(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best music books

Having a written schedule helps a lot. It lets you focus on the areas you want and keeps me from getting off track. I take weekly lessons as well so I usually develop a practice routine for the week with my instructor, but on occasion I've added to it a bit or worked out my own.

There are two things you should do first: determine how much time you have and what you want to work on. Be honest with the time you have, not just how much you want to have. If you're not going to actually practice for four hours every day it won't help if you work out a schedule for it and then end up skipping most of it. Anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours is typical, I personally tend to aim for 1 hour and allow myself some flexibility to go longer if I want to. If you can't do a single longer session consider trying to play in several shorter ones and break things up between them.

Figuring out what to work on is often the harder part. Having a teacher to work with will definitely help you not only determine where you need to improve, but how best to do it. Otherwise try to have an honest assessment of your skills. If you're working on something new and notice you're having trouble with part of it write it down and add that to the list of things you want to work on. Maybe you're having trouble with triplets, getting a smooth articulation, you need to improve your knowledge of the neck, or want to improvise better. Pick a few of those areas to work on and then begin looking into how you can focus your practice on improving them.

Personally I tend to break a practice routine into a few areas: warm-up, technique, rhythm, ear training, reading, improvisation/composition, and repertoire. Here's a sample routine of mine from May:

1. Modes in all keys, one per day (i.e. Monday - Ionian, Tuesday - Dorian, Wednesday - Phrygian , etc.) at 90 bpm. [10 minutes]
   
   
2. Bass Aerobics #1; play to backing track. [5-10 minutes]
   
   
3. Bellson p. 23, 90 bpm [5-15 minutes]
   
   
4. Black Sabbath - "Electric Funeral". Learn bridge (2:17) by ear.
   
   
5. Improvise over Em riff. [5-10 minutes]
   
   
6. Play for at least 30 minutes.
   
   I like to start off with scales and arpeggios as a warm-up. I'll switch them up over time depending on what I want to work on and to keep from getting bored. In this case I follow a pattern of playing the scale up and down and then the chord tones (i.e. 1-3-5-7-8) up and down as quarter notes. Always to a metronome. Whenever you're playing something and aren't just slowly working it out, play it to a metronome. Don't be a in a rush either, speed comes from precision and you get that by doing it right at a slow tempo. Currently I'm doing the same thing with two octave minor scales in each key which presents a number of other challenges and is giving me a lot of practice on shifting and fretboard knowledge.
   
   Next I move on to cover an exercise I happen to be working on. In this case I was working from a book I'd purchased recently that's nothing but technical exercises. Often I'll work on something that my instructor has given me, for example at the present I'm working on playing ghost notes with better articulation so I'm going over some simple exercises he gave me.
   
   After that I had been doing some rhythm studies. Louis Bellson's "Modern Reading Text in 4/4" is a great book for this and an absolute classic, especially among drummers. It's just pure rhythm without any pitch, but it will help you learn to read better (including things that are written awkwardly in places) and focus on getting your time and rhythm down solidly. Once you have a rhythm down it's also great to then go back and start adding in pitches. Maybe picking a few bars and looping through them exploring what you can do with it and how pitch and rhythm interact.
   
   Ear training is one area where I'm a bit less disciplined. I include it in my weekly routine, but I often won't get to it every day. It can tend to suck up a lot of time and cause you to get distracted from the rest of practice until you've spent an hour on it alone and then don't have more time to finish. I like to put a little bit of time in on it though when I can and once I start getting something down I want to work on it for the rest of the week. That's why it gets listed here. Sometimes I'm learning a new song from notation though and it will go in this slot or I'm doing both. After the drier exercises I like to switch to something more musical, but that's still a bit of work so that's why it tends to show up at this point in the routine as well. You should try to always be learning a new song as well, whether it's by ear or from notation.
   
   In addition to just learning songs by ear I also like to use software to work on my ear training. Personally I use Perfect Ear 2 for Android and would highly recommend it, but there are plenty of other resources out there. Just spending some time every week working on intervals is going to help you out a lot and will make learning songs by ear that much simpler. You won't even realize it when it happens, but you'll listen to a song, start to work it out, and find that you got it perfectly the first time without really thinking about it. It's a great feeling and you get there by working on your intervals.
   
   The improvise step from this week is something that's sort of lost to time. If I recall correctly I'd been noodling around a week or so before and had come up with a simple riff with a couple of different fills. This was simply taking a little time out to play around with that. Often I'll be working on playing a song just from the chord chart so that will take this place. Some weeks I don't do any improvising. But just having something really simple like finding a backing track online, playing over a basic 12 bar blues in the key of your choice, or comping a jazz standard ("Autumn Leaves" is just about everyone's first standard) will let you take some time out to work on this basic skill.
   
   The last part of every practice for me is to just play. I have a playlist on the computer that includes everything I know or have been working on recently. I'll usually try to focus on the most recent songs I've learned since they often need the most work, but after running through each of those (and a second time if needed) I'll flip it over to random and just play along to whatever comes up. I like to keep it on random in particular because it means I need to quickly get into the song and don't have a lot of time to think about it. You have to just hear it and go. If I'm having trouble with a section I'll stop and repeat it or take some time out to work on it specifically. Either going down to the metronome to slow it down or just taking it note by note until I have it down again and can start playing at speed. Then when I have that section I'll work on transitioning into and out of it before I can finally just play through the whole song. I try to put in a minimum of 30 minutes of playing time, but usually I'll go even longer because I'm having fun.
   
   This is actually a key aspect of this sort of schedule to me. Most of these areas have a pretty variable time. Sometimes I'll just play an exercise through once (e.g. scales) and move on, but other times it takes longer because you need to slow things down and work on problems. Or it's short and you play through an exercise several times once you have it down solidly. I prefer to set minimum times that I'll work on something and let myself keep going longer if I want to. When I start to get bored or frustrated I have something else to move on to. If you have less time available to you though it might make more sense to enforce minimum and maximum times so you can be certain you're able to get through everything.
   
   In this case I've included a couple of books I've been using to get exercises from, but that's not the only source. I'll also find stuff online, get them from my instructor, work on reading/practicing pages from a method book (The Hal Leonard Bass Method in particular is very good and well-organized into discrete lessons that break down easily into a practice routine) or any number of other sources. The web has a wealth of resources out there that will give you stuff to work on to improve your playing. Scott's Bass Lessons is particularly well thought of around here and provides things like a weekly riff to work on with notation and a workbook (also included for the regular lessons if you sign up for the paid section).
   
   So, yeah, really, really long, but hopefully this gives you an idea of how to create and organize a practice routine. With each subsequent week I'll move on to another page/exercise in the books I'm working on, the next section in a song I'm learning by ear (or a new song altogether), a new scale to warm-up with, or whatever. Find out the routine that works best for you though and the time you have. Add in more exercises or take some out. Spend five minutes just working on standing in front of the mirror and playing open strings up and down (then skipping) and focus on your right hand technique. Whatever you do, plan the work and then work the plan.

Congrats on starting! Thats often the hardest part! And the best bit? Even if it feels like you've started late, some of the best musicians did exactly the same and it never stopped them! In fact I only started singing when I was 16 and now thats my job!

There are loads of resources online which might be able to help you. It does depend a little on what your priority is though. If you would simply like to be able to play and work things out as you go there quite a good app/site called Yousician which helps you learn music on your chosen instrument in a guitar hero style way. Your listening skills will definitely get better with this but I don't think it does much theory.

https://yousician.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz8OE6t-W2wIVBZUbCh1LqQQBEAAYASAAEgIGmvD_BwE

For learning the theory side of things, Piano is definitely very helpful if you can afford a small keyboard. Thats awesome you've already transferred some of the piano stuff you watched onto the ukulele, aural skills like that are hugely useful particularly later on if you want to listen to something and then write it down.

I would recommend music theory.net, they have lots of lessons and exercises online which you can use for free but the lessons are particularly good to give you a full understanding of how to read and understand music.
https://www.musictheory.net/lessons
They also have an app (which is the same material as the website) which you could use, but you do pay for it.

As far as other apps go there is another very useful one called Meludia. I love this one, it helps you train your ear rather then the theory side of things and will play you a short phrase which you then play back within the app. - https://www.meludia.com

For the general practice and seeing how you're doing, I've also just released an app called Muso which lets you practice a load of topics (like recognising notes and chords, and also written stuff) and see where your strengths and weaknesses are. You can also add a teacher further down the line to set you little quizzes and help you learn faster if you ever start lessons.
It's totally free and theres no rubbish in app purchase stuff you can just practice and see how you're doing (we've got a basic AI that learns what you need to practice next which will hopefully kick in soon!). If you do want to check it out its at www.theoretical.xyz or search "Muso by Theoretical" on the app stores (UK).

Theres also a lot of resources through ABRSM (the music Exam body) in the way of books and practice tests for the theory.
This is the most comprehensive to my knowledge and is very popular, though quite in depth!- https://www.amazon.co.uk/AB-Guide-Music-Theory-Vol/dp/1854724460

Or they have a few practice apps you can use, I think you have to pay for some of the features but you might find one you like - https://gb.abrsm.org/en/exam-support/practice-tools-and-applications/

Really though, I think the best tip is to practice practice practice, but above all have fun! Music is awesome and if you can get a bunch of friends together and have a jam together it really is some of the best fun!
I hope that helps a little bit, good luck with all of your music and I hope you enjoy it!

I've been playing guitar professionally for 15 years. In that time, I've gotten a BMus in classical guitar performance, taught music, accompanied several accomplished musicians on stage and in the studio, and played in bands that have performed festivals / won grants / were written about in nationally distributed newspapers and magazines. I've edited three LPs and six EPs, mixed three records, and have production credits on them all. I've appeared on stage and in the studio ~ 1k times. All my income comes from teaching, playing, and writing.

Tips:

1. Never stop being a student of your craft. Be humble and take every opportunity to learn.
   
2. Play live frequently! I've met many talented musicians who want to reach a large group of people but don't play shows. There is no big secret to breaking through a scene: The more you appear on stage, the more people see you play.
   
3. Professionalism goes a long way. If you're playing a gig for a single person or a thousand people: Respect your crowd. Don't treat a gig like a throwaway ever. Communicate and be engaging no matter the size and demographic. You'll be surprised what one fan can do for you. I once met a guy in a small crowd who had traveled to my city and happened to be there. He liked our set and happened to book shows where he lived; this person became a springboard for us to reach an entirely new market!
   
4. It's important that you're well-rehearsed and sound great, but bar owners care about how you treat the business end of things as well. If you want to succeed: Don't get blackout loaded and forget to do things like man your merch table, give shoutouts to the serving staff, and treat the venue respectfully.
   
5. Network with other bands. We need each other to help an entire scene grow. I've been having songwriting sessions with other bands in my hometown and it's really fun to crossover and rewarding too.
   
6. Learn to sing. I've only ever sang backups but I can hold a tune. This is a very valuable skill, even if you're only singing "Ahhh" in the background. Backup vox can improve a song dramatically.
   
7. Invest in your craft. Sound matters! What's the point in honing all that skill if it's not going to sound great. Be on top of changing trends and know when a deal is a steal. You can grow your backline and not break the bank if you're well-educated. All this takes is time and browsing the internet.
   
8. Be conscious of your crowd. Looks and gear matter. When I get booked to play solo jazz at a corporate cocktail event, I'm not going to show up with a ratty jeans and a flying-V (rad as that would be). And, while those wallflower gigs are kind of boring, I can charge $500/hr or more and they don't blink an eye. That amount of money is nothing to them and pays my rent / expenses for a month.
   
9. Teach! All the time. There is nothing more rewarding than watching a person learn to do something they love and know that you helped them get there. At any level, you can become a teacher. Find a person who needs what you know, and share it with them.
   
10. Listen to music. Know what's out there. When you get stuck in a rut as a player, find an entirely new genre. The opportunity to do so, given what the internet is, has never been greater. You can invest in hours of listening at zero cost.
    
11. Transcribe music by ear. Knowing theory and being able to read sheet music is great; but a strong ear is the most valuable thing a musician can have. Contrary to what you might think, this is a skill that can be taught and learned. You might be horrible at it to begin with, but if you frequent Ricci Adam's MusicTheory.net every day, you will improve. I used this to quiz myself during my degree; great tool.
    
12. Know your value and don't be afraid to demand it. Music is a business and you will be your only agent for a long time.
    
    Books:
    
    
13. The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick.
    
    
    
    

I responded to your post in /r/luthier about buying tools. From what i remember you have access to the school wood shop but for limited amounts of time. I’m going to try and take you through some of the major steps in building a guitar and what tools you could use.

1. Dimensioning- taking rough lumber to surfaced. Three options are buying presurfaced, using a jointer and planer, or using hand planes. For this step I would go with buying rough lumber and using the jointer and planer at school to surface the wood to size. Presurface lumber would be my second option. It would save you time but be more expensive. While I love hand planes I feel like for buliding a guitar your money could be better spent elsewhere.
   
2. Laminating- both the body and neck. Wide boards are more expensive so the body you would probably end up laminating. The neck might also be as well depending on your preference. Get some clamps(you’ll need them) and do the glue up on your own. Just make sure you have enough.
   
3. Cutting out the body- options are band saw, router with template, jigsaw, or turning saw. If it were me I would make a template at school then roughly cut out the shape on a band saw at school I would then buy a router and flush trim bit to get the guitar to the exact shape at home. You could do it with just the band saw or jig saw if you are careful. Frame saws are great but will cost more than a jig saw.
   
4. Routing pick-up cavities- like the step suggests a router is best for this. If you get a router make sure it has a plundge base. This is also best done with a template to get exactly what you want. You can do this step with chisels which might be cheaper but as the next step will show you should probably get a router.
   
5. Routing the neck pocket- This step should really be done with a router. It will give you the most precise cut and you dont want to mess up the neck angle because then you will have issues with the action. Chisles could be used but I still don’t trust myself with chisles enough to do that.
   
6. Shaping the neck- here is where hand tools shine. Either spokeshave, rasps or both. finish with sand paper.
   
7. Headstock- it is a bit more difficult to tell tools without knowing if you want a fender style vs gibson. You could do any of the shaping with a coping saw though. For the tuners it would be best to drill the holes with a drill press. Brace and bit could be used if care is taken.
   
8. Shaping the body. There are some options for the body’s edge i.e. round over, binding ect. but if you want any countour for the arm or belly it will be spoke shave and or rasp again.
   
9. Finger board inlay- drill press, hand drill, or brace for round. Chisles for trapezoids
   
10. Fretting- Quality back saw would be your best bet. Making a jig for accuracy would help.
    
    Alright this isn’t a comprehensive list but I’m running out of steam. And some of these are out of order I was too lazy to fix it. As you can see a router would do a lot for you. I know you were thinking of hand tools only but if you could find a way to make the router work it would be the best bang for your buck. I recommend reading this book and figuing out what tools you can buy and use in your situation. There are also look at stuff on Youtube to get ideas.

I feel like this argument ^(apologies ^if ^I ^misinterpreted ^it!) is always brought up whenever new technology gets introduced. New technology threatens an old system of music production and while it frees up artistic creativity because of its availability, some people point to the perceived value of loss of musical integrity.

People will say something like "It's just not as good as it was before", that there are too many people diluting what x music should be.


A particular example I'm thinking about is the deejaying aspect of hip-hop in the 1970s; at first, it was just only people who had the resources to purchase turntables and speakers. Who had the double turntable/loudest was king. The rap aspect took the backseat to the dub/deejay aspect. In the early days, it was all about having a good time, getting people to come to your party, and keeping the music playing.

But then when radio discovered what was going on in New York, power dynamics changed. Rapper's Delight by The Sugarhill Gang was recorded and broadcasted in 1979 and the entire hip-hop landscape changed. Hip-hop was no longer viewed as a simple extracurricular activity, but the possibility of a potential profitable career. The live aspect of deejaying yielded to the much more profitable rapping aspect.

And this made some people upset. These rappers were diluting the already "good" deejaying scene. If you were big and didn't adapt to these new changes, you basically lost.

What do I think? I think over-saturation is great! I don't need to depend on filters to find good music; I can be in a small town in Kentucky and still find cool musicians who play in Austin, TX. While I do occasionally use BIRP and some indie youtube channels/tumblr pages, I am able to make value decisions. From my computer. I simply need a library account to access the computer and I have access to a world of music. It is super egalitarian in my mind.

Hipster moment here: I remember when I listened to Zoe Yin's Midnight back when it had a hundred something views. She's incredibly talented imho. I don't know her, probably wouldn't have seen her live even if she was in my town. But because she uploaded her stuff on the internet, I was able to find it in my free time. That's cool!

But I do acknowledge that there are some poorly mastered mixes out there. That's the nature of the beast. With ease of availability comes inexperience.

Another example (not music-related, but very relevant): film photography vs. digital photography. I learned how to take photos with b&w 35 mm film. It was expensive and it demanded a lot of time. Hours and days were put into developing/burning/dodging that I wanted my pictures to count. So, I worked and only took photos that passed a threshold of interest (due to the limitations of materials, expense, and time). Therefore, what I produced had a significant amount of thought and effort into them. And people liked it.

But now we have instagram, mobile phone cameras, and inexpensive point and shoots. More importantly, we have SD cards. Now instead of limited to 24 shots, you can take thousands! And it is reusable!

What does this mean? It means the effort behind the photo is reduced. Just a simple click with minimal thought. A lot of stuff I see on Facebook or Twitter... Well, it isn't that "good". But that doesn't mean it isn't art. And it doesn't mean we get to immediately write it off. We just need to look at it differently with the technical process in mind. Who is taking it? Who is their audience? What is their intention? How did they do it? Just like the internet scene, photography is going through the same debates.

And the best advice I can give is... just go with it! Find stuff. Hate it, love it, be indifferent. As long as you keep questioning the basis of your value system and don't hold on to a traditional viewpoint of what x should be every time/all the time... You'll be good!

