Best music instruction & study books according to redditors
We found 458 Reddit comments discussing the best music instruction & study books. We ranked the 135 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 458 Reddit comments discussing the best music instruction & study books. We ranked the 135 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We need to understand what theory is and where it comes from.
For example, it might not be very useful to analyze a rap song with the same techniques we do with Classical stuff. It's certainly not useful to analyze a drum cadence in that way.
So first you need to pick out a style that you really want to analyze out. Hell, you could start with a single song. But either way, follow that backwards through time/formal analysis. You'll find that many styles follow this thing called "tonal theory". The idea is that much of music has a tonal center - that's to say, a single chord (and by some extensions, a single pitch or note) that we can use to define the entire key/song.
The beginning of tonal music came around the Baroque era, but we can start with Classical-era stuff (i.e. Mozart, Handel, Haydn). At this point there's clear structure to it - there are ideas of tonics, dominants, and predominants. This will end up being the basis of a TON of music - so-called "classical", rock, pop, jazz - much of the music we have today is reliant on this set of ideas.
So how do you start? Well, find some structure. Music has absolutely zero shortcuts. You need to carve out your own path through theory. Unfortunately this means acknowledging some permanent, temporally-obstacles (for example, learning atonality after tonality changes your understanding of atonality), but a not-so-bad way to do it is chronologically.
To do this, you can hit up musictheoryonline. Don't skip any of the exercises, boring as they may be. Or pick up a textbook. This was my undergrad textbook^1 , and I think it's pretty good. Read through each chapter. Take the time to listen to all the examples.
Your best bet is to get a decent theory textbook. It might not always be material that you think is applicable to what you do, but it will set the groundwork for more specialized study.
Clendinning/Marvin
Laitz
Some of the material in the above is also found in Seth Monahan’s YouTube, www.musictheory.net, and www.openmusictheory.com.
I also suggest Understanding Rock to get an idea of what analysis of rock music can look like, though you’ll probably need a grasp on a good chunk of textbook theory before you get there. (Same as for this article, and the knowledge requirement is probably even higher for that one.)
Common fitness-related concepts of discipline and progressive overload are ones that I think can be applied to any skill, including music. And the idea of having a set routine allows you to track progress and raise difficulty in a manageable and controlled way.
I think ear training fits this model very well. There is a book by Bruce Arnold called "Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training and Sight Singing" that has a routine you could apply to this. The basic idea is to progressively memorize the relationship between a tonality (i.e. a major or minor key) and each of the 12 pitch classes (relative to the key).
For example, you start off with the relative "do", the tonic. You are given a major chord in a random key and your job is to sing "do". With each chord you're given, you repeat by singing "do" in that chord. For example, if you're given a D major triad, you sing a D, then you might be given an G# major triad, and you sing G#. You keep doing this until singing "do" from hearing the chord requires no thought, no mental shortcut or mnemonic. Once you master that, you move on to "sol". Again, it has to be automatic. No relying on mnemonics like singing the Star Wars theme in your head. With time, it becomes second nature. As you continue on, it gets harder, especially when you start singing scale degrees that aren't the chord, like "re" or "la". Then it gets a lot harder when you start singing notes that aren't in that key, like "di" or "fi".
You can also do it the opposite way - hearing a note against a chord and identifying the scale degree.
This whole progression of ear training is quite difficult and requires a lot of time and discipline, but the benefits are huge. It helps in so many other aspects of musicianship. Being able to identify scale degrees will improve your ability to analyze and understand music as you're listening to it. For example, for much of contemporary or pop music, you'll be able to analyze the harmony just by identifying the scale degrees of the bass-line. It will make it easier to compose if you have music in your head. And of course, if you're a singer, it'll make it much easier to sight sing.
EDIT: here's a link to the book in case any one is interested: https://amzn.com/189094419X
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!
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!
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.
A few points.
1.) learn the notes of the guitar
2.) learn some basic music theory
-learn about intervals (and their various shapes on the fretboard)
I think spengali is wrong about scales. Scales are very important. The first two scales you want to learn are the pentatonic scales and the major scale. The pentatonic scale is traditionally taught with five scales shapes (buy Fretboard Logic and learn about the CAGED system). The Major scale is traditionally either taught with 5 CAGED shapes or 7 three notes per string shapes.
Let me give you an example. C major contains the notes (cdefgabc), if you want to create a solo in C major, that means that you play only those notes, and you mix them up creatively as you wish. Anywhere on the fretboard where those notes occur, you can play them. In order to make it easier to play them, the fretboard is broken up into sections. That's what the scale shapes are. In order to change keys, you just shift the shapes (if you're not sure what I mean, just ask).
In the beginning it's best to just memorize the shapes without concern for what mode you're in. If you learn the 5 pentatonic shapes, you automatically learn minor pentatonic and major pentatonic. The shapes are exactly the same. The same goes for the major scale. If you learn the 5 caged shapes or the 7 three notes per string shapes, you've learned the major scale and all the diatonic modes too, including the minor scale (or aeolian as it's also called) because the shapes are exactly the same.
When you play a solo, you essentially take the notes of a given scale and mix them up creatively. So you learn the scale shapes, learn how to connect the various shapes together, and you jumble the notes up creatively to make music.
You might be wondering, if the notes of a C major scale and an A minor scale are exactly the same, and both are jumbled up creatively to make music, how can they be separate modes/scales?
The answer is that it's the chord you're playing over the defines what mode you're in. The notes of a C major scale jumbled up over a C major chord will sound like C major and the notes of a C major scale jumbled up over an A minor chord will sound like A minor (or A aeolian).
Edit: I'm in no way affiliated with this website, but the teacher is not only a great player, but very clear, and very thorough.
http://www.guitarlessons365.com/
Also, this is a good, easy to read book on music theory that won't make your head hurt.
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Music-Theory-Book-Understanding/dp/1593376529
Edit 2: Just wanted to elaborate on my very incomplete and slightly misleading comment about modes. These links are a better explanation of them.
http://www.guitarlessons365.com/scores/feb2010/UnderstandingModes.pdf
http://www.guitarlessons365.com/scores/feb2010/WritingModalProgressions.pdf
By "understand music" I'm assuming you mean like music theory?
www.musictheory.net is a wonderful resource to start you off, some of it may seem too easy at first but stick to it and it'll get challenging. Past that, I would honestly recommend picking up a textbook. Music in Theory and Practice is the best damn textbook you can get that takes you from "what are notes" to late romantic era macro analysis of chord relationships. It's pricey but it's good. Tonal Harmony is another good one, and is a much better deal I linked to one on Amazon for $50. I know spending a lot of money on a textbook seems like a waste when we have the Internet, but they are both textbooks that you will keep and continue to use and reference for years. I own both of those because I needed them for music theory classes at different universities, but even without a professor to lecture, the material in there is pretty self explanatory. Let me know if you have any questions / want a better explanation, I hope I understood your question correctly!
Edit: I forgot to add /r/musictheory is available too, but a lot of posts there assume the reader already knows quite a bit about theory, it isn't exactly a resource for someone wanting to begin learning. The sidebar there might have some useful stuff though.
I assure you it's not an issue that you just have or don't have. "Talent" is not a fixed issue.
It's almost certainly an issue of you just not approaching it correctly. This is common with self-teaching musicians and it's honestly especially common with musicians who have background or fluency in one instrument and try to take up another.
Both are rooted in the same problem. Both groups want to be too good too fast and when they can't instantly surmount something difficult, they give up. For those with proficiency in another instrument, it's usually because they try to skip the technical fundamentals of a new instrument because "I already know all this stuff... I'm a good musician." Their ego cripples them putting on the training wheels and sounding like a 3 year-old for several weeks.
For the self-teaching, it's similar. They want something to sounds like a song ASAP. They want it to be an awesome song too... not just something simple. No children's songs. They want to sound cool.
And for both groups, once they get good at one type of thing, they abandon anything else. For you, there's a pattern that you're good at... so you stick to it. If it's something else and it's hard, you give up fast and go back to your safe pattern. For so many musicians they stick to the style or (often with pianists) composer they are best at. It makes them look good. It makes them feel good and gives them that sweet dopamine hit.
It's the same reason people are convinced that you either can play by ear or can play by music, but not both. Most people just get good at one and won't work on the other. For them it's too hard (ear to sheets) or it seems like magic (sheets to ear).
>A) am practicing incorrectly, B) not practicing enough, C) started learning to play instruments too later in life or D) my brain just isn't wired correctly for this stuff. It's probably all four, but lately I'm leaning more towards C and D.
I'd wager it's almost certainly A. B is not as relevant as people thing since quality trumps quantity (see A again).
As for C and D, they are just excuses. I started a lot of things late. Sure I went and got a degree in music, but before college I'd only played trumpet... one not at a time. I was pretty terrible at most of the compulsory piano stuff we had to do and abandoned it after scraping by the requirements.
