dan Erlewine's Guitar Player Repair Guide, so I'm hoping to go even further. I want to completely setup my own guitars from now on; I wasn't completely happy with the last pro-setup I had done.
I own about 20 guitars. I've learned to do most of the basic stuff. I don't file nuts, and I don't dress frets, but I've successfully adjusted neck position, truss rods, pickups, replace or adjust bridges, saddles, intonation, etc. I'll even do minor soldering, although I'm skittish about soldering on the pots since I don't think I have the right tools to do that without damaging them.
I'll second the recommendation for Dan Erlewine's book -- his stuff is fantastic.
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-Book/dp/0879309210/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
How often? Well, usually if you get the thing adjusted right, and it is not put in storage for a long time or subjected to major temp/humidity changes, it shouldn't need too much tweaking. You ought to be able to change strings (to the same brand and gauge) without having to change much, if anything. In general if everything else is right, and the only thing that has changed is the humidity, a minor tweak of the truss rod alone might do it. If you're going to change string gauges, like going from 10s to 11s, you'll have to re-intonate it and perhaps have issues with everything to correct for.
Happy to help.
A set of allen keys, a ruler, and a screw driver will take care of most basic setup issues. Go slow and don't over think it. Searching google and youtube can get confusing and overwhelming. I keep a copy of Dan Erlewine's book, The Guitar Player Repair Guide as a reference. https://smile.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-3rd/dp/0879309210 Once you learn the how-to stuff then it is a matter of determining and setting everything to your personal preferences.
Good luck. I hope you get everything sorted out.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide/dp/0879309210
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Electric-Guitar-Great/dp/0879309989/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=05681GR11BHMHJ43HE2G
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-3rd/dp/0879309210/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1458913311&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=guitar+repair
This is your golden ticket
When discussing measurements of the nut slots, it's actually describing the distance between the top of the first fret and the bottom of the string. Some guidelines will have you capo the 3rd fret when taking this measurement.
Action at the 17th fret is used to set your saddle/bridge height. Some guidelines will have you capo the 1st fret when taking this measurement. As for the measurements you've noted, it's all relative. 4/64ths" at the 17th fret is a good starting point.
If you want to learn more about guitar setups and factory specs, I would suggest you get a copy of The Guitar Player Repair Guide.
https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-3rd/dp/0879309210/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1480433072&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=the+guitar+player+repair+guide
If you're serious about wanting to learn how to do basic guitar setup and repair, this book is worth every penny. It's easy to understand and has tons of valuable lessons from a real expert.
Youtube has a ton of stuff. If you want THE book here it is. It's written by Dan Erlwine of Stewmac. He repairs really nice guitars for a living. I would suggest both Youtube and that book. No such thing as too much knowledge.
Go to your local library or bookstore and read the section pertaining to this process in Erlewine's The Guitar Player Repair Guide. If you realize you're in over your head, shop around for a better estimate or fork out the $225. You could buy a somewhat playable new or used guitar for that amount though.
Get this book. I have no connection to the author, but it is a life saver and teaches you a lot about adjusting truss rods and will help you put a proper upbow back on your tele.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide/dp/0879309210/
Yes to all of that.
You will want this Dan Erlewine book.
And this Dan Erlewine book.
You can make DIY fret files using a feeler gauges, like this.
A strobe tuner for best results.
A nice steel ruler.
Assorted screw drivers and mini-screw drivers.
Powdered graphite or "nut sauce" lubricant.
Clear nail polish and super glue.
Appropriately sized deep sockets and a "thumb wheel" socket driver.
Fret refinishing is the only place, IMO, that requires actual dedicated tools, but there are guys who DIY that as well.
I got the StewMac 3-in-1 fret file for crowning.
I still haven't decided if I will DIY or purchase something like the Nut Seating Files for when I make bone nuts for everything.
I use a set of diamond sharpening plates from HF to touch up flatten and a HF 19" Flooring Level (sorry no HF link, they don't seem to carry it any longer)and some strips of 220 sandpaper sticky glued to that straight edge to do fret leveling.
But seriously, if you don't even know what the term 'gain-staging' means, a single paragraph on a reddit thread is not going to help you much. That's basic fundamentals on how audio works. I'd suggest picking up some beginner books.
There's a lot of fundamentals covered in this Sound Reinforcement Handbook.
And the Mixing Engineer's Handbook is great.
To add on to this comment I highly recommend reading this book and it's free too. You'll have a undergrad or even graduate understanding of how digital signals work...http://www.dspguide.com/ and definitely buy this book if you want to expand upon it...it's the bible of audio engineering: http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008
Have you read this?
This is pretty much the bible, it just doesn't have the new digital stuff in them. There is a lot to know, you should hop over to /r/livesound and /r/audioengineering and read up!
OK, the negative numbers thing is confusing at first, but there's a reason behind it. This will be easier if you understand logarithms, but hopefully it will make sense even if you don't.
Basically, an equalizer works by splitting the sound into different frequency bands, then passing each band through an adjustable amplifier.
An amplifier's job is to take a sound and make it louder. Well, really it's dealing with electricity, so it takes an input voltage and makes a higher output voltage. For example, using numbers I just made up, suppose the input is 0.02 volts and the output is 2 volts. It's basically multiplying the voltage by 100. If the output were 0.2 volts, it would be multiplying it by 10 instead of 100. So you've got ratios of 10 or 100 or whatever else.
In the audio world, logarithms are used when talking about these ratios. This is partially for convenience (the ratios can get really big), but it's also because it corresponds more closely to the way the ear perceives sound.
Continuing the example from above, the base-10 logarithm of 10 is 1, and the base-20 logarithm of 100 is 2.
Actually, I sort of lied. In audio, decibels (symbol: dB) are used. A decibel is simply a way of writing a ratio. It's the same as a base-10 logarithm, except then it's multiplied by 10. (Hence the "deci-" prefix.) So in the example above, the amplifier whose output is 10 times its input is increasing it by 10 decibels. Because 10 decibels means "a ratio whose base-10 logarithm is 1". The amplifier whose output is 100 times its input is increasing the voltage by 20 decibels, because 20 decibels means "a ratio whose base-10 logarithm is 2".
To summarize what we have so far:
input voltage | output voltage | ratio | base-10 logarithm of ratio | decibels
-|-|-|-|-
0.02V | 0.2V | 10 | 1 | +10 dB
0.02V | 2V | 100 | 2 | +20 dB
But not only can amplifiers (and equalizers) multiply voltages and make them bigger, they can also make them smaller. That is, they can cut the volume level instead of increasing it. This corresponds to a fractional ratio, like 1/10 or 1/100 instead of 10 or 100. And when you take the logarithm of a fraction, you get a negative number. So let's extend the table a bit:
input voltage | output voltage | ratio | base-10 logarithm of ratio | decibels
-|-|-|-|-
0.02V | 0.0002V | 1/100 | -2 | -20 dB
0.02V | 0.002V | 1/10 | -1 | -10 dB
0.02V | 0.2V | 10 | 1 | +10 dB
0.02V | 2V | 100 | 2 | +20 dB
You may have noticed that this table could use another row right in the middle. If an amplifier can either increase or decrease voltage compared to its input, can't it keep the voltage exactly the same? Yes, it can, and this is called unity gain. Updating the table:
input voltage | output voltage | ratio | base-10 logarithm of ratio | decibels
-|-|-|-|-
0.02V | 0.0002V | 1/100 | -2 | -20 dB
0.02V | 0.002V | 1/10 | -1 | -10 dB
0.02V | 0.02V | 1 | 0 | 0 dB
0.02V | 0.2V | 10 | 1 | +10 dB
0.02V | 2V | 100 | 2 | +20 dB
So that's what the numbers on the equalizer knob mean:
More or less, a practical implication of this is that a good starting point is to have all the equalizer gain knobs (the blue ones marked -15, 0, and 15) set to 0. That's the neutral position where they are neither increasing nor decreasing their frequency band.
If you look elsewhere on the mixer, you will see these dB ratios show up several other places. For example, up at the top where the mics plug in, you will see a GAIN knob that goes from 20 to 60. That means the voltage from the microphone is being amplified anywhere from 20 dB up to 60 dB, depending on where the knob is set, so it is being multiplied by something between 100 and 1,000,000.
You'll also see the dB indicated on the main fader at the bottom of the channel strip. You'll see that the 0 dB point is near the top, which means when you have the fader close to the top, you are passing through the signal without changing its level, and if you have the fader all the way at the very top, you're boosting it by relatively little.
And you will see that the LED lights in the channel's meter are marked in dB as well, with 0 dB and +6 dB.
Anyway, (finally) back to practical issues and trying to actually answer your question. My suggestion was you could try boosting up to 5 dB at around 2-5 kHz. To do this, you'd basically do something like:
Of course, this idea might not help. It's kind of a case-by-case thing.
Sorry that was so long!
By the way, a really good resource, if you're in the mood for something book length, is the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook. It's chock full of useful practical and theoretical information. Of course, mixing sound is a bit of an art and takes practice, so no book is a shortcut to perfection, but it does help.
If you love music, and can pay attention to what its supposed to sound like; that's all you really need.
I highly recommend the Sound Reinforcement Handbook to all beginners.
yamaha sound bible: https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008
https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008
Not FL specific, but I own these two and they help me out a lot:
http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008
http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Sound-Andy-Farnell-ebook/dp/B008H5QA04/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1415597362&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Designing+Sound+Farnell
The Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook was essential for me in film school in the mid-to-late-1990s:
https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?crid=12S0O5OBFUXFU&keywords=yamaha+sound+reinforcement+handbook&qid=1550677010&s=gateway&sprefix=yamaha+sound+reinf%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-1-fkmrnull
Pick up a good book like this one
http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008
It won't tell you how to use all the plug-ins, but it teaches you the fundamentals that you need to know in order to be even a half-way decent audio engineer
Black Book first
Yellow Book Second
Green Book Third
The first two can be found on Half.com quite often for cheap, the third is a new edition and worth the money.
http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008
It's more of a live audio book but I hear it's one of the best.
They don't, exactly.
Basically the Lucas Nanos aren't quite as good as HK pretend they are. Awesome for tiny bar gigs and vocals on top of a small brass band or something, but no way are they selling that to DJs or people like you.
Guide wise, buy yourself a copy of this book and read it cover to cover. It's a little bit wordy and about 25 years old but it's still wonderfully relevant and if you're enthusiastic and attentive then you'll absorb it in no time.
Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook: http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008
Shure has a bunch of great webinars online: http://www.shure.com/americas/support/training/materials
and Extron has a lot of stuff:
http://www.extron.com/technology/technology.aspx?techid=1&amp;tabid=0&amp;tab=training&amp;s=th07
"CTS Certified Technology Specialist Exam Guide" would probably be a good resource for them, as well.
This is an excellent resource: http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Reinforcement-Handbook-Gary-Davis/dp/0881889008
Sounds awesome, thanks for the tip. Is it this one? https://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167
As a pianist, that's so cool! I wonder if she might be cool if you gave her something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1322842729&amp;sr=8-1
this book is a good place to start and it's not too expensive.
I'm 26 and started playing piano 2 months ago! I can't stress the impact a teacher has had on my learning!
I've been going through Alfreds Basic Adult Piano Course Music and Theory and have found it a great introduction.
This has also been supplemented with additional pieces from my tutor (I've just finished learning Motzart Minuet in F K2 and am nearly finished with Bach Minuet in G minor, BWV Anh. 115 ) which I though were challenging but fun pieces to learn :)
I guess I could have picked these books up and learnt myself, but I'd say my progress would have been a lot slower. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have as I am in a similar situation?
> courses or apps for electronic artists who want to learn how to play
To be honest, piano is piano no matter the genre. I want get really good at jazz piano, but you still gotta develop the same foundation as pianist from every other genre. I went with one of those boring old Hal Lenoard or Alfred books for adults, and grind out the absolute basics. Learn your major and minor scales and how chords are built, and you pick up the basics to how to read music on the way. It's gonna suck, and you should experiment on the side as you're grinding this out. Once you got that down, you'll be in a really good place to go on to more difficult and style-based topics.
Most piano teachers will give you this book to start:
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167
I spent a long time learning as a child, went back to teachers a couple of times as an adult to get a refresher. If you can get through book 1 and book 2 in the series, you can pretty much play any pop song, and holiday type song and it allows you to start to gauge tracks at an intermediate level. From there it's how much you want to practice.
1 hour a day every day for 2 years will do more for your ability than any number of lessons. Teachers are a guide, it's all about your willingness to work at a new skill. If you can't do an hour, do 30 minutes, or even 15. But daily practice is the key. If you can't commit to 15 minutes a day, you should consider what else you're prioritizing if you really want to learn to play.
Also, the whole 10,000 hours to mastery is especially true for any kind of music. an hour a day means 30 years to mastery. 8 hours a day means 5 years. This is why musicians typically get really good in high school - by around 6th grade most people are crossing over from hobby to passion, and then start committing real time to their passion before real world problems get in the way ( like work, marriage, kids, etc.).
Start off with a cheaper electric keyboards with less keys at first and then move on to larger ones as you get better. I also recommend Alfred's Basic Piano Library. I started on this book here: Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course: Lesson Book, Level One https://www.amazon.com/dp/0882846167/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_CJgpybB2GKRD4
I hope this helps.