^Jesus... ^this ^was ^long, ^thanks ^for ^reading ^if ^you ^made ^it ^this ^far

Citations:

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang

tl;dr: the perception of oversaturation is just a mindset; allow yourself to be open from whatever old nostalgic system of value you hold and you can find some really cool stuff out there

One important thing is to relax, and especially relax your fretting hand. If you've got the strings in a death claw, it's going to sound bad and you might eventually wind up with carpal tunnel.

Instead of trying to do hammer-ons right away, force yourself to go back to fundamentals. Set the metronome (you must have a metronome) to 40 beats per minute and play one finger per fret. Your fingers should fall immediately behind each fret. Whole notes, half notes, quarters, eighths triplets and 16ths...make sure you're playing in time with the clicks. Try to relax completely and use only the minimum amount of pressure it takes to sound each note without buzzing. The idea behind this exercise is to teach your muscle memory the exact amount of pressure you need to play a given note. Forcing yourself to play slow will give your muscles time to readjust in order to sound the notes accurately. Your fingers, wrists, body posture, etc. should be completely relaxed and comfortable throughout. If you start tensing up or feel pain or burning in your fingers, make yourself relax and loosen up.

Couple other popular hand exercises.

1. The Soft Touch. Play exactly as above, only leave your fingers on the frets until each finger is ready to move up to the next string. Example: you play index A on the E string, middle finger A#, ring finger B, pinkie B#, keeping each finger in fret position. Now leaving your mf, ring and pinkie down on those frets, pick up your index and move it to D on the A string. Then pick up your mf and move it to play D#, ring to E, pinkie to F and hold. Then continue up the D and G strings the same way. It might help to start higher up on the neck, like C on the E string. Throughout this exercise, the most important thing is that you relax your hand. There should be no pain, no strain, no bizarre wrist angles. Just smooth, slow, relaxed and locked in to the 40 bpm pulse.
   
   
2. The Spider. Purpose of this exercise is to learn independent control of index/ring fingers and middle/pinkie fingers. Play A on the E string with your index, then E on the A string with your ring finger. Then A# on the E with your middle, followed by F on the A string with your pinkie. Then switch up and hit B on the E string with your ring finger, followed by D on the A string with your index, then B# on the E with the pinkie and D# on the A with the middle. Alternating 1-3, 2-4 fingers the whole time. Practice that until it's comfortable (could take a few days), then play the same pattern skipping up to the D string, and finally all the way to the G string. The full spider pattern is played E string to A string, then E string to D string, then E string to G string, then back down E to D, finally back to E to A.
   
   For books, there's a big difference between a good one and a bad one. I can personally recommend Serious Electric Bass, Bass Logic, Bass Grooves, and Standing in the Shadows of Motown (this last book is less of a beginner's guide and more of a project you could spend a lifetime on: i.e. learning from the great James Jamerson). Also highly recommended is Ed Friedland's Building Walking Bass Lines. I also have and recommend The Bass Grimoire, but it is more a reference book for advanced scale and chord building, as opposed to a beginner's guide. Bass Guitar for Dummies is actually pretty good and comprehensive.
   
   And there are some good online resources as well: studybass.com is great and starts from a beginner level. Scott Devine is an amazing teacher especially with more advanced techniques, but also for fundamentals. Paul from How To Play Bass Dot Com just steps you through a bunch of popular rock & r&b tunes...not bad for picking up new songs, but it's far better to learn the theory & structure behind a song than just memorizing the finger patterns. MarloweDK is a great player with hundreds of videos, but he's highly advanced.
   
   Finally, musictheory.net has some great ear training exercises you can do any time, in addition to a wealth of info about basic theory that applies to all instruments.

Hey man,
Same thing happened to me a few years ago. I just started writing on paper with piano if I needed help with pitches. I'd write as many pages as possible and then put what I did on finale just to hear what I wrote. It seems like a good method because nothing really beats the formatting of a good notation program but as many of my Comp. Prof.'s have said, "Midi isn't real. It will trick you." I think that's the most important part of this whole process. Something you write on midi might be very impossible (or uselessly difficult). Also, feel free to bring some music to someone who actually play the instrument you are writing for and asking them to play through it. Most performers I know are always willing to do this if they aren't too busy already!

When I started composing microtonaly (year or so ago) this became an even bigger problem for me and I started having to rely on my ear and experimenting with different types of synthesizers to determine an approximate sound. It gets better as you write things out though. Just by working things out from your head to paper for a while you develop a stronger ability to compose without midi crutches.

Some benefits of doing this you might not have thought of:

1. When composing on paper you have the opportunity to see a line through without being controlled by bar lines or staff division (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FEF4CG/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I use these). Often times I'll just compose rhythms and melodies without bar lines and then add them in later. This really helps me focus more on readability of a part (I've almost eradicated using too many time signature changes and my rehearsals/performances have gotten much better)
   
   
2. You get to really step back and look at the overall image of what you have done. Just open up to a sheet and observe the aggregate image (much more difficult on a program).
   
   
3. I get headaches looking at a screen for too long so if you have this problem this is great!
   
   
4. It's easier to transport music you are working on.
   
   
5. Composing can move faster because you aren't inhibited by changing note type and then clicking it into a spot etc.
   
   
6. You focus much less on making your score look nice.
   
   
7. You can interrupt a system with notes/visual representations of what you think might happen next (I use different shapes often)/commentary.
   
   Hope this convinces you this is a good idea.
   
   Make sure you have a strong hold on proper notation/orchestration (A useful resource - http://www.amazon.com/The-Study-Orchestration-Third-Edition/dp/039397572X, bit pricey though) And also, this site has been a miracle for me - http://www.music.indiana.edu/department/composition/isfee/. This will save you a lot of time.
   
   Best of luck! Also, just trust yourself and your ear. This stuff takes time, patience, and practice (like all things music).
   
   Edit: Some Trivia - many composers of the past (those without the miracle/curse of notation software) would just sketch things out and short hand things ("repeat this here", "ostinato bass" etc.) and then hand it to a publisher to put together when it was done. For example, Beethoven. I mean look at this crap - https://www.google.com/search?q=beethoven+hand+written+music&client=firefox-a&hs=fUD&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=fflb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=8kpKUqyCL4fi2AXV0YGQBA&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1600&bih=701&dpr=1#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=MP65Ypeh4KL_nM%3A%3B-WsvncUQEMICJM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fclassicalmusicblog.com%252F2007%252F09%252Fimages%252Fmvt1-facsimile-s.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fclassicalmusicblog.com%252F2007%252F09%252Fbeethoven-sonata.html%3B580%3B463. Think of the notation software as your robotic publisher. That's what I do.

> Therefore, the creation of music by these groups was not centered on live performance and the studio was the safest space to create music. So this has resulted in rock music generally favoring "authentic" sounds that mimic live performance, while pop sounds "synthetic" and often uses electronic instruments and many effects.
> I would argue that Disco, House, Techno, Hip Hop, etc... all were created under similar conditions.

Except, they weren't created for the conditions of domesticity. Disco came out of Philly Soul which was a live music. Add a drum machine to a soul band and you have Disco. Disco led to Garage, which was the name for what Larry Levan played at his club, the Paradise Garage -- diverse stuff, and the man Levan as the DJ was the driving force behind it.

A bunch of guys from Chicago, notably Frankie Knuckles, took Garage back to the clubs in Chicago, the most popular being called The Warehouse. When people were looking for dance cuts from the Warehouse, they'd eventually just start asking for "House" music.

Techno came from the affluent Detroit suburbs as a consciously-futuristic style of music inspired by Kraftwerk, etc.

Hip-Hop came about from a unique mixture of Caribbean "Dub" mobile sound system culture and "breaking" to the raw drum beats on funk/soul/disco tracks -- have a DJ loop the breakbeats back to back, toss on a dub/reggae MC, and you have hiphop.

I'd recommend a book called Last Night A DJ Saved My Life for more detail on the origins and development of these styles into contemporary dance music.

-------

The only one of these styles created as a conscious studio effort designed for domestic listening was Techno. The other styles are all specifically styles of dance music which doesn't even interact with the public/domestic dichotomy.

In fact, I'd suggest these styles of music were created for the third space of the nightclub -- fundamentally distinct from the first space of domesticity and the second space of the workplace i.e. public sphere. Similar to the idea of a "safe space" today but considerably broader, though often serving the same function.

> Disco, in all of it's joy and frivolity, was favored by those who had to navigate oppressive systems that sidelined lgbtq people, ethnic and racial minorities, and women.

This is a point I can potentially agree with. When I listen to tracks like Dreaming A Dream by the Crown Heights Affair, especially in the context of a mix, I feel a palpable desparation alongside the joy and exhileration -- almost like "this is your only chance to dance, make it count". This seems to agree with the ethos of Northern Soul, a very working-class style from the UK that would pillage American soul and r'n'b records and dance all night to them.

On the other hand, it could just be the tension inherent in good dance music: build, and release. This was very popular with Larry Levan -- tracks like Put Your Body In It seem to dragggg onn... until the euphoric chorus hits. And Levan was known for doing tricks like playing two copies of the same record offset, so when the audience expects the chorus to hit, he can cut away to a verse again and keep the tension building.

-------

We could also view this as a technological development in one area: drugs. My pet theory is that the history of popular music (in the broad sense of not-art-music rather than top 40) can be traced to the development and popularity of various drugs.

During the late 70s, MDA became popular in the clubs -- a drug similar to MDMA, but stimmier and less euphoric. Just as dope fueled jazz, speed fueled skiffle, and LSD fueled psychedelia, we can view MDA (or coke, if you could afford it) as fueling disco. You can see dance music change further in the late 80s when MDMA enters Ibiza and the UK (rave culture?).

Ahh, that makes sense, sorry \^\^;

There are books on a huge variety of subjects in music, so it does depend a little bit on what you are interested in specifically. For a broad overview, I liked A History of Western Music - the current edition is the 8th, but much of the materials from the 7th edition are available online. Another book I recommend is Harold C. Schonberg's The Lives of the Great Composers. It is less in-depth, but is written in a more narrative style while still hitting on a lot of the "who's who" in classical music from the Baroque to the 20th century (although it's maybe a tad outdated in the later 20th and 21st century).

Besides those two, I actually don't have any others on the top of my head that are good overviews. /u/m3g0wnz does have a guide to music theory textbooks on the sidebar that details out some of the main texts in that area. And, of course, there are books that specialize on a variety of subjects within music theory and history - Ebenezer Prout's book on fugues is one such example that I've looked at, as well as both the Kennan and Adler on the subject of orchestration. (Actually, Kennan also wrote a book on Counterpoint.)

On the subject of sight-singing, I've used both Rhythm and Pitch and A New Approach to Sight Singing in my aural skills classes - I like the Berkowitz a little better in the way it's organized, but both offer plenty of examples for practice. Alternatively, picking up a hymnal is possibly an easier alternative to sightsinging that gives you lots of tonal material for practice.

With most of my other suggestions, though, you don't really need a book. Print out some scores on IMSLP or pick up a cheap study edition (like this one of Mozart piano sonatas) and work through a harmonic/formal analysis.

With transposition, I think probably just working through some scores on IMSLP would be a good start, as well - I can't think of any other better way to get exercises for that. It's one of those topics that's pretty easy to quiz yourself with as long as you keep yourself honest. :)

Edit to add: As far as specifics of literature, that is obviously pretty instrument-dependent. I am a vocalist, and I usually choose language first and then begin exploring pieces that might work with my current technical goals. I know a lot of instrumentalists treat genre/time period the same way. So depending on your instrument, you may have a different approach, but it helps to narrow things down to a few composers you might like to explore for your instrument, and then seeing if anything works for you. Although be wary - for me I end up getting so involved in lit studies that I have a list a mile long of pieces I want to study in the future. It's a double-edged sword for sure.

> Say if I can't find a teacher right away, how would you say I should try striking that "balance" you talked about? Any resources you'd suggest for each element (technical/musical/theoretical)?

Technical and musical elements are quite difficult to advise on because they are quite individual. Some people are very expressive but aren't necessarily brilliantly technical players and some are brilliantly technical but make music that sounds like robots, and all shades in-between.

If you pushed me I would say that something like Yousician's free lessons will get you off the ground as far as basic technique is concerned. Their free service is perfectly adequate for a complete beginner.

As far as musicality goes that's more difficult to teach. Really you're looking to try and "feel" something while you're playing and it's not quite the same as feeling an emotion - you're trying to feel the flow of the music. I found it helpful when I was first learning to play along to a track and not worry too much about getting it right - just noodle around trying to get into the feel of the thing. Playing with other people helps here too.

As far as theory goes that's easier.

Standard theory (you can call it 'classical' theory if you like but it applies to pretty much any form of music except really early music and more modern experimental stuff):
The AB Guide to Music Theory Part I
Music Theory in Practice Book I

(As you'll see from the Amazon listings there are more books in the Music Theory in Practice series, and there's an AB Guide to Music Theory Part II as well).
Get someone who knows what they're talking about to check your answers!

Jazz theory:
The Jazz Theory Book

Songwriting:

Chord Progressions for Songwriters

Bear in mind that music theory is a bit like art theory in that it's largely descriptive rather than prescriptive - it describes common practice and therefore gives you some guidelines but it's quite possible to follow all the rules and still come up with something that's fucking dreadful. So when you're writing try not to get bogged down with "is it correct?" - just ask yourself "do I like it? does it sound good?".


> What would an ideal (or even okay) progress would look like according to you?

I would say classical guitar grade 1 within 1-2 years is normal progress. If you're ambitious then 6 months to 1 year.

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:

• It's OK to change the notes of the hymn tune slightly to accommodate the harmonies you want. But it's important to keep the rhythm of important motives the same, especially if you're changing the notes
  
• It's useful to learn the hymn you're improvising on in multiple keys so that you can switch keys in your improvisation
  
• Steal textures from written-out preludes/meditations/etc. on hymns. One texture you can use is the triplet texture I mentioned above.
  
  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.

My two cents:

• Electric - a cheap electric is far easier to play than a cheap acoustic. While it will be important to build callouses and finger strength (both of which are facilitated by playing an acoustic steel string), I feel it is far more important for you to enjoy playing and make some initial progress. If you can get some momentum in learning/playing, then you can start worrying about strength, endurance, etc. If you give up after 3 months b/c your hands hurt and you haven't made any progress (b/c it hurts to practice), strength, endurance, and everything else is moot. However, if you really want to play acoustic, consider starting with a nylon-string (classical) guitar.
  
  
• I would look for a used electric, probably something like a Mexican-made Fender or a lower-end asian-made guitar (Ibanez, Jackson, Schecter). Many folks like the Epiphone entry-level models... I haven't played one so I can't say.
  
  
• As I said above, electric is more likely to get you quickly to the point of playing something interesting and enjoying it.
  
  
• In my experience, most guitarists do not read music. (Many have only a superficial understanding of theory and some don't even know scales or chords by name). Significant portion of those that do read cannot sight-read (self included). Anyway... it's perfectly reasonable to learn to read while learning to play. Barring that, tablature is widely available and very popular. Well-made tab is useful and often will include rhythmic information.
  
  
• Get started by learning some riffs and songs you like. Also, learning something like the 12-bar blues will let you start playing with friends and that can greatly enhance your enjoyment and learning.
  
  
• Being self-taught is fine. Many guitarists never take lessons. I personally have benefited a lot from taking private lessons. However, practicing and playing new stuff will get you a long way. I recommend getting a good book to use as reference. The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer is a personal favorite.
  
  Have fun and good luck!

Your frustration is perfectly natural. The same questions and doubts arise in all of us at all levels. The standard answers you noted are true, but only in your context and when you are at the right place in your journey.

A few things come to mind that might be of use.

Seek out a mentor. We all need guidance and teachers. Find someone who has had the type of succeses you are looking for. Ask questions and learn from the wisdom of their experience.

Seek out a collaborator. One of the most rewarding aspects of what we do is sharing it with others. Sharing the creative process and bouncing around new ideas with someone else is fun and creates an environment where new ideas and avenues can flourish.

Take time to be introspective without being reactive. Be real with yourself. What are your goals. Really think about the why and the outcome you hope see. Successful people are not successful by accident. They work incredibly hard to achieve their success - we are only seeing the end result.

Sometimes the best thing to do is take a break. Walk away from it and give your mind and spirit a rest so when you return it is with renewed exuberance. As odd as this may sound, when I take a break, my brain tells my it's time to come back through dreaming about playing and being on stage or jamming with others.

Something else you might consider is [Zen Guitar] (https://amzn.to/2IO4IfU) or [Victor Wooten's The Music Lesson] (https://amzn.to/2GbuyJf), both of which are fantastic and inspirational reads.

I hope this helps my friend!

Don't give up man. There's many ways to improve.


1.) My best advice, is find a good teacher that you like and feel comfortable around. Once you do you'll really begin to improve and like your sound.


2.) If you can't find a teacher there's plenty of online resources


3.) This is probably the best and hardest way to improve; it's very slow but the pay off is amazing. Transcribe everything. Start with the Beatles or CCR and transcribe simple chord songs and slowly (I mean after several months of doing this) move on to harder material.
This method is not recommended as it's hard, but it'll make you damn good.


Don't give up bro, I've played guitar for 5 years. I sucked for the first two, was mediocre the last 2 years and it's only recently that I've begun to get good. Just like anyone can learn algebra or learn to read anyone can play guitar.

Two Books to Recommend (On the Mental Aspect of Music):

Effortless Mastery - Liberating the Master Musician Within
by Kenny Werner. This book is simply awesome.

• Download it here (It's a safe download, I uploaded it myself. Shhh!)
  
  Zen Guitar - Philip Sudo
  
  
  don't click me! :)
  
  
• Even more awesome, it not only changed how I view music but also my life. This is personally better than Effortless Mastery, as what you read in the book not only affects your music mindset but spreads into your life. Buy It
  
  Two Final Tips
  
  

1. Just get into the habit of practicing, even if it's only for 5mins everyday. Make sure it's at the same time.
   
   
   
2. There's a cycle. Practice -> Improvement -> Motivation -> Practice -> Improvement - Motivation ->
   
   
   Occasionally you'll hit walls or plateaus at which point, watch Crossroads or listen to Zeppelin and remind yourself why you started playing, then go and practice.
   (-> = leads to)

Books I have read that helped me, loosely in the order I read them:

• Practical Recording Techniques By Bartlett and Bartlett. This is a more "general case" audio recording text, about sound and recording. It's less focused on the EDM trope of people doing everything on their computers, as it talks a lot about outboard processing, microphones, and such, but I think that sort of thing is actually quite helpful to know.
  