But then I took up piano seriously at 26 and I now make most of my living playing piano. I've taken up guitar. I've taken up accordion. I gig on the 4 mentioned instruments to varying degrees and I dabble in plenty of others.
I don't have great hands for any of it. I have small hands with fat fingers. I have a mild webbing on my left. I struggle to play barre chords on guitar due to the size of my hands and some chords are physically beyond me because my thumb doesn't wrap around enough.
The thing is, I spend most of my time working on whatever I suck at. I never sound impressive because I'm not working on showy pieces or things that make me feel like I'm awesome. I'm zeroing in on anything that I'm bad at and working on it.
I can think of many times working on my left hand on accordion where my brain felt like it was absolutely melting because it was so mentally taxing and beyond me... at the time. And despite playing the piano, I still have plenty of coordination issues that I have to work through on accordion. In some ways it's easier, and in some ways it's harder. The bellows definitely add a wrinkle.
But if you want to get good at something, you just need to slow it down and work on it consistently...not over minutes or hours... but over days and weeks and months. Slow it down so much you barely know what you're playing and make things line up. Sure, it's really frustrating on accordion (bellows make this more of a chore than most instruments), but the concept is the exact same as working on anything hard. Do it slow... so slow you can't even recognize what you're doing. Line it up and speed it up.
Don't go cower into your comfortable waltz patterns. Don't go work exclusively on just your right or your left hand because they individually make you feel better... Practice isn't about sounding good. It's about sounding like shit so that one day you'll sound less like shit.
I'd highly recommend you read this book not only to dispel you're notion that you just don't have it, but also to give you some understanding and strategies for how to practice effectively.
If you want to learn piano, go to amazon and get these 4 books:
1.The Musician’s Way
2.First Lessons in Bach
3. Two and Three Part Inventions
And finally
4. The Well-Tempered Clavier
These books will teach you all you need to know about music. This is how I personally started playing piano. Work through the books in order, as each one builds on top of the other. Once you can play counterpoint excellently you can play pretty much anything else.
In the words of Brahms: “Study Bach. There you will find everything.”
As far as a keyboard goes, I have a Yamaha P-60 and it gets the job done. Just make sure you have weighted keys and 88 and you’re good. Bach’s music doesn’t require a pedal, so you don’t even really need that.
Good luck on your musical journey! To work through all these books will take a life time.
Books, books and more books
http://www.amazon.com/Musicians-Way-Practice-Performance-Wellness/dp/0195343131/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418943223&sr=1-7&keywords=music+theory
http://www.amazon.com/Chord-Wheel-Ultimate-Tool-Musicians/dp/0634021427/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418943269&sr=1-14&keywords=music+theory
http://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418943285&sr=1-15&keywords=music+theory
The Musicians Way.
Goes in depth about how to practice, memorize, improve, create practice routines, how to stay healthy. And a lot more.
All good to follow a book and learn. But, only you, and maybe your instructor, know your weakness. Good know how to spot them, and create a practice schedule around that.
Edit: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0195343131/ref=pd_aw_fbt_b_img_2?refRID=0M5P4Y51J8CNC5JBCSGB
Dont know how to do the fancy link stuff on mobile
This is definitely not a rule for how to write music now, just a rule for how to write music in the style of Bach/Mozart/Beethoven/Haydn etc. If you're interested in Tonal (read: Common Practice) Harmony, here are a few good theory books used in Freshman/Sophomore college music curriculums (in my order of preference):
The Complete Musician
Techniques and Materials of Music
Harmony and Voice Leading
Tonal Harmony
I'm also a composer, and I tend to write more modally (and sometimes without a strict tonality), so I just teach these, I don't necessarily follow them in my own writing.
I'm not the most qualified person to answer because I'm still learning the ropes myself, but I can tell you the path I took. This is just one approach:
I would say the first step is to learn a DAW (digital audio workstation). I'd recommend Ableton just because it is very popular so you will find loads of resources and online tutorials. Reaper is also a good option if you don't want to spend a lot of money.
Then you may want to learn synthesis. Start with subtractive synthesis and in the future you can learn about FM, additive, and granular synthesis. You could try Syntorial (highly recommended) or a book like Refining Sound but I'm sure there are some good free tutorials out there if you look. Pick one synth plugin you can mess around with. There are loads of free plugins but you can also try Massive, Serum, Ableton's Analog, etc. For something a lot more complex but great for ambient, you may want to learn Reaktor (I think Tim Hecker uses Reaktor in some of his music). Here's a free online course that will teach you synthesis and Reaktor.
Finally learn about effects. Check out VahallaDSP, Audio Damage, FabFilter. Ableton Suite's built-in plugins are all really great too. You'd be amazed how a good reverb can totally transform your sound. Again, there are lots of free effects plugins you can download as well.
If you want to go the hardware route (which is much more expensive but can be rewarding), I'd suggest getting a polyphonic synthesizer. The Korg Minilogue, Roland System-1, or Novation Mininova could be good places to start. Pair that with a good effects pedal (the Zoom MS-70CDR is a great and affordable multi-effects pedal) and you can start making ambient music right away.
My last and most important piece of advice is to use the internet. There is just a plethora of resources online. Just google what you want to do (e.g. "how to make drone music on ableton") and you'll find tons of youtube tutorials, walkthroughs, forum topics, etc. It may spark more creative ideas and lead you down a new rabbit hole.
EDIT: One more thing, be sure to check out /r/edmproduction. Despite the name, it's a great place to learn about electronic music production in general.
STL Ocarina has a good selection of method books
Different articulations for ocarina
This one is in Italian for 10 hole ocarina. It has music excerpts in standard music notation.
Scales and arpeggios for ocarina
New Ocarina Method from Gruppo Ocarinistico Budrio
Cris Gale's Ocarina Method
So this might only be partially related to your question but thought I'd share anyway if you are interested in a little read.
Firstly, I think tabs are great and reading music takes much more practice.
Play some tabs of the music you love and get hooked. Then gradually learn to read music if you can.
That aside, wish I had the answer for you on the site.
Maybe a couple of these will help:
http://web.archive.org/web/20170802200045/http://tabs-ocarina.com:80/ocarina-tab-list
http://web.archive.org/web/20181127043926/https://ocarina-tabs.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20180530023007/http://www.ocarinaforum.com/index.php?board=11.0
​
However, if you can afford a few bucks, try getting a book. songbirdocarina.com has some books with tabs and lots of great songs.
I know it sounds silly, like "Why pay for it if I can get it for free?" but after getting a music book, I found, helps me focus to play. Also nice to put my electronics aside and go somewhere with a book and be just myself an my ocarina.
Also, I highly recommend Hal Leonard Ocarina Method by Cris Gale. Teaches you a lot of good techniques and also how to read music gradually with lots of pretty easy songs.
​
Sorry that this didn't answer your question though. Would be nice to have a good site with all of that and maybe a place for people to collaborate on that again if anyone knows/has one.
Here is the book I've used with adult piano students: https://www.amazon.com/Adult-Piano-Adventures-All-Course/dp/1616773022
>It's perhaps the least romantic gift ever
Hahahahaha! I would definitely agree, though—I think the CHWMT would be an excellent book. If she goes through any sort of History of Theory course (which most PhD programs do), I can't imagine she wouldn't use this book. Even if she didn't have such a course, this book is a collection of (with perhaps one exception) excellent essays written by top scholars on almost every major theoretical approach or issue in the history of Western music.
I won't speak for other sub-disciplines—vornska's suggestions are definitely some of the central books in present theoretical studies—but let me make some suggestions for books more oriented towards Schenkerian analysis.
Schenker's Free Composition — this is Schenker's magnum opus in which he lays out his mature theory. For any Schenkerian, this is definitely a Bible of sorts, and a must-have. Just be sure, if you end up purchasing this, to get both volumes; one volume is the text and the second is the examples. You can also find the hardcover first English edition, sometimes even for less than the price of the two paperbacks.
Cadwallader and Gagné's Analysis of Tonal Music: A Schenkerian Approach — this has become the standard textbook for teaching Schenkerian analysis, and I still find myself referring to it after years of Schenkerian studies. A somewhat dry but very clear and beneficial book.
Schachter's Unfoldings: Essays in Schenkerian Theory and Analysis — Carl Schachter is one of the greatest Schenkerians; nearly everybody who's anybody in the world of Schenkerian analysis studied with him. This book is a wonderful collection of some of his greatest essays. His writing style is exceptional and his analysis are some of the best I've seen.
Gonna be honest, 20 minutes is fine for grade-schoolers, but if you're looking to get good fast, at your age, I'd suggest closer to an hour of practice and study a day. Soon enough, when you're looking at more serious rep, that should jump up to something more like at least 2-3 hours a day. Warm up with scale exercises (do some Googling for that) and arpeggios, then I'd recommend something like an etude book to start finding new fancy tools for your fingers to use (the one by [Cramer](http://imslp.org/wiki/Studio_per_il_pianoforte,_Op.50_(Cramer,_Johann_Baptist) is excellent).