I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope you get your accordion in top form soon!
Alfred's books are the ones my teacher recommended to me and all her students. I liked it a lot. They have multiple books for different levels, so read few pages and pick the one right for you!
http://www.amazon.com/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-Piano-Course/dp/0882846167
They also have a complete book of scales and arpeggios that I highly recommend.
Firstly, get used to playing swing with the right hand while keeping 2's and 4's steady with your left foot. Once you've got that down, grab a book like Syncopation and practice playing the rhythms on the snare while keeping your right hand and left foot as solid as a rock doing the same thing as before.
I used an Erskine book that does exactly this, but also goes into hand-foot combos, taking it to the next level. It also goes into triplets and such, but that's for when you're good with the basic patterns.
This sets you up for being able to comp using any rhythms you want but keeping your left foot steady on the up beats, essentially the core of jazz drumming.
This is a really condensed explanation, but I hope it helps.
Good Resources to Use
Buy this book and a metronome. It will help you with reading rhythm. Afterwards, then you can try to tackle the staff.
Marching or Concert Snare?
Either way, buy this book and work through it, varying the stickings and tempos. Also, learn these rudiments. The absolute best thing you could do is get a teacher.
As far as concert vs. marching. They are very similar, but concert snare is much more subtle. Concert snare utilizes a lot more buzz rolls whereas marching snare uses open rolls or diddles.
You want to build a base of knowledge when it comes to creating rhythm? Start with this book. Order it now. https://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Syncopation-Modern-Drummer-Publications/dp/0882847953
I would highly recommend the book "Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer" by Ted Reed. Phenomenal book that can teach you a lot and can be done with just a practice pad and sticks. It's easy to find at any music store and there may be some PDFs on the interwebs somewhere...
If you aren't looking to join a band or take it too seriously browse through some YouTube videos, pick up a book or two and just have fun with it! Once you find out if it's something you really love doing then you can invest in lessons/a drumkit.
https://www.amazon.ca/Progressive-Steps-Syncopation-Modern-Drummer/dp/0882847953
I don’t have this one but people seem to bring it up often.
Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer (Ted Reed Publications) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0882847953/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_rrb3DbBMXZRVW
You can work on your syncopation while your at it.
I've been a drummer since I was 8. Quite rusty right now as a lot of things have kept me from practicing (moving to apartments for years, etc.). Honestly, it's never too late to start. Are you going to be playing Carnegie Hall in a year? Wildly unlikely. But as long as your expectations are grounded in reality, that learning anything takes time and practice, you should be good.
As for practice and sense of tempo/timing: it is imperative that you buy a good metronome and practice with it regularly. You don't necessarily need a Dr. Beat, though I have one, and it is useful at times. But you do need some kind of click to play off of.
Can you read music? If so, there are some really good technique books out there that I'd recommend that are classics. Most people hate grinding technique, but I find it oddly relaxing. Here's some good books:
The first two books are probably where you should start. With all of these, start the metronome at molasses level slow - like 60 bpm or maybe even slower if you're not accurate at that speed. Get comfortable with that speed - maybe 15-30 mins at that speed without any mistakes. Then bump the timing up slightly 2-4 bpm and repeat. At no point should you be tensing up. If you are, you need to stop immediately, shake out your arms, and back down the tempo a bit.
Make sure that you're making more use of your fingers than your wrists. Wrists can be good to start the stroke, but your fingers should be doing a lot of the work.
There's a lot of other technique stuff that you can do, but the above alone could take you 5-10 years of solid daily practice if you're being thorough.
Good luck!
Ah memories. Yep I started with How to Play rock'n'roll drums, Syncopation and this book way back in the early 90's. Then later on went to Advanced Techniques, Future Sounds and The New Breed for different permutations and limb independence. And 'trying' to pick apart and play Dave Weckl's Island Magic.
Does anyone else remember those drum solos like calypso eclipsed and aint it rich?
I guess a great place to start would be the Vic Firth website. For each of the 40 basic rudiment it has a bronze, silver, and gold challenge. Treat it like a game, where you're trying to get that third star for each level.
I like to stick some tunes on and play (for example) 16 bars of paradiddles, then doubles, then singles in time with the music.. It's important you be able to seamlessly move between rudiments while keeping tempo and dynamic constant.
My book of the moment is Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer by Ted Reed. For £1.50 it's a steal, and really can help you get started.
I run a discord serve aimed at helping people that are new at piano, but if that doesn't work for you I also recommend these sites.
MusicTheory.Net - to give you the overall idea of what music theory should be.
PianoLessonsOnTheWeb - for overall piano lessons. Not much seen into this guy personally, but what I have seen is pretty good.
Bill Hilton - absolutely awesome youtuber that provides some good ideas and techniques on what to do
Michael New - Overall really good at describing music theory.
Alfred's - Overall one of the most highly regarded beginner series known out there. Highly recommend.
Paul Barton - Overall to be amazed by his godly voice/humbleness and his overall playing (inspiration)
Discord - Shameless plug of my very own discrod server!
https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=pd_sim_14_4?_encoding=UTF8&amp;pd_rd_i=0882848186&amp;pd_rd_r=9BXKZA1HQTXDF3HP8CXM&amp;pd_rd_w=C55rC&amp;pd_rd_wg=sBRPd&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=9BXKZA1HQTXDF3HP8CXM
Hello! This question has surely been answered before, but this is definitely the thread to ask it in again. I started learning piano at the beginning of this year by taking a class at my university, and what really kept me going was the weekly lessons. We used Alfred's all in one adult piano book 1 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0882848186/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=1944687542&amp;pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&amp;pf_rd_t=201&amp;pf_rd_i=0739013335&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_r=13PYJQZQ6C25YD6GVMVW , which progressed at a perfect pace, and I was assigned anywhere from 20 pages a week in the beginning to 4 by the end of the semester, until the book was completed and the year was over. I guess the questions I'm asking are for good incentives to stick to a regular routine of practicing (i.e. the little gpa booster the class was for me before) and more importantly, if I should move to alfred's book 2 or if anyone knows of a piano book that picks up from the basic skills I've learned yet has slightly more intriguing music! Thank you so much in advance :D
24, started when I was young, never got beyond "Teaching Little Fingers to Play". I'm picking it up again now, and after a week am 70 pages into the first book of Alfred's adult piano course.
I'm going much faster now due to increased technical ability (played the clarinet and a few other instruments in school) and the ability to sit still. Piano practice is also a pleasure, not a chore.
My wife is my teacher, even if she has some bad habits (loves keeping both thumbs on middle C - she is mostly self-taught)
Former classical guitar student here that definitely agrees that piano is easier than guitar in many ways. Anyway, there are a number of method books for piano such as Alfred's Adult All-In-One Course: Lesson-Theory-Technic: Level 1. A search at Amazon for "piano method books" will turn up others. Good luck!
I would highly suggest investing the time and money in Lessons. You will improve much faster under the guidance of a teacher (even just once or twice a month) than by yourself. If you absolutely refuse to go this route, however, I would suggest getting "Alfred's Basic All-In-One Piano Course Book One" (https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186). Go through this book and the others in the series (I think there are 3 total) and by then you should have enough technique under your fingers to be able to learn whatever songs/tunes/pieces you want.
Speaking as a professional musician (classical trumpet player) I can't stress enough the value of practicing scales and other "boring" technical exercises. These fundamentals are the building blocks of virtually all the music you'll ever play and the more you practice them, the easier it will be to learn new music. Good luck and happy practicing!
This is not a recommendation because I haven't used any of the Alfred books myself, however I observe that if you get & use this one, you can then participate in discussions on and getting help with using it in this 8000 message forum discussion thread going back 12 years.
This is alfred's,
https://www.amazon.ca/Alfreds-Basic-Adult-All-Course/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1497479297&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=alfreds+piano
Get a beginner piano book and start working through the exercises.
It'll take a long time to learn and internalize properly but with some dedication, it will become more intuitive
I'm currently working through Alfred's adult piano, and I enjoy it so far. I'm also using Hanon's Exercises to work on technique and stamina.
That's all I've got, I'm currently in the same boat as you. All I really know, is to avoid synthesia lol.
Just my two cents, sounds like you are practicing wrong. Grab Alfred's Piano Method, go lesson by lesson and go silly slow. You'll be reading pretty fluent in under a year I guarantee it.
EDIT: Meant to link Level 1
For Alfred, that's definitely the correct one, although I'll point out that one comes with a DVD -- if you don't want the DVD, you can get it for less. Here's the one that's just the book.
Hi OP.
I'm 27. I had piano lessons for several years when I was a preteen. I stopped and started a few times in the past several years.
I recently picked up Alfred's piano books (I'm sure there are better options for this specific use), which contain far easier pieces to play than what I played when I was 8-9 years old.
But that means despite not knowing the sheet music, I know I can play the pieces themselves fairly easily. It's been AMAZING for me to get started sight reading again.
In other words, find pieces that are easy for you to play technically, so that when you're practicing the piece you're actually working on how to read the music, not play the piece. In my opinion, anyway.
Lol are you me?
Your story is scary close to mine, I took lessons from 9-12 and just started to try and get back into around 23.
I can tell you what I did, I'm still kind of figuring it out myself:
I bought a P115 (600$), I didn't have the option to use my old unweighted piano as it broke many years ago, I could have gone with the P45 (450$) but recent college grad with decent paying job so I said fuck it and dropped the extra 150$ based on this subs recommendations.
That being said playing on a decent weighted keyboard is infinitely more enjoyable than playing on an unweighted keyboard; I think if I had had something like a P45/P115 (they use the same key action so they feel the same) I would have stuck with lessons as a kid longer. It is just so much more enjoyable to sit and play at.
As for getting back up to speed I try and practice 30 mins ~ 1 hour a day in 15-20 min sessions.
I usually do a Hannon Hand Exercise then I do a scale/cords ( I'm just working my way through major and minor scales one per day).
I bought Alfred's All-in-One Adult Beginner Course and blasted through the first 3/4ths of the first book and now try and do one little chunk (lesson and associated song) a day or over the course of 2 or 3 days based on it's difficulty.
I try and sight read something new everyday and really focus on technique and dynamics, so I'm working my way through Kabalevsky's 24 Pieces for Children one piece a day, nice and slow, focusing on dynamics, technique, and tempo.
Lastly I picked two songs I wanted to work on that are just slightly above my current level and maybe a little bit below the my level when I quite all those years ago. The way I practice those songs is by picking out the hardest measure and working on it nice and slow, hands apart and together, then work on the next hardest measure, and so on and so forth.
So that's what I'm doing, maybe you can find a nugget of help in all that, I did a fair amount of research on how to practice and what to practice ( had some really boring days at work lol )
https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186
I thought this book was really good. http://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=pd_sim_b_8
I don't think you really need a teacher, these books do a good job of explaining everything. (There are three.) If you have basic understanding of rhythm and how to read music even if you can't do it perfectly, you should be fine. =) Have fun!
I'm attempting to teach myself some basic piano. I just ordered this book and some stickers, as well as made some flashcards to help me read notes on a staff. Are there any recomended books, youtube vids, drills that other self-taught players used?
You don't need 88 keys if you're just starting out, in my opinion. Songs you'll be learning to start won't go anywhere near the far ends of the piano. Weighted keys also are much more expensive.
I'd just go with something like a cheap used Yamaha 76 key (I see them on Craigslist now and again for like $100) and see if it's something that he likes. For resources, get him the Alfred Books for Adult Beginners. If it interests him and he wants to pick it up, that's when I'd consider something nicer.
This book is fantastic for learning to play jazz:
Jazz Piano Book
Mark Levines' book on jazz piano covers pretty much all of pop music theory.
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151
I learned a lot from taking classes and private lessons, as well as self study by reading books and analyzing music. I'm not really aware of that many good resources for jazz theory online unfortunately, but there is this site: http://community.berkleejazz.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
EDIT: I love the Jazz Piano Book, it's not really a theory book but I thought it was great. The author has also written a Jazz Theory Book which a lot people seem to like, but I haven't really gone through it yet. Some other options are the Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony and the Jazz Harmony Book
The Levine book is usually the go-to book for jazz pianists:
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549422911&sr=1-1&keywords=jazz+piano+book+mark+levine
Make sure to use your ears a lot, sing what you play, transcribe a ton, take your time and concentrate!
I am mostly into classical at the moment, but I would really-really love to start entering the jazz-part of the Piano at a point, is it easily readable for jazz-beginners?
EDIT:
This one?
Is orchestration, composition and harmony something you've studied quite a bit on? Like, have you grabbed a few books on the subject and dug in? The orchestra is a fickle mistress, especially when migrating from another, non-orchestra related, genre. If you haven't studied one or any of those things, it will make the learning process a living hell. Thankfully, the orchestra has been around for hundreds of years, so there is a massive amount of knowledge out there to pull from.
These lists are "start to finish" kind of lists. Do them in order and you should be alright. One will be a "quick start" list (not as much to read) and another will be a "long haul" list (way way more to read).
Quick start (a few months of study)
Long haul list (will probably take you a (few) year(s) to complete):
I hope these resources can help a bit, if you decide to take the plunge. If not, there are tons of resources at openmusictheory.com that should be helpful.