  
• Welsh's Synthesizer Cookbook by Fred Welsh. This is an overview of subtractive synthesis which goes into quite useful depth on what's going on and what you can do with it, with lots of diagrams and such. In particular he goes over using oscilloscope and sepectrum analyzer plugins to see what's actually going on with your waveform. The second half of the book is a "cookbook" full of "recipes" that are basically presets written down on paper. If you're quite comfortable with synthesis you don't need much of what it has to offer, but I thought it was great.
  
  
• The Mixing Engineer's Handbook by Bobby Owsinski. This is all about mixing. I feel like a lot of what this book offers tends to come up online as a lot of it sounded familiar when I read it, but it's still a solid text.
  
  
• The Daily Adventures of Mixerman by Mixerman. This book is pure fucking comedy - it's a series of diary entries by a supposedly respectable mixer in LA, mixing the worst band he's ever seen. It's generally understood to be fictional, but it's very entertaining and it actually goes into a lot of detail about why certain audio decisions are made, and because of this serves as a surprisingly good primer on how such a studio is run. But mostly, it's hilarious. You can read a few chapters here.
  
  
• Zen and the Art of Mixing, also by Mixerman. This one isn't fiction, or funny, but it's the same author brain-dumping all about mixing, going into the depth that I wished he did in The Daily Adventures. If you already understand the technical tools in mixing, this book is all about what goes through his head when he's mixing, and I found it to be just incredibly helpful. The author is very opinionated about some things, but he makes this very obvious.
  
  
• The Dance Music Manual By Rick Snoman. This one comes up every time someone asks for a good book on dance music. I have only skimmed it, but from what I've gathered it's all about electronic styles and is aimed squarely at the sort of person who reads this sub. I really need to read through it entirely so I can say this for sure, but a number of people have told me if you want to learn dance music and only read one book, this would be a pretty good one.
  

> I'd much rather write and have a professional singer with professional studio equipment sing it.

A lot of guys do that. And I probably will too, least that's my goal when my skills are up to it. But I'm glad you told me that, if that's your goal then you should want to get better. A hobbyist isn't going to be willing to put in the work.

Anyway, after listening to em all I would give yourself more credit as a singer. A few vocal lessons with the right teacher could get you singing so good you'd surprise yourself.

Of the 3 originals you posted, all 3 have some pretty common issues that can be addressed. I'm not going to go line by line because really the lines can be arbitrary.

• Word rhythm - believe it not, the accentation(or lack thereof) in a syllable creates a rhythm that you can use to make more powerful lyrics. I just read about this a couple weeks ago in my rhyming dictionary but basic prosody rules apply. If you need a line to feel stable with the other lines, match the rhythm. If you need to create instability, change the rhythm (shorter or longer). Stability in word rhythm is how you get the sing-along effect.
  
  
• Rhyme - You can tell you wrote these as a teenager because you must have been coming up with the rhymes off the top of your head. A better approach I've found is to brainstorm some words that have to do with your hook. Then go to your rhyming dictionary (not a bullshit online one, no matter what anyone else says), and pick all the rhymes that seem to fit your theme. A good rhyming dictionary will also teach about the other types of rhyme other than perfect rhyme. You can also use this to create stability/instability, perfect rhymes are stable, the more dissonant sound the less stable the rhyme.
  
  
• Rhyme scheme - Setting up more a pattern to your rhyming will make it easier for the listener. See the above about rhymes but try out these rhyme schemes as there about the most popular in music today: ABAC, ABCA, ABCB
  
  
• Song structure - You did a better job than most posters here of having a chorus that sticks out. However, the songs on the radio these days almost always have a pre-chorus. Back in the day it was more optional but these days a pre-chorus build that has a hook in it is the way most hits seem to work
  
  
• Verse development - Here all the rules of story telling apply. You want each line to move your story along with a definite beginning, middle, and end (especially with country which it sounds like you're most close to). This is something else you can determine before you write the lyrics. I use a box method and a typical development could be I-You-We. Or even Aristotle's Pain-Fear-Catharsis. The way you were doing it, it didn't seem to be moving very far.
  
  
• Detail, detail, detail - Ralph Murphy says that our job as story tellers is to get the listener engaged in a story that never happened, with characters that don't exist, in a place that never was, and make em believe it because it relates to their own story. A lot of us make the mistake especially when we start out as using music as a diary, that's fine but that doesnt' make people want to listen to your song over and over. The trick is to use lots of details that can relatable to other people. So details are objects or typically nouns that help paint a picture in the eye of the listener. Use them liberally in your verses, sparingly in your choruses. The chorus is where you talk about how you (or the narrator) feel(s)
  
  I'll use one of the songs as an example of some of this stuff:
  
• hook/title: Just Another Broken Heart
  
• When I read that I see another non-unique way of singing a sad bastard song. One of the hardest things about our job is saying the same old thing in a fresh way
  
  
• rhyme schemes
  
• Your first verse sets a AABAA (counting assonance as rhyme), the next verse is ABBAA. And you go to ABAB in the chorus to mix it up, good job on mixing it up there but you want to keep the verse rhyme patterns the same. Also, try to stay away from couplets when you want to be taken seriously. AABB can sound corny.
  
  
• structure
  
• You have a Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Verse structure. Not one of the standard structure. Again, pre-choruses are the thing these days. And your first verse is the 3rd verse. I don't know if your first verse is strong enough for that. Additionally, is there a counterpoint idea that could balance the sadness of the rest of the song? Remember, contrast is the name of the game in songwriting.
  
  
• verse development
  
• the first verse deals with not wanting to wake up to the reality and face the pain. I like that. The 2nd verse deals with the fear of what you'll find. That's okay but you've already indicated that somewhat in your first verse. You're just restating it. And then the 3rd verse is a repeat of the first. And I don't know if your first verse is strong enough for that.
  
  ..k so I'm getting to have a wall of text here so I'll stop there. I think you get the point. The biggest hurdle an aspiring pro songwriter has to make is the realization that listener's don't give a shit about you. They care about how your song makes them feel. If you can elicit emotion in the right way you may been on to something.
  
  I would recommend, if this is something you're legitimately considering pursuing, that you consider joining Taxi.com. They're a company you can join (for a fee) that will pitch your songs to the majors. They can also give you advice on finding a studio to produce your songs. But more importantly, they'll give you reviews of your submissions for actual industry pros. At the very least you could learn a ton from their forums (http://forums.taxi.com) and watching some Taxi TV.
  
  Here are the books that I've probably learned the most from all most of my critique is based on:
  
  Writing Better Lyrics
  
  Murphy's Laws of Songwriting
  
  The Craft of Lyric Writing
  
  But that's just my 2 cents as a random guy on the internet.

Hi there!

I'd say that an important first step is plenty of research on the principles of guitar building, so that you have a good understanding of what you are trying to achieve before you start designing or building:

There are some excellent books on the subject, and also many resources on YouTube where you can watch the pro's at work and see how it's done....

Having some woodwork experience is a good starting point, and having the right tools for the job definitely helps, but many people have managed to achieve a first build on their kitchen table with just the basics....

Do you have an idea of what type of guitar you would like to build? I'm assuming a solid-body electric of some kind, which is somewhat more straightforward than say an acoustic guitar....

It's a good idea to base your first guitar on something which already exists, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel (some time spent trying out as many guitars as possible down at the local guitar store is always fun, until they get heartily sick of you!)....

Another good learning strategy is to acquire a couple of secondhand cheapo guitars to tinker with and take apart etc, without fear of ruining a decent instrument (also good for practice at soldering and wiring pickups, pots etc)...

You might also bear in mind that a kit guitar, or buying in components like a factory-made neck, or pre-slotted fretboard etc, can be a great starting point, and considerably less daunting than trying to make absolutely everything from scratch for a first-timer!

Nobody's first guitar is ever 'perfect' I'd say, so aim for something relatively simple and execute it really well, then save that triple-necked guitar with eighteen pickups and loads of exotic hardwoods you've always dreamed of (lol) for a future build, once you have mastered the basic skills... :>)>

Hope that helps.

PS - ask loads of questions as you go along, if something crops up that you are not sure of... that's what we're here for!

Best wishes,

Woody

www.guitarzoom.com. Look for the course "Music Theory for Life". It's a 12 week online course by Steve Steine. Very good. You can also find many of his videos online that talk about music theory in shorter form but still more than enough to get you started. Here's a good series to follow by him: https://www.lessonface.com/absolute-fretboard-mastery-steve-stine

The other thing that really helps is playing every day. This really helped me get through solos that previously I never even attempted to play because i thought I would never be able to. I use an app on my phone called "habit" to track that. I mark every day I play and end up with a streak. I never want to break that streak so I play every day. I started with a wall calendar where I crossed off the days. After a while, you have a nice long line of days and you will feel really bad breaking that line.

Now comes the question of: "Ok... I can play everyday, but what should I play?" I had that issue. So I went ahead and bought this book: http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick-per-day-Developing-Maintaining/dp/1423414357/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462400123&sr=8-1&keywords=guitar+aerobics

This book is basically a year's worth of every day licks to play and practice. Priceless. It will give you something to do every day by default. No thinking required. It starts off easy and builds up. It will teach you usable licks straight away from different music styles. It will also teach you how to play in time since you should be using a metronome (or the drum tracks they provide).

I use the book when I am not in the mood to practice a song I am working on that day. I make sure I am playing some "challenging" song since it's fun to end up with a song you've been wanting to play. I give it time... no hurry. I've been having fun learning "Hangar 18" for like 2+ weeks now. I am taking it slow and making sure I am not rushing through parts.

Good luck!

My pleasure! Ralph Murphy is a boss, met him for the first time my last trip down to Nashville. I would highly recommend a few cheap/free resources. Ralph Murphy's Laws Of Songwriting, Writing Better Lyrics - Pat Pattison (You can't really tell but both of these are hyperlinks, so go feel free to click on them), and www.coursera.com offers a free online lyric class. SAC memberships are like $35 for students, and then you can attend workshops free.

I think you can totally write downer characters, but again, give him a redeeming quality. Give us a reason to root for him.

As far as playing. You don't need to be a John Mayer or Elton John. A lot of the most successful writers I know are mediocre at best guitar players. If you can play acoustic guitar in time you have all you need as far as guitar skills. I mean the more you know the better, but you can get by with the basics. A bigger factor for the artist thing is having the "it" factor. It's impossible for me to tell from a recording if you have it or not. I know I don't have the frontman "it" factor. But when you see it you know. It's the confidence, the charisma, the ability to connect with an audience whether it be 3 drunk dudes in a bar or thousands at the ACC. I wouldn't concern yourself with the guitar stuff.

All the best!

For anything that involves advanced music theory, or more technical elements of music, your best bet (IMHO) is to stay clear from jazz/rock books or anything "popular" and read from traditional academic/classical composers. That is, if you're looking to understand music from a more historic point of view of how is was used, and how it worked for hundreds of years and how it still works today.

There are tons of good books out there, but off the top of my head I reccomend:

Regarding the art of counterpoint:


Preliminary exercises in Counterpoint - Schoenberg

Also, you could check out the traditional Fux's Study of Counterpoint, but I think Schoenberg's book is far more complete and incentive.

Regarding the art of Harmony:


For a long time I've always thought that books could educate you in any way, until I met my harmony teacher. After studying with her for a couple years I find it hard to believe how much information, technique, and art is missing from almost every book on the subject, some are exceptions, obviously, but my recommendation is that there is no better way of learning this but with personal intruction. Also, the teacher needs to be someone who has had a strong education in music from well-known masters of the past, as was my teacher.

Anyways, regarding harmony in the more poetical and theoretical sense I reccomend :

Rameau's Treatise on Harmony

and of course, Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony

For a more technical approach to harmony I haven't found any books I'm really fond of, but I do think that Paul Hindemith's book is a very good option.

For something in the middle I recommend this

Regarding form and structure in music:


Once again, I have never seen information and instruction similar to that which I received with my professors, however here are a few good picks...

Schoenberg's Fundamentals of musical composition

and 2 books that I found very useful were...
(these I didn't find on amazon.com)

from German composer Clemens Kuhn: "Formenlehre der Musik" (this is only in German)

and from Spanish composer Joaquin Zamacois: "Curso de Formas Musicales" (this is only in Spanish I believe)

Well, surely there are more books, but I think these are good options for you to start. However, always with a grain of salt

Since this post hasn't gotten any responses, I'll do my best

You've covered a TON of ground in one post, it comes of as a bit scattered, and therefore pretty hard to respond to, but I'll do my best.

>Are there any recommended books with or without accompaniment (I need recordings since he isn't here)? I bought this book, https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0769233775/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 .

I have no experience with that particular book. There's a frequently referenced book, Klose's 25 daily exercises for saxophone, that I'm fond of and is held in high regard. Also look on the sidebar on that top link for some ideas.

> I think that I've adopted a double lip embrouchre; when I try putting my teeth on the mouthpiece pads the vibrations sometimes kind of hurt my teeth.

Okay. Some people do better with that, I hear, just be sure that you are staying in tune with all your notes and that your tone is good across the range of the horn. I've always found that I sound best with the standard embouchure, and people I've played with tend to have the same experience, but there are people out there that do the double lip embouchure and sound good.

> So right now I'm trying the 2.5 orange box reeds on my Yamaha YAS62. I just recently bought Hemke 2 reeds because I wondered if it was the reed.
I also own a YAS-275 which is sharing this problem.

I'm assuming this is about your lip hurting. A common problem that this sounds related to could be that you are using too much pressure on the lower lip and pushing on the reed. A symptom of this is that your upper range will sound sharp and the lower range comparatively flat. If that's the case, push in your mouthpiece and try to use less pressure from your jaw on the reed.

> When I play the notes don't sound smooth they sound a little bit abrupt. They sound a little bit restricted like the notes are singular or alone with the other notes around. Am I playing too staccato?

I have no idea what you're saying. You could be dampening the reed by pressing on it with your lip like I've mentioned above. Without hearing your sound, I won't know. "playing too staccato" doesn't make sense to me. Typically, you're maintaining air pressure when you're playing, and staccato is tonguing in such a way as to stop your tone put space between your notes. Given that tonguing in such a way is deliberate, I don't think that you're doing that?

> I can play the C Major scale and it sounds fine legato. When I play the arpeggios it sounds really bad at the top going back down. I play the lowest C, E, G, C, E, G, C going up. The problem is going down from the C when you are pressing your middle finger with the octave key then transitioning to the G. It almost sounds like a little bit of vibration or it is going inbetween the notes. I tried looking up online and it says that I should increase the speed of my air stream. I did this and the problem largely went but was still slightly there. It just made this kind of fluctuation shorter and less obvious basically. I think this thread means what I mean: https://www.saxontheweb.net/SOTW_Archive/alto/08-04-02/boardset-saxweb-boardid-alto-thread-83-spec-4558793.html
Also I left it on the stand for like a month last year when I was thinking of getting back into it and my mum hit it off the stand a while ago which I was wondering if that would ever need to be checked again (the other suggested solution to the weird st I found online was taking it to a tech). I'm thinking that I'm just out of practice but I do remember the YAS-62 used to sound really good.

Work on your intervals. If you can hit the note just fine on a scale but you're having issues with arpeggios, then there's a couple of things that can go wrong. Things that could go wrong include:

• your fingers aren't closing all the tone holes at the same time. Try the problem interval with the notes completely separate, then start narrowing the space between the notes gradually, working on moving your fingers together.
  
  
• The sax's mechanisms might not be fully responsive, due to a sticky pad, weak spring, etc. If the step above did not resolve the issue, watch in a mirror to make sure that everything is moving right, and right away when you go between notes.
  
  
• It might be a voicing issue. Get the note in your head. Sing the note, make sure you know what notes you're going from and to. If you have the wrong (or no) note in your head, you may actually disrupt the primary pitch of the note you're playing and that can result in that "in between" sound.
  
  
• Also, keep an eye out for leaky pads. If you're not sealing right, it can cause an issue. You'd have problems with the scale though, too.
  
  > Also if I do have to take it to a tech, I'm in London what is the best value one (not priced, best value)? I really hope I'm just shit and I don't need to take it to a tech but tell me what you think thanks.
  
  Sorry, can't help here.
  
  
  > Also my mum is only paying for half of my lessons since she would only pay for every other week and I think that I probably should have weekly lessons. What is a fair price for lessons (I'm guessing half an hour)? I don't know if I could get a discount since I'm paying for half of it; is that a reasonable reason to ask for less?
  
  Respect the people that are trying to teach you. If you can't afford their rate, then either find someone else or explain that you can't afford their rate. Not sure how old you are, but if you're in middle or early high school, you might be able to get someone a few years ahead of you to give you lessons, and that should be somewhat cheaper.
  
  > Thanks for reading and getting back to me (if you do)
  Not sure if it is the reed hardness since I can play the low Bb and B okay.
  Edit: Oh wow the PDF links for the real book in the FAQ are actually legible Another dumb question, when sheet music has chords like Bb7 or whatever is that transposed? If someone was trying to play guitar accompaniment could they just play those chords?
  
  If the real book does not specify what key it is written in, it's likely C. You'll have to transpose the chord if you want to read it as a saxophone. For instance, a Bb7 would be played as a G7 on alto or a C7 on tenor. A guitar could just play them.
  
  > Also does the dent in the neck matter?
  
  Probably not if it's small. I'm assuming it's small because you didn't mention it till now.

You need to consider why you want to learn guitar. That will answer some of your questions in itself.

For instance, do you intend to become a professional, virtuoso concert guitarist? If not, what difference does it make if you won't be as good as you could have been if you'd started earlier?

If you're like me, and you play for the pleasure of playing, for the joy of making music, how good you are doesn't really matter. I play because I love playing and I always have, even when I was just starting out and awkwardly struggling through my first chords. Practicing is never work for me because it's fun.