Remember, Liszt once practiced 14 hours a day. There's no real limit there once you cross the professional threshold.
As far as theory is involved, I really don't know how to help there. My college classes were invaluable in that regard. If you're really interested, we used this textbook (which also has a separate workbook). However, I'm sure you could glean plenty of useful theory basics just talking to lots of theory nerds (ha, like me). Perhaps your teacher would be willing to devote a little time here and there.
Edit: looks like there's a 4th edition now for that textbook, but hey, older means cheaper ;]
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.
>Isn't there a whole course somewhere?
This is a fundamental theory crash course for total beginners who are interested in learning at a college level yet have no prior experience in theory. It was created by Steven Laitz, who also authored one of the best American undergrad theory text books. I haven't tried it, and I know it costs some moneys... but this guy has an awesome reputation and it looks super legit.
eTheory: Music Theory Fundamentals in 4 weeks
Trailer.
>what the chord progression is. I've come up with, what I believe, to be some pretty good "root notes" for the progression (is that a term??).
Your notes could be "roots" but I would call them "bass notes" or together a "bassline" and in this case that just means they are the lowest sounding notes of whatever chord they will end up being a part of, but not necessarily the root of the note. This might seem confusing but bear with me… if you have a chord with 3 notes, like C major for example. The notes: C, E, G make it up. C is your root note… hence the name of the chord (C Major). If that C note is notated below the other two notes then it is your bass. This is called C major in root position. Bass is just the note on the bottom of the chord. The lowest one. If you decide to put E in the bass and make the chord E, C, G, then now E is your bass notes but C is still your root. This is called C major first inversion. You can do the same and put G in the bass, and have G, C, E, This is called C major second in version, G is your bass but C is still your root. Sorry if this is confusing to you I might have skipped a little ahead in the theory, but it's a pretty basic topic.
>The notes are B-C#-D#-F#
As for your sample, and those 4 notes, I'd say you could be in F Major or B Major, depending on how you decide to harmonize the notes, you could even modulate between the two fairly easily, but that's a little more of an advanced topic.
>How do I determine the chord progression?
There are many ways to harmonize your bass line but if you need some direction, try using the notes in one of the aforementioned keys.
Not sure if I'm helping or just throwing you off even more so I'll stop here.
Edit: formatting and grammar.
You might enjoy The Complete Musician, by Steven Laitz (former theory professor at Eastman, currently a professor at Juilliard). It's used for undergraduate music theory courses in many conservatories and universities these days; the explanations are extremely thorough and there are many examples. However, I don't think it goes through the very basics (such as how to read music).
You won't really *need* this sort of knowledge until you're working on more difficult repertoire, although an understanding of form and musical structure can be very helpful in learning more basic repertoire as well. Some people learn music by hacking through it and imitating their teachers (or imitating a recording); others learn by analyzing it from a theoretical and historical perspective, and applying that knowledge to inform their approach. You might find that you enjoy music (even more than you do currently) if you know more about its processes and inner workings!
As for the very basics, you might find Teoria to be helpful - it has a lot of great tutorials and exercises that'll help you get a good handle on the fundamentals.
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.
If you want to really go down the rabbit hole: A Modern Method for Guitar.
Coming at it from a jazz standpoint, William Leavitt's Modern Method, or Sal Salvador's Complete Book of Guitar Technique. Salvador's one contains a good few studies.
Mick Goodrick's Advancing Guitarist is particularly famous.
Cadwallader/Gagne is the standard text to use. There's also the Forte book which I haven't personally used but my friends that have used it don't like it.
You could also try the Salzer/Schachter book on counterpoint: it's heavily Schenkerian and just a great read. But its goal is to instruct you in counterpoint, not in Schenkerian analysis per se...that said, counterpoint is obviously very influential on Schenker's theories and it's important to understand counterpoint to succeed at Schenkerian analysis.
maybe look at books:
http://www.pdfhacks.com/eno/BE.pdf (PhD dissert on Eno's works
http://www.amazon.com/Refining-Sound-Practical-Synthesis-Synthesizers/dp/0199922969
http://www.synthesizer-cookbook.com/
(The Shepherd book is really good, i haven't read the cookbook but it's mentioned here regularly. the Eno book doesn't talk synthesis per se, but very interesting
Oh. I have never used it, but there are some general tips for notating non-standard or extended techniques:
For your example, I would just give the note a marcato accent and write "Scratch-tone" above it. Just try to be as clear as possible. Down the road, if a string player or someone knows of a better way for the notation, be receptive of their advice and change it.
Of course. (Even though I will only give some of the important things)
It's a start. I invite to you read orchestral (or chamber music) scores. It will provide you with great knowledge.
I invite you to consult some book on the subject, like this one : http://www.amazon.com/Music-Notation-Manual-Practice-Crescendo/dp/0800854535 (don't really know if it's good, never personaly read it)
Don't worry, people don't expect of you to know all these things to begin with. It's just important when you present something to fellow composers.
Keep up the good work !
(if you want to know my sources, I'm a composition student in a university in Canada)
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)
The Berklee guide to Jazz Harmony https://www.amazon.com/Berklee-Book-Jazz-Harmony/dp/0876391420 was fantastic. Pick it up from the library if you can.
I'm starting with a double and just learning--the fingering on the large chamber is the same as most 12 hole ocarina tutorials. So you can just buy a double, treat it as 12 hole until you master the first chamber, then add the second chamber. Since I knew I wanted a double's range for most of the songs I want to eventually learn, it was cheaper to just get a double to start.
I bought the STL Plastic Double for $40 initially, since I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy playing the ocarina. It's good enough to learn on and get familiar with the fingerings. The plastic causes it to go out of tune as your breath condenses inside it while you play, though. A clay ocarina will end up sounding better and be playable for longer in a session. (And cost more, if you're not sure about the instrument long term.)
I just ordered the highly rated Focalink Double for $118 (you just missed their Memorial Day sale) after a lot of research. If you want clay, I'd probably recommend that. Any of the STL doubles would probably also work for you, they are $100 normally. And depending on your budget, you might think about their MaxRange Doubles ($140ish). They're supposed to have a pretty awkward fingering in exchange for the extra range, but they're one note shy of a triple and cost much less. YMMV, do your research before buying one.
Finally, I also got /u/ocarinadiva 's Hal Leonard Method book, and as a noob to music I really like it. There's quite a lot of information on basic music theory and ocarina specific techniques in the book and the included video lessons really help. There's free resources out there, but having everything in one place was more than worth the price to me.
I bought this book a while back and it has helped tremendously. It has a nice pace to it. It teaches you something then it'll have a little song that demonstrates what it just taught you. Starts off with just small little basic things and then gets into more complicated stuff later on. You can just go through the book at your own pace. I highly recommend it.
also before I bought the book this nice little website taught me a lot about the basics of reading sheet music.
That depends on how good you want to get. Staying free, sadly, won't get you very far, because your hands are not like my hands, or the YouTube self-learn video creators' hands. We also do not know how you learn (whether you're tactile or something else). You would need a teacher to examine specifically how you learn, if even through video-chat.
The problem with the all-in-one adult books is that they don't prioritize hand posture: their stance is that as long as your fingers aren't splayed out all across the keys like a corpse's, then you're fine. That's totally false, though. The wrist needs to stay no higher than where the keys are (too many students keep their wrists too high which hampers reach and dynamic control), and the knuckles need to be typically the highest part of the hand, if examining the hand from a side view. Instead of sticking the knuckles up, too many students crush them down, which results in weak fingers that they can't lift up efficiently.
Many a great pianist has been lost in the vital beginner stages because of little heeding of proper, healthy posture. It also tends to be extremely difficult to teach yourself this (or goad yourself out of it if it's been a bad habit), and even more difficult to reinforce without repeated adjustment (at first) by a teacher who's physically present.
If you still insist, try https://smile.amazon.com/Adult-Piano-Adventures-All-Course/dp/1616773022 but it would be best to save up, get a teacher, and factor in lessons like another monthly bill like your phone cost or utilities.
Melanie Spanswick has a series of two books for classical piano returners.
If you would like to end with Chopin, you only need to study tonal theory. So twelve tone topics are not of any use since that topic is 20th century, after tonality.