I took up Jazz Piano a few years back. The guy I took lessons from recommended this book. It is, hands down, the most useful jazz piano book, arguably best jazz book overall, that I have ever run across. It has all kinds of theory and improv techniques with quotable licks and riffs from a number of jazz standards. You cant go wrong with this book.
A couple of channels that are good are:
Kent Hewitt (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdmjw5sm9Kn83TB_rA_QBCw): This guy is old school and can actually play. His overall production isn't flashy at all but the content is solid and he adds free sheet music.
Dave Frank (https://www.youtube.com/user/Dfrankjazz): I am not crazy about his playing style but he is a good educator. His lessons are well organized and the content is legit.
Also the Jazz Piano book by Mark Levine is a must-have (https://www.amazon.ca/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151). You need to be able to read music but that is something you should learn anyways.
As for the freejazzlessons guy, it's a personal opinion but I find him hacky and mediocre.
Finally, if you want some books to get started I can PM you some stuff I own.
/u/improvthismoment is right about how jazz is generally learned, but if you prefer to sight read insead of lifting from recordings, there are lots of great jazz transcriptions out there that can help develop your style and vocabulary. The World's Best Piano Arrangements has a generic sounding name but is a pretty dynamite book that has taught me a lot.
If you're interested in getting going with real jazz piano, The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine is a classic that has kicked off many great jazz piano journeys. Good luck!
It's always tough to hear this, but there's really nothing better than listening to your favorite recordings and transcribing everything you hear.
But... if you're just getting started and looking for a book, I highly recommend "The Jazz Piano Book" by Mark Levine
I picked this up several years into playing, and wished I found it sooner. He gives transcribed examples of the topic at hand from classic recordings, instead of just dumping a bunch of theory and voicings on you. (the theory is there too, but it's much more accessible the way he goes about it.)
If you don't already have them, go find the classic recordings he references, and listen until your ears bleed.
If you're really serious about it, go ahead and transcribe the full piano parts (including the comps, not just the solos) and you'll be well on your way
For improvisation, Dave Frank's Joy of Improv books are good for working through. Here's his full DVD going over the very basics.
For comping and jazz harmony in general, Matt Levine's Jazz Piano Book.
I’ve yet to buy this book but maybe....
The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Piano-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/0961470151
The Jazz Piano Book is a fantastic place to start.
There was a thread like this I think just yesterday. I was also in the same boat and one guy mentioned this book
http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060
I bought it just yesterday because it got such amazing reviews :D
Bought it off ebay though.
If you really feel more comfortable with a physical book, Fretboard Logic may be the way to go. I've been going through it and I'm not too deep into it, but there's a lot of functional theory in it. This book helped connect a lot of dots for me already.
I've heard a lot of great things about Fretboard Logic.
this book here? http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060
I recently bought Fretboard Logic, and I'm still towards the beginning but I really like its approach so far. He teaches "CAGED" theory in it, if you've heard of it.
I highly recommend Fretboard Logic SE by Bill Edwards. It teaches the CAGED system for chords and scales in a very natural and intuitive way. No prior music theory knowledge is necessary for the book, it starts from the ground up. It isn't very long, you should be able to get a solid grasp on the foundation of the ideas it teaches within a week, but you'll be going back to back to it to learn more for a while to come. I was simply astonished at how much better I understand the guitar after a short time with this book. Before the book I was in the same position as you, played guitar but only knew chords through rote memorization and learned solos by copying others, after I was able to begin writing my own music and I felt comfortable and ready to go deeper into the music theory rabbit hole.
The book teaches the CAGED system, and I know there are resources online that teach it, so if you don't want to drop the money on a book, you can find those and they'll teach the same concepts as Fretboard Logic. However, Bill Edwards does a great job at easing the reader in to the ideas and makes them very easy to understand. Plus, it's nice to have a physical book to reference the diagrams inside of it.
Fretboard Logic was an absolute game changer for me.
CAGED is a system for understanding and navigating the guitar's fretboard and arises from the standard tuning of the guitar. It's based on the five basic moveable chord forms C, A, G, E and D.
These five chord forms create a pattern of notes up the entire fretboard providing a mechanism for finding and naming chords and scales.
For example, C form in the open position connects to the A form in the 3rd position. The A form in the 3rd position connects to the G form in the 5th position. G form connects to E form in the 8th position. E form to D in the 10th position. Each of the forms in their respective positions results in a C Major chord.
Also, being moveable forms, playing C form in the open position will give you a C Major chord. Playing C form in the 5th position will give you an F Major chord and so on.
I suggest checking out Fretboard Logic for an excellent introduction to the CAGED system.
Being a beginner, and having purchased Fretboard Logic SE, http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top, would this be supplementary or complimentary to it?
Fretboard Logic!
Get fretboard logic by Bill Edwards. It's the only theory book I've found that doesn't treat the guitar like a fucked up piano.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0962477060?pc_redir=1398751849&amp;robot_redir=1
[Fretboard Logic] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0962477060/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1506520316&amp;sr=8-6&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=CAGED+guitar).
Changed my level of competence in days, if not hours.
Thank you for the great advice, I bought this book and havent gotten around to reading it yet, and i probably should...
this, this and this are said to be pretty good and are on my "to buy" list as well. Just took a short look at one of them at a friend's house a while ago and seems to be pretty well written.
Also: AFAIK written by a redditor. ;)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
This is hands down the most comprehensive guide I've come across and it's taught me everything I know. If you post on /r/edmproduction this will be the first guide they recommend. If you can't afford that then here is a free guide that is also very good. https://gumroad.com/l/tldrmusic
There's not much to add, everyone's already told it like it is. Might i recommend the absolutely wonderful and informative book "Music Theory For Computer Musicians" by Michael Hewit?
On a semi-related note, how did you make that video for your song?
I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Here are two books that helped me exponentially:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0634049011?pc_redir=1413778480&amp;robot_redir=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/063406651X?pc_redir=1413771056&amp;robot_redir=1
The first book helped me visualize the fretboard a lot faster, and also taught me how to form really complex chords using interval knowledge. The second book gets into some really advanced stuff like modal interchange, chord substitution, and playing with modes over extended and altered chords. I'd suggest you start with the first book as the second book ramps up really quickly and it's easy to get lost if you haven't figured out the basics yet. Oh, and there are tips on how to use the harmonic and melodic minor scales as well, which is super helpful if you want to get into jazz.
At the same time, I still use a lot of lessons from justinguitar.com because that guy is amazing at relating complex concepts to others in a simple and coherent manner.
Yeah, the particular album with Oscar Peterson isn't the best for study - as you won't be able to listen to what an experienced jazz drummer would do in those situations - but it is a great practice tool since drumless jazz recordings are so rare. In particular I love "Pennies from Heaven", it's a great mid-tempo swing to jam along with. And if you can work up to up-tempo swing, "I want to be Happy" is a serious workout. 7 minutes of 250 bpm spang-a-lang to really build those chops.
Oh, and if you haven't yet, invest in a copy of the real book and encourage your friends to as well. You can flip to almost any random page and have a great jam sesh. And with a little rehearsal you can gig those tunes as well. Not the most avant-garde stuff, but you've got to start somewhere :) Now go give that ride a good spank for me. Happy jazzing!
I think this is what's meant:
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Fake-Books-Leonard/dp/0634060384
It's a book full of literally hundreds of 'standards' and songs for around ~20 dollars. I am also starting to learn some jazz, and it's one of the most helpful things I've found. What I like to do is find versions of the songs on YouTube, and listen to how the bass player fits in their line with the other parts, and try to play along -- even if it's just the root notes from the chord diagrams!
The history of the book is fascinating, too - Adam Neely has an interesting vid on YouTube.
Have fun!
http://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Hal-Leonard-Corporation/dp/0634060384
You say you play an instrument so I'll work under the assumption you have a basic understanding of chords/chord professions.
There are many different types of "jazz" music and ensembles- big band, Dixieland, Latin fusion, etc. but based on your question I'm guessing you're asking more about small combo-improv-heavy Jazz.
The basic idea is that you have a chord progression and typically a melody is played once or twice, then followed by improv solos. These solos work within and around that same chord progression.
A good way to get started is to pick a song you like, find the chord progression, and start practicing the notes on repeat. Don't try to play in tempo, just go through each chord and play the scale. Then start over and do the same thing but do scale in thirds instead. Then do arpeggios. Then start to embellish a little. Another great learning technique is to listen to pros solo on a song you like, then try to mimic their licks.
If you're looking for a good place to find chord progressions for pretty much every jazz standard, get yourself a [Real Book](The Real Book: Sixth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634060384/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_sI1oxbFVNBDBW)
Fair warning: improv has a VERY long learning curve. You'll probably suck at first. That's okay.
Yes, they've got both the lead line (melody) and the chords above them. They're really the industry standard for jazz — you'll see them on any music stand for a gigging combo. 6th Edition is probably the best place for you to start. (A given song might look like this.)
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Hal-Leonard-Corporation/dp/0634060384/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1495028237&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=hal+leonard+real+book
Get a Real Book and find progressions in there. Use them directly or let it inspire you to create lines of your own. You can also find a lot of jazz lead sheets online.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Book-Sixth-Edition/dp/0634060384/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1413845380&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+real+jazz+book
melody and chords of jazz standards
If not that, you can order it from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Hal-Leonard-Corporation/dp/0634060384/
Get a copy of the Real Book and look up what the songs should sound like on youtube, then play them. http://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Hal-Leonard-Corporation/dp/0634060384
Several years ago, I was in your same position. I finished my classical training and wanted to learn to play exactly this same kind of music I had been hearing in my head for years. Sadly enough, it's not as easy as it sounds...
You already have a basic understanding of music. This is really the basics. When you are going to play jazz, you need to know a lot more: chords, scales, chord progressions, chord substitutions, fillers, rhythm (and playing out of rhythm while having an inner rhythm), ear training, ...
You can't learn that from sheet music or even books about jazz. Find a teacher! He will most likely talk about The Real Book that is filled with this kind of music. You will first learn to play exactly what's on the sheet, but then the important stuff starts, knowing how to change the sheet so that it becomes your own jazz piece with improvisation and things like that. It will take years to get there, believe me. But it's absolutely worth it.
Good luck with it! Don't waste your time (cos that's what you will do) and find a teacher!
Get The Real Book and work on the easy-to-read stuff.
Most tunes don't stick to a single key, but many do feature an A section in a single key at least. So you could work on reading in the easier keys of C, G and F major at first, and just sticking to the parts you can read. A byproduct of this will be your increasing awareness of where the white keys are on your fretboard, which is a phenomenal skill to develop.
As you grow increasingly comfortable reading, you can add keys with up to 4 sharps and flats (D, Bb, A, Eb, E, Ab). Many of the tunes in the Real Book are in F, Bb, Eb and Ab (and their respective relative minors) so you'll have a ton of options here =)
the non ligit part is you are not spending £30 on a book of music http://www.amazon.com/The-Ultimate-Fake-Book-Instruments/dp/0793529395
the "fake books" came around after the "real book"
http://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Hal-Leonard-Corporation/dp/0634060384/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1348419797&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=realbook
I live on the pacific coast so I can’t help with the teacher part but I have just started jazz piano about a six months ago after playing piano for a year, I feel that you should first familiarize yourself with piano in any way you can before moving into jazz and paying for lessons, once you’re experienced you should buy the sixth edition of the real book and learn how to read jazz standards. These are songs that are in the book (400+ songs) are classics that pretty much all experienced jazz musicians can pick up on and can play along to. It’ll only have the melody on the chords to go along with it, you should learn the melody and play it the way you feel is best and play around with it and then harmonize it with the chords. Once you get familiar with this you should try your best to solo over it along with the chords, you might sound like ass but you’ll have to practice to get an ear for soloing, eventually you’ll get better and pick up and learn techniques. One of my favorite jazz pianist YouTubers made a great video that gives a list of some of the easier jazz standards that are mostly in the real book, they are great for gaining a foundation in jazz. It’s important that you know how to play all types of chords to best play jazz standards, if you’re interested message me and I’ll send you directions for a good exercise for this. Lastly when learning jazz standards it’s best to listen to the song and the chord changes a lot first to get a feel for the song, learning the vocals also helps with expression. Once you get a foothold for all of these basics then you should look for a teacher, I suggest taking a few months before that.
Your questions are pretty broad theory questions and the FAQ should cover most of them or at least help point you in the right direction. If you've been playing for 15 years but don't know what a Cmaj7 is, you have a hill to climb, but not an impossible one.
It seems like your questions are theory based, you already know basic chords, so start with learning basic music theory. What notes make a scale?, Do you know your notes on the fretboard?, What notes of a scale do I use to make a chord? What are intervals? You don't have to be an expert in theory to be a great guitarist , but you have to know the basics, and should be able to answer these questions. This book is a great resource.
Yes, a chord book, this is the one I have:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0857752634/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_nBdIxbWEN7B01)
Go to one of the less expensive options. $15 is a little much for the default one that links.
Also, I forgot about this book too, which I also picked up a while ago but haven't thumbed through much of it yet. From what I did read though it is a great tool:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/063406651X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_KDdIxbJN5506K
These have been my favorites. I keep both paperback and Kindle versions laying around:
Circle of Fifths for Guitarists
Music Theory for Guitarists
Guitar Fretboard Workbook
Here’s something to get you thinking musically:
First Chord Progressions
Hal Leonards Music Theory for Guitarists.
https://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X
Seconded. Justin's lessons are great. I also got this book from Amazon. It's more about theory than technique, but if you want to learn music as well as the instrument, I recommend it.