That's not to say that I'm not constantly trying to get better -- I certainly am. But this isn't a job or competition for me, it's something I do for fun and enjoyment. Let yourself have fun with it and the rest just doesn't matter. So if you're having a hard time learning to play something, but you're enjoying the learning process, it's all good. If playing the guitar is a chore for you, why bother? It's supposed to be fun.

So I say to you, go try it. Try to enjoy it. Find your way of making music with a guitar. If you love playing, keep it up. If it's just drudgery to you, let it go. There are no guitar police out there who will throw you in jail if you "aren't good enough" or you don't learn the "right way". There is no "right way". If you are enjoying making your own music then you are good enough and you're doing it the right way!

This is a wonderful book on the subject.

I make enough from guitar building and repair to be able to fund it as a hobby in itself. You're looking at a significant initial investment in tools, workspace, and marketing in a market that's pretty saturated with factory guitars and independent builders. I hope someday to build up a customer base large enough to make this a career, but until then I enjoy it as a hobby and an art that pays for itself. As an art, I'd suggest picking up a couple of books:

Guitar making tradition and technology and Make your own electric guitar.

Both of these will give you a great background on how to build an instrument. The links in the sidebar will be very helpful to you as well.

One thing that has been helpful to me is engaging in your local music community. I live in an area of the US with lots of churches and worship pastors that need their guitars worked on. I work on their guitars and every now and then do builds for them that meet the needs they're looking for. I don't know what your community looks like, but engaging with musicians where they're at and building up a report is the beginning to a self-sustaining hobby and hopefully will carry you to a business.

Best of luck to you!

Dan Erlewine's Guitar Player Repair Guide has been around for years and covers a lot of ground. I bought my copy when I was 16, over 20 years ago. The newest edition also comes with a DVD too. You can get it at StewMac here, although it's available from Amazon and most book sellers. No one book can cover every single little thing, but it's a good reference to keep around; I still check mine from time to time.

Anymore, it's easy to find most of this information freely available online. Someone already mentioned frets.com, which is an awesome site. There are tons of great Youtube channels too (Freddys Frets, StewMac, Crimson Custom Guitars, Sully Guitars, Dave's World of Fun Stuff, Blues Creek Guitars, O'Brien Guitars, and dozens more I can't remember offhand.) I think it's easier to learn certain things by watching videos, so I'd suggest picking one book as a main source, then look up videos for anything that's not entirely clear to you. I didn't have the benefit of Youtube or the internet when I started working on them, so take advantage of it!

I'd also recommend getting at least one book on building guitars, because it can give you quite a bit of insight about how different instruments are constructed. I've had Melvyn Hiscock's Make Your Own Electric Guitar for years too and it's a great book, but it's currently out of print. Keep an eye out for a used copy, or look into the ones that are currently available. StewMac has a good selection of books, but again you can find most of them from any book seller.

Finally, don't get too overwhelmed. Guitars are not particularly complicated things and it's not rocket science, even if it looks like it sometimes. There really aren't that many repairs that I'd consider too difficult for the average person, as long as you're willing to put in a little time to learn how to do them. Even refretting isn't that hard (although it's tedious and takes all friggin' day.) Learn how different types of guitars are built, because all a repair is is repeating a particular part of the build process to fix a problem. Watching "factory tour" videos on Youtube of various manufacturers can give you a surprising amount of information on how a particular builder tackles certain aspects of the instrument. There's almost always multiple ways to achieve a repair, it's just a matter of figuring out what works best for a particular instrument or situation or just how you prefer to work.

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

 

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

 


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

 

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

I assume you've got an acoustic guitar :)

Start playing with the lightest strings you can buy, and increase their gauges only as your strength and stamina increase—technique comes first, speed, strength, and endurance later.

Instead of coming up with your own curriculum, you should buy a beginner's guitar book (e.g. Hal Leonard) and work through it over a few weeks. Once you've practiced the commonest picking and fretting techniques and you can coordinate your right and left hands properly, you should begin to learn the easiest guitar parts of your favorite songs. Use guitar tablature for this if you have to, but learning songs by ear is better (a program like Adobe Audition is perfect for this, btw).

As you learn songs, you should memorize the names of the chords you're playing. When not practicing your repertoire, you should learn to play the major and minor pentatonic scales and the seven modes of the major scale. You should also learn to read staff music and chord charts (e.g. learn which notes are in the chord Eb9(#11)). Play with an online metronome to improve your rhythm and to practice playing faster.

After that, you're probably ready to study Mick Goodrick's The Advancing Guitarist, which is the best guitar book ever written, IMO.

I've been writing songs as a hobby for years now. Music comes pretty easy to me so I can just sort of hum or write melodies with ease, but I could never get lyrics + melodies to fit and create a great song. Then I read "Writing better lyrics" by Pat Pattison and have very little issues now. His methods are genius and honestly made lyric writing MUCH easier for me. I have read countless songwriting books and that is the single greatest one I've ever come across. If you want to write great lyrics, learn how to structure them melodically, and learn the intricacies of songwriting please read that book. He's also got a songwriting class on coursera.


http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Better-Lyrics-Pat-Pattison/dp/1582975779

When it comes to improving rhythm playing, as well as overall fretboard knowledge, I'd recommend diving deep into the CAGED system and learning how to play chords and progressions in different areas around the neck. Fretboard Logic is pretty much the classic book on the topic.

Learning to focus on chord tones while soloing/improvising, as u/pigz points out, is also massively important. The 12 bar progression is definitely a great place to start with this, but as you get comfortable with it, it's worth branching out and practicing the same thing over other common progressions.

Also, if you're pretty comfortable with the pentatonic shapes, it's probably a good idea to start practicing the shapes of the major scale. I'd still focus on the pentatonic stuff when you're practicing soloing and improv and stuff, but go over the major shapes as a separate part of your practice to start laying the groundwork.

Also, if you don't already, it's a tremendously good habit to sing along when you practice. I don't mean singing songs, rather when you practice scales and/or licks, try to sing the notes as you play the scale, or sing the lick before playing it. This will help you build a connection between the notes you hear in your head and where they are on the fretboard.

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.

I have 2 books. One that nobody likes is by Melvyn Hiscock. Admittedly its a bit dated, but gives a pretty good idea of the principles of guitar design. It is not a woodworking book however, so it assumes you have some knowledge of woodworking techniques. I say nobody likes it because anytime its mentioned, someone will complain that they bought the book but couldn't build a guitar.

I have this booklet as well, and I also have his booklet on how to make a 5 string banjo. I think its pretty good as well.

Honestly though, there is enough information online about making guitars in this day and age, that I think you can do just as well by watching a bunch of videos and reading a bunch of online articles. Also, there are some really good people on this subreddit that can help answer questions in great detail.

I was originally going to post this as a reply to a comment, but it might be more appropriate as a top level post...

If y'all are interested in reading more about history of the lgbt / outsider side of dance music, check out this piece from Luis-Manuel Garcia, and hosted by RA. It's really well done.

Last Night A DJ Saved My Life is also pretty good if you're hungry for more. It's a weighty tome that covers DJing more generally from like... the 1920s or so up to the present.

House music stands for love. :-)

ed.: also if anyone has suggestions for more pieces about the roots of the music we love, I'd like to hear them. :)

If possible, look into taking a class at a local college.
Otherwise, check out an orchestration textbook like https://www.amazon.com/Study-Orchestration-Third-Samuel-Adler/dp/039397572X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467290384&sr=8-1&keywords=the+study+of+orchestration+samuel+adler

That's what a lot of schools use when teaching orchestration. This will help you learn how to write for specific instruments and covers many techniques. Another great way to improve your orchestration is to study scores. If you are looking for a specific "rich sound" like what you hear in whomever's symphony no. 2, then get a score for it and listen to it! I advise listening to it once without a score or listening but not looking too closely at it and following along.
Stick a page marker in the book on a page you find interesting or when you hear a sound you like, then come back to it and try to figure out what you like about it! The textbook will help a lot because it can inform you of a technique you may be unfamiliar with: what it's called, and how to notate it correctly. If you get a copy of the book with CDs you can hear some examples of everything in the book.

Another way to help if you can't find or afford the book is to find someone who plays the instruments you're writing for and go to them with pen and paper and ask them "show me every interesting trick or technique you know how to play." have them spell out whatever it's called and show you how you would notate it as well.

And like composing any new thing, the more you do it, the better at it you'll be.

On improving your chord knowledge. The best place for you to start would be to find fingerpicking songs you like, learn them, and play them a lot. Through the process of learning songs, you will improve your chord knowledge and your overall musicianship. Also this book.

For your singing/strumming problem, remember, singing is rhythmic and will fall somewhere on or between strums. Start doing simple songs. The more you do it, the better you will become at it. If you try to do it 5 times, it will probably be pretty hard at first. Maybe even perceptively impossible. If you do it 10,000 times though, I promise you it will be easier.

So pick an easy song, play and sing through it a gazillion times. The first few times might seem impossible, but each time you do it, you will learn and become better. Never give up. You'll get it.

On improving your listening (aural) skills, most musicians don't have "perfect pitch", but you can improve your relative pitch by doing some ear-training (www.musictheory.net/exercises). Another great approach to ear-training is by simply figuring out songs by ear.

Also don't forget your metronome is your friend, and playing with it constantly will make you a better guitar player and musician.

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 ;]

The Caribbean New York link is often cited as one of the key factors in the formation of hip hop. I strongly recommend you read Jeff Chang’s book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop to find a more detailed narrative on the link. It dedicates a chapter to the socio-economic conditions in NYC the late 60s and early 70s and another chapter to sound system culture in Jamaica which really set the scene what how and why hip hop emerged.

As a fan of early hip hop, I just want to stress that in 1970s in NYC the Caribbean influence was present in not only in rapping style, but in DJing style too, perhaps even more so. It was really the sound-system DJ culture of Jamaica that first made its way into the parks, streets and house parties in New York. It was the rapping that followed. This interview with DJ Kool Herc gives some indication of how one led to the other. The book “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life illuminates this further.

Lastly, while there is a strong Jamaican link to the origins of rapping, it is important to note that it was not only the source of influence. There were many other American artists from different backgrounds included raps and spoken word in their songs.

As a record collector, some of the more interesting examples that I have come across in my time include.

• Pigmeat – Here Comes the Judge 1968
  
  
• Lightning Rod – Sport 1973
  
  
• Last Poets – the Courtroom 1976
  
  
• Adriano Celentano – Prisencolinensinainciusol 1974
  
  Also, rap made some appearances in country music too.
  
  
• Joan Baez – Time Rag 1977 Also look at this interview when she calls it “Talking Disco Blues”
  
  
• Mac Davis – Lucas Was a Redneck 1974
  
  P.s. the first rap record is generally regarded to be
  Personality Jock by King Tim III and the Fatback Band not Rappers Delight, which was released a couple of months later.
  
  EDIT: I Just noticed you mentioned you were from the UK. You might be interested in checking out this website and articles by DJ Greg Wilson. He gives a good overview of the musical landscape in the UK in the late 70s and early 80s when hip hop was first being made. Of particular interest to you might be how US hip hop made it to the UK, and the role that of Caribbean kids in that movement, and subsequently dance music in the UK. He doesn't go into this in detail, but does allude to it. You should give him call, I'm sure he'd be happy to discuss.
  

Well the first issue you talk about-- the assignment of notes in your chords to instruments of the orchestra-- is orchestration. Here are a couple of good textbooks that cover that:

• http://www.amazon.com/Instrumentation-Orchestration-Alfred-Blatter/dp/0534251870
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Study-Orchestration-Third-Samuel-Adler/dp/039397572X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411570334&sr=1-1&keywords=orchestration
  
  The other issues are covered by some of the topics in "voice leading." It sounds like you have an understanding of chord progression, but things like harmonic rhythm or how fast chords change is also covered in voice leading. Many of those decisions are yours to make and that's what makes it fun! Some composers will create a harmonic rhythm that they will use to create a structure throughout the piece. I am a professional composer and would be happy to answer any other questions. Good luck!

I highly recommend Fretboard Logic SE by Bill Edwards. It teaches the CAGED system for chords and scales in a very natural and intuitive way. No prior music theory knowledge is necessary for the book, it starts from the ground up. It isn't very long, you should be able to get a solid grasp on the foundation of the ideas it teaches within a week, but you'll be going back to back to it to learn more for a while to come. I was simply astonished at how much better I understand the guitar after a short time with this book. Before the book I was in the same position as you, played guitar but only knew chords through rote memorization and learned solos by copying others, after I was able to begin writing my own music and I felt comfortable and ready to go deeper into the music theory rabbit hole.

The book teaches the CAGED system, and I know there are resources online that teach it, so if you don't want to drop the money on a book, you can find those and they'll teach the same concepts as Fretboard Logic. However, Bill Edwards does a great job at easing the reader in to the ideas and makes them very easy to understand. Plus, it's nice to have a physical book to reference the diagrams inside of it.

>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.

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:

1. Move either up or down by a scale degree
   
   
2. Leap up or down to a scale degree two or more steps away
   
   
3. Stay on the same note while other voices progress in one of the two previous motions
   
   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.

I second the jazz piano book, jazzadvice.com, and all the rest of this advice.

My two favorite music books are Victor Wooten's The Music Lesson and Philip Toshio Sudo's Zen Guitar. They contain wisdom that a lot of other music education misses.

As far as playing the piano goes, I recommend really exploring the piano as an instrument. Find the piano's strong and unique points, and be pianistly (in this sense). Conversely, target the piano's weak points, and learn to imitate other instruments: playing long unbroken lines like a sax will make you "light on your fingers" and help you to decompartmentalize fingering patterns you have learned.

I'm a big fan of this video right now. Download the pdf too, and practice the scales listed. The idea of chords being fragments of larger scale families (and being able to hear the entire scale families going by) is important. This is easiest to wrap your head around by playing modal chords on a C major scale. Allan holdsworth explains it better. This also ties into the "find which notes can be added to round out the standard chords" thing- if you hear the entire scale, then extrapolating which notes can be added is fairly intuitive.

Also, listen to great players. I like powell, monk, tatum, george shearing, and marian mcpartland, Mccoy Tyner, Kenny Barron, Esjborn Svensson Trio, Keith Jarrett, and Bill Evans. These are just a few mainstream examples. Also, learn from other instrumental traditions. If you like something, try to extrapolate a principle or lesson that you can bring with you from that song, and likewise if you dislike something, articulate what it is you dislike, then you can learn to play the opposite. John Hartford says "style is based on limitations", so choose carefully how you learn to play. If you don't like something, don't learn to play like that just because it's part of the jazz aesthetic cannon or some nonsense.

Also, play with someone. Play with bandinabox, which is easy to steal and fairly cheap to buy, and has many many many song files freely available online. Play with a metronome, at least.

Learn to adjust your technique to different pianos. Not every piano you play on will be good or even fair, so being able to get a feel for a new instrument and its limitations quickly is a great skill. On your home instrument, focus all the more strongly on finding technique compatible with that instrument. On a related note, let your mind step back and lead with your hands, letting fingerings and reflexes show you the way forward. On the other hand, let your technique fade into the foreground and practice bringing out the ideas in your ear, even if they navigate unfamiliar territory (do this slowly or it won't work and you'll revert to reflex) Both modes have their merits, and the more you get comfy with both, the less of a distinction there is between them.

Also, practice singing and playing. Meld your understanding of harmony on the piano with your ear and voice. Also, practice thinking big (long musical fragments, specific complex voicings, etc, etc) at & away from the instrument. If you can't think big, your creativity will never have good macro structure & flow. I really believe that our creative impulse is a divine gift, but it often builds on our existing experience and abilities.

> I'm a huge fan of Retro/Synthwave but i've never been attracted by their live show, what's the point of having a guy behind a macbook clicking Next every 3 minutes?

there is a great book called Last Night a DJ Saved My Life which gives a history of the DJ and also electronic music. One thing I learned is that many people judge electronic music from the perceptive of rock music where albums are the format released and concerts are there to see and appreciate the musician making the music. (this isn't helped by promoters / venues who advertise high profile electronic acts)

Electronic music is different as it is more about the party and dancing and uses the music as a backdrop. You can still have "personas" and be there to see a person and what they do. Mix Mag has this series that has famous DJs do a set with different music. This is Skream (original dubstep) spinning UK GARAGE which was the precursor to dubstep.

The problem happens when people begin to judge how other people have fun. These czech ravers seem to be having fun standing in front of speaker banks with no DJ in site. The raves and electronic shows I have gone to have all been of varying qualities with even some of the most fun times being of average music quality. there is a rock belief that music and the musician must be revered and worshiped like artwork where electronic shows are more communal with music as a backdrop.

Well, I'm sitting here loading 23 dvd's of my new sample library, so I have some time to write :)

First of all I'm going to cite ITB gain staging honestly in digital you don't have to gain stage unless your effects plugins have an assumed range... slate (which does make input level assumptions) really hammered this home to me on the first project I did.

Gain staging is boring and takes a bit of time (and you have to revisit it if of you put in lots of piano or fortissimo sections after you set it initially), but it makes the mix go a lot faster. It also solves the issue of "crap this VST patch is way loud!"


I use live, so track routing may be specific to that.