If you didn't do voice leading (SATB harmony): Are you interested in voice leading? If you want to get to the more advanced topics of tonal theory, you'll need to cover that. If so I would suggest this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Musicians-Guide-Theory-Analysis-Third/dp/0393600491/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535936804&sr=1-1&keywords=clendinning+theory
Have you done species counterpoint? Species counterpoint will be very helpful in dealing with just about all music. I would recommend Fux's book:
https://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535936929&sr=1-1&keywords=fux+counterpoint
If you've already done species counterpoint: For more advanced counterpoint (not useful for Chopin, but necessary for anything with fugues in it, obviously) I would suggest Mann's book:
https://www.amazon.com/Study-Fugue-Dover-Books-Music/dp/0486254399
For a complete discussion of forms I would suggest Berry's book:
https://www.amazon.com/Form-Music-2nd-Wallace-Berry/dp/0133292851
For an in depth and modern discussion of sonata theory (remember that symphonies are also often times in sonata form), I would suggest Hepokoski's book:
https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Sonata-Theory-Deformations-Late-Eighteenth-Century/dp/0199773912/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535937360&sr=1-1&keywords=hepokoski+sonata
If you already know species counterpoint and voice leading you can study Schenkarian Analysis. For this there's two books I would suggest:
https://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Tonal-Music-Schenkerian-Approach/dp/0199732477/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535937496&sr=1-1&keywords=schenkerian+analysis
https://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Analysis-Schenkerian-David-Damschroder/dp/0393283798/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535937488&sr=1-2&keywords=schenkerian+analysis
​
If you're interested in composition, that's the other side of the coin and so all the above are of limited use. Let me know if you want books for composition.
i recommend learning music theory first. Here's a really good book. music theory book Consider getting a tutor as well.
I would recommend going to your theory teacher's website/class website and look at what book they want you to get. This is a big sign of the approach the university will take in teaching from Theory I and upwards. This way, you will know the "common language" professors will use at your school regarding theory. What I mean are specifics, ranging from calling something an "accented passing tone" vs. making no distinctions between a regular passing tone, to various systems of abbreviations, and to differences in how the cadential "V^6/4 - V^7 - I" is viewed. Some people interpret this as " I^6/4 - V^7 - I." Basically, do you call a cadential^6/4 chord a V or a I chord? One use is not universal. Little clarifications like these, which can only been gleaned from your actual theory book, will make you better prepared and less confused on day one than learning one book's method, only to be presented with a completely different approach.
I think, given your background in theory, you will be surprised how far ahead you are compared to many people. A lot show up to their freshman year with a low level of theory competence.
I went to a university that used the Laitz textbook, so its about all I can recommend.
I've also been exposed to the Straus book for post-tonal theory.
For Species counterpoint, you can't beat the Schacter and Salzer book: "Counterpoint in Composition,"
For Schenkerian analysis, there is the Salzer book: "Structural Hearing." That is a bit more specialized, but it may pique your curiosity.
Great theorists like Felix Salzer and Carl Schacter, students of Heinrich Schenker, along with the acclaimed Steven Laitz, are good to learn about and be knowledgeable about. Looking into them, their associates, and their teachers can lead you to other good books.
Sure! Here are a few that have helped me out:
The textbook that my school uses for beginning theory classes is The Complete Musician by Steven Laitz. It is a pretty comprehensive look at tonality, covering the very basics through 19th century theory. Isn't too pricey either: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Musician-Integrated-Approach-Listening/dp/0199742782
Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum is a great place to begin working on counterpoint: http://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368896313&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=gradus+ad+parnasam+fux
Samuel Adler's The Study of Orchestration is my current go to book when researching the basics of different instruments and orchestration techniques: http://www.amazon.com/Study-Orchestration-Third-Samuel-Adler/dp/039397572X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368896395&sr=1-1&keywords=samuel+adler+orchestration
Lastly, once you feel you have developed a solid foundation with your theory knowledge, I can't stress enough the importance of studying/analyzing scores. It is (in my opinion) the best way of learning how to compose. One can learn so much from one score!
This is the version of the Laitz in use today: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0199742782?pc_redir=1409923101&robot_redir=1
There are also workbooks accompanying this text. I think the red one is written theory and the blue one is aural skills. I recommend using the written workbook and the main text and getting your aural skills somewhere else.
There's also a graduate theory review book. In a lot of ways, it's better, and cheaper. But it's really probably best used with a teacher to guide you, whereas The Complete Musician leads you by the hand more and thus works better for self-guided study.
check out refining sound: a practical guide to synthesis and synthesizers. i read this book when i first started.
also, apple has some good explanations in their logic documentation.
One of the most comprehensive free resources is Julius O. Smith's website on mathematics of the Discrete Fourier Transform, synthesis and DSP, physical acoustic modeling, geez you name it.
A less mathematical but still good recent book on synthesis is Refining Sound by Brian K. Shepard.
Gardner Read's Music Notation text is the foremost work on this subject. It is a fantastic resource!
Just show them any music from a reputable publisher, and they'll see the latter. There isn't really any kind of central "authority" for these rules, just what the various publishers do. But even then, any books you reference (like Gardner Read's) will almost certainly say that the second one is fine, if not preferable.
I used an android app called note reacher and these books
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0882847309
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0800854535
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1554400112
I see no advantage at this point to reading music after working on it for 5 months and becoming fairly competent. I'm glad I learned but it has not added to my ability to make music. Maybe in the future it will pay off.
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.
[Modern Method for Guitar.](https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114/](https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114/)
Pro-tip: take it to Kinkos and get it spiral bound.
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!!
http://www.amazon.com/Berklee-Music-Theory-Book-Edition/dp/0876391102
If you don't know how to sightread, this is a good time to get good at that. Pack a metronome and a replacement AA battery or two and you're set for 6 months no problem. For books, try:
Jay Weik's Daily Sight-Reading Studies for the Guitarist, Large Print Edition:
http://www.amazon.com/Daily-Guitar-Reading-Technique-Studies/dp/0786682809
Make sure you get the large-print edition, because the "normal" edition is actually a pocket-sized "Quick Guide" that is tiny.
This has 30 daily studies that will have you sight reading full chords in 1 month if you work on it every day.
Another great resource for sight reading is this one from Berklee:
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-Positions-Multi-Position/dp/0634013351
I also recommend a theory book, for example Berklee's Music Theory 101 books 1 & 2 as used at Berklee College of Music:
http://www.amazon.com/Berklee-Music-Theory-Book-Edition/dp/0876391102
Get these, a Real Book for jazz standards, and some note-for-note transcriptions of albums you want to learn for the metal stuff. Books are available for lots of major label albums if you search for them. Make sure you use a metronome to practice. You don't need anything fancy; something like this will work just fine:
http://www.amazon.com/Qwiktime-QT3-Qwik-Time-Metronome/dp/B0002F75EM/ref=zg_bs_11965901_9
Hope this helps! Have fun.
Intelligent Music Teaching: Essays on the Core Principles of Effective Instruction https://www.amazon.com/dp/0977113906/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_5DuwDbRFE2F4B
Great thoughts of the fundamental concepts of successful teaching.
the book "The New Breed" is a good reference for playing behind/ahead of the beat, also has lots of crazy exercises for more advanced drumming
https://www.amazon.com/New-Breed-Revision-Audio-Online/dp/1423418123
This book will do wonders for your limb independence. It's designed to open up creativity by enabling you to do whatever comes to mind. If you work through even just a few of the systems you will get so much better.
Couldn't agree more. Gaining independance with the left foot on the hats is an excellent first step in double kick drumming. Think about it like you were working on your hands. You don't just hammer out single stroke rolls, you play paradiddles, doubles, flams. Your left foot is a limb that can be as workable and useful as your hands.
As boredop mentioned, dropping the hats on the 2 and 4 gives a really cool groove to a steady ride beat, and in a lot of folk it's almost expected. Same applies to jazz. But that's really just the tip of the iceberg with regards to what you can do with your left peg. [See: The New Breed] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chester-Breed-Revised-Edition-Drums/dp/1423418123/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371779559&sr=8-2&keywords=the+new+breed+drummer)
Furthermore, every drummer worth his salt has at least one ostinato based rhythm in their repertoire (edit: repertoire). Look at Steve Gadd's Samba, and go from there. The work you do in separating the feet from the hands is something Mario Duplantier, Danny Carey and many other heavy drummers have mastered.
Never did this book, but the one I always recommend and should be a part of any kit player's canon is The New Breed by Gary Chester. It's the best way to learn true 4-limb independence.
http://www.amazon.com/New-Breed-Systems-Development-Creativity/dp/1423418123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317505773&sr=8-1
I use the Faber Piano Adventures series. I'm following the standard series that children follow since I prefer having a lot more material at each level, but there is also a quicker series intended for adults who want to progress fast.
https://www.amazon.com/Adult-Piano-Adventures-All-Course/dp/1616773022/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=adult+piano+adventures&qid=1567330362&s=gateway&sr=8-1
That is adult book 1, there is also a book 2.
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.
How well can you play by ear though? Can you play back a solo phrase effortlessly and correctly, immediately, and with zero mistakes? If not I'd be focusing on ear training. Movable 'do' major/'la' minor solfege is the best way to improve your ear to fretboard link (not interval training!). It'll take work, but once you have this skill, improvisation is only limited by your imagination.
You could start with something like this (it doesn't have all the answers but it'll definitely put you on the right track): https://www.amazon.com/Fanatics-Guide-Training-Sight-Singing/dp/189094419X
Once you've started serious ear training, continue learning your favourite guitar parts by ear.
Oh and as Subman said, learn to read simple sheet music. Many beginner guitar methods will get you going in this regard.