I actually liked the book Music Theory for Guitarists. I've been playing for 30 years now (only seriously between ages 16-18 though) and never had lessons. I "learned" a good bit of theory from simply observing song structure, seeing how solos used scales, etc. This book was a good way to go the next step and actually study theory a bit with intent-- unlike, say, the actual music theory textbook I borrowed from my friend the ochestra conductor and music professor, which I found useless.
Hal Leonard Guitar Method Music Theory
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/063406651X/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1419216756&amp;sr=8-2
Just got that book and it makes it vary easy to understand. I would definitely recommend it. Even has quizzes too
(http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751)[http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751]
this book is pretty good for all around knowledge. there's a bunch of theory basics, amp discussion, guitar setup, etc. probably not the greatest detail about guitar setup, but it explains most of the theory and has nice drawings.
Glad to see that you're on the road to guitar independence. It's great because nobody can know better how you want your guitar to play than you! This book has everything, it is indispensable. The Guitar Handbook
Pick up The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer. This will teach you literally EVERYTHING about the guitar. This is an incredible resource of information if you want to learn the guitar from different views. It will teach you tricks for tuning (including alternate tunings, theory, tableture, and so on.
I took a one-semester guitar class in college, which had The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer as a required textbook. Now, we could've gotten away without the book for the content of the class. The only time we referenced it for class purposes was to use the chord chart.
But man, I'm glad they made us buy that book. It's got everything: music theory, history, terminology, setting up electronics... everything. Except songs. There are no songs in it.
Perhaps it's this popular book that I have and like The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer
get this, seems just what you're looking for
http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751/ref=pd_sim_b_2
Here's a great site that explains the CAGED system, which in turn explains the fundamental layout of the fretboard very well.
http://www.cagedguitarsystem.net/
A great all-around book is "The Guitar Handbook" by Ralph Denyer. It has everything from Theory to construction to influential players and the history of the guitar in one handy resource.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751
Like the other guy said, talk to your mates.
I also highly recommend this book. http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751
Even if you're not a guitar player there are chapters covering amps, pa equipment, live sound, effects, etc.
Alfred in particular has a good guide with various forms of scales/cadences/arpeggios for every key. If you're interested in learning to play pop/jazz piano, learning to comfortably play inversions of every chord is very important as well.
Here you go.
Whoa, I started with those exact 3 songs when I started learning the piano almost 10 years ago! Anyway, I suggest you start with this book to learn some fundamental music theory. I like this book because it has multiple scales and lists the chords and arpeggios for each key signature and goes through the circle of 5ths. You don't necessarily have to go through this book in order, just make sure you follow the fingering patterns carefully and play the scales, chord progressions and arpeggios slowly so you can internalize them and familiarize yourself with the layout of the keyboard.
If you'd like to become a proficient sight-reader (which I highly recommend, being good at sight-reading will help you in the long run), start practicing with reading some simple pieces. Go through the Alfred's book and see how well you can read through those pieces on the first run. If you feel like you need more sight-reading practice, the Mikrokosmos books will provide you with plenty of material to sight read. I also like this book of hymns. Remember, if you can't play it nearly perfectly (at least in terms of getting the notes right) on the first run, it probably means you should work on reading through that piece. So keep practicing!
If you have the money, you might be interested in investing in this series of books. Each level contains Baroque, Classical and Romantic pieces, as well as etudes and music theory, which really helps with building up a well-rounded foundation. But then again, the best use of your money would be ideally spent on a good teacher.
If you'd like a song at a similar level to what you're currently learning, I also learned this version of Canon, Ballade Pour Adeline, A Thousand Miles (because it's a fun piece and why not :)), and Summer by Joe Hisaishi during my early piano years.
But to be honest, I don't recommend learning any of the pieces I just listed above, because they will take you too long to learn. In the same amount of time you spend learning those songs, you could be progressing much faster if you focused on learning fundamentals and picked much easier pieces. And I mean pieces as simple as Minuet in G major and Minuet in G minor, maybe even simpler.
I feel obligated to write all of this since you're starting from a similar place that I was when I first began learning piano. Jumping into pieces that sound beautiful or amazing isn't the most efficient method of learning. Take this from me who went from being fixated on learning the entire Fur Elise → River Flows in You → Canon in D → Rondo Alla Turca and other songs wayyyyy beyond my level, to dropping all of it in and just starting from the very basics because I realized I sounded like utter ****, even if I could play the notes and it sounded fine to my family/friends who didn't play piano. I also wasn't making much progress in terms of learning, since each new piece would take me foreverrrr to actually learn. Building up your fundamentals is the way to go, because once you get to the level where you can actually play those beautiful pieces, the learning process will be so much faster. I know starting from the bottom and working your way up can be a slow and sometimes even tedious process, especially when you have to go through all these pieces that seem really easy or boring, but trust me, it will be worth it and far more rewarding in the end. :)
This book helped me a lot during my first 30 days.
Who does an AMA and doesn't answer all the questions??? Too many people! ...but NOT ME :) This is the book that is a must to develop your technique: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739003682/?coliid=IVJTCFYTABUQ9&colid=UEHNYEAL44KE&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
...and I can't stress this point enough: You MUST employ a teacher expert in technique development if you really want to excel as a pianist. While at UMKC conservatory, I had a mean old German fraulein who would literally rap my knuckles when I kept repeating the same mistakes until fear and pain forced me to put the practice time in to remedy the problem. I can't stress the importance of how seamless your left-hand thumb under technique must be for scales and arpeggios. Funny how all scales begin with they key of C - which is actually, IMHO the MOST difficult key of all to play! People think "no sharps or flats, but be easy, right?" Wrong. Playing the black keys is easier because there's actually more physical distance between them and, given the fact that they are raised above the white keys, they are easier to strike. UNLIKE C major, which has only the narrower white keys to play making execution significantly more difficult. I'll take the key of Cb over C any day!
Are you looking for something such as Alfred's complete book of scales, chords, arpeggios and cadences? I bought it after reading about it here and I am not disappointed.
I hear beattips is good.
https://www.amazon.com/BeatTips-Manual-Beatmaking-Tradition-Composer/dp/0989398609
this was a big help when I started
https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1500536883&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=music+theory+computer+musicians
and way beyond just music theory and beatmaking, but very informative
https://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0415825644/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1500536944&amp;sr=1-1-spell&amp;keywords=dancemusic+manual
Do you know your way through Ableton already or are you looking to learn more about the in's and out's of Ableton?
If you know how to use Ableton already, I highly recommend spending more time delving into music theory over DAW tutorials (especially if you are producing deep house which has more complex chord structures). I bought the following book off Amazon and was happy with what I learned off music theory (allow the beginning starts off a little slow if you have been producing for awhile):
https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1537349050&sr=8-2&keywords=music+theory+electronic
If you are wanting to learn more about the in's and out's of Ableton, I'd recommend saving some money and looking up tutorials on YouTube on how to accomplish what you are looking to do. If you have any questions regarding Ableton plugins, there is likely a YouTube tutorial on it for free.
Find sample packs with sounds you like and make your own racks.
Then, go learn music theory. If you don't know the basics (never played any instrument) it will be hard to do anything good.
I'm a drummer, so I have a hardtime with notes and chords, so I started reading a music theory book for computer musicians. It's not great and it can be hard if you don't know nothing, but it sure helps.
I actually major in music theory, so don't feel bad :P I'm not really sure of any materials as I've mostly learned from teachers and professors. I've seen this book thrown around a lot:
Music Theory for Computer Musicians
DO NOT GIVE UP
if you enjoy the process of doing music, and like what you are doing, continue with it. i think you should read some technical resources, to get a better understanding on how things work and how they related with each other.
I highly recoment [this book] (http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034), and [this] (http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0240521072). You can find booth on torrent, but buy if you can. they tottally worth the price.
one thing i read from a skrillex interview: "everyone starts making shit music. continue making bad music until they start to sound good"
Try this one: https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Computer-Musicians-Michael-Hewitt/dp/1598635034
I found this very helpful.
Music Theory for Computer Musicians https://www.amazon.com/dp/1598635034/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_xWBVCbA2HCEHM
This book starts from the absolute beginning and walks you through everything you need to k ow to start making music using a DAW and synths. It’s written like a textbook so it has lots of pictures and exercises at the end of each chapter.
You could try this book. Might be the best is if you got some music lessons on piano. You don't need to learn to play Rachmaninoff but having somebody to show you proper techniques is going to be helpful. Since you will be paying for it out of your own pocket you are likely going to be more motivated to practice and to continue. Once you have the basics down you can then start to pick up other bits and pieces from other people on YT, friends or what have you. If you're interested in more sort of classical Detroit techno then you would want to look into learn some jazz and gospel for more complex chords. Of course its possible to make techno with out learning any theory and there are many who have done so but you will likely get there faster with it.
I cant tell you what recording software is right for you, cheapguitars link is a good place to start off looking. Id also check out kvr.com for hosts and plugins, they have as comprehensive a list of audio software as any you will find online, and their forums are a great learning resource.
As for music theory, id recomend this book if you have any interest in doing more than just record electronically.
Mark Levine's excellent The Jazz Theory Book includes a great list of mandatory repertoire at the end of the book, which I've edited down considerably to this list based on my experience in jam sessions and gigs. For a full-time working jazz musician though, there are many, many more essentials that I'm sure I'm missing. Also, I've tried to omit tunes already mentioned.
I've noted (Alternate Titles) in parentheses and [parent tunes with the same changes] in square brackets.
The tunes:
Ain't Misbehavin', All Blues [3/4 blues], All of Me, All of You, Alone Together, Autumn in New York, Beautiful Love, Billie's Bounce, Black Orpheus (Manha de Carnaval), Blue Bossa, Blues for Alice [Parker blues], Bluesette [3/4 parker blues], Cantaloupe Island, Caravan, Ceora, Chelsea Bridge, Cherokee, Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars), Darn That Dream, Days of Wine and Roses, Desafinado, Dolphin Dance, Donna Lee [Indiana], Doxy, Embraceable You, Footprints [3/4 minor blues, sort of], Four, Georgia on My Mind, Giant Steps, God Bless The Child, Green Dolphin Street, Have You Met Miss Jones, How Deep Is The Ocean, I'll Remember April, In A Mellow Tone, Invitation, In Walked Bud [Blue Skies], In Your Own Sweet Way, I Remember You, Israel [minor blues], It Could Happen To You, It Don't Mean A Thing, Joy Spring, Just Friends, Limehouse Blues [not actually a blues!], Lover Man, Maiden Voyage, Milestones, Misty, Moanin', Moonlight in Vermont, My Favorite Things, My Foolish Heart, My Funny Valentine, My Heart Stood Still, My Little Suede Shoes, My One and Only Love, My Romance, Night And Day, Now's The Time [blues], Oleo [rhythm changes], One Note Samba, Out Of Nowhere, Over The Rainbow, Poinciana, Recordame, Rhythm-A-Ning [rhythm changes], Ruby My Dear, St. Thomas, Satin Doll, Scrapple From The Apple [Honeysuckle Rose], Skylark, Softly As In A Morning Sunrise, Someday My Prince Will Come, Song For My Father, Sonnymoon For Two [blues], So What, Stardust, Stompin' At The Savoy, Sugar, Summertime, There Is No Greater Love, There Will Never Be Another You, Tune Up, Wave, The Way You Look Tonight, Well You Needn't, When Sunny Gets Blue, Whisper Not, Without A Song, Yardbird Suite, Yesterdays.
Oh okay, make sure to tell the teacher what you what to learn and make sure they agree to it. No use wasting time and money with someone who teaches the same thing to everyone.
If you're looking at learning theory to help with prog metal I recommend reading The Jazz Theory Book. It's pretty dense but it really helps with understanding chords and chord extensions.
> Say if I can't find a teacher right away, how would you say I should try striking that "balance" you talked about? Any resources you'd suggest for each element (technical/musical/theoretical)?
Technical and musical elements are quite difficult to advise on because they are quite individual. Some people are very expressive but aren't necessarily brilliantly technical players and some are brilliantly technical but make music that sounds like robots, and all shades in-between.
If you pushed me I would say that something like Yousician's free lessons will get you off the ground as far as basic technique is concerned. Their free service is perfectly adequate for a complete beginner.
As far as musicality goes that's more difficult to teach. Really you're looking to try and "feel" something while you're playing and it's not quite the same as feeling an emotion - you're trying to feel the flow of the music. I found it helpful when I was first learning to play along to a track and not worry too much about getting it right - just noodle around trying to get into the feel of the thing. Playing with other people helps here too.
As far as theory goes that's easier.
Standard theory (you can call it 'classical' theory if you like but it applies to pretty much any form of music except really early music and more modern experimental stuff):
The AB Guide to Music Theory Part I
Music Theory in Practice Book I
(As you'll see from the Amazon listings there are more books in the Music Theory in Practice series, and there's an AB Guide to Music Theory Part II as well).
Get someone who knows what they're talking about to check your answers!