Source (either audio, or instrument) -> sonalksis freeg to bring source to -18db RMS -> slate vtm -> slate vcc channel -> (optional side chain compression) -> (optional instrument compression, like to make a snare sound different)-> (optional effects like reverb or eq) -> output routed to a bus or group


bus or group -> slate vcc bus -> compressor for that instrument type / group (like FG-Grey for drums, FG-Red for synths) -> hybrid static/dynamic EQ here (which is really a mutliband compressor/expander)

bus or group always also goes to a dummy track (with no output) that has an instance of MMultiAnalyzer on it (for finding collisions and/or relative loudness of the groups). I do this on a dummy track so you can see the level after the output of the groups or bus's fader, ie, what the level is going into the master channel.

when mixing I first set the loudness within a group, and the ride the faders/automate levels among groups to balance the mix.

master chain
freeG-> slate vtm -> slate vcc -> MAutoDynamicEQ -> compressor 1 (usually slate fg-mu) set to barely move the needle off of -1db -> compressor 2 (usually fg-red) -> very fast compressor (built in or stillwell the rocket) at 1.5 ratio ~-9db to -12db threshold (for the fast stuff, think of it as the knee before the limiter) -> ozone (limiting and dithering only, with no gain and -0.30 for target) -> MLoudnessAnalyzer (for LUFS EBU R128 loudness for final mix check)

So to answer your question, since I almost always do my main compression via glue / bus compression on a group or bus, I would eq on the individual channel, before the compressor, if I considered it "part of changing the noise of that instrument." Compression for "make it fit in the mix and make it louder" is always handled on a bus, and The Glue compressor as well as VBC are really good for that -- a lot of people don't seem to know that's what "the glue" is made for.

Also, yes, that's three compressors in a row on the master chain. The reason is for the reaction speed differences, and coloration.

I don't use a limiter for the final gain stage, it's just there to prevent clipping. I try not to let the limiter hit more than 1.5 or 2db -- at 3db or more it's definitely hurting the mix even with IRC III or Elephant

I think you can see this all in action on a project here:

https://blend.io/project/540cfff496123d1970002907

Books I can't recommend enough:

Bob Katz
Mike Senior
Rick Snoman


TL;DR There's more than one way to do it, but after I read some books I tried a new way (to me) that I used on my most recent project and thought it was great for producing a nice loud (but not sausage) master.

My PC is high end though, on my older pc I couldn't run all this stuff at the same time.

Everything this guy said is gold. I would add a couple things.

• If you are completely new to guitar and not adverse to spending money:
  http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269624397&sr=8-1
  You can get a lot of this info on line, but the book is a classic.
  
  
• You really want to pick a few songs that you really like and want to play as your goals. It helps you with focus and inspiration. And if you tell us what type of music you are looking to play to start I can recommend more books or websites.
  
  
• For guitars you really get a lot more bank for the buck for a few bucks more. Basically from 100 up to 600 dollars the guitars really improve every bit you spend. However, BloodyThorn is right about wasting guitar equipment. This is why there is so much used equipment on craigslist.
  
  
• For buying a beginner guitar, don't be afraid of buying used. Try craigslist. But if you have a friend that plays, get him to come along and help check it out. And if you decide to keep with the guitar and you outgrow the guitar after a year or two, then you can always use a guitar that you can afford to lose. Much nicer to take your second $150 guitar with you on a boat than your only $700 (or $2000) dollar guitar.

I started guitar really late in life and as such, my hand dexterity was really shit. Guitar Aerobics is helping out a lot with increasing my fretting accuracy and speed. I still struggle with the max speed in the individual exercises, but i have noticed improvement week over week.

It's not a cure all and while it may expose areas where you have technique deficits, it won't really be able to tell you what to do to correct it. On the other hand, it's a good addition to and a good warm up in a longer practice session. It's well structured and covers a different technique each day of the week, each week building on the last. It's was definitely worth the $15.

I ripped the CDs that come with it and put them on my phone which made it much easier to use them too. The play along drum tracks are a nice alternative to a metronome.

A counter-melody is a 'less important' melody played against the primary melody. Historically there was a period when playing multiple melodies against each other was the absolute essence of music, and folks like Bach dominated (called 'counterpoint' music). A very famous example, that is 'simple' so easy to follow is Bach's Invention #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzU7xQmmXGE

His 'inventions' were for two melodies. He also wrote 'sinfonias' which were for three voices, and are a bit more complex, for example his Sinfonia No.2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoZwnXDjbV0

Listening to this with headphones while trying to consciously follow all melodies is quite a peculiar experience. :)

And if you want to feel depressed and talentless, check from 10:54: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XCUcZ5KK7Q. Here he starts with the primary melody and then has the second melody join. This is exhausting to *really* listen to and my peanut brain is too small to ever hope to play something like this. Shredding? Sure, I can start slow, practice a ton and end up fast. But having both hands play *this* independently? Awe-inspiring. Sitting down and composing this on a piece of paper almost 400 years ago? Madness. :D

In baroque counterpoint the goal is to make every melody interesting in and of themselves, and make it sound 'effortless harmoniously together'. It should sound like these melodies were born together. In practice this aint easy at all and you'll be tempted to see one as the 'primary melody' and the others as 'subservient' where you can take shortcuts to make them fit the main melody. At that point it is no longer true counterpoint but you can still call it a counter-melody. Taken further you'll have things like arpeggios; parts that obviously fit the primary melody but are themselves so bland they are clearly accompaniment instead of a melody in their own right.

If you're interested, a very well-regarded (though rather pedantic) book that starts at the basic and offers exercises is the many century old https://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772. If you want to go *really* old-school you can go as close to the original here: http://hz.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/3/31/IMSLP370587-PMLP187246-practicalrulesfo00fuxj.pdf

I think it'll help most songwriters/composers to know the basics, even if you dont care about classical counterpoint at all. :)

I started at 19, but came from a musical family and came off of tinkering with guitar for 13 years prior and a steady gig in school on the trumpet. Got my first bass at 19 as it was the mid 90's and grunge was hot and there were so many opportunities to be in a band but nobody wanted to play bass.

Don't get discouraged! Ask anyone here; playing bass is not only a lot of work but it's a "growing" experience. Unless you're Mozart people just don't pick up the unwieldy instrument and become proficient over night. Notwithstanding the muscle training just to get past that awkward stage where you have to stop and think about where you put a single finger on a string, there's the whole emotional aspect, as well as the mental, academic and spiritual components of bringing music to life. The only way to become an "experienced players" and gain "experience" is to experience the journey; if you can get into a band quickly do it. Your playing will advance exponentially.

Check out the book called Zen Guitar. It's very easy, short and enlightening as well as watch some of Victor Wootens teaching vids. He has some great concepts that will change how you look at bass and music.

Good fortune to you.

The best way to start, IMO, is to read. Get as much info as you can on the subject. There's a couple of books that are pretty good; This One or This One are good places to start. Another thought is to check out websites like projectguitar.com. They've also got a forum with lots of tips and such.

Finally, it's going to be a big asset if you already know your way around some various woodshop machinery, if you plan on doing it all from scratch. Knowing how to solder helps too.
One final thing. Do't expect to be able to build something utterly incredible your first time around. Start simple; it's easy to bite off more than you can chew. You will make mistakes; it's pretty much guaranteed. Don't worry about it. When you finally finish, you'll have an instrument that you can be proud of.

Good luck!

EDIT: Almost forgot, there's also an /r/luthier subreddit as well.

There are lot of good theory books that are affordable, they just might not go to the comprehensive depth you need (if you want a top level academic text). A cheap book is not necessarily a bad one.

This, for example, along with its companion make a good pair, covering all the basics fairly concisely.

This and this are another pair, designed for the ABRSM theory grades (right up to 8). This is a summary of all the concepts dealt with in grades 1-5. Obviously all these normally would be used as part of a college course, but make good self-teaching aids on their own. (There are also practice books and model answer books if you want to go down the ABRSM route.)

This may not be a title you want people to see you reading, but it's a perfectly good theory book - especially if it's popular music you're more interested in, although it goes deeper than you need to for pop. (The AB guides are firmly classical.)

For composition - that could be more complicated, especially if it's classical composition you're interested in.

From my experience, ear training and visualization should be your focus, not theory. I learned a shitton of theory, and it did not do me much good without practice. It’s like how I know a lot about baseball, but I don’t play baseball, so knowing that what to do in certain situations won’t actually help me do it if I have to process it like it’s a math problem—there simply isn’t a way to transform thought into kinesthetic movements without taking the time to “lay down the tracks”.

The theory will come from practicing, both with guitar in hand and when you are out and about by visualizing chords changes or melodies or the Circle of Fifths or whatever. Then, as you look through theory for things to practice, you’ll likely already have a place to put the names of the things in your head. I should add, try singing the notes you try to play, even if your voice sucks—practice will make your voice better.

The point of theory is music. To that end, I recommend doing what I didn’t do, practicing the exercises in The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick. Also, really play with the Circle of Fifths and the brightness/darkness implicit to it.

There are a lot of ways. To learn theory, you can ask your teacher, or, if you're self taught, look for some books. Ed Friedland has some great books and I suppose most books and DVD's from Hal Leonard are great too. Berklee Press sells awesome books as well. You can find a lot of lessons online, but it's a lot harder to find valuable material, in my opinion.

The best way to learn about genres is listening to enough music and play as much as you can. When you learn enough songs, you'll automatically learn to apply that when you're creating your own lines. Starting from a book may be a good way to get you started, but the knowledge you learn will be too limited. Learning the songs by ear is a good way to train your musical ear, but there is no shame in buying some songbooks too.

The most important thing is to apply everything you learn. Try to create your own bass lines, loop some chords and play around with your scales, maybe analyze some songs, stuff like that.

It's called a dominant[0] resolution and it's one of the most common harmonic techniques you'll find in basslines. Going to the fifth (i.e. the dominant chord) creates instability which wants to be resolved by going back to the root; it's a way of creating tension and release.

You've probably noticed chromatic resolutions coming up a lot as well, i.e. playing a note one-half step either above or below the note you're about to play.

Generally, you want to place the note you're resolving to on a strong beat of the bar (usually the first or the third beat) so try playing around with creating basslines or fills that put a note a fifth above or below the root, or a note one half-step above or below on the 4th beat of the bar or the '4 and' of the bar. You could try this on the 2 or the '2-and' too.

For more information like this check out Ed Friedland's 'Building Walking Bass Lines'. It doesn't sound like a walking line would be appropriate for the music that you're listening to right now but the information in this book absolutely is.

When I'm playing this I'll typically use the same finger to fret the note across two strings and roll the finger across the two notes to play each one. This didn't come naturally to me, I had to work at it a lot. I played major /minor scales in ascending/descending 4ths to practice it [2]. I find that if you can play these with the same finger (rather than one on each string) you can playing some pretty sick sounding fast pentatonic runs.

I'd be happy to clarify any of this if you'd like me to.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominant_(music)
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Building-Walking-Bass-Lines-Builders/dp/0793542049
[2] http://faculty.spokanefalls.edu/InetShare/AutoWebs/dannym/Jazz%20Improv%20II/Exercises/3_Major%20Scales%20in%20Fourths.pdf

I am 21 (well, almost) and I've been playing guitar for two years now. This is how I went about it. I am in no way claiming this to be the best or most efficient way to learn though. First, I learned the major chords: D, A, G, F, E, and so on (I just googled "major chords"). I constantly played them whether it was while watching TV or sitting down and focusing on it. At the same time, I looked up tabs to music I enjoyed. One of the first pieces I learned was "Green Eyes" by Coldplay. It's a great one because it's got pretty much all the basic chords (and a lady killer if I may say so ;). Also if you take a look at the top 100 tabs on Ultimate-Guitar, those are some good pieces to learn not only because they are good songs, but you'll learn a lot about playing guitar in the process. After about six or so months of this, I really wanted to jam, so I began learning scales. I began with a natural scale, then moved on to memorizing the pentatonic scales. I'm still working on that actually! I recently also ordered this book to help get more comfortable as well as a theory book. At the same time as learning all the scales and things I'm constantly looking up tabs, trying to pick up pieces by ear, and all around fiddling with my guitar! If I ever get frustrated, I put that bad boy down and do something else. Been playing for two years now almost every day and I love it. Just take it slow and easy.

Edit: Grammer

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

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

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

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

In no particular order, here are some things that come to mind:



Modes of Rhythm

Anthony Wellington teaches slap bass and rhythm using the "Modes of Rhythm" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asYfvMzjk7M

This is an interesting approach to working with rhythm.


Arranging for Large Jazz Ensemble by Dick Lowell

https://www.amazon.com/Arranging-Large-Jazz-Ensemble-Pullig/dp/0634036564/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=dick+lowell&qid=1554352576&s=gateway&sr=8-4

Good resource for jazz arranging



The Study of Orchestration by Samuel Adler

https://www.amazon.com/Study-Orchestration-Third-Samuel-Adler/dp/039397572X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=270ZIQBMLZL3O&keywords=study+of+orchestration&qid=1554354116&s=gateway&sprefix=study+of+orc%2Caps%2C203&sr=8-2

I have the 3rd edition. Get it used rather than new. This is a popular choice when studying instrumentation and orchestration for orchestral/chamber music.


Other good orchestration online resources:

http://resources.music.indiana.edu/isfee/

https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Academy/Instrumentology/


The Secrets of Dance Music Production

https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Dance-Music-Production/dp/0956446035/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=attack+magazine&qid=1554356008&s=gateway&sr=8-1

I haven't checked this one out completely, but it's an interesting resource for electronic music with great visual analysis


And if you're looking for things to improve your composing skills, definitely study counterpoint. Start with Species counterpoint then move to other styles/eras. Learning this completely changed my perspective of theory and why we learn it.


Hope that helps.

> Add the E flat clarinet to the piccolo if you want some extra punch/piercing/volume.

Does anyone really want "extra punch/piercing/volume" from a piccolo?

> Add the oboes or clarinets to the flutes if the flutes sound too thin. Consider doubling these in octaves. Harmony can serve a similar purpose and provide a different timbre than exact doubling.

Writing flutes and clarinets/oboes together definitely brings the flutes closer to the sound of the reed instruments. I'd think unison is the best bet. Octave doubling is an effect all its own, and shouldn't be used without purpose. However, if done, doubling should occur over the highest voice or under the lowest voice.

> Clarinets and violins or violas can sound almost identical if scored creatively. They blend very easily.

In my experience, clarinet gets masked by strings if they're in the same register. You're the clarinetist, though. What's your take?

> These are just a handful of ways to spice up your sounds. There are infinitely more, and you'll just have to experiment with them to figure out what you like.

"Experiment" is a strange word to use for an expensive ensemble that requires a lot of manpower and a huge amount of skill to write for. Assuming OP even has access to an orchestra, I would be incredibly surprised if the conductor or any of the musicians tolerated repeated experimentation with bad orchestration that wastes their rehearsal time. Better and cheaper is to get a couple of books on orchestration (Rimsky-Korsakov, Piston, Adler, Gerou/Black), do exercises, have a composer who knows what they are doing critique said exercises, and study the shit out of scores. And no, sound libraries are not the same thing as a real orchestra.

>Don't underestimate the value of letting an instrument stand on its own though. Don't double everything or else you'll get a machine instead of an orchestra. That said, the best way to figure out what sounds good is to pick up some scores you like, listen to them while you read, and figure out what sounds you like.

Solid advice. Overscoring is the most common mistake of composers unfamiliar with the orchestral medium.

Simon Reynolds' "Generation Ecstasy" is the big one about 90's dance music. It was like required raver reading back in the day. Big focus on UK hardcore/early jungle.
http://www.amazon.com/Generation-Ecstasy-World-Techno-Culture/dp/0415923735/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8


Co-sign "Last Night a DJ saved my life" also a really good one.
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Night-DJ-Saved-Life/dp/0802146104/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350101&sr=1-1&keywords=last+night+a+dj+saved+my+life


Dan Sicko's "Techno Rebels" is great one with a big focus on the early detroit techno scene
http://www.amazon.com/Techno-Rebels-Renegades-Electronic-Painted/dp/0814334385/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350046&sr=1-1&keywords=techno+rebels


Kai Fikentscher "You better work" is a great one about the early NYC dance scene. The loft, the paradise garage etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Better-Work-Underground-Dance-Music/dp/0819564044/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350247&sr=1-1&keywords=you+better+work


Mireille Silcott "Rave America" is an awesome one about the 90's US rave scene. Big focus on Midwest hardcore/hard techno. Also has a super early interview with Tommie Sunshine before he became a DJ.
http://www.amazon.com/Rave-America-New-School-Dancescapes/dp/1550223836/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350330&sr=1-1&keywords=rave+america


Brian Belle-Fortune "All Crews" is a good one about the UK 90's D&B
scene.
http://www.amazon.com/All-Crews-Journeys-Through-Culture-ebook/dp/B00HJ6SPPU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350448&sr=1-1&keywords=all+crews

If you're into digging for old dance records. There's a series of books called "the rough guide" that was distributed by Penguin that are basically little mini-encyclopedias of 90's dance artists/releases. I found them REALLY helpful back in the day before the internet was a thing.


I've got the rough guides to house, techno & d&b. Here's a link to the house one. http://www.amazon.com/Rough-Guide-House-Music/dp/1858284325/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350616&sr=1-1&keywords=the+rough+guide+to+house

EDIT. Forgot to add. THE MANUAL by the KLF is fucking hilarious read & kind of an amazing historical artifact. It's like a $100 on amazon (Ugh, a friend borrowed my copy back in the day and never gave it back) but there's text/pdf versions floating around the web
http://www.amazon.com/Manual-How-Have-Number-Easy/dp/1899858652/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421350795&sr=1-1&keywords=KLF+the+manual

I think the best thing I can recommend, and I know this isn't what you wanted, is for your child to either

a. Read method books, this Hal Leonard one is pretty good (https://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bass-Method-Easy-Use/dp/0793563836)

b. Because your child can read bass clef (he played piano so I'm assuming he can), he already has a huge advantage as a player. Have him learn how the notes relate to the frets (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ui66iADgzo), and he can begin to read transcriptions and play pretty much whatever he wants

Definitely get a teacher, and just encourage him to practice. That's about it.

My advice is to buy some books. There's a lot of info on the internet, but it's all spread out and often chopped up into pieces, which can make it a bitch to make sense of. If you're going to go the internet route, though, check out guitarlessons365.com (not affiliated in any way). The vast majority of the lessons are free and the music theory section is completely free, not to mention very good.

http://www.guitarlessons365.com/lessons-archive/music-theory-lessons-archive/

Regarding books, this is a great, easy to read book on music theory that won't hurt your head. I'd start either here or with guitarlessons365.