I've been playing over twenty years and went to school for guitar, but nothing has improved my playing more than the sort of ear-training I've been doing for a little over a year now. I used A Fanatic's Guide to Ear Training. Also, I use Jazz Scales for Guitar to practice playing modes and scales around a circle of fourths chord progression so I really know my way around the fretboard.
> 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.
It's tough and I'm still there often.
One thing that has helped is looking at the arrangement of a reference track. Import a good reference track in the style you want to produce in your DAW as audio. Then go through every ~16 bar section or so and write down notes on what is happening. Not specifics but more like: "White noise intro" or "start of kicks" or "bridge", "chorus", "drop", etc.
If your DAW supports it try to write the notes directly on the timeline, many DAWs now a days support that by tagging tracks or sections and applying a label.
Then remove the reference track. You now have a 'template' with notes. Try to fill it in as best as possible from those notes.
I also recommend this book, it's pretty good: https://smile.amazon.com/Making-Music-Strategies-Electronic-Producers-ebook/dp/B00WHXYZG8/
You may not need to switch to Ableton to benefit from it. They wrote a book that has ideas for getting out of a rut. Check it out!
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Music-Strategies-Electronic-Producers-ebook/dp/B00WHXYZG8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450123686&sr=8-1&keywords=ableton+making+music
The Lynda training helped me a lot as it was short and thought a lot of keyboard shortcuts early on. But I'm sure the free YouTube training playlists would also work. The good thing about Lynda was it was really concise and more professional in not wasting any time, which can be crucial to help keep focus in initial learning.
The manual is good, but I don't find it to be the most straightforward manual. It's still a tremendous reference.
I would suggest to just follow a basic training and start producing whatever you want, watching YouTube tutorials on whatever gets you stuck and keeping this sub close-by to randomly check and say "WTF are these people talking about?" until it becomes more and more familiar or to ask any questions (people are usually very noob-friendly here).
For tips on production and getting stuck, Dennis DeSantis has this amazing book. Really helps open up your mind.
Good luck and don't forget to continuously show up, discipline is the single most valuable skill in my opinion :)
PS: You need to listen to this quote as well.
Edit: About gear, I agree with others. Don't buy anything more than a measly small midi keyboard until you learn the DAW better. Then you'll know if you need anything or what you need.
If you have questions about anything, let me know.
Also, look into some theory texts to expand your horizons.
This book written by Bruce Benward is a good place to start. It covers basic things like notation and properly writing music on paper, and then goes into scales, modes, intervals and chords, and all the way up to leading tones and song structure.
But the best thing it does is train you on how to analyze music and do what I did in the above comment. It also starts you on the path to counterpoint, which is kind of like a jigsaw puzzle method of writing short (like five measures) pieces.
This is a great textbook and is one of the few college textbooks that wasn't a waste of my money. It has everything in there starting from rhythms, chords, and intervals all the way up to a bunch of crazy stuff analysis and part writing wise that really spices up music and will give you a great appreciation for all types of music. Once you realize how much of this "technical" stuff that you never knew is applied to even pop songs, it really changes your perspective on the artists and producers behind them. The first fourth of the book is really REALLY important stuff though and the rest is just really cool (or really boring depending on your love for theory) stuff that will make your music even better. Beat production doesn't "need" to involve a lot of the other stuff, but having more tools under your belt is what it's all about.
Get a good theory text book and actually read it. it won't be something you can sit down and take in all at once. No skimming. No "powering through".
The first couple chapters may seem useless. "Why do I need to know how to read in tenor clef and who the hell still writes scores with figured bass?!!" All these principals will help you understand theory. Reading in "C" clefs will help understand transposition and figured bass will help with intervals and chordal voicing.
As you're reading, actually take notes as if you were in a class. The act of writing down newly learned information will really help cement the ideas. Also, try not to just quote the text in your notes. Write down the principals in your own words in a way that makes sense to you.
If you come to something that you can't quite wrap your head around, google that shit. There are a metric shit-tonne of online articles and videos demonstrating basic music theory.
All that said, taking an actual music theory class is really the best way to go about learning the subject. You'll learn much faster and the professor will be able to explain things much better.
I found Laitz's Complete Musician to be very handy while starting out.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Musician-Integrated-Approach-Listening/dp/0199742782
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.
There is no significant advantage to using a dedicated hardware synthesizer over a computer. To the contrary, a computer gives you far more flexibility, and it takes up a lot less space.
Don't get me wrong, though -- I absolutely love both hardware and software. I just think you can learn a lot more about synthesis and music production with cheap or free software than you can with a single dedicated synth in the introductory price range. I would recommend buying a midi keyboard and a copy of this book. It gives recommendations of free software you can use while working through the book, and it will teach you the fundamentals (and then some) of all the major forms of synthesis.
Plus, if you buy a midi controller, you can use it to control hardware synths later on, if you choose to purchase any.
Kurt Stone's Music Notation in the Twentieth Century is still pretty reliable.
It appears that the 1994 edition doesn't have "Spanish Theme" at the end of the "Notes on the First String" lesson.
Click "Look Inside" and scroll down to page 7 on each.
1994 Edition - http://www.amazon.com/Hal-Leonard-Guitar-Method-Complete/dp/0881881392
2002 Edition - http://www.amazon.com/Hal-Leonard-Guitar-Method-Book/dp/0793533929
"Music Notation" by Read. It has everything you need to know from Bach to Crumb.
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Notation-Crescendo-Book-Gardner/dp/0800854535/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334606410&sr=1-8
Also, "Anatomy of the Orchestra" by Norman del Mar is a very in-depth orchestration book that could be a reference for citing something about a specific instrument. Good luck!
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&qid=1318729831&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.
This is the one to start with, I'd say: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0876390114/
Might have a bit of redundant theory for you, but should get you going technique-wise, at least.
Also of note : https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881885894/
and
https://www.amazon.com/dp/3892210195/
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&qid=1374083268&sr=8-1&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&qid=1453607443&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
Pretty much all the Berklee method stuff is excellent. Here’s a link: https://www.amazon.com/Berklee-Music-Theory-Book-1/dp/0876391102
Theory can be weird when it comes to songwriting and composing.
If you don't know anything, your songwriting is really free and wide open.
When you know a little bit, it's easy to feel boxed in by "the rules".
Eventually, when you learn enough, you understand that there are no rules, and you are once again able to freely write, but you have your theory knowledge to guide you. You can find the sounds you're looking for quicker, and more reliably.
One of my composition teachers once told me "the reason you learn this stuff is to forget it", and that always stuck with me. So make sure to keep that in mind as you learn stuff.
I recommend the Berklee theory book. It's not exactly what they use in class (although it may be now, I graduated there back in 2010), but it is a great book.
I already knew a lot before I started at Berklee, but the way they organized and presented the information there just made more sense to me. It may not resonate with you the same way, but that's how it goes sometimes. You just have to find a teacher, book, program that looks at things in a way that works for you.
It's too complex for a post or even a series of posts. You're going to need a book. I'd recommend The Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony and Jazzology. I wouldn't recommend anything by Mark Levine.
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
This is a pretty good one. It's centered around jazz but the concepts are super transferrable. You probably need to be able to read music for it though.
​
Outside of that, I'd guess that almost any book on functional harmony would teach you what you're looking to learn. Hope this helps!
Tell her to watch these videos. The first is a concerto with the clarinet professor, the second has an amazing clarinet solo by a current student in the second movement.
If she is interested in the education program tell her to read Intelligent Music Teaching written by the head of Music Education.
Read this book:
Intelligent Music Teaching: Principles of Instruction
http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Music-Teaching-Principles-Instruction/dp/0977113906
I would recommend reading this if you haven't already.
U/Insolace is correct and his reply futher explains, correctly, why terms are so. We've pretty much nailed down the language at this point. It's more a matter of if a musician is educated in the language or has only learned from ear and coined or invetned their own terms for the same communicatio , which is perfectly understandable and plenty of high end musicians, and drummers, do not read music or have much of a formal education in music theory.
I would recommend Gary Chaffee's Rhythm & Meter Patterns and Time Functioning Patterns for an indepth study into this area of drumming and music in particular.
https://www.amazon.com/Rhythm-Meter-Patterns-Book-CD/dp/0769234690
If you want to get into Danny's style, he is a huge propenent of Gary Chesters 'New Breed'. Highly recommend studying out of this book as well.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Breed-Development-Creativity-recording/dp/1423418123/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468607035&sr=1-2&keywords=The+new+breed
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.
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.
Here are the books you may be looking for.
4-Way Coordination: A Method Book for the Development of Complete Independence on the Drum Set or Advanced Techniques For The Modern Drummer: Coordinating Independence As Applied To Jazz And Be-bop
Both focus on independence, though this is the one I just order today for myself, The New Breed
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?
The Zelda replicas from OcarinaWind have a pretty bad reputation and the owner carries multiple models, which makes it even more difficult. STL, Songbird, and Rotter all have affordable Zelda replicas that are pretty good quality.