Jazz theory:
The Jazz Theory Book
Songwriting:
Chord Progressions for Songwriters
Bear in mind that music theory is a bit like art theory in that it's largely descriptive rather than prescriptive - it describes common practice and therefore gives you some guidelines but it's quite possible to follow all the rules and still come up with something that's fucking dreadful. So when you're writing try not to get bogged down with "is it correct?" - just ask yourself "do I like it? does it sound good?".
> What would an ideal (or even okay) progress would look like according to you?
I would say classical guitar grade 1 within 1-2 years is normal progress. If you're ambitious then 6 months to 1 year.
I second this, a really good book on Jazz is The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine.
It explains progression, scale usage, and chord usage in depth.
A big thing is to not let your practice routine stagnate. Take it from a (tuba) performance major who learned most of his stuff without lessons. You need to keep fresh material under your fingers. Pick up the Jazz Theory Book and use some of the examples in there for scale and key studies.
Also, I would highly recommend studying classical rep as well, work ona new solo peice every month, and try to play (and work up) one etude (at least) every week.
You practice should look like this, in essence:
10-15min of warm-up with long tones (focusing on superb sound and tone at ALL dynamic ranges), and easy, finger warming chromatic scales and the like.
30min of etude practice (try to do a new one every week)
30min of solo rep/stuff from band you need to work on
whatever time is left to you doing scale studies and jazz improv.
As far as getting better at jazz, the biggest one I know of is simply transcribing solos of other players and playing them. It takes for FUCKING ever, but if you're serious, it's what you do. Since I only ever play Bass Trombone in jazz band, it's not really worth it to me, but if you're looking to get better at tenor, man, listen to some coltrane and write down what he's doing for at least one chorus and play it with him. You start to assimilate some of the licks he uses and get an innate understanding of how to navigate the chords. Start with blues based songs, since they're the easiest. Move up to rhythm changes when you have solid material for any blues song. After that, man, you'll be set.
ALSO, you can always google and find some great stuff written by other great players, either on forums or on professional player's personal websites. I learned alot of what I know doing that when I didn't have lessons.
If you have any questions, send me a PM and I'll do my best to help out.
They are both brilliant and will last a lifetime, I've had them for around 5 years and they still blow my mind, and keep me learning.
Some others I own and think a great are:
[Creative Guitar 1 and 2 by Guthrie Govan] ( http://www.amazon.com/Guthrie-Govan/e/B0034Q44JU/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1) In my opinion the best guitarist around. He has a mastery over the guitar at a level I have never seen! These books are excellent a written in a ways that enjoyable and easy to understand
[Single Note Soloing, Volume 1] (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Guitar-Single-Soloing-Volume/dp/0769209726/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=0MRB4A99W8P09SX6GMQG) and [Volume 2] (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Guitar-Single-Soloing-Volume/dp/0739053841/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=1GGV91GVW1H6MM5AQ6C0) by Ted Greene. Excellent for jazz soloing.
[The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine] ( http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=pd_sim_b_17?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=1FP5R211R7V7ZDP5Q4GT) THE book on jazz, this is without a doubt a must own!
If you want to get really deep and crazy take a look at the Scott McGill books:
[Scott McGill] (http://www.amazon.com/Scott-McGill/e/B00J36EZ58/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1)
And lastly for an insane look at rhythms [Advance Rhythmic Concepts for Guitars by Jan Rivera] (http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Rhythmic-Concepts-Foreword-Machacek/dp/0615979831/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=0J05GGH3PGDQRWPRB298) Metric Modulations, Polyrhythms and Polymeters galore! I feel with most guitarists rhythm is often overlooked and getting your rhythmic playing down separates the men from the boys. It's amazing how good rhythm can make the simplest of solos mind melting.
Miles Davis wrote an autobiography that was really great and told you a lot about the history of jazz, although it didn't give you too much theory. It was called "Miles", i think.
Mark Levine wrote a great book on Jazz theory. https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040
He wrote one for piano specifically as well.
You would benefit from a theory book or course.
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040
I recommend that one.
Mark levine's book is kind of the standard.
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040
If I understand what you're saying, then yes, Amaj7 with a 9 will sound good in certain cases. It's actually pretty popular to combine the 7 and the 9 in jazz chords. You can definitely have more than one extension to a chord, it's just pretty cumbersome to write Amaj7 add 9, so most of the time it is omitted to be just A9 or Amaj7.
If this kind of thing interests you (combining different types of chords and adding notes in the chord), definitely get a jazz theory book. Below is one a fairly popular one. It is one of the best ways to progress from amateur to journeyman, in my opinion. Get through that book and you'll be able to play in jam sessions with other musicians, be comfortable talking theory, while elevating your own playing to a degree you probably didn't think possible, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040
https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1499754614&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=jazz+theory+book
I used the shit out of this book in high school when I was preparing to go to university. This was also the period where I wanted to move from blues into jazz. If you have technique, then this is a great launching point for jazz. It's pretty comprehensive (until you get quite advanced) and could be used as a sort of desk reference when you're done studying it. It's by far the most useful music book I ever bought in my development. It's super no nonsense and because it's written for people of all instruments it takes guitarists out of that "guitar culture" mindset which isn't always a good thing musically.
To apply the things in the book, listen to a shit load of recordings and start going through the Real Book. Pick out tunes you really like and learn them in basic ways. Look up charts for jazz guitar chord voicings and start comping along with records. Then throw in the melody. Next improvise by messing with the melody. Then start improvising with modes and chord tones. Finally, start transcribing your favorite solos, doesn't have to be just guitar players.
That's how you learn jazz.
Music theory is not different on a guitar than on any other instrument. And it gets very hard to get music theory correct when it is taught by largely self-taught guitarists, because they have a tendency to think every shape they play requires a name (a trait shared by musicians on most chromatic instruments).
Go get a basic music theory book like Music Theory for Dummies or Music Theory: From Begginer to Expert. After youv'e gone through and really understood what's in those texts, you'll be ready for more advanced stuff like Mark Levine's Jazz Theory or Walter Piston's books such as Harmony or Counterpoint.
Alternately you could look at texts on arranging and orchestration at that point as well.
Stay away from instrument specific texts, particularly those related to chromatic instruments (of which the guitar is one) because you'll almost find something that is a well-intended, but mistaken, concept. Also avoid texts aimed at Berkelee school of music. While they are a great school in terms of their performance degrees, they have an odd fascination with modes that is shared by virtually no other music school in the world.
That's the right scale, and you can arrive at that answer using either way of thinking: list the notes of a Bflat major scale, but starting on C; or, start with a C minor scale (C, D, Eflat, F, G, Ab, Bb) and raise the sixth note (C, D, Eflat, F, G, A, Bflat). They're just different ways of thinking about the same SOUND. As with all theory, it's the SOUND that's the key.
As for resources, try the Fake Dr. Levin Zelda modes series: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayBYqpeOAvQ&amp;list=PLJTWoPGfHxQFCOnSiRNVangyEy7IfUDsX)
and, depending on what you're looking for, The JAzz Theory Book by Mark LEvine is excellent (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040)
That is all very useful information, and thank you for even looking up recordings of all of the songs. Your response gives me a much better idea of how to teach him these pieces. Also, in spite of another commenter, I think I should brush up on and expand my knowledge of jazz. What do you think of this particular book? https://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=s9_simh_gw_g14_i1_r?_encoding=UTF8&amp;fpl=fresh&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_s=&amp;pf_rd_r=M6709RMPFXXZBNG5JHYH&amp;pf_rd_t=36701&amp;pf_rd_p=a6aaf593-1ba4-4f4e-bdcc-0febe090b8ed&amp;pf_rd_i=desktop
One thing I tried doing was learning every chord in every position and every inversion. I'm not done writing them up, but I have charts for dominant, major, minor, and half-diminished chords I could scan for you. I also have the arpeggios to be played over the chords.
Another thing is to learn are your scale modes. I'll pick either 4 modes in 1 position or 1 mode in 4 positions and practice each scale for 5 minutes.
You could improve your sight reading with this. It's not meant to be studied, but to be opened up to a random page and played.
I'm also a fan of speed and dexterity exercises. You don't have to shred, but sometimes you need to get from point A to point B in a hurry. After playing these for a while, you'll also feel less fatigue. My favorite books for this are John Petrucci's Wild Stringdom and Frank Gambale's Technique Books
Also, if you really get into jazz, I highly recommend The Jazz Theory Book. It will help with your improvisation and teach you how songs are structured, which will help you with other genres. A more classic theory book that's good is The Complete Musician.
After you get technique stuff down, it all comes down to where you want to be as a player. What do you want to play? Do you want to write? Do you want to do covers? Maybe you want to teach.
Sorry this was so long. I love teaching music myself, so if you want to learn anything specific, PM me and I should be able to help you out and send you some materials.
These are pretty popular and seem to fit your description. I own them both myself.
http://www.amazon.com/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z
I recommend The Jazz Theory book by Mark Levine. If you want to understand how to build chords, chord progressions, and improv, it's a great resource. You can buy it online or torrent a PDF easily enough.
The classic book is George Stone's "Stick Control".
Some web resources:
http://www.freedrumlessons.com/articles/drum-rudiments.php
http://www.rudimentaldrumming.com/
Stick Control. Most drummers will say it's best to start with this book but I'll be honest- it's not fun. Don't expect to be wowed by drumming with this book. It's meant to build good form/technique and other solid fundamentals that are very important to drumming.
Either way, if you're looking for something a bit more exciting, I'd say search youtube for beginner lessons on the kit and/or your pad.
Good luck!
Just want to echo that 30 minutes a day is more than enough. Of that time, I would spend 10 minutes on rudiments and the rest on whatever you want.
>What all will I need to get started? Practice pad, sticks, kit, metronome?
If you buy an electronic kit, I wouldn't worry about practice pads. I'd recommend picking up Stick Control, learning the rudiments, and an introductory book such as Fast Track or Tommy Igoe's beginner DVD. Once you feel more comfortable, I'd recommend picking up Groove Essentials and New Breed.
For stick, I generally recommend starting with Vic Firth 5B hickory sticks. Of all the sticks I've tried, those are the most absolutely average. Weight, balance, size, etc. From there you can move into thinner (5A, 7A) or thicker (2B) as you want, but 5B is a good starting place, hickory is the best wood to learn with (and play with forever, imo, but that's debatable), and Vic Firth is fairly consistent.
Vic Firth's stick size comparisons. The standard sizes used by the majority of drummers, from smallest to largest, are 7A, 5A, 5B, 2B. Everything else is just incredibly minor tweaking that some people like.
https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1472953106&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=stick+control
Daily practice- never forget it! Also, Syncopation as mentioned below is very good, and I would also recommend this. They're both great books.
YouTube lessons can be helpful, but almost certainly never as helpful as an instructor. YouTube lessons can't see you making mistakes and can't correct them. You can't talk to YouTube lessons. They're alright for beginners but I would definitely recommend getting some one-on-one advice, even from people who aren't professional teachers.
There's this amazing book called Stick Control: For the Snare Drummer (https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040 ) and it's full of great practice exercises that can help both you and your son. It's not a full kit book, but it's meant to strengthen your sense of rhythm and technique, and can help with speed aswell if you use a metronome. If you don't want to buy the book, I'm sure there's a .pdf somewhere, but the book is always better in my opinion.
Don't waste your money on Drumeo and Drumeo Edge. The whole Drumeo program is basically watching somebody else play drums and trying to mimic it. I can't speak for other online drum lesson services as I don't have much experience with them.
Find some music you like on YouTube, and use the speed feature to slow it down and really listen to what the drummer is playing. You can start slow and break it down and slowly increase the speed until you're playing it just as fast as the drummer in the song. It's a great way to teach yourself how to learn songs.
Learning drums takes a lot of patience (and can be quite expensive!) so I'd advise you to take great care in how you hit your drums. Drumsticks aren't very expensive and neither are drum heads, but when you're nailing them so hard you break one a day, it adds up quickly. Same goes for cymbals, but those are quite expensive aswell.
When you buy the second kit, I'd advise you to invest in a mid-range kit, not too great, but not garbage either. When you listen to songs and then your drums sound crappy, it's quite discourage. Get some mid-range cymbals as well, Paiste offers some pretty good beginner's cymbals.
Not OP, but check out Stick Control by George Lawrence and The New Breed by Gary Chester.
These two books helped me get over the hump of knowing what I wanted to play, and actually being able to play it effortlessly and cleanly.
Get lessons if at all possible. You'll progress much more efficiently that way.
Also get Stick Control and practice the patterns to a metronome.
https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040
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Most drummers forget about the rudiments that make up the grooves. These will give you patterns to go off of and tighten up everything you do around the drum set. Doesn't need to just be done on a snare. Practice on the snare, snare+tom, Hi-hat + snare, etc. Come up with some cool stuff, and help you understand the building blocks that make the groove.
My advice would be to pick up a copy of ‘Stick Control for the snare drummer’, and practice the exercises in the book for half an hour each day. When I was in my highschool marching band, this was THE book for improving speed and control.
Edit: you will also want to work on practicing the exercises at different speeds and volumes.
https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=for+the+modern+snare+drummer&amp;qid=1570196885&amp;sr=8-3
First you're going to want to start by focusing on your stick grip. Learn how to hold the sticks and whenever you play always pay attention to your form and grip. At least at the start.
Next, go for rudiments. they can help you get your chops up while get you better at reading snare music.