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Music-Theory-Book-understanding/dp/1440511829

For guitar books, Fretboard Logic is a must read. Definitely buy this. It focuses on the 5 position system (CAGED). If you're interested in learning the 7 position system for the major scales and other 7 note scales, check out guitarlessons365.

http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348759781&sr=8-1&keywords=fretboard+logic

After that, I'd check out this as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Guitarists-Everything-Wanted/dp/063406651X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348759708&sr=1-1&keywords=guitar+theory

Worth checking this out as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348759937&sr=1-3&keywords=guitar+theory

Here's another important book. I'd probably buy this last, though.

http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348760257&sr=1-1&keywords=jazz+theory+book+by+mark+levine

I've been playing for 17 years, and had my share of plateaus, but these days I can't wait to get home and practice, and I feel like I get better every time I pick up a guitar, even if its in a very small way.


I think this is partly because I am in a band again, and writing riffs and songs that will actually get played live. So I'm eager to make these songs awesome, then to take a break from working on songs, I'll just solo over something for a while for fun/technique.


Also, I recently quit drinking and smoking, so I have been channeling a lot of restless energy into the guitar.


I still feel the thrill, but I feel it more often when I have a sick drummer behind me and strangers in front of me.


I highly recommend the book Zen Guitar , it may sound a bit cheesy at times, but it really helps you to have a positive and practical attitude, and to forget about competitiveness and wankery and gear lust and other things that get in the way of you getting better. It also helped me realize that there is no such thing as 'the best'. He describes playing as a path with no end, and our goal is to always walk forward on it. Some people sit down on the path, others lose the way...

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.

I did exactly what you're explaining with my dad. The process takes a long time. I'd recommend starting with designing the body. If you want to design your own body, sketch it out, and GIVE VERY EXACT MEASUREMENTS ON THE STENCIL.

This includes the center line. EVERYTHING ON THE GUITAR IS BASED ON THAT CENTER LINE. The neck, pickups, and bridge all have to be exactly on that line.

Also you have to factor the scale of the neck you're planning to get. I got my neck from Warmoth. It's a great neck and I can't be happier with it, but a finished neck is around $250.

Back to the body: What wood do you want to use? Are you going to book end the wood if you're going to use a translucent finish (burst, dye, etc.) or are you going to just paint it? I dyed my guitar and used layers upon layers of laquer (~15 to be exact of museum quality finish).

Hardware is something else to consider. Stewart-MacDonald is a great site for that. Think pots, switches, tuners, bridges (stopbar too if you're doing a Gibson-style bridge), pickup rings if you're not using a pickguard, pickguard, neck plate for bolting the guitar on, etc.

Basically, there's a lot to consider when building a guitar. It's not easy at all, but if you have fun with it, you can build a hell of a guitar. I recommend buying a couple books on guitar building. This is one of the books I got. It's really good and I highly recommend it.

Good luck!

How did I get into it? I started as a DJ. Next logical step I suppose.



Advice/tips?



Read up. Here are some of my favorites, and I do recommend buying them as you will probably refer to them often.


This would be my top pick: http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0240521072


This is one on psychoacoustics, which I've found had some helpful knowledge: http://www.amazon.com/How-Music-Works-David-Byrne/dp/1938073533



And this is one on the history of electronic music, which I personally LOVED reading. Great information, and if you truly respect the scene as a whole, you should 100% read this: http://www.amazon.com/Last-Night-DJ-Saved-Life/dp/0802146104/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419810859&sr=1-1&keywords=last+night+a+dj+saved+my+life



As far as software goes, they are all kind of a personal thing. Some offer things that others don't. My recommendation is to try before you buy, especially considering production software is expensive.




In addition, there is also a large choice of hardware you can use for production. You should look into getting a keyboard and some good monitor speakers at a bare minimum. If you stick with it, I would suggest you buy yourself a drum machine/step sequencer. My personal recommendation is Native Instruments 'Maschine.'



EDIT: A word.

What exactly is your goal? When you say you are producing, do you mean to say that you're creating electronic music and don't know how to build the musical structure behind it?

With electronic music, you have the advantage of not necessarily needing to apply much music theory at all. Depending on the type of sound you're going for, you might only need to learn just a few simple chord progressions and keep recycling them (or just use samples). Of course, if you do study music seriously, you could combine your understanding of harmony with your production know-how to create something that sounds a lot more original than the typical run-of-the-mill EDM, like these guys.

If you want to just poke around, you can just memorize a few chord progressions in a single key. Maybe try a few youtube videos like this one.

If you want to dive in and really understand how things work, you'll need to learn what chords and scales are, learn the different types of chords, learn how they relate with each other, and learn how they're notated. It's a lot to take in. If you're still interested, grab yourself a music theory book (this is the one I learned from in college which starts with the very basics of reading music) and get to work. Taking piano lessons will be a great help for music production as well, and since you are probably not aiming to be an actual pianist, you could save money by taking some group keyboard fundamentals classes instead of hiring a private teacher, perhaps at a local community college.

www.justinguitar.com, mah man.

Easy peasy. When you're done with that, head over to /r/Guitar and ask around.

Face to face is useful for learning proper position/pick/strumming technique, but mostly you should be listening and learning by ear.

So I'll walk you through the basics in no particular order once you've gotten over the fingertip pain and can switch chords pretty quickly.

Memorize the notes on the fretboard. Every string. Every fret.

Find trusted tabs for songs you like. Try to play along while listening to the song. Apps like Reaper have "slow down" functions that maintain pitch.

If you are a Beatles fan, The Beatles Complete Scores is invaluable. Even if you aren't a fan, it's a great resource. I'm not a fan of the "professional" tab sites, so do your research if you think you want to subscribe to one of them.

Learn your chords.

Learn your scales.

You don't HAVE to learn music theory, but it helps. Especially if you're playing with other people. So, circle of 5ths and all that.

DM me if you have questions or I'm in Culver City if you want to meet up.

Caveat, I'm not a pro. I don't teach for a living, but I've been playing for far too long and know just enough to get people started. :)

last year i bought like 3 guitar books. two were mostly theory, but my favorite one was Guitar Aerobics. Its basically a book full of riffs, broken down into 6-7 categories of different mechanical skills (alternate picking, barre chords, rhythm strumming patterns, sweep picking) spread out every week, with backing tracks and sample sound banks of the riff being played. Every day you have something different.

it starts off basing everything on the Am pentatonic and starts building on complexity as it progresses
I didn't really stick to it daily, but i really think it still improved my mechanical abilities a lot. I was basically only using downstrokes to pick but now i find myself naturally alternate picking even across strings.

my favorite aspect of it is that if you don't know how to practice, amd at a certain point in time you only have 10 minutes can open up the book to where you left off, do one of the exercises.

at <15$ on amazon it's cheaper than a guitar lesson but works great for supplementing your spontaneous "i have to learn this song" moments by helping you get the chops to handle harder stuff

Buy a book called The Guitar Handbook by Ralph Denyer.

I bought my copy a few months after I started learning (been playing for close to a decade now), and my only regret is not having bought it even sooner. It's tattered from use, but I still read it often and still find new things to learn. It's always in my flight case.

It has sections on any guitar related topic you can imagine: from biographies of influential guitarists to music theory to illustrated guides on how to rewire your electric guitar's pickups. It's essential, and I consider it worth at least ten times its price.

Edit: There's also a British guitar magazine called Guitar Techniques that I used to read up until about a year ago. I only stopped because importing the mag to South Africa became too pricey for me. It features top quality lessons by professional guitarists, tablature, music notation, exercises, articles, etc., as well as a CD with backing tracks, et al. A copy of the above-mentioned book plus a subscription to GT and some regular, disciplined practise will probably turn you into Eddie Van Halen :)

Good luck and have fun!

I was in a similar situation as you are, I played piano since I was young and when I took up guitar the fretboard was a bit daunting to me. It clicked for me when I imagined that each of the six strings was like its own separate piano so six dimensional if you will ;). Since each fret is a half step, its like the keys on a piano going up a half step. So the 'piano keys' on the lowest string start on E and go up by a half step, the next string is A so the 'piano keys' start on A, then go up and so on.

Once the set up of the fretboard made sense to me, it's all about memorization to know the exact locations of notes off hand. I think that this is going to be different for each person you need to figure out what makes sense to you. Memorize 'landmarks' such as each open string, the 12^th fret is an octave up, and the odd frets are good ones to start with memorizing.

I used this: http://www.guitarhabits.com/learn-the-guitar-fingerboard-thoroughly-in-16-days/ as well. I found it pretty helpful.

Also if you're looking for some books, http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313039330&sr=8-1 & http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Fretboard-Workbook-Barrett-Tagliarino/dp/0634049011/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313039376&sr=1-6 were both really good and helped me with understanding the fretboard and general mechanics of guitar.


Hope this helps! Good Luck!

This book was pretty helpful for me in creating more descriptive, tangible strings of words, along with a ton of other wildly helpful ways to create more meaningful lyrics:
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Better-Lyrics-Pat-Pattison/dp/1582975779


This one, which I've only read a few chapters of, has been pretty helpful in getting me out of my own way. If we just tell the truth about our experience as a person (the real truth, the one we usually just think), we'll be saying things that mean more, and are more universal than any surface level or constructed truth:
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Poetry-Save-Your-Life/dp/1550717472

From a recommendation by this sub, I've been learning lead blues guitar from a book called "Blues You Can Use". I can't recommend the author and book enough. He also has other books in the series, but I'd start with this one. Then, if you get through his works and still want some more work in the blues vein, the author Joseph Alexander wrote some great stuff, like The Complete Guide to Playing Blues Guitar.

After that, I recommend using a few books on the "CAGED" system of learning scales/chords/patterns. In particular, some that have helped me are Joseph Alexander's The CAGED System and also Fretboard Logic.

Then, if your head hasn't already exploded, use Justin Guitar.

Good luck!

There are many people here telling you to use the metronome, and they are right. Unfortunately not much advice is given on how to start using one.

Start really simple, start the metronome really slow ( 60 clicks per minute) and just fret play frets 1 then 2 then 3 then 4 on one string all with down strokes. count out loud or in your head "1 2 3 4" as you play those frets in sync with the clicks. You can pluck the "1" harder to remind your self that you are starting a new bar. So go ONE two three four, ONE two three four.

Then try playing 11 22 33 44. Same metronome speed, except now say in your head "One and Two and three and four and One and two, etc. " you will still pluck down on the one two three four, but on the "and"s you will pluck up, going up, down up, down.

This will get you started. to start learning basic rhythms try something like this: Modern reading in 4/4

Also, before you start tapping your foot as you play, try tapping the beat to songs you listen to, as if you are the metronome. the vast majority of songs will easily fall into "One two three four" rhythm. Try the intro to "Sweet child of mine" you can count along with the guitar "One-and-two-and-three-and-four-and" and you will notice it repeats. Then when you go to play these songs your self, you will not only hear the song in your head, but also the "beat", which will tell you exactly when to play the next note, even if the notes are not played one after another.

Go very slowly and evenly and you will get better.

The most challenging thing for me to learn I think was always sight reading. However, my guitar teacher showed me a good methodology for this, basically he split it up into the different skills you needed to sight read. One skill was reading the rhythms, which was covered by http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Reading-Text-All-Instruments/dp/0769233775 this book, Modern Reading text in 4/4 time. Which is basically a book full to the brim with rhythms. The idea is then that you tap your feet in 4/4 time on the floor and clap and vocalise what ever rhythms are written down. I used to do this for hours, and the rhythms contained in that book went from simple to just insane.

Actual note reading was covered by reading studies for guitar...

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013351/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311235782&sr=1-3

and advanced reading studies for guitar

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Studies-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013351/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311235782&sr=1-3

The methodology for learning was to start ridiculously slowly, with a click at about 30bpm, and to do one note per click. This may seem insanely slow, but it helps you to become relaxed about sight reading, and also trains you to read ahead because you get bored.

This was part of the sight reading task, then after a while of doing this we moved onto sight reading notation from tunes from real books. I learned a few tips from doing this, I'll list the ones I can remember here.

1. When you first see a piece of music, scan it and find out the information listed here.
   2.Work out the structure for the piece, AABA ABAB etc, this will help you to minimize the amount of other analysis you need to do.
   
2. Check out the key signature, and time signature.
   
3. Look for the lowest and highest notes in the tune, this will help you to start off in a comfortable playing position, so you can do the whole tune without worrying about changing position, or knowing when you have to.
   
4. Look out for any accidental notes, if you know them before hand, they are less likely to throw you off.
   
5. Scan the rhythm and quickly hum the rhythm of the tune to yourself, this will also give you chance to scan through the notes once before you actually play the tune.
   
   If you follow these tips, then sight reading will eventually become easy for you, but it takes quite a lot of work to achieve this.

Great job! Everything I wrote when I was 17 was shit, so congrats on being awesome!

Nice resolutions and voice leading! Try to avoid the parallel resolutions between the vln2 and cello that pop up from time to time. A good mental discipline is that every time a voice resolved to a root or a fifth of a harmony, make sure it’s contrary.

I’m not sure if you’ve been exposed to Fux Modal Counterpoint, but you should learn it and live by it if you want to compose in the Baroque, classical, or romantic idioms.

https://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772

Best of luck!

Real books are great. When you feel comfortable find a jazz jam in town, playing with people will help.

Here’s a book I enjoyed:

Building Walking Bass Lines

You should also get this book:



The Improvisers Bass Method Book

The improvisers bass method book is an industry standard. The beginning may be things you already know, but it does a great job providing you with practice techniques that will actually help translate knowledge to playing. I’d highly recommend both in addition to going through the real book. Outside of that just listen to some jazz. A lot of the key is listening. Go put on some Bill Evans or Miles or Mingus and listen to their bassists

While I'm a few years out of building my own, here's the thread that documented basically everything I did for mine: Link. I'd also highly recommend purchasing this book - there are some invaluable tips and hints scattered throughout it.

Overall mine was probably about $1000, but the main costs came from the pickups and components I used -- as a side note, good wood can be found for cheap if you do some thorough research. Additionally, I contracted out the fretboard to a local man who built guitars as a hobby, and that cost a few hundred IIRC.

As everyone else is saying, StewMac and the internet will be your best friends if you decide to move forward with building one. There are dozens of particle board/acrylic templates online that can be purchased and printed off. A good guitar can be built for only a few hundred dollars if you are patient and learn from your mistakes as you go. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.

Start off by listening to a ton of jazz. Afterwards, learn your major, minor, dorian, and mixolydian scales/modes. Check youtube, there's a ton of good tutorials if you don't know them yet. Then buy a real book and start attempting to follow along with the changes. Start with just the root notes and later add the 3rds and 5ths. Here's a book that I think explains walking basslines pretty well, and another one if you're interested in soloing.



Here's a list of jazz songs most students learn early on:

Afro Blue

All Blues

All Of Me

All The Things You Are

A Night In Tunisia

Au Privave

Autumn Leaves

Beautiful Love

Black Orpheus

Blue Bossa

Blue In Green

Blue Monk

Blues For Alice

Body And Soul

Cherokee

Cotton Tail

Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

A Fine Romance

Footprints

Four

Freddie Freeloader

The Girl From Ipanema

How High The Moon

How Insensitive

Lady Bird

Maiden Voyage

Misty

Mr. P.C.

My Funny Valentine

Oleo

Ornithology

Recorda-me

Red Clay

Satin Doll

So What

Song For My Father

Sugar

Take Five

Take The “A” Train

There Will Never Be Another You

Tune Up

Guitar Aerobics by Troy Nelson is a book I picked up to supplement my playing with Rocksmith. I do a daily technical exercise from it (it has 365 of them that cover a variety of techniques, starting at an easy level and working up to an advanced one.)

I'm noticing it help me with my overall playing ability and would recommend it to anyone interested in boosting their chops, regardless of level :)


Guitar Aerobics: A 52-Week, One-lick-per-day Workout Program for Developing, Improving and Maintaining Guitar Technique https://www.amazon.com/dp/1423414357/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_vhcgvb0BKS7SR

A little late to the party but you sound just like me dude, was playing tabs and could do a few scales, but when I wanted to start playing triads and stuff, I needed to learn sheet music. I bought this book off Amazon and sat down 10 hours a week going through it. It does a good job of going string by string, showing you the notes applied to actual sheet music. There’s some tab examples but after a month or so I didn’t need them anymore. It really helps if you say the note you’re playing as you play it too.


Hal Leonard Bass Method - Complete Edition: Books 1, 2 and 3 Bound Together in One Easy-to-Use Volume! https://www.amazon.com/dp/0793563836/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_C.xyCbV7M9AWF

Since you seem to enjoy working through things on your own, I'd suggest working from front-to-back with a good bass method book, like Ed Friedland's 3-volume set. You'll be able to move through the early material easily, but it will force you to read. Reading is essential to moving forward and you can't really develop a complete understanding of theory if you can't read.

As others have said, joining a band is a great idea for moving past your plateau. In addition, you can use playalongs (music with all the instruments except for bass) from youtube, the web at large, or through programs like Band-in-a-Box or apps like iRealb. These are all good for working on rhythm and developing your own lines.

The Louis Bellson Book

This is for jazz syncopation. Can practice this without the bass. Just tapping your foot and tapping your hand on your knee or whatever.

​

The Applebaum Book

This is for more modern/contemporary pit band / session type of stuff, but still valuable.

​

There are also smartphone apps like "Read Rhythm" and sites like "SightReadingFactory.com" but I prefer the books above for rhythm-only stuff.

​

Best way to learn two-feel is to transcribe a ton of two-feel. Transcribe the all the two-feel choruses Bob Cranshaw plays on this tune. That should add some variety to your lines. Or what Don Bagley does on this tune. (Or anything that Ray Brown, Scott Lafaro and Eddie Gomez ever did in two feel).

​

​

​

I'm working through Troy Nelson's Guitar Aerobics at the moment, and it's really excellent. What makes it is the structure: 365 exercises, one for each day of the year. The techniques repeat on each day of the week. e.g. Monday is always an alternate-picking exercise, Wednesday is always a string-bending exercise, etc. The exercises build on each other, they start off easy and get progressively more difficult. But they do so in an incremental and logical way so you don't feel lost (at least I'm not so far, 6 weeks in).