That is the Night by Noble, so you're good there. As far as learning materials, it really depends on you. A lot of people like having a structured curriculum and it helps save time. You can find tutorials and such online, but you have to consider what your time is worth and if it is worth having a centralized resource to get you up and running. My wife wrote the Hal Leonard Ocarina Method and I think for $/£10 or so, it's worth not having to look for resources and having videos that basically show you every lesson. It's also available in book form as well as iOS and Andriod/Google.
Yeah, me before theory: "That's just a formalization of ideas I'm pretty sure I already know."
After learning some theory: "How the hell did I ever get by without this?"
Mark Schonbrun has two volumes in "The Everything..." series, here and here. They are not obviously guitar-centric from the covers, but they are more guitar/piano centric than anything else. The second book gets into voice leading, which really explains how to use chord inversions on guitar. (They are also relatively cheap.)
https://www.amazon.com/Adult-Piano-Adventures-All-Course/dp/1616773022/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483724538&sr=8-1&keywords=adult+piano+adventures
Learn to read sheet music and knock yourself out!
The third one is the big one, called Adult Piano Adventures. This is where the bulk of my learning gets done, where I find out what exactly staccato is or what a slur means, etc. The other two I mentioned to you do no actual teaching of what this stuff is, it's JUST the songs/chords. The purpose of them is just to practice and let your fingers and note reading skills get used to what you've learned in the big, main book.
I'm not sure if I would recommend this one though, for a few reasons. The biggest one is that it was obviously designed for a teacher to walk you through, the descriptions and instructions are very minimalist because the blanks are supposed to be filled in by an instructor. Secondly, I think the majority of what's taught in this book could be found for free online or through some kind of instructional DVD or whatever.
I'd recommend either getting a DVD/video download or a 'teaching yourself piano' equivalent to this book, just because having something that takes you through the steps of learning piano with proper difficulty progression and a logical, linear path will probably help immensely.
I know this sub hates it, but I kind of liked Yousician. You don't get much free time per day, but you do make progress.
That said, I got this book this weekend and already made more sightreading progress in 24 hours than the previous 2 weeks using the app.
Ohh that's awesome! I use this one! I'm almost done with it!
B&H has the px160 with stand, pedals, and bench for $450 new.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1376638-REG/casio_px_160_88_key_digital_piano.html
Guitar center has a lot of used digital pianos. They price them to be competitive with used listings on ebay. Looking through listings on guitarcenter and sold listings on ebay might be as close as you'll get to a blue book value.
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Keyboards-MIDI.gc#narrowSideBar
PX150 and PX160 have the same action, either would be fine to start on. Getting a yamaha p115, kawai es110, or roland fp30 might be a better fit for some, but the level of improvement is not huge. Unless you really dislike the casio tone, either keeping the px150, or selling it to get the px160 bundle I linked above, would leave you with a perfectly fine instrument to start out on.
A teacher is recommended, but if you go with method books, faber adult all in one or alfred adult all in one are fine to start with.
https://www.amazon.com/Adult-Piano-Adventures-All-Course/dp/1616773022
https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186
If you get to the end of the third alfred book and can play through the pieces in the 'ambitious sections' at the end of the book, you might want to consider an upgrade. Until then, don't worry about it. A PX150 is just fine.
https://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Alfreds/dp/0739000683/
Coordination of both hands at the piano is definitely a tricky thing, and takes a looong time to get together... can help to find a teacher. I've actually just started teaching an adult student, and we just got to the "two hands" thing for the first time in her lesson last week. It's a bit like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time... but I promise it gets easier with time and practice!
There are some great adult piano lesson books that can help, either to self-teach or to work with a teacher (it's always better to work with a teacher if you can, but not an option for everyone...). She's using a book by Bastien, but this one by Faber has come highly recommended by some of my colleagues...
I'd recommend getting hold of Melanie Spanswick's Play It Again Piano course. From what you're describing here, I think Book 2 would be a good starting point (as Book 1 is more beginner level). These books are specifically aimed at people returning to piano after a break. A set of progressively more difficult pieces is included with detailed practice notes and suggestions accompanying each piece. They also touch on different areas of technique (including runs etc.). I bought Book 2 and am still working my way through it. I did a full review that you can watch for more information.
I'm personally not a great fan of 'exercises' such as Hanon. I know this is a polarising topic and some people believe wholeheartedly in such things and others not (Martha Argerich doesn't believe in scales or exercises by the way). Rather I prefer to develop exercises from the pieces I'm learning. Check out Graham Fitch's Piano Practice series of eBooks - these are another invaluable resource and Graham explains very well how to go about doing this (as well as a great deal of other things of course).
Finally, find some YouTube channels that you really like - depending on the style of music you like there are some excellent ones (my favourites are explained here).
I have a feeling this isn't what you're looking for, but this book on practice could be of value to you. Perhaps if you understand the reasons why you're practicing and how to practice in a way that will most benefit you you'll be more willing to commit to it.
Good practice is one of the best skills you can learn for almost anything in life.
I'm a beginner, too. Is this your first instrument? I would suggest reading The Practice of Practice. You will need to practice, but don't call it practice to yourself. Call it playing or spending time with your instrument. Practice just has the conotation of being arduous and boring. Playing guitar is really playing with something and exploring what you can do and what your instrument can do. This has given me motivation when I'm having trouble getting beyond a barrier in my musical ability.
This book is what I used for Theory I and II in college. You can probably find older editions too. They never change too much. It covers a lot and you can also learn how to write. Almost all of the examples are from classical music though. Try and get the CD that comes with it for the examples. Also, /r/musictheory might be a good resource for advice along the way. Also also, free printable sheet music is available here.
This is the book we used for Theory I when I was getting my B.M.
FWIW, while I am very much not a successful or confident musician (I am an older hobbyist), I have noted people here whose opinions seem usually balanced and sound recommend The Musician's Way found at http://www.amazon.com/The-Musicians-Way-Practice-Performance/dp/0195343131, which seems to me to directly speak to what you are saying.
That was one of the first books I picked up when I started learning. Really helps with being in the right mindset.
Also recommend The Musicians Way and The Practice of Practice.
You shouldn't have major technique issues if you are taking lessons and your teacher believes you are ready for that piece. It could be something subtle that your teacher won't see unless you say something, so I wouldn't rule it out completely, but I wouldn't call it the most likely suspect. How do you cross strings? Do you use your whole arm, from the shoulder, so that each string has its own hand and elbow level, and keep your elbow on the same plane that the wrist passes through when its in a neutral position? Does your wrist move with your bow strokes? Is your hand relaxed, with no death grip on the bow? Are your fingers close together on the stick and not wrapped around it in a claw hold? Are your pinkie and thumb bent? If all of that is true and your teacher has not corrected anything, and you are not tired after an hour of practice and do not experience pain or new mistakes that would point to you stumbling over yourself due to exhaustion, then my gut is that it has nothing to do with kinesthetic aspects of your technique but rather with your lungs.
We don't talk about breathing much when learning to play the violin because, unlike vocalists and wind and brass musicians, our lungs don't directly power our instruments. However, especially when we play something high energy with fast string crossings, our bodies need more oxygen. Otherwise, you default to a metabolic process called lactic acid fermentation, a form of anaerobic respiration (feeding your cells without oxygen). As a very short-term solution, lactic acid fermentation is a good way for your body to get emergency energy. However, if you use it for longer periods of physical activity, the byproducts of that process build up in your muscles, and it will result in pain until your body can break it down.
Weight lifters typically do not lift weights seven days a week. They have rest days, or they will focus on different parts of their body on different days, to allow themselves recovery and prevent pain and injury. They also have to know how to breathe and work in activities that are naturally more aerobic, like running or swimming or yoga, to compensate.
Violinists could actually learn a lot from weight lifters and other athletes. We need to learn to breathe, perhaps by building something that encourages it into our exercise routines. We need to learn to breathe while we play, give ourselves a slow warmup, and take breaks if we are tired or experience pain. Since ideally we do practice everyday, we need to learn to have a different focus each day, vary our routine so we don't end up with repetitive strain injuries.
Here are some books that cover these ideas, if you are interested:
https://www.amazon.com/Musicians-Yoga-Practice-Performance-Inspiration/dp/0876390955/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479054081&sr=8-1&keywords=musician%27s+yoga
https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Less-Hurt-Prevention-Musicians/dp/1423488466/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479054162&sr=8-1&keywords=playing+less+hurt
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810833565/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0810833565&pd_rd_r=RWHBKW02B6M7TF94YYKR&pd_rd_w=46ibZ&pd_rd_wg=u4M4j&psc=1&refRID=RWHBKW02B6M7TF94YYKR
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195343131/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0195343131&pd_rd_r=E19SZTNCKQQDJQ6RBHGM&pd_rd_w=xqfGw&pd_rd_wg=92fpR&psc=1&refRID=E19SZTNCKQQDJQ6RBHGM
Lots and lots of hand PT and exercises. I am in a similar boat except I'm returning to music after about 20 or so years of not practicing and it's pretty much like learning anew, except with much stiffer fingers and joints.