After that, get some snare solos and try them out. Remember to concentrate on your grip and form.
Also this is a great book. One of the best snare books out there:
http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040
And remember, practice makes permanent, so make sure you're holding your sticks in a way that won't hinder your playing and make you have to relearn it all later on. Have fun!
The guy who suggested rudiments is absolutely correct.
Proper technique is hugely important, so reading up on or watching some videos about that will help you immensely, if you haven't already.
I would also suggest finding and practicing some stick control exercises. Stick Control by George Lawrence Stone is a great book filled with really helpful exercises.
Listening to, watching, and playing jazz can be a great help as well.
Source: percussionist for ten years
You should buy Stick Control.
It'll help you with the basics. The first page in the book is one of the most useful pages in any drum book ever.
If you own stick control I would recommend going through that while doing quarter notes with your left foot and hitting 1 with your kick.
There are many ways to do this, but this is how I started and I thought it worked well. You can also just incorporate your left foot into any rudimental stuff you are playing on the snare or around the kit. For example, try playing a paradiddle. If you can do that, then try to keep time with your left foot on 2 and 4 while doing it. Then try hitting all the downbeats with your left foot. Then try eighth notes, etc. . . .
If you practice this enough, eventually you will forget about your left foot entirely and it will just be second nature!
So far everyone has replied with an incorrect answer.
The correct answer is
STICK CONTROLLLLLLLLLLL
One half of drumming is the learning to control 4 limbs at once thing. I guess some might call it coordination.
One of my favorite ways to practice or work something out is to sit in a chair and play on my legs with my hands. Pick some songs that have grooves that you like and try to work out the parts for each limb and tap away.
Costs $0 and you can play anywhere all the time...
If you want to build speed and practice rudiments there is no better place to start than Stick Control: For the Snare Drummer. If you can make it through this book, you are well on your way!
Here's my disclaimer: if you don't have access to a drum and at least one other person to practice playing clean with, you're already at a disadvantage. No pad feels exactly like a drum and when it comes down to the wire in an audition, what determines who makes the line is usually who can play clean consistently no matter where he is in the line.
Buy this:
http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764040
No matter where you want to march, it will be your ultimate tool. It will lay the foundation of your playing, and it will give you amazing facility on the drum. Play through all of it. Play through it at every dynamic. Play five lines and crescendo the whole thing. Do whatever you can to essentially turn the thing inside out on itself so that you get as much experience playing things your hands have never felt. The key here is repetition. You want to shed layers so that your hands become so refined that anything you're asked to play is practically second nature.
Once you've played through the entire book ten times, buy this:
http://www.amazon.com/Accents-Rebounds-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/1892764067
Repetition, repetition, repetition. Variation, variation, variation. If something sounds disgusting, practice it until it's beautiful. You need to dedicate substantial time to practicing, and you need to always practice with a metronome. I advise against most phone metronomes, because they tend to be inconsistent. I recommend practicing for 90 minutes and then taking a 30 minute break. Practice consistently. Don't do eight hours one day and then take a week off. Two or three hours a day is ample practice time. You've got to be deliberate and take your practice time seriously if you want to make it. If you're unsure about whether or not you want to march, I'd advise against auditioning because the people who really want it are usually the ones who make the line.
Get on YouTube and check out some different lines from the past maybe three seasons. Listen to as many as you can and see which lines really pique your interest. Then get on Google and look for audition materials (either from past years or current materials). A lot of corps require you to buy their audition materials so if that's an issue for you, you could try another corps. Or you could step up your game, get back on YouTube, try to find some videos of the drumline warming up, and figure out their exercises on your own. Be wary though; that's a pretty significant undertaking.
My best advice is to take initiative, and to try harder than you want to. You'll have to do both of those things if you spend a summer with a corps anyway, so it's better to start now. Best of luck to you.
Non-mobile: book
^That's ^why ^I'm ^here, ^I ^don't ^judge ^you. ^PM ^/u/xl0 ^if ^I'm ^causing ^any ^trouble.
How did I get into it? I started as a DJ. Next logical step I suppose.
Advice/tips?
Read up. Here are some of my favorites, and I do recommend buying them as you will probably refer to them often.
This would be my top pick: http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0240521072
This is one on psychoacoustics, which I've found had some helpful knowledge: http://www.amazon.com/How-Music-Works-David-Byrne/dp/1938073533
And this is one on the history of electronic music, which I personally LOVED reading. Great information, and if you truly respect the scene as a whole, you should 100% read this: http://www.amazon.com/Last-Night-DJ-Saved-Life/dp/0802146104/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1419810859&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=last+night+a+dj+saved+my+life
As far as software goes, they are all kind of a personal thing. Some offer things that others don't. My recommendation is to try before you buy, especially considering production software is expensive.
In addition, there is also a large choice of hardware you can use for production. You should look into getting a keyboard and some good monitor speakers at a bare minimum. If you stick with it, I would suggest you buy yourself a drum machine/step sequencer. My personal recommendation is Native Instruments 'Maschine.'
EDIT: A word.
Okay, in that case you should check out /r/Beatmatch and /r/edmproduction. I'd also recommend you look into this book, which covers everything you'll need to get started producing and then some.
Wait_What_Happened is right about electronic music being difficult to get into, since there are just so many different skills that you have to master, like how to program synths, EQ your sound, and compose music in the style you wish to produce. It's going to be incredibly frustrating at first, but the only way to get better is to keep practicing.
I also want to be a DJ/Producer. My biggest goal in life would be to play at a festival like Ultra.
I suggest you start by learning as much as you can about your DAW, head over to /r/edmproduction if you haven't, watch many tutorials in Youtube (you'll learn a lot with just practice), and read this.
This book is just awesome to learn all that stuff!
Search for it in this subreddit, you'll find a copy of it if you can't afford to buy it
This! I got the Dance Music Production one and it's fantastic
[Amazon] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0240521072/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1376289177&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=dance+music+production)
your low-mids to mids as well as highs are lacking. as in you need either better samples to fill out those frequency ranges or you need to eq your stuff better. along with that your sub is lacking any real presence (in terms of the kick and the bass). you can solve this by distorting/compressing/eqing your kick/bass. another problem is stereo placement -- try using the haas effect as well as panning your instruments well.
you've been producing for four years but haven't done much mixing/mastering and your track reflects that. look into buying this book and watch this video as well, i highly recommend this one.
I'm assuming this is a be-all, do-all type of room that includes tracking and mixing. I'm going to give pointers based on a "perfect world" scenario. It's up to you to make the necessary compromises.
If you're interested in where I got my information, I basically just followed any advice I could find from Ethan Winer, but a lot of it didn't make sense until I built my studio and ran some of my own calculations using this porous absorber calculator. I found it very interesting that a really thick layer of the pink insulation works way better than the dense fiberglass stuff at controlling low end for cheap. The reason people like the dense stuff so much is simply because it saves space, but it's actually pretty ineffective compared to say, 8" of pink stuff.
If you plan on mixing in this room I would highly suggest the books Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio and Home Recording Studio: Build It Like the Pros, as they both go over small, existing room treatments in great detail.
Good luck with your room.
Quick edit: Don't be tempted to put your monitors on their sides just to look cool. If they have tweeters then they should be standing upright to give the best imaging.
For a great start covering the basics of Reaper specifically, Kenny Gioia's Reaper 4 Explained series is good.
For specific questions about a detailed task you're trying to accomplish, Youtube and the Cockos forums are good. (e.g., "How do I change the tempo of a section without stretching the audio?")
For info on mixing in general, Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio is good (as others have said), but I prefer The Systematic Mixing Guide for a more straightforward, concise and practical approach.
Keep going, you'll get there! Finishing tracks requires a different set of skills, so you have to develop those too. Check out some books on mixing for info on the "final mile".
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240815807/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
Mixing Audio: Concepts, Practices and Tools https://www.amazon.com/dp/0240520688/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_404wDb9DMHAWZ
http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
Totally revolutionized my mixing
I recommend looking into some books on production. There is so much more information crammed into the better books than you will find in a week's of searching forums and youtube tutorials. For books on mixing, I say you can't go wrong with Bobby Owinski's The Mixing Engineer's Handbook or Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets for the Small Studioand for general production I recommend Rick Snoman's Dance Music Manual just be sure to get the latest edition, it includes chapters that cover everything from basic theory the popular genres (trance, dubstep, DnB, Techno, House, and Ambient/Chillout), it covers the electronics and science of acoustics, MIDI, DAW's and everything that come's along with them (instruments, effects, samplers, etc) and promoting and distributing your music. I can't say enough about this book and what a great way it was for me to see the "big picture" of what was ahead of me when I was starting out.
I highly recommend you get a copy of Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. It's a fantastic book that carefully explains what you're trying to accomplish when you mix and how to do it.
A place to start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfB7H4XXrYU
but it all starts with a good mix first: https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/
For mixing, as already mentioned: Mixing Engineer's Handbook (Bobby Owsinski), Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio (Mike Senior) and also Mixing Audio (Roey Izhaki).
For mastering: Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science (Bob Katz)
And here are some great books that are not strictly about mixing, but which are very insightful about music production in general:
I'm reading Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio to figure out how to get my tracks to sound professional and a big theme is setting up the right monitoring environment and a consistent workflow. I have a habit of mixing while I compose rather than waiting to add effects later. While my friends really like my arrangements, my tracks always seem to fall victim to muddiness.
Do you have any tricks that you employ to keep a workflow organized and sounding nice while at the same time promoting the 'finish your tracks' mentality that you've already mentioned?
EDIT: Grammar...
Nice song but the audio is nowhere near release quality. You need to work a lot on mixing. I highly recommend this book.
Mike Senior from Sound on Sound wrote a book that I found really helpful. It tackles everything from how to set up a good listening environment to how to use eq, compressors, reverbs, delays, etc.
It's called "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
Don't really know any good "production" books, but this book on mixing is fantastic http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z. I hear very nice things about the Dance Music Manual, so thats worth checking out. You should also get a book on your DAW. Never underestimate the value of understanding what your software can do. It'll save you a lot of endless google searches when you need to get something done. :)
Get this book: Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio by Mike Senior
http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
About the first 1/4 of that book is about monitors, how to place them in a small studio, and things you can do to control room noise. This was the most informative part of the book for me.
The author goes off on a lot of tangents but its a very good book for general production knowledge as well. It clarified a lot of things I had a rough idea of.
A good idea is to get a private teacher, someone who can listen to your mixdowns and tell you what is missing. You might learn really advanced techniques and forget them as you will never need to use them (like multiband compression). Instead, just focus on what will get your own mixdowns to the next level.
Have you read this book?
> Rhythm comes built into your body. You have a heart beat and if you close your eyes in a quiet room you can feel and hear the blood pumping in your ears. Your body is designed to be rhythmic.
Complementary reading:
(WARNING: I'm not an expert on anything, this is me trying to push an idea that I like upon which I've done no serious research at all, approach with skepticism and caution!)
I remember reading in The Ego Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger (which I don't have anymore and can't go back to) how the synchronicity of our neurons firing played a major role into creating this layer of self-vs-the-world feeling essential in creating a sense of consciousness in the human brain, to the point that a slight delay could have been at the source of some sorts of schizophrenia like feeling totally disconnected with the world or at the opposite of the spectrum a feeling of being only one with our external stimulus. (I found this, but haven't read it yet to ensure of it's content: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4423156/ )
So it's not just the rhythm of our hearts, it's actually the brain connecting everything at the same time (the lights from that apple hitting your eye, the breeze of the wind, you arm moving, your sense of balance - bref, bringing all your senses into one self contained experience) and keeping this sensation as a regular and predictive "tempo" is also essential.
Music plays with and satisfy that sensation. "My arm will take that glass - yep, it did, I have control over it" and "The snare is gonna hit really soon - yep it did, I'm still in contr-- wait what's that sound? This is interesting I didn't predict that! I bet it will be there again... yep there it is!"
Please! Feel free to correct me or add to it, I find this is a fascinating subject.
COMPLEMENTARY READING: "This Is Your Brain on Music" by Daniel Levitin, https://www.amazon.ca/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0452288525
http://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0452288525
Daniel Levitin - This is your Brain on Music
Great book. Guessing it would be right up your alley.
Not disagreeing with ya - looking forward to that source :)
I thiiiink my source was http://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0452288525 but it might have been some other brain book. I think I've been through about 4 in the last 2 years. They are (annoyingly) not loaded with details. The brain is still a pretty serious mystery. But new techniques for study have been found very recently. One that makes the brain transparent! Oh yeah! http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/03/19/flying-through-inner-space/ Also subscribe to http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/25/fridays-elk-a-newsletter-for-those-who-like-their-science-by-email/ - It's always interesting.
So I'm hoping that science will have the brain all figured out before I croak.
Read the book "This is your brain on music"
EDIT: sent that too fast. Here is the link to amazon
Great book. I think it might be right up your alley.
I'm definitely not qualified to answer your question myself, but I've been wanting to learn more about this subject as well and I was recommended this book by a few people. I think both of us would find it very informative!
Amazon link
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession Sound engineer turned neuroscientist talks about brains and music. Dude basically has my dream career.