I'm finding it great to help nail the various techniques....you practice a 2-bar hammer-on lick for half an hour, you'll get the technique pretty well down. Whereas if it was part of a longer song, it'd be easy to half-ass it and move on to the next bit before you'd really got it right.

The structure of the book, where you have your practice plan laid out for you for the next year, is a good motivator too.

Without question, the best way to learn how to arrange is to put in the work transcribing some of your favorite arrangers and dissecting the way they approach things.

Study the chord progressions they use and analyze their voicing. Break down how they use counterpoint vs. countermelody. Pay attention to how they use every single voice, common articulations, and where in the range do they have each part "live" (1st vs. 2nd vs 3rd).

Write down what you observe about how they do things, try to put it into words. Compare/contrast between arrangers. This will help you better internalize what they are doing and help you to find your own style.

But...

Before doing any of this, however, I suggest to read, read, read. Here are a few books to get your started:

​

The Study of Counterpoint - Johann Joseph Fux

https://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772/

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Contemporary Counterpoint: Theory & Application - Beth Denisch

https://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Counterpoint-Theory-Application-Music/dp/0876391838

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Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony - Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky

https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Practical-Study-Harmony-Dover-ebook/dp/B00DGBMH06

​

Principles of Orchestration - Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Orchestration-Dover-Books-Music-ebook/dp/B00DGBMDNM

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Essential Dictionary of Orchestration - Dave Black & Tom Gerou

https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Dictionary-Orchestration-Comprehensive-Orchestrators-ebook/dp/B00EUMY7LC

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Treatise on Instrumentation - Hector Berlioz & Richard Strauss

https://www.amazon.com/Treatise-Instrumentation-Dover-Books-Music-ebook/dp/B00DGBMN8C

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Arranging for Horns - Jerry Gates

https://www.amazon.com/Arranging-Horns-Jerry-Gates/dp/0876391455/

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Another excellent resource is Bandestration - https://bandestration.com/

​

BONUS:

Another great read that is HIGHLY applicable to writing for marching music is:

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Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Musical-Acoustics-Second-Revised/dp/048626484X

​

If you are interested to explore interplay between wind/percussion arranging and electronics:

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Acoustic and MIDI Orchestration for the Contemporary Composer - Andrea Pejrolo

https://www.amazon.com/Acoustic-MIDI-Orchestration-Contemporary-Composer/dp/113880150X/

​

As always it starts with playing something very simple and singing over that... playing quarter note chords on the piano with a few chords and figuring out a melody with your voice is a great way to start... watch some videos of people playing and singing at the same time, you'll notice that the parts they play will sometimes get simplified when they are singing, and then become more intricate when they can focus on just the parts.

I would like to point out that many piano books aren't actually the exact way the artist plays the song, in fact most of the songbooks include the melody line in the right hand that should be sung, and not played...

If you were to get the Beatles Score Book, you'll quickly realize that a lot of the melody lines are sung over a chord progression that is much easier than playing the chord progression and the melody line while singing the melody line as well...

1. Highly recommend this book.
   
   
2. Go for specific imagery and storytelling. "Still looking at this gift you gave me" is better than "Girl I'm sad you left me".
   
   
3. Find a theme for the song that is not just the emotion you're trying to work with. For example, "sad because of a breakup" is a subject matter, not a theme. A theme would be "life is strange" or "you can never keep something for long". Then, don't necessarily make the theme a lyric in your song, but try to draw out images and ideas from the theme. If you do that and the song still really needs you to actually state the theme, you'll know. Sometimes it works, sometimes it's a cliche.
   
   
4. Don't rhyme emotional words. Don't rhyme "mad" with "bad" or "sad" or "glad", for example.
   
   
5. One effective technique that's used a LOT is to make the verses specific and the choruses general, or vice versa.
   
   
6. Use the rhythm of the lyrics to emphasize emotional parts
   
   
7. Try to have some emotional development within the song. Not just a reflection of emotion, but some kind of journey or realization. I mean, a song about depression might work well as just a static droning sadness, but for most songs, this can be really powerful.
   
   Example, from an 80s hair metal ballad that was a big hit:
   
   
   VERSE
   
   We both lie silently still in the dead of the night (specific situation)
   
   Although we both lie close together
   
   We feel miles apart, inside (storytelling, relatable situation, specific scene)
   
   Was it somethin' I said or something I did
   
   Did my words not come out right (storytelling - you know exactly the emotion but all he's said so far is "feel miles apart inside")
   
   Tho' I tried not to hurt you
   
   Tho' I tried (storytelling)
   
   But I guess that's why they say (note how he interrupts the verse cadence leading into the chorus - adds emotional weight)
   
   CHORUS
   
   Every rose has its thorn (specific metaphorical imagery, asserts a theme (good things are always difficult))
   
   Just like every night has its dawn (familiar metaphor, also turns around the metaphor from the previous line)
   
   Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song (wtf? do they? I dunno. This line is just weird but for some reason it works for a hair metal ballad. but notice they don't go with "I feel like a sad cowboy" - they just show you the image)
   
   Every rose has its thorn
   
   Yea it does
   
   VERSE
   
   I listen to our favorite song playin' on the radio (storytelling, specificity)
   
   Hear the dj say love's a game of
   
   Easy come and easy go (listen to the song and notice how they use the rhythm to reinforce the emotional weight of this line, which also relates to the theme)
   
   But I wonder does he know (reinforces and relates to the story and a theme of distance - in the first verse, he's lying next to someone close to him and feeling far away - in this verse, he's listening to someone far away and wondering how they're feeling)
   
   Has he ever felt like this
   
   And I know that you'd be here right now
   
   If I could have let you know somehow I guess (notice how at the end of the first verse, they are wondering if they are at fault, and at the end of the second verse, they are admitting it)
   
   CHORUS
   
   etc
   
   In the rest of the song, they start leaning on more direct stuff "I feel so much pain" and "cuts life a knife...but the scar remains" and it gets kind of cliche. The last verse returns to the story, so the bridge being more direct kinda works in that way, but for me the success of this song is the first two verses and choruses. Seems like they got a little lazy about the middle of the song. Still a very successful song about a breakup, full of relatable storytelling, specific imagery, decent rhymes, good emotional use of lyrical rhythm, and a catchy chorus that sets off against the verses really well.
   
   EDIT: Also, check out the work that "Just like" is doing in the chorus. "Every rose has its thorn" is pretty much the opposite idea of "every night has its dawn" - but, by relating them with "just like", the song is creating this kind of philosophical malaise - all good things are kind of bad, all bad things are kind of good, the good is like the bad and the bad is like the good, and it's hard to even tell what's bad or good, just like people feel when they suffer a painful breakup. Checkout how much weaker it would be if it was: "Every rose has its thorn / But every night has its dawn". Totally different meaning, totally different song. That would be a song about how everything is going to be alright in the end. Relating contrasting ideas like that to get at an underlying feeling can work really well.
   
   
   

Ars nova has a really nice entry level text on their website if you’re just getting started. For a more complete introduction, check out the book “Music Theory ” by George Thaddeus Jones. That’s the one I started with, and while it’s very thorough in its discussion of musical concepts, its treatment of counterpoint is not my favorite. Something is definitely lost when the inner voices are treated as mere filler. Amazon and goodreads both gave it 4 stars. I feel like the ars nova text holds the readers hand a bit better and has the added bonus of being able to hear the examples. It also includes a chord progression game based on root movement principles). Though it’s missing some information here and there, so definitely check both texts out (yes, even though you probably understand some of their contents anyway) And of course, there’s the Gradus as Parnassum, the Bible of counterpoint that Bach praised and practically all subsequent composers learned from (though the rules presented there are über-strict!). It’s written as a dialogue between a student and a master which is absolutely brilliant.

If you’re looking to compose in the baroque style, there’s a good textbook called “Baroque Counterpoint ” by Peter Schubert and Christoph Niedhöfer, though the introduction says that you already need to know scales, figured base, 4-part voice leading, how to harmonize a melody, how to use non harmony tones, and some basic keyboard skills. It mostly (but not entirely) focuses on fugue and imitative counterpoint in general. So, it’s intended for the musically literate. Don’t go there until you’ve got a good framework to build on.

You also ought to have a collection of Bach’s chorales on hand as they are good examples for beginners to analyze and model on. Here’s 40 of them. Remember- analysis consists of more than just labeling chords; it involves INTERPRETING how all the different musical features contribute to the piece.

As a final note, remember- you don’t HAVE to fallow the rules all the time in your own music, but they’re still worth learning.

Two things I'm finding extremely useful:

LinkedIn Learning course with Julian Vengard: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/music-theory-for-songwriters-the-fundamentals


Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattinson: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1582975779


Some people will say "write from your heart" but I'm learning that great songs have SO much more technique and theoretical wizardry applied throughout the process.

These two resources are just excellent. I've been a musician for 20 years and I forced myself to watch all the videos on the LinkedIn course - I learned useful things I wish I'd known years ago.

Get this book. It's been a tremendous help to me.

I also recommend getting the free trial of Scott's Bass Lessons and going through the Bass Guitar Foundations course.

With learning any instrument, you have to learn to crawl before you can walk, walk before you can run. Having strong fundamental skills will save you a lot of frustration down the road.

I'm not much of a pick player, but I've watched one of my favorite bassists who exclusively uses a pick, and she anchors her pinky finger below the bottom string on the body of the bass. I tried it, and I found it helpful. She (and, I believe, most pick players do this) also wraps her thumb over the top of the fretboard to mute the top string when she's playing the string beneath it, and when she frets a note, she uses that finger to mute the strings below it. Here's a video of her playing (it's an acoustic bass, but everything still applies).

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.

Thanks!

Over the years it's faded a bit, but the artist did such a great job. It was supposed to be a Japanese-calligraphy style. Originally it looked like it had very detailed brush strokes that were cool. I really should get it touched up after 15 years.

I got the design from the book 'Zen Guitar' by Philip Sudo. Do yourself a huge favor and get the book. It's a must-have for guitar players. It totally changed the way that I approach music back then.

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Guitar-Philip-Toshio-Sudo/dp/068483877X

Beautiful violin!

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

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!

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

Thanks!

Congratulations on getting into computer music! I would search on YouTube for instructional videos on using Cubase.

For composing, try coming up with a couple of chord progressions, the simpler the better, and then put them one after the other. Then put a melody on top of that. Then add whatever other accompaniment you feel like. Hell, even one chord progression is fine. My song Love Story from Chromatic T-Rex is just one four-chord progression repeated throughout the entire song.

Also check out the Dance Music Manual: http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0415825644/

I haven't read it but I hear good things about it. :) Hope this helps!

Short answer is with your wrist. You also want to ingrain good habits now, that will help you with string skipping, speed, etc, later. First, don't hold the pick between the tips of your fingers and definitely don't use your fingers to move the pick. The fingers hold the pick, your wrist is what moves it. The pick should rest between your thumb tip and the side of your index finger (not the tip). Tighten your grip by making a complete fist, rather than squeezing two fingers.

It's best to not anchor your pinky/ring finger onto the body of the guitar for stability. If you're making a fist, you'll be less inclined to do this. Try to train for accuracy without anchoring and it will pay dividends later. Ideally your only anchor should be your forearm against the guitar body's edge. Lightly anchoring the wrist against the bridge is OK, and sometimes actually necessary to mute strings, either to palm mute the string actually being played, or to silence the lower strings when playing the higher ones not being muted.


You should also be angling your pick on two separate planes. The more important of these being the string horizontal plane. That is, you don't want to hold your pick perfectly horizontal to the string, but rather angle it a bit so your downstroke strikes with the nut (headstock) end of the pick first (the other end being the bridge side). You also want to pick in such a way that your downstroke ends slightly under the strings and your upstroke ends slightly above. Not as important as the horizontal plane, but this second tip will help with moving from string to string.

Start practicing your alternate picking on a single string, using just a single finger on your fretting hand, if necessary.

Use Amazon's "look inside" feature to check out the first exercise in this book. Once you can do that, you can progress to multi-string patterns. With multi-string patterns, you'll have to be more mindful of upstrokes and downstrokes, as they relate to the movement from string to string, but always try to stick to the up/down repitition and try to avoid throwing in consecutive down/down or up/up.

Use a metronome and start as slow as necessary to maintain accuracy. Once you can repeat a pattern flawlessly, bump up the BPM's, rinse, repeat.

EDIT: Fixed Link

Any good theory book will keep you plenty busy for at least a couple months, just getting the basic fundamentals down. No point in paying a teacher to guide you through that process.

That book is by no means the only decent one out there. That same author actually wrote the "...For Dummies" series for Guitar Theory, which is pretty well reviewed, though I can't vouch for it personally, as I've never read it.

This is another one I could recommend. It's ridiculously short (100 pages, or just two-thirds the length of Fretboard Theory), but in a good way. It's more of a TL;DR quick reference guide, where Fretboard Theory gets a little bit more into application. But both are short books. The basic theory at work is surprisingly compact and deceptively simple.

Another book I recommend all the time is "The Handbook". They should hand out a copy with every Squire Strat starter pack they sell at Guitar Center. If you only ever own one guitar book, that should be it. Not strictly a theory book. It more of an owner's manual for a guitar.



I was in the same boat as you, BTW. Been playing since I was 14. Only bothered to actually start learning after 20 years or so of noodling aimlessly. It's been revelatory. Hope your experience is the same.

Sounds like you're going about it the right way. Speed is about muscle memory so there isn't a quick way to learn it. Start slow, with a metronome, and build up the speed when you've perfected the slower tempo. Muscle memory sticks with how you learn it, if you practice perfect slow technique then that's the technique that develops, if you fudge it to rush to faster tempos then that will be reflected in your technique.

I can highly recommend this book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bass-Fitness-Exercising-Handbook-Guitar/dp/0793502489/ref=asc_df_0793502489/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=311325854090&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12459488065697696982&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045629&hvtargid=pla-450362569161&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

It's a great selection of finger twisters that will really help both hands.

“Building Walking Bass Lines (Bass Builders) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0793542049/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Z8qNDbFB7YZWN

There’s a second volume that goes deeper, but this is about the best intro level book I’ve found. Ed Friedland FTW. Great backing tracks, too.

I wouldn't normally recommend a book, but Bass Fitness has the perfect exercises for getting your left hand fingers to get used to moving independently. If money's tight, just take a look at the first few pages on amazon and you can get an idea of what the exercises are. Play even just those first few chromatic patterns up and down the neck again with a metronome and your motor control should start to shape up pretty quickly.

If you're looking to improve your technique (chops), i HIGHLY recommend checking out guitar aerobics

Its broken down into daily 5-10 minute segments. Really easy to get through it, since it comes accompanying audio tracks that progressively pick-up the BPM. The lesson itself has both notation and tabs (so you can use what you're comfortable with, or try to pick up reading some notation)

Starts of real basic, so in the first two days I did the first week or two. In two weeks I improved so much more than I had in the 6 years I'd been playing up to that point. Forcing you do a technique PROPERLY at slow BPM is just as important as being able to do it quickly.


Best $20 I ever spent on guitar.

Bass Fitness is, for me, the golden standard to which I hold all guitar practice books. It's a no-nonsense text that offers little in the way of guidance or assistence, but stick with it and you will notice a difference in your playing in due time. It's not perfect by any means -- in fact it is quite rough around the edges -- but it works.

For more general resources, check out 101 Bass Tips, which features of a plethora of different tips and tricks for the working musician -- everything from set-up and maintenance, to technique, to recording and tone, and much more. It's also accompanied by a CD with examples and practice songs you can play along to.

Once you've got the basics down and you're ready to move into the more advanced facets of bass playing, you might want to try out some books on musical theory. I suggest this, this, and these. Hope these help!

Always warm up before playing. Take 5 minutes to do a 1 2 3 4 finger pattern up and down the neck. Bonus points if you use a metronome.

Switch up the pattern for a good finger dexterity practice exercise. E.g. 1 3 2 4, 1 4 2 3, 4 3 2 1, etc...

Start by doing these across one string and then slowly start incorporating multiple strings.

This book is a great resource for these types of exercises.

Good luck!

Get a Hal Leonard Bass Method Book. It's fucking great. Definitely the best 15 dollars you can spend to help learn bass. You can read a lot of awesome information without actually owning the bass yet. Once you get your bass, every single page in that book has something for you to practice or learn.

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Better-Lyrics-Pat-Pattison/dp/1582975779/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541606392&sr=8-1&keywords=write+better+lyrics


This is one of the best things I've done to enhance my lyric writing. If you follow the exercises in this book, you will surely see quick improvement. It will not be all you need, however. You still need to put in hard work before you will be able to write songs you really feel proud of. Good luck mate.

Oh, I just remembered something dude! Check out the grade 1-8 music theory books by ABRSM. They're super useful. Also, the AB Guide to Music Theory is a great companion for grades 1-5, then vol. 2 is great for grades 6-8. :)

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.

I recommend looking into some books on production. There is so much more information crammed into the better books than you will find in a week's of searching forums and youtube tutorials. For books on mixing, I say you can't go wrong with Bobby Owinski's The Mixing Engineer's Handbook or Mike Senior's Mixing Secrets for the Small Studioand for general production I recommend Rick Snoman's Dance Music Manual just be sure to get the latest edition, it includes chapters that cover everything from basic theory the popular genres (trance, dubstep, DnB, Techno, House, and Ambient/Chillout), it covers the electronics and science of acoustics, MIDI, DAW's and everything that come's along with them (instruments, effects, samplers, etc) and promoting and distributing your music. I can't say enough about this book and what a great way it was for me to see the "big picture" of what was ahead of me when I was starting out.

Take private lessons! I teach privately and there’s something so awesome about working WITH someone directly (vs learning thru YouTube or something) — also if you don’t know how to already, learning how to read music would definitely give you a leg up as a musician in general and might give you a different perspective to things you’re already doing well now.

I love the Hal Leonard book for bass, the wound one has books 1-3 in it and is very affordable ($15):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0793563836/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_g4zZDbV1NR8R4

There’s so many gigs I can say YES to because I know how to read music, so if you can play by ear already learning how to read music will definitely make you a more well rounded musician.