Depending on how limber, agile, and your stamina, I would say start slow and pay lots of attention to form and posture, take break often and stretch. Do arm/hand/finger strength drills a few times a day and stretch A LOT, and I don't mean just hands and arms, develop and follow a routine to maintain overall mobility (which isn't a bad thing to do at this age anyhow).
Other than that — The Complete Musician could be a good start and a teacher to get you started with your instrument though be careful as early bad habits are very hard to fix in the future.
Since some time has now passed and there haven't been too many answers, I want to add something that I think is the most important answer: you can make up your own chorale preludes by getting better at improvising.
An easy way to start improvising is by playing just the harmonization in your hymn book, but rather than playing the top three voices at the same time, you can play them in an arpeggiated way. Some notes will have to be added or taken away in some situations, such as when two voices merge onto the same note. Here is a very quick recording that I made to demonstrate this principle.
Over time, you'll want to add basic harmonic ideas to your musical vocabulary. A few things I'd note:
If you keep working on this, you'll get better and better. My favourite improviser who lives in my area sounds like this (the recording is terrible, but good enough that you can get the idea). A feature of his improvisations that I really like is modulations to far-away keys; when I hear him play, it feels like I'm being thrown into something vast and mysterious.
A resource I recommend for liturgical musicians' improvisation is this book by Gerre Hancock. It's intended for organists, but is still extremely useful for pianists. I also find Improv Planet on Patreon very useful. It's run by a piano professor who specializes in improvisation in the style of Bach and Handel.
If you haven't already studied harmony, I also highly, highly recommend it (I'd call study of harmony a prerequisite for Improv Planet). Good resources for self-study of harmony include the textbooks by Laitz and by Clendinning & Marvin.
If someone says their song is "in Gm", that implies the tonal center is the G minor chord and other chords used from the G minor scale obey some basic conventions concerning how one chord progresses to another chord.
As an example, the most common chord progression in all of Western music is known as the I-V-I progression (read one-five-one). The I chord is the "tonic" and the V chord is the "dominant" of whatever key you're in. In G minor, the tonic is a G minor chord and the dominant is a D major chord (for reasons that are beyond the scope of a simple reddit comment), so instead you have i-V-i (lower case roman numerals indicate minor chord qualities).
If you were to extend the progression, you would of course want to select chords that sound good one after the other. You can obviously just do this by ear, but it turns out that the reason certain chords sound good together is due to something called "voice leading".
Basically, imagine that each note in a three note chord is a "voice" that wants to continue in a pleasing, logical progression. There are a few ways such a voice could do this:
The basis for these conventions stems from hundreds of years of Western music tradition, but is still mostly followed today in almost all pop music (with some notable exceptions concerning perfect fifths). If you want to understand this at a deeper level, I strongly recommend you study writing four-part harmony. Four-part writing is standard in every theory textbook, so if you can read music you can learn it straight out of something like Steven G. Laitz's The Complete Musician or Aldwell and Schachter's Harmony & Voice Leading.
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Musician-Integrated-Approach-Listening/dp/0199742782
Laitz is what we used for theory, but the way to approach different things is different amongst different people...
Edit: [Straus] (http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Post-Tonal-Theory-Joseph-Straus/dp/0131898906/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376717704&sr=1-4&keywords=theory) for base 12/12 tone
Edit 2: Don't forget that looking at various texts is another great way to think about understanding how different composers approach things, so once you learn a fundamental way of slapping labels on things, actual music is the best way to learn theory. Also, check out [this.] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenkerian_analysis)
Well, it all start there. If you know it well enough, you start to extend the harmonies by including chords from the parallel minor/major, relative minor/major, secondary dominants of diatonic chords, diminished 7th chords, neopolitan chords, aug 6 chords, tritone subs, etc. At the point you seem to be at, it's probably time to buy a good book on Tonal Harmony. There are some really good ones out there, I prefer [Laitz's myself] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Musician-Integrated-Listening/dp/0199742782/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383066513&sr=8-1&keywords=The+complete+musician)
When I was in school, we were required to use Kurt Stone's notation guide as a source of first resort for non-standard notation. It's a bit dated by now, but it is very thorough. I recommend it. If you or your library has a copy, take a look. There may some pertinent examples that you can adapt to your purposes.
I'm thinking that you don't need an ossia staff since you are not offering concurrent optional lines. You can just change the staff style for the moments of extended technique. I'd be especially precise about the effect you're looking for. If you care about pitch, even if approximate, you'll need some way to convey that. If you want indiscriminate slapping at whatever string happens to get in the way, you can probably just use an 'x' notehead and treat it more or less like a percussion element.
Lots of things to think about!
http://www.amazon.com/Hal-Leonard-Guitar-Method-Book/dp/0793533929/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1396972921&sr=8-2&keywords=hal+leonard+guitar+books
If you've got about $15, the Hal Leonard Beginning Guitar Method book comes with a CD that has ear training tracks on it that are played on guitar. I learned some stuff from this book, but I got bored with it easily.
edit: added link
Get a Hal Leonard guitar book. Here is the link
http://www.amazon.com/Hal-Leonard-Guitar-Method-Book/dp/0793533929/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1302563224&sr=1-2
Oh, rocksmith isn't really the best place to start for beginners.
I would recommend this book I used to teach from.
It explains things in a very clear way that's easy to understand and the songs in it are really easy. You should check it out or add it to your wishlist :]
Timothy Johnson recently published a book on John Adams's Nixon in China, which I'd recommend if you're interested in that composer's work from a theoretical standpoint. If you're interested in more biographical stuff, check out his autobiography, Hallelujah Junction.
As for notation, I found an old copy of Gardner Read's book at a used bookstore a while back, and I'd recommend picking it up if you're really interested. I do feel the need to include a couple of caveats: the book (or at least my edition) predates computerized typesetting, so the purpose and organization of the work aren't the most efficient and helpful for modern purposes. Nevertheless, he is very comprehensive and thorough, and it makes a good resource if you're interested in scrupulously "correct" notation.
You might also try Music Notation by Gardner Reed, which is a pretty exhaustive guide to modern notation.
The 70's book isn't Modern Music Notation is it?
sorry for the late reply! well nearly all books will have some rhythm learning which is excellent. [Berklee's A Modern Method for Guitar - Volumes 1, 2, 3 Complete] (http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410004474&sr=8-1&keywords=Berklee%27s+Modern+Method+for+Guitar+123) By William Leavitt
as for more books focused on rhythm some good ones are:
[Rhythm Guitar: The Complete Guide] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhythm-Guitar-The-Complete-Guide/dp/0793581842) by Bruce Buckingham and Melodic Rhythms For Guitar
In addition to a tuner get "A Modern Method For Guitar Volume 1" by William Leavitt. Its written by the guy who founded the guitar department in Berklee College of Music. The book teaches you all of the basics of guitar in volume 1 and moves at a fast, yet manageable pace.
Here's a link to the combined 3 volumes for $22 http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114
But you get a DVD if you just buy Vol 1 that has a guitar professer at Berklee (the current head of the department) teaching the book to you. http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-DVD-ROM-Berklee/dp/0876390696/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370752061&sr=1-2&keywords=a+modern+method+for+guitar
The book gives you an amazing foundation for playing guitar.
A Modern Method For Guitar by William Leavitt is a great book for this. Starts of with teaching you the staff and how to read notes all the way to advanced theory and improv. It is all standard notation though so you need to be able to read music OR be willing to learn (and will make it easier to learn theory), which this will help you with. It has a ton of songs and practice pieces in every position in it to guide you, and you'll know the fretboard in and out if you stick with it. I highly recommend it.
180 bpm is very fast indeed. Not something I would be worrying about while beginning learning to read; I would start at about 60/70 and maybe work my way up to about 100.
Saying note names as you go can be a helpful way of learning note positions across the neck—if it works for you, then go ahead.
I'd recommend this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114 as a good means of learning to sight read.
If you want to learn how to read, buy this: http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Otherwise it sounds like you just want to do some ear training. There are lots of programs to do that. Or just record yourself playing intervals and when you play them back try and guess what they are. Start at thirds and fifths in the same octave and then expand as you get better at it. Do that every day.
If you don't know basic theory like scales and chords, that's where you need to start. There are roughly a bajillion books on the subject.
Try the Fretboard Logic series. Very informative and a great place to begin to understand the connections of the fretboard. Another great series is A Modern Method for Guitar.
A Modern Method for Guitar
The William Leavitt books are good:
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114
Also, depends on the style you want to go for. If you go classical, get a really good teach and learn where to place your right hand fingers. Its better to learn correctly than have to re-learn.