This is your brain on music. The idea that when something musical surprises us, you know you might let out a little snicker and think "wow that's really good" or "interesting I wouldn't have done that but I like it" is like an inside joke we can appreciate. I can't help but think of that all the time now. Also the fact that we are programmed from a very early age to interpret and appreciate music. Just a great book in my opinion.
I'm too dumb to explain it myself, but I've read this book twice and it could help you too... ["This Is Your Brain on Music"] (https://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0452288525/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1495052092&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=your+brain+on+music)
Music absolutely affects our mind, but that doesn't make it evil. The interactions are very complex and we are only beginning to understand them. If you're interested in this, I recommend these two books to begin:
This Is Your Brain on Music
Musicophilia
There's an interesting book on the subject, written by Daniel J. Levitin. It's called:
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of A Human Obsession
Oliver Sacks has an excellent book on the subject as well:
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
Currently reading This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin. It's fascinating.
Both this book by Levitin, and this book by Sacks address it. Both are great reads. Side note: I believe the Levitin book came out before the Sacks book. Sacks wrote a glowing blurb in Levitin's book, and then Sacks wrote a book on nearly the same thing. I found it weird.
Hmmm. I mean basically, music is organized sound. Nobody's really sure why, but for some reason there are certain frequencies that we associate with positive and negative emotions, and certain frequencies that we deem "unpleasant-sounding".
I'm not super knowledgeable on music theory actually. I just know what sounds good and what doesn't. You should read up on the Pentatonic Scale, the Pythagorean theory of music, and also this wonderful book I'm reading.
I found this book :Guitar Fretboard Workbook by Barrett Tagliarino: to be a great book to compliment Freatboard logic. They both teach the same concepts in different ways. Work through them together to help you got to that AAAAAHAAAAA moment faster.
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1320691780&amp;sr=1-2
As /u/istigkeit-isness already pointed out, its as simple as counting down the fretboard, with each fret being half a step.
I'd recommend taking a look at this book, which gives a really clear, straightfoward introduction to guitar music theory.
Guitar Fretboard Workbook
Someone recommended [this](Guitar Fretboard Workbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634049011/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Mk8zCbDNDK1JH) to me, and I've found it very useful :)
I would do 2 things:
I learned CAGED from an older, jankier book; but I recommend Barrett's book on the topic to folks interested in expanding their fretboard freedom: https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/
He doesn't strictly call it CAGED, likely due to the confusion some have with separating the 'chord' from the 'shape'. Still, chock full of info and it's an actual workbook, with exercises.
this is really the fastest way. Chordead is one of my favorite games but to learn from the ground up it's way too slow. I used this book several years ago and I can now identify any note, most instantly but any others with a second or two.
This book really helped me get a good grasp of the fretboard. It's a workbook which means that there are (relatively) short explanations and then you fill out the rest yourself. It provides a good, structured way to practice, I think.
I just started reading Dance Music Manual, Second Edition: Tools. toys and techniques I like it this far and he mentions in the beginning that most genres will be covered.
No problem, it's actually really common for people to ditch the distinction since in electronic music so many producers also dj and they may even have "Dj" in their name.
For production, I think the best place to start is with tutorials on youtube and a DAW (Digital Audio workstation) which is just a software client for making music. Also, if you are near a bookstore, try going there and reading this http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Second-techniques/dp/0240521072/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1310497354&amp;sr=8-3. It is a great guide, and very thorough, but it's a bit pricey so I recommend reading it at a bookstore before you consider buying it. A lot of production is just finding your own way and style, but it is hard to overestimate the value of a good resource when you are starting out.
Also, try some good subreddits. There is /r/synthesizers, /r/edmproduction, and /r/Wearethemusicmakers. All of them are really receptive to questions, I find. Starting out you will probably have lots of questions, so don't be afraid to ask.
This is a solid book with a bit of theory and production.
You might be interested in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0240521072
Really thorough and explains everything you need to know in order to get a solid grounding in producing dance music.
The same guys also have a series of video tutorials that you might find useful: http://www.dancemusicproduction.com/index.php/tutorials#fundamentals
I've been playing around with electronic music for years, but only started taking it really seriously the past year. I've read a lot of books, and honestly, NOTHING has been more helpful to me than The dance music manual.
FL Studio is a great start in my opinion. If you've already put 10 hours in, and are making some cool sounds that you feel good about, you've already overcome one of the largest obstacles!
One way to take it to the next level is to try to re-create a song you like, or part of it, in FL Studio. Take for example this section of your first link. You could roughly recreate that in FL Studio without too much pain. Just don't give up until you get the sound you're looking for. Maybe start with the drum parts, figure out the 1,2,3,4's of it, and try to put that into a loop in FL. Then bust out the synthesizer for the saws on top of the drums. You said you don't have much synth experience, so layering some saws over your drums and tweaking things until it sounds correct would be a great exercise.
For MIDI gear, a small keyboard would be great for experimenting and learning. Maybe get one with some pads and knobs that you can map to your sweet FL saws that you were layering? I'd say skip the drum machine for now, you can do all of that sequencing in FL and 1000x better IMO. However drum pads are nice, where you can bang out patterns and fills using your hands. You could try something like the MPK25 USB controller which has keys, pads, and knobs all in one.
The main thing is to really sit down and learn. You've already got good software and the passion, that's all you need. A small midi keyboard or controller might help you get started, but don't get lost in different devices, plugins, etc. as they will just slow down your learning as they provide instant gratification while you miss out on learning the fundamentals. Books can be helpful as well, I'd recommend the Dance Music Manual. Don't lose your passion, practice or study every day. Read and watch videos! Ask questions!
Also, you might want to read---> The Dance Music Manual and Last Night a Dj Saved My Life probably the two biggest jumps in knowledge in this genre you'll ever have.
Youtube, and this book. The book will give you the theory, and youtube will tell you how to do it in Ableton.
Look up Mr. Bill and Tom Cosm. They both have a ton of awesome and free Ableton tutorials.
Whatever you do, though, don't get sucked in to paying for tutorials (exception: Tom Cosm). With a little bit of effort, you can find anything you need to know on Youtube.
Also, check out /r/edmproduction for general production tips.
If you're trying to work towards a particular genre or styling of music I'd highly suggest hitting the books a bit. Experimenting in FL Studio will get you far, but after a certain point I found it helpful to read more about music theory and structure as it applies to the type of music you want to produce.
For example, recently I was struggling with a house remix I've been working on - because I don't usually make dance music. At someone else's recommendation I picked up this book and I've already learned so much that has helped me improve my music.
I'll also agree with another poster that picking a particular song (it helps if the song is in a genre you want to compose in, so you'll be able to keep your interest) and trying to recreate it is a great learning tool, but reading about how different types of music are typically constructed is also helpful.
I recommend buying this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0240521072
Limiters often introduce a bit of distortion since you're essentially folding the signal when it clips (or exceeds your threshold). Limiters are normally used to push the 'loudness' of a track (i.e. crank everything up, throw a limiter on it, voila it's louder and you don't have to worry about clipping). Honestly, using limiters has only limited myself. An amateur using a limiter will have trouble getting their tracks to sound right, since louder always sounds better in isolation, but doesn't necessarily mean it sounds better in the mix.
this book can help, it is helping me
Here is the desktop version of your link
This book helped me improve with Reason a lot. The genre-specific sections are pretty dated now, but it is loaded with great advice on sound design, music theory, and mixing.
Dance Music Manual, Second Edition: Tools, Toys, and Techniques https://www.amazon.com/dp/0240521072/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_pV1dBb1P15E5N
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1598635034/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240521072/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
Terrific book
This one is a little broader in scope, but it's been one of my go to reference books for years. Even if you're not into EDM, the topics discussed can be applied to pretty much every genre of production.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240521072
Dance Music Manual, one of my favorite http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0240521072?vs=1
I thought this one was pretty good. Talks in depth about various mixing techniques, EQing certain instruments, and where instruments should sit in mixes. It’s honestly not anything you won’t find online but as one consolidated book it’s pretty good.
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio (Sound On Sound Presents...) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0240815807/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XiQIAbC62CP9N
I also recommend https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:
Amazon Smile Link: Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
|Country|Link|
|:-----------|:------------|
|UK|amazon.co.uk|
|Spain|amazon.es|
|France|amazon.fr|
|Germany|amazon.de|
|Japan|amazon.co.jp|
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|Italy|amazon.it|
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This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.
SOS magazine has a shit load of articles on every production topic you could imagine. These are very in depth articles, by some real knowledgeable folks. Don't let the fact some of these articles are a decade old put you off. They are still relevant, specially in intemporal topics like EQ.
https://www.google.pt/search?q=sos+eq+articles
Also here's a recommendation for a good book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807 (it's from a reviewer for SOS)
^^^(and ^^^you ^^^can ^^^even ^^^find ^^^it ^^^online)
One book that I keep recommending is Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio.
While it's intended for recording engineers, it's very good at explaining the structure of a mix, and all the tools you can use to shape it.
And, like everyone said before me, get familiar with the digital mixer interface using the offline editors. You'll soon start seeing how similar they all are.
I have read that and personally didn't take a whole lot away from it. For mixing I would recommend Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. For theory I would look into this, or maybe jazz stuff depending on your style, e.g. The Jazz Theory Book.
There are a whole lot of free resources that are worth checking out too, like Pensado's Place, r/musictheory , Pro Audio Files, Freejazzlessons.com, SeamlessR, etc.
These books were invaluable to me:
https://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0415825644/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=dimitridealen-20&amp;linkCode=w00&amp;linkId=6e883bdc057896253093f8e054c72c99&amp;creativeASIN=0415825644
https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Presents/dp/0240815807/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=dimitridealen-20&amp;linkCode=w00&amp;linkId=9e884653f74a627e4c84ece7550dfa1b&amp;creativeASIN=0240815807
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-Science-Bob-Katz/dp/0240818962/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=dimitridealen-20&amp;linkCode=w00&amp;linkId=c808c7581697392d615117dd9b96ec07&amp;creativeASIN=0240818962
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Arranging-Orchestration/dp/1592576265/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=dimitridealen-20&amp;linkCode=w00&amp;linkId=e16959ecc585f52445a79cb70f6fc52c&amp;creativeASIN=1592576265
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Art-Songwriting/dp/1615641033/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=dimitridealen-20&amp;linkCode=w00&amp;linkId=f587c782544a93ca1c853f973da25f0d&amp;creativeASIN=1615641033
No subwoofer? Those Rokits lowest end is around 45Hz or so - not so good for EDM. Also consider using speaker stands & adding some acoustic foam on the sides of the speakers & behind. (I've been reading up on small studio setups lately; check out http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807 )
I think one of the best ways to get better is to watch youtube videos. Specifically for me I have enjoyed Produce like a pro with Warren Huart
https://www.youtube.com/user/WarrenHuartRecording/
Also check out any videos from people who show the before and after sounds of their mixes. It is a good way to hear what they changed and sometimes they show and explain their thought process. I think it is important to remember that mixing is full of objective and subjective decisions and you have to find what works for you.
Another couple of things I did that really helped my mixing is I bought the Slate everything bundle and it comes with a short mixing class, that along with this book by Mike Senior have really improved the sound of my mixes
https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
Quick note though I'd still consider myself a beginner and there could be better resources and advice out there but feel free to ask anything I would try to help!
Definitely check out this book if you need some info on monitors. The first chapter lays out some great ideas for what monitors to look for.
https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Presents/dp/0240815807/ref=nodl_
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio is fantastic.
As for advice? Just do it. FL is fine to get started. If you feel it's holding you back, there's plenty of DAWs out there, some such as Reaper (if you're tech savvy, also it's free until you want to pay for it), Ableton (leans towards live performance), or Studio One (Free version available to learn on as well). Just... make a lot of shit, then make a lot of semi-ok shit, then make some ok shit and a few awesome things, then make awesome things with some occasional shit. It's the only way. You're already doing it.
These two books will get you far:
[The Mixing Engineer's Handbook](The Mixing Engineer's Handbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/128542087X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_mSDqzbH36PSN0)
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
Here's a lengthy video series on mixing by Michael White: Fundamentals of Mixing
I like the way he uses graphical representations to help you visualize various aspects of mixing.
Also check out the UBK Happy Funtime Hour podcast.
I'm relatively new to the mixing game, started a few years ago in college and started back up now that I have a house and room to mix again, and those two resources were my favorites especially when I started learning.
First, you might not need all the info, but I highly recommend Mike Seniors book "Mixing secrets for the small studio". It's around $20, but totally worth it:
https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Presents/dp/0240815807
The most important parts are:
A. he helps you get started on getting a good sounding room and speakers, which you need at least some of or you won't know what sounds good.
B. he goes through a mix step by step. Pros probably don't need that rigid of a format for going through a mix, but as a beginner, it's a great way to know what you should be listening for. It also keeps you from spending hours just messing around with no idea where you're headed, which is what I wasted too much time on early on.
One other resources helpful for beginners, if you wanna watch a lot of videos, is the Recording Revolution youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/user/recordingrevolution Most of his content is aimed towards new mixers, and he routinely does new series where he'll go through a mix step by step and show you how he does it, often using just stock plugins. While you might not follow everything he does (Sometimes he gets a little mix bus heavy, which I don't think is the best way to start for beginners) but his explanations on how plugins work is usually sound.
Anyway, lots of other great tips on this already, just thought I'd add my 2 cents.