A little late, but it kind of depends on what you want to play. But I really like Fretboard Logic and the CAGED system, makes chords/scales pretty logical:

https://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Logic-SE-Reasoning-Arpeggios/dp/0962477060

But there's a ton of free resources out there too. YouTube isn't a bad place to start.

1. It's already been said. I will say it again. Syntorial.
   
2. I'm sure that once this post circulates a little more, there will be more people making recommendations, but in the meantime, here's an article on 10 headphones that are good for music production. The keys are flat frequency response and comfort.
   
3. Also already been said, but Rick Snoman's Dance Music Manual is a good place to start regarding comprehensive coverage of the concepts you need to know. Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio is also good, as are Bobby Owsinski's books and Mixerman's books.

So this is what you learn:
-How to create an 808 Kick
-How to arrange a track
-How to create a "lush sparkling mix"
-How to use reverb
-How to create a build up
-Basic sound design
-How to use distortion and compression

NOPE. Not for $40.
For mixing: http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Secrets-Small-Studio-Senior/dp/0240815807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427666706&sr=8-1&keywords=small+studio+mixing

Sound design, arranging, etc.: http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0415825644/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427666724&sr=8-1&keywords=dance+music+manual

The first book I linked to is literally the bible of mixing. It's a truly great resource. The second is a great cursory overview of music theory, sound design, and several aspects of the big electronic genres: arrangements, keys, percussion. It even tells you settings for synthesizing kicks in each genre it covers.

> Was it to simply introduce something more melodically interesting?

I can only assume so. The bass's independence is thematically necessary since it's where the opening motif is repeated. It gives meaning to the G-E-D-G-E-D line. If a line has structural/thematic significance, it should remain independent so the listener can pick it out.

I can't tell if the vocals or the instrumental was written first, sorry. Reading material on this subject would be any harmony/counterpoint book you can find. You seem pretty knowledgeable about those topics already though, so maybe it's just getting the style down. Books like [this] (http://imslp.org/wiki/Guide_to_the_Practical_Study_of_Harmony_%28Tchaikovsky,_Pyotr%29) and this. You may have read those already as they're pretty popular. If you haven't, you can most likely find them for free somewhere.

I took an arranging course for my music degree and I really love the textbook they made us purchase. It's this! http://www.amazon.com/Study-Orchestration-Third-Samuel-Adler/dp/039397572X/
I personally think it's very helpful. :) I know it's expensive, but I think the investment is worth it.

As for counterpoint, I like Joseph Fux! There was a textbook that I used, but unfortunately I don't remember it. (It's at home and I live at an off-campus apartment) http://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772

I hope this helps :) But if you want somethiing free there's this .... http://imslp.org/wiki/Principles_of_Orchestration_%28Rimsky-Korsakov,_Nikolay%29

So to a beginner bassist I would recommend two different study materials.

First buy this DVD, Groove Workshop. It's basically a lecture with exercises on the different components of music as it relates to the bass. One of the largest take-aways is that the notes you play are WAY less important than how you play them. They don't have the clip on youtube, but here is him doing something similar live. On the DVD it's just incredibly well done. He lists all the notes in a G major scale, then only plays the "wrong notes" (notes not in the scale) as Wellington lays down a chordal pattern in G. He then switches to playing in G major and the moment he does this, the G major sounds terrible. When he was playing out of key it was aesthetically pleasing, but when he switches to in key he changes how he's playing and it sounds more discordant.

Second, buy this book on building walking basslines. It's a great introduction to walking bass lines. The point here isn't to remember the notes, but rather the patterns and the feel of "walking".

But for more immediate tips do this. Play the root on the kick, the 5th on the snare, and embellish with the octave and 7th in time with the drummer's fills. You can move up to the 5th by hitting the 4th and down from the 7th with stops along the way at the 6th and the 3rd. If you really want to outline the chords play the root 3rd 5th, but be warned this sounds tired very fast.

The above is just my opinion and is provided merely as a quick outline to start getting the feel of moving around a chord.

Any melody can be accompanied by an almost endless number of chord changes, so there's no one "correct" way to do it.

The oldest way to do this is a technique called counterpoint. Long story short, you first write a bass part under your main melody, favoring contrary or oblique motion over parallel motion, and avoiding parallel 5ths and octaves as much as possible. The bass part should make sense as its own melody, ideally.

Then fill in a middle voice, again its own melody, observing the rules of counterpoint with respect to the other 2 melodies already written. When you're done with the 3rd voice, you have a basic chord progression.

You might want to repeat with a 4th melody or more after that, but you'll find that subsequent melodies are less interesting because your options are pretty narrow at that point. That's why alto parts tend to suck.

If this seems interesting to you at all, I highly recommend the classic Study of Counterpoint. It's been out for almost 300 years but it has a unique narrative-style approach and is a lot of fun to work through. Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, et. al. would have been familiar with it.

OTOH, if this seems like overkill, then just sit down with a piano or guitar, pick a key, start with something structured around I-IV-V-I or I-vi-ii-V-I or something, and go from there. Again, there's no one correct chord progression. Just find something that tastes good in your ears.

this is really good man! if you would like this link is to a book that i used to help me write better. it really works
http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Better-Lyrics-Pat-Pattison/dp/1582975779/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331524881&sr=8-1

good luck!

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

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

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

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

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

For general music theory there are some good videos on youtube for a lot of the basics (and a few for more advanced stuff as well if you wanna go that far)

If you're looking to buy books to learn from, then any theory book for grades 1-5 is a good way to get you started, maybe something like this (of course you could probably seek out the equivalent e-book or site with the same info)

If it's more the technical side of production you want to look in to, then /r/edmproduction has plenty of info, although stuff aimed at beginners tends to get buried a bit. But the search function or the faq will help with that : D

Also, youtube (again). There are literally thousands of production videos on there you can learn from once you have an idea of what you want to search for.

Coursera even have a few free introduction to music production courses every year if you wanna get really serious!

Try it out. Dive in, see what works, what doesn't. Back it up with theory. I'm fond of these as resources:

• Principles of Orchestration: http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Orchestration-Dover-Books-Music/dp/0486212661
  
• The Study of Orchestration: http://www.amazon.com/Study-Orchestration-Third-Samuel-Adler/dp/039397572X
  
• Essential Dictionary: http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Dictionary-Orchestration/dp/0739000217
  
• MIDI Orchestration: http://www.amazon.com/Guide-MIDI-Orchestration-4e/dp/0240814134
  
  Find scores you enjoy, and study those. Harmonics, counter-point, instrumentation, melodic structure, and so on. I'm particularly fond of James Newton Howard scores, and Jeff Atmajian's orchestration work on his projects. Like Ravel? Start there and become really intimate with Ravel and his scores and techniques.
  
  That said, I'm also happy to orchestrate something for you. PM'd you.

Sounds like you need a better understanding of some music theory, not the piano, to help you write songs. I'd say look up some music theory basics, for example major scales 'come together' through the circe of fifths and they are all constructed the same way using a different starting note. Look for information about chord progressions and think about how they sound one after another, such as I, IV, V chords; I'd say it'd be more useful for you to understand this sort of thing instead of improving piano technique.

In terms of a book, when I did music theory I used the Theory is Fun grade 1 and 5 books. They look like childrens books but they were immensely useful to me. Also the AB Guide to Music Theory is great, although more complex. Keep in mind though that I live in the UK and these are books from here, so if you're from the US some of the terminology is a little different and these books might not be as helpful, sorry.

Books are a great idea. Not necessarily books of TABs, or method books though, unless he's specifically asked for something... they can be a personal choice thing.


Coffee table type books with lots of pictures and articles on guitar history, blues history etc are always a good gift. Or an all-round encyclopedia book (like Ralph Denyer's Guitar Handbook )


Then again... Rocksmith 2014 would be a good gift for a player as well.

So far the book "make your own eclectic guitar" has helped me a lot.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0953104907/ref=redir_mdp_mobile

I suggest building from a kit to start out. The shop I work for is an AllParts dealer, so I really like them, an I'll bet if you emailed the boss he'd cut you a deal, but Stewmac.com is good too.

The book I suggested it's really vague on finishing, so I suggest looking up an online tutorial specific to what finish you're doing, YouTube has been a big help, but Stewmac.com has some good tutorials on their site. be sure your clear coat, paint, and sanding sealer all work together I had to start over because no one will give me a clear answer about how to finish an ash body with a stain.
Here's a link to the StewMac videos.

http://www.stewmac.com/online_video.html

Get this book: https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Better-Lyrics-Pat-Pattison/dp/1582975779

Pat Pattinson is a professor of songwriting at Berklee College of Music. My friend studied with him and turned me on to the book. It includes a lot of exercises on how to get yourself thinking in terms of imagery/metaphors as you write, but it's specifically geared toward songwriting. The exercise my buddy often does as a warm up is a free-write. Pick an object like "Apple" and start writing a stream of consciousness about apples. Let your mind wander and just WRITE, it doesn't have to make sense. I'm typing this on a phone, but when I think of apples:

"old scraggly woman, arm outstretched offering tastes of her madness to beautiful girls; a snake winding up a tree, it's cold stomach scraping against bark as it sweetly whispers knowing hisses. Red but not round, paragon of fruits, mottled red and breaking like the earth cracks on a fault as the white teeth sink".

Lyrics and poetry are similar, but there are some nuances to lyrics. The number one I can think of is that people often write lyrics that are impractical to sing. The lines are too long (aside from meter, you'll run out of breath before you can finish the line), or include excessively complicated words (difficult to enunciate and control pitch at the same time). Think of a word like "splendiferous". Maybe you could write it in a poem, but you probably wouldn't want to sing it.

I have some callous on my fretting hand index finger, as it gets the most action. But you should aim to get the clean tone with applying as little force as possible. For this, try to place your fingers right next to the fret.

If you want to build up your fretting hand strength and flexibility, there's a nice book for it: https://www.amazon.com/Bass-Fitness-Exercising-Handbook-Including/dp/0793502489

The exercises aren't the most fancy ones, but if you stick with them, you should notice improvement in a couple of weeks. Just start slow and don't overdo it, focusing on getting a clean and consistent sound.

I can say as a fellow bassist that my big first step into undstanding and using theorywas when I got Real Book and started doing walking bass lines between chords. Walking basslines are really one of the places where understanding chords is really important on bass because we are playing more than just the root or the fifth.

When it comes deeper understanding of harmony and chords, it kills me to say this, it's helpful to know how to play just a little guitar or even better some piano as you can start to connect the sound and movement or chords better by playing them. Bass, while being the supreme instrument, isn't a chordal instrument. We can play chords on bass but it's really not the same as how they sound on chordal instruments.

If you need help on how to get to started on walking bass lines I've heard good things about the Book Building Walking Bass Lines.

Not a fake book but in my opinion one of the best song book purchases I've ever made: http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Complete-Scores/dp/0793518326

It's pricey but it has the score for every Beatles song. It's not 100% accurate but it's pretty good a lot of the time.

Check out Bass Fitness. I scanned this a while ago, but I dunno if I still have the file around. Pretty awesome for finger strength and independence.

/u/PelleSketchy is right. A beginner bass is a beginner bass etc. There isn't really such thing as a 'light weight' bass though. You'll have to go to a music store and literally pick some up and see which one feels best. I play a six string these days so weight doesn't really factor into it for me. You want to go more on ergonomic feel; bass player's back is no joke.

I recommend this book for method. But if you find you're the kind of person to get bogged down by that just get thee to YouTube and start learning songs you like.

I do recommend against selling that piano though. It's a valuable instrument to have in your mental arsenal and quite a few of us actually compose our bass parts on piano first. You may find you're one of those people. You can get a used Ibanez or a Squier for under $100 if you try hard enough.

Hey, similar situation here and this is what I recommend

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

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

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

nnngh I see what you're asking, but it's really just plain old theory about keys and then we can get a bit more complex.

I write atonal music which uses all 12 tones freely, but I still use the rules of the road to guide my decisions. You shouldn't ever throw pitches in willy nilly.

Buy these books. They're produced by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music here in the UK. They are AMAZING and are a complete guide to everything you need to know. Heck, I'm doing music at degree level and I sometimes still find them useful.

1- http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Guide-Music-Theory-Vol/dp/1854724460

2 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Guide-Music-Theory-Part/dp/B00144C78E

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.

The chord changes form the structure of a song.

Everything I say after this is opinion.

As a bass player, I find that you follow those chord changes. You play the root note of the chord. What make a bass line more fun (and at least to me, more interesting) is to find ways to transition between those chords by playing other notes that "fit".

The boring stuff is when you just play the root note of the chord. Even if you're doing that you "own the one", as Bootsy would say.

Always own the one, and when it's tasteful, jazz it up between the chords of the song.

An OUTSTANDING resource is this: Building Walking Bass Lines

It's not what you think. Trust me. Get it.

An orchestration book sounds like a VERY good idea... is this the one you're talking about?

There's a fair chance that no one will ever have to touch the stuff I've written. We did our performances (for the shows we didn't get an orchestra together so they were just piano/keyboard/guitar), and we're wrapping up studio recordings of the show, which is what I created the orchestrations FOR since I had the chance to have them be heard (digital orchestrations, yay!). Anyway, I'm putting together a master score at this point mostly for my own education and satisfaction. There's a slight chance that perhaps the show will be rented out someday, but who knows. Either way I'd like an accurate score of everything :). Thanks!

Chord Chemistry is a great book. It's my guitar bible. I'm always coming back to it. It was written by one of the best guitar players ever, Ted Greene.

I've heard The Advancing Guitarist is quite good but I've not read it.
One last suggestion. If you can find a book called SuperChops by another legendary player (Howard Roberts) you'll be set. It's a great 20 week course that'll take your playing to new levels. Howard was one heck of a jazz player, teacher and nice fella. It's out of print (now) so it may be a struggle to get a copy but once you do...hold onto it.

To be honest the best thing is to get a teacher. I don't know what the equivalent is wherever you live but in Britain lessons usually lead to doing grades/exams on the instrument, after a certain level they're worth Ucas points which help with getting into universities etc. The same is for music theory.
Also, people who just teach composition do exist, contact teachers in your area and they or someone else will know someone.
Otherwise, something along the lines of this.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/AB-Guide-Music-Theory-Vol/dp/1854724460

EDIT: As for recording/writing music, Sibelius and/or Logic. Sibelius is great for actual sheet music/scores and logic for manipulating sounds.

Happy cake day!

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

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

Don't have much time or nearly enough knowledge to answer but you must read this book - there's a massive chapter on Northern Soul and a great deal before and after covered in the meat of this book. Fascinating stuff and definitely helps shed a lot of light on why some of the peculiar parts of the genre are embedded in both DJ culture and also seem so strange to us now.


https://www.amazon.com/Last-Night-DJ-Saved-Life/dp/0802146104

https://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=gradus+ad+parnassum&qid=1555859668&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Awesome! Appreciate that. This is not going to be easy. But I love challenges.

I watched a few videos of it on YouTube. It does seem pretty fun lol. I'm tempted to get a copy for myself.

On the other hand, you can get these four books for the same price, and take advantage of your existing knowledge in reading music:

• Motown
  
• Funk
  
• Book for beginners
  
• Scales

Think about it like this: you're job is a writer covering dance music and you HAVE to produce articles on a weekly basis sometimes daily so what do you do? Write up on a "new" genre and hope the term would catch on. According to Frank Broughton's essential book "Last Night DJ Saved My Life" Techno was a term created to differentiated the new proto-disco sounds of Chicago called House music so to sell CDs some labels focused on the industrial history of Detroit and the fact that the local producers relied more on sampling p funk rather than disco.
I'm not totally shitting on the American public though, Europe is certainly ahead on its musical knowledge but they too can make mistakes for example in the U.K. Vocal House was called "Garage" because many believed House music started at the Paradise Garage in NYC and that genre begat Speed Garage, another subsect that branched from Drum N Bass with house music. We didn't even touch upon Italio Disco! Lol

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)

Did this about 12 years ago. Bought most stuff from StewMac.com I would heavily suggest buying their premade neck-fretboards. I did, and it turned out pretty awesome. I bought the maple neck/ebony fretboard for through neck type construction, an alder body blank, bridge, pickups, wiring, and paint all from them. Cut out the body sides and use them as clamping cauls when you glue the sides to the neck. I bought the book "Build Your Own Electric Guitar" and it was a great help. TAKE YOUR TIME!!! DO IT THE RIGHT WAY!!!

The best way to get good at writing is to write.

This book is filled with writing exercises for writers of song lyrics.

It is a great companion to Writing Better Lyrics. A book (and I also attended one of his workshops) that has helped me a lot.

You need to start counting rhythms. You don't need a guitar to do this necessarily. There are a number of books with written out rhythms to practice, such as Louis Bellson's Modern Reading Text in 4/4 For All Instruments, Ted Reed's Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer, and Gary Hess's Encyclopedia of Reading Rhythms. There are numerous ways to practice the rhythms in these books - counting the rhythm while clapping a steady pulse, counting a steady pulse while clapping the rhythm, tapping a steady pulse with your left hand while clapping the rhythm with your right while also counting, and so on. When I say "count" I mean count out loud. Your goal is to learn to keep your place in measures while accurately executing and eventually feeling rhythms.

You can also do these steps with a guitar in your hand. Just pick a chord - maybe one you're trying to work into your repertoire - and play the written rhythm with that chord while you're counting.

This will probably seem awkward and "unmusical" when you first start, but trust me when I tell you this is going to radically improve your rhythmic vocabulary and time feel over the long haul. This is the kind of thing band and orchestra kids learn as a matter of course and most guitarists don't get because we don't learn to read in ensembles.

Verdelet gives good advice!
All I would add is the age old advice of "measure once, cut twice"

I also recommend Make Your Own Electric Guitar by Melvin Hiscock. The book is considered the "Bible" of guitar making, and is an excellent guide/ reference.

I'd also recommend reading plenty. Project guitar is great. MIMF is another good site. By reading about mistakes others have made you can avoid them yourself ;)

Plugging Can't Stop Won't Stop as