A Modern Method for Guitar - Volumes 1, 2, 3 Complete
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114
Two other method books to look into are Jazz Guitar - Jody Fisher and A Modern Method for Guitar - William Leavitt
I bought William Leavitt's A Modern Method for Guitar (Amazon.ca link because I'm Canadian) for this purpose and I am totally satisfied. It teaches theory and sight reading at the same time, and is basically a big book of exercises. You learn by doing.
Berklee Music Theory Book 1 & Book 2
Free music classes from Coursera taught by Berklee College of Music professors
Intelligent Music Teaching by Robert Duke
On Teaching Band by Mary Ellen Cavitt
I wanted to share this, it looks to be one of the most interesting books I've seen:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0977113906/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=IGCT7922IL9V&coliid=I2GKHSI90AYUUP
Another guitarist learning drums here! And yeah, drums are a bit on the physically exhausting side (admittedly I'm out of shape though), wow I knew I was uncoordinated, but I didn't really realize how uncoordinated I was until I started trying to play drums. I bought copies of 4 Way Coordination and The New Breed.
I'd call New Breed a 'difficult but worth it' workbook for actually getting your hands and feet working together. And 4 Way Coordination more of a 'learn to control them separately' (little tip: make sure that your hands are on different drums for the melodic exercises).
The bible - http://www.amazon.com/Stick-Control-George-Lawrence-Stone/dp/1892764040/
Work them up to - http://www.amazon.com/Accents-Rebounds-For-Snare-Drummer/dp/0984329315/
For your more advanced students, this will also help you with your reading. - http://www.amazon.com/The-New-Breed-Development-Creativity/dp/1423418123/
Of course you don't have to keep them doing everything on the snare, get them to move the exercises around the kit.
This is what I've found to be the best advice as a drummer. I was in college and my percussion teacher had me work through The New Breed. I had been drumming for nine years prior and this method was what brought me to another level. The most innovative and productive way to achieve this that I've seen.
The Drummer's Complete Vocabulary As Taught by Alan Dawson: Go through as much as you can while staring both on right and left hand.
Also, Gary Chester's The New Breed: This is a lifetime lesson type of book. You'll get out of it what you put into it.
The New Breed by Gary Chester is a classic, difficult book focused around developing independence between your limbs. Definitely high-five yourself if you can make it through the whole thing. If you can't, don't worry--it's also a wonderful tool for pulling yourself out of a creative rut when you start to feel like everything you play sounds the same.
I think this has been posted here a few times, but it's a great book for introductory music theory.
The Everything Music Theory Book.
I guess you are talking about these books? https://www.amazon.com/Adult-Piano-Adventures-All-Course/dp/1616773022/
Do you recommend any other complementary books?
I'd recommend this book as a great starting point. I am 25 and my teacher and I have really made progress :)
I'd follow this book and supplement it with the youtube resources above, but as a disclaimer I learned with a teacher so I'm no authority on self-taught pianists.
So from what I could tell, I need to switch to a different method because this was caused by the "C position" mentality of the Alfred method. So I ordered the following books:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0849773024/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616773022/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1.
Will see which one is better for me...
PX780 is an awesome digital, I love the Privia series.
https://www.amazon.com/Play-Again-Piano-Perfect-Rediscover/dp/1847614590
I would recommend this book as well as the second book, it's compiled by Melanie Spanswick a fantastic pedagogue it is specifically marketed for people that are returning to piano, it has a wide range of pieces within different styles beginning from grade 1 - grade 8 I believe the last piece of the second book is Rachmaninoff's famous prelude op 3 no 2 in C sharp minor. There are also practice tips along the way on how to practice the pieces, since you said you played for a while when you were younger I think these two books would be a great approach to get you back into shape instead of having to start from scratch via some adult beginner books.
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Good luck my friend!
Yea, you're 16, you got plenty of time to be amazing at both in 3-5 years if you practice it consistently. And I do mean amazing, most people don't practice consistently for years at at time at all. Also, read this book on practice
You could check out some autobiographies such as Timbalands, Zaytovens, Jay-Z's & the Beastie Boys book. Those are good for specific artists and producers experiences. But there are plenty of music production books that can inspire you as well. Check out Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies. The ebook is a good value:
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Music-Strategies-Electronic-Producers-ebook/dp/B00WHXYZG8
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Music-Strategies-Electronic-Producers-ebook/dp/B00WHXYZG8 Available for free if you know where to look (dont pm me)
Not that bad for a beginner. Some of your instruments/sounds are a bit cheesy and it adds a hollow/amateur feel to your music. What you're missing is a bit of depth. This is normal!
Your bass is way too high in the frequency spectrum - you need to add some sub bass. Your lead sounds/pianos are too crisp/clear which ads to the tinny/cheap sound.
I recommend a few things:
0. Read this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Music-Strategies-Electronic-Producers-ebook/dp/B00WHXYZG8
2. Take one of your favorite songs and try to reproduce it, one part at a time.
3. Learn how to use filters. This was huge for me - once I started understanding how the filter shaped the sound, I felt like a 10x improvement in my sound.
4. Use a limiter on your master and read up a bit on mixing/mastering
5. Add a bit of grit to your sound (if you'd like) or a low volume, subtle pad sound throughout your tracks - this was a secret I recently learned and it helped a lot, it should be barely noticeable but makes your track feel much richer.
6. Use subtle distortion on your kicks
7. Try out the transient shaper if you have it on your drums.
8. More reverb and delays, give you sounds some space
9. Layer your sounds - double up your kicks and leads.
10. Keep trying! You just started out, you WON'T make memorable and amazing music early on. Be okay with that. If everyone could make hit music, it wouldn't be special. It takes years to get decent, even more years to get good, and can take a lifetime to be great.
11. Make sure you are enjoying yourself. Have fun, get lost in sound and the experience.
12. Don't give up.
This book got me going. It has a lot of quick situational reads. I apply it to a lot more than just music too. It was published by Ableton, so it is relevant. Not so much an instructional as a motivational.
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Music-Strategies-Electronic-Producers-ebook/dp/B00WHXYZG8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478560710&sr=8-1&keywords=ableton+book
Hello
When you have things going on in your life it's hard to pursue your creativeness and craft your ideas. This book here has a lot of ideas that help you look at things another way and it's an easy read, look through the chapters there is a few things that can help you. It's called 74 creative music strategies for Electronic Music Producers. You don't need to produce electronic music to read it. It covers stuff that is just about music too. I read a couple chapters over the week on my phone on the way to university or if I'm on the train.
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Music-Strategies-Electronic-Producers-ebook/dp/B00WHXYZG8
(you can get it on kindle and there is an app for PC and Mac that you can get off Amazon)
Edit: There is a lot of information posted below which is helpful I forgot to mention that sometimes change is good I like to break the loop. The best way for me to produce is spend a session just making ideas; maybe just create a loop in the DAW sequencer or use Live View (if you use ableton) and build up ideas upon each other maybe another session you can focus on editing and resist the urge to create and see what you can salvage from your creative session. Set limits for yourself a long the way as well, maybe have a time limit or only use one synth or restrict yourself to 2 or 3 samples. That book covers a lot of this stuff I've mentioned; I've only read a few pages and it's already helped me.
Hope everything is well!
2 of the books which helped me a lot, both great for beginners (but also pros):
This ones focuses more on the right mindest towards learning the skills (hugely important imo): https://www.amazon.de/Music-Habits-Electronic-Production-Procrastination-ebook/dp/B00ZJG398U
And this one is more about concrete techniques: https://www.amazon.de/Making-Music-Strategies-Electronic-Producers-ebook/dp/B00WHXYZG8
And this one is what iam reading right now, it's more for experienced practicioners who want to understand how to make the step from being "solid" to "great".
It's also very much about developing a healthy mindset to learning and playing / producing. It's written by a classical music / piano guy, but most of what he says translates 1-1 to electronic music production.
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B005OUHOLY/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
When i look at my own progress, i really feel "mindset" is the key word - in short, you need to accept your current level, and that learning takes time - but you also need to feel that your potential is only limited by the time and effort you are willing to put into your craft.
And: when you wanna learn a certain technique, try to find a youtube video about it! That can really speed things up.
Check out the Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony and patiently work your way through it.
ok man, you're right. whatever you say. ann coulter, bill oreilly ... etc use sources in their publishing first of all. secondly. that's a mistake to add those pundits into the conversation becuase they sell based on popularity. if you are trying to LEARN something,using a credited, published book
maybe something like this http://www.amazon.com/Berklee-Music-Theory-Book-2nd/dp/0876391102/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450295738&sr=8-1&keywords=music+theory+berklee
which was super fast for me to find, and I know it's credible and organized. whereas going 'on the internet' will leav eyou finding little pieces of information that you have to put together by yourself, and will not know whetehr it's right or wrong.
again this is teh second time that you are calling me out for syaing "ALL BOOKS ARE BETTER THAN THE INTERNET" and I didnt say that. of course I can name a book with bullshit in it. but that's not hte point. thersbullshit on both sides. but you're MUCH MUCH more reliable to get a random book and learn loads more from it than 'the internet'.