I've been reading through Mixing Secrets for the Home Studio by Mike Senior and I love it. Definitely recommend it to anyone looking to improve their mixing chops!
Regarding speakers for your studio, you don't need the huge hi-fi speakers that big studios have, they use those mainly to flatter artists and industry reps. For mixing, you should get a set of speakers with a relatively flat frequency response that spotlights the midrange and has low distortion. The Avatone Mix Cube is good for this. You only really need one because a lot of mixing is in mono. The Yamaha NS10s are also good (these are more expensive and are pretty standard in most studios. The thing about these speakers is not that they sound good, but that, on first listen, you'd probably think they sound bad; they highlight problems in your mix.
I imagine if you're doing hip-hop a lot of your listeners will listen on headphones so it's useful to do some mixing on headphones (you might do mono mixing on your nearfield and work out panning and stereo stuff on headphones, for example), so get two good pairs of studio headphones-one for you, and one for people you record (unless you're building this to record yourself, although if people know you have this cool studio they might want to get in on the action and it'd be good to be prepared for that if it does happen-you might also want to record a feature on your track or something).
Get a DAW and know it back and forth. I would say for your purposes, unless you're already well-versed in Pro Tools or already have a copy of it, don't get Pro Tools-there's a huge learning curve and it's by far the most expensive. Reaper has a free demo that you can use indefinitely and FL Studio and Audacity are free. Ableton is what most producers use but it's not really made for tracking or mixing, so what some people do is they produce in Ableton and bounce the track to another DAW to mix.
Microphone-wise, ideally for vocals you want a large-diaphragm condenser. A small-diaphragm will work too but LDCs are standard. You can record on a dynamic mic but they usually need a lot more gain which might mean more noise and you'll need to be handy at mixing to get the sound you want out of a dynamic mic.
If you're investing in a big project like this, read a lot and know what you're doing. This book will get you started on mixing techniques and the basics. This one is a must, it starts out with some chapters on how to acoustically treat the room you're working in which even though it isn't glamorous or fun is totally vital to a good studio.
sm57 to mic your guitars.
addictive drums 2 or bfd3 for drums.
a bass guitar + bass amp
this book: http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807
Also, this is a good book: http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1342191073&amp;sr=1-3
I'd recommend Mike Senior's book, Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio. This will be the most straightforward and efficient approach. The book is fantastic. On top of that, I would start reading SoundOnSound magazine, which has regular articles on mixing (often by Mike Senior himself).
Youtube videos can work, but you'll save yourself a lot of time by simply having a tell-all book.
A book on mixing. https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Presents/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1506324649&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=mixing+for+the+small+studio
Yeah, but all that treatment is completely wasted time and money because the speakers are going to create massive phase issues because you are pointing them at the short length of the room.
this is not a super secret pro tip, this is something that ten minutes of research would have told you is a huge no no.
Also, those ported speakers are too close to the wall. You should have them on stands, set back from the wall, and you should have them set up as a equilateral triangle if you want to use them as proper nearfield monitors. Your desk is too wide and too low to have an equilateral triangle at ear height.
It's a cool ass room and it will be great for chilling and watching movies or whatever. However, it's going to be a fucking nightmare if you ever want to do serious audio work(and by serious I mean if you want to have any clue what is happening when making programming and mix decisions while working).
Edit:this forums archives are really helpful for this kind of stuff
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/studio-building-acoustics/
If you want most of the information I've gleaned from that forum condensed into a single source, this book is worth it's price in time savings alone:
https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1479748811&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=Secrets+of+the+small+studio
I highly recommend the book "Mixing secrets for the small studio"
https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1479662743&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=mixing+for+the+small+studio
http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1347500092&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=mixing+and+mastering
Well everybody's got a different bloody perspective don't they. ;) It's impossible for beginners to know which direction to start in.
The book i'm reading is this one. It was recommended to me at this very sub-reddit.
Youtube. Here's a starting point but just search for your specific DAW to start, but eventually it doesn't matter as much once you learn the fundamentals. This book is good too. Search in the sidebar and just google. Tons of resources out there you just have to put the work in. I've spent like, the last year trying to learn about it and I'm still ass, but I'm improving.
So first step to improvement is self examination. As long as you are hungry and looking for ways to improve it's going to happen with practice. All things considered you are doing pretty well for doing this one year and not having a background in music(saying your self taught is I guess what this means) is. So right now what is the difference between you and most people on soundcloud. Frankly not much. But out of let's say 1000 people who are at the level where you are how many say, "Yeah what I got is pretty good" compare to yourself who says "Alright, what I got is fair but how do I take it further". There are people out there better than you but if you are hungry and want to learn you will eventually pass them.
Now regarding your product. Beats are fine. If you were collabing with someone who wanted a simple beat for them to burn on its fine. But fine doesn't cut it with so many people out there. You need to learn how to use equalization, compression, filtering, delay, reverb. These are just as important as what you compose. You have a vision right? You hear other people's beats that you want to get close to. The more you learn the dynamics and effects the better your will be. And yeah when it's appropriate automate your tracks man. Not to a point where you step all over an artist but enough to engage the listener. Rule of four, if something doesn't change in four measures people check out.
I highly recommend this book for someone like yourself.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0240815807/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1466480159&amp;sr=8-1&amp;pi=SY200_QL40&amp;keywords=small+studio+mixing
Lastly yeah you should be collaborating. You will touch base with people who are ahead of you now but like yourself there's always someone trying to come up. The more you practice w people the better. Keep at it man. You will get better it's just part of the process.
I'm a big fan of the following books
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
Zen and the Art of Mixing
I recommend reading this book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240815807/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
I asked this very question myself on /reasoners a while back and someone suggested it to me(thanks whoever you were). Gives you a really good foundation on the more technical aspects of mixing and the theory behind certain mixing practices. Kinda a dry read but push through it.
I'd also like to second that mixing is not really so much about loudness but rather making your mix sound balanced both in the volume of individual tracks and the areas of the eq spectrum in which they occupy. Loudness is typically achieved as a result of this and also mastering after your mix sounds the way you like it.
Also, it helps to compare your own mix to a song or artist that you like the sound of and want to imitate from a mix standpoint.
It takes time but you will get it figured out. Just keep at it.
My little brother ... he's been doing it for 20 years. So his tips and help have been invaluable. And then after that this book here, for mixing:
Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio
It's a bit expensive but it's worth every penny. Got so much from it.
I've read, and enjoyed, Izotopes guide. Their Guide To Mastering is also a great flyby for basic mastering.
Anyone who wants a real in depth look, I recommend "Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio" by Mike Senior:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240815807/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687642&amp;pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&amp;pf_rd_t=201&amp;pf_rd_i=1598632515&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_r=0FHN1BXAFDMJ7D69KB5X
Enjoyable read, and certainly taught me a tremendous amount.
Read a book, maybe this one in particular https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0240815807
Then make a few hundred songs.
Here is the mobile version of your link
I would look into This Is Your Brain on Music. I don't know for sure if it's as psychological as you're looking for though, or more physiological, since I haven't read it but it's been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time.
Go check out "This Is Your Brain On Music" by musician and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin check it out here. Amazing book. Anyway I'll try to summarize some of the ideas behind human preference for the 4/4 meter. So you know tally marks right? Try writing out tally marks more than four in a row. It starts to get confusing to count! Most people can't really count more than 4 straight lines next to each other in a row at a glance (although some really crazy people can count 8 or more that way!) so we adopted the cross tally for the 5th mark. Birds, for example, get confused after seeing groups of 2 or 3 (can't remember which... maybe 3). So birds can tell if the difference between a predator that's alone and one that's with partner, but perceive more than 3 as basically also 3.
At the end of the day it's a limitation of our wiring. We like 4/4 because anything beyond that becomes very difficult to perceive and "feel" for most people. I imagine alien species with more advanced brains go to nightclubs for some 9/7 music. Weird.
EDIT: added amazon link. Damn good book!
Sorry, I should have specified that it doesn't cause permanent changes. As far as science knows, at least.
And thanks for the book to check out! If you like learning about why our brains get up to odd shit, check this out. I found it to be quite an interesting read.
If you want a detailed answer, this book is pretty decent. I searched amazon for "brain on music" to find the link and saw quite a few other books on the subject which look relevant, although I haven't read myself to personally recommend.
I'm not aware of any specific study that directly addresses your question, but based on existing, similar research, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a correlation.
The Mozart Effect has long held that listening to classical music potentially increases spatial-temporal reasoning, a skill highly core to success in mathematics. As classical music is obviously purely instrumental, perhaps there is an inverse link in which mathematically-minded people tend to be more attentive or appreciative of patterns rather than lyrics.
If you're interested in a more in-depth read about how our brains interpret music, and what makes us like the music we like, I'd highly recommend reading This Is Your Brain On Music. Again, I don't recall the book addressing any studies that directly answer your question, but there's a lot of intriguing information to gain if it's a topic of interest to you.
And since everyone else is, I may as well add in that I too am mathematically-minded and tend to focus on pattern more than lyrics.
Maybe - This is Your Brain on Music?
Maybe read this, why not?:
http://www.amazon.ca/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0452288525
A really focused book is "This is Your Brain on Music" by Daniel Levitin. It is (obviously) focused on music and how the brain perceives it, but has some other basic knowledge of how the brain works.
I don't know. There is a book called "this is your brain on music", which is great for this exact topic. I don't really know too much about the brain beyond the basics. I have the book, but I'm in the middle of a few other books so I haven't read it yet
This Is Your Brain on Music?
Not exactly sound, but This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin is a great read. The author is a musician turned neuroscientist who pretty much analyzes how sound/music is understood by humans
Edit: just realized you were specifically looking for an audio book. I don't know if there is one
If you want more information about this, read This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin. Another cool one is Musicophilia by Dr. Oliver Sacks, but that one is more about brain disorders that cause very strange music-related phenomenon. Like the inability to detect pitch, or sense melody, and other weird stuff.
maybe check out these books: http://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0452288525 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400033535/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944579862&amp;pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&amp;pf_rd_t=201&amp;pf_rd_i=0452288525&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_r=1M279DEH4CSSGMJ08BVZ
upvote but i respectfully disagree. i think a lot of guitarists feel more relaxed when they're blazed and more "in the zone". also ya i've heard the same about improv too.
here's a good book that talks about music and your brain:
this is your brain on music (amazon)
i thought it was kind of interesting
I would read musicophilia and this is your brain on music. I found them to be both fascinating and full of information on earworms.
worth while read. This seems to interest you
You will like: http://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Brain-Music-Obsession/dp/0452288525
Hello!
The first thing that you have to do is pick a system to help you memorize the fretboard, because 21-22 frets across 6 strings gets confusing really quickly. The system I recommend to everyone is the CAGED system, and you will find that it's the most commonly used system for understanding the fretboard. There's a great book that breaks down the entire fretboard using CAGED called Guitar Fretboard Workbook by Barrett Tagliarino. Here's an Amazon link - https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011
That book will give you a system to work with which acts as a foundation for your understanding of the fretboard. If you're looking to memorize all the notes on the fretboard as well, here's how I did it. Pick a note, C for example, and play all the C notes across the 6 strings. Then pick another note and play every instance of that note across the 6 strings. Start with maybe one or two notes a day, then slowly work your way up till you can do all 12 musical notes. Of course, there are many other ways to memorize the notes, but this exercise should suffice for now.
I hope I was helpful!
There are two books that really helped me piece everything together in terms of music theory and fretboard theory:
This book really helps connect the sounds you hear in your head to the notes on the fretboard. I'd say this book alone can help most self-taught guitarists clear up any questions about the instrument that they might have. By the way, this book uses the CAGED system, so if you're somewhat familiar with that already, this book will provide even more ideas that you can use using this system.
This book covers most of the music theory you'd need to know when it comes to contemporary western music. As the others have pointed out, theory is descriptive and not prescriptive, but it does speed up your learning a lot when you actually know the names of certain chords, scales, chord substitutions, etc.
Checkout the Guitar Fretboard Workbook by Barrett Tagliarino - https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011
It was this one https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?adgrpid=61759654491&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw-vjqBRA6EiwAe8TCk_Ln-r2FD3gcrJpk1_RPEFpS1ovc0k5HK7PSpzZd_u1QIHh4pg8w6BoCrZ0QAvD_BwE&amp;hvadid=274696380219&amp;hvdev=m&amp;hvlocphy=9015257&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvpos=1t1&amp;hvqmt=e&amp;hvrand=17314199214672980168&amp;hvtargid=aud-647846986281%3Akwd-298712877107&amp;hydadcr=15396_10362670&amp;keywords=fretboard+workbook&amp;qid=1566501188&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-2
Just got the Guitar Fretboard Workbook by Barrett Tagliarino so been working through that.
For a guitarist, I recommend this book - lots of good explanation, practical exercises, and all tied back to practical music making:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011
https://www.justinguitar.com
Start with the beginner course, and work your way through the intermediate course. These are basic but they will give you a solid foundation to build from. Maybe after that go for the Guitar Fretboard Workbook and/or Fretboard Logic SE. Should put you well on your way.
http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011 http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=0C972VD8ZWFB78C2JGQ6 i have these two books i have been reading them and will soon get rocksmith, i play drums so i already understood the notation for rhythm, and the theory for melody i find to be interesting and not that hard, i own an ibanez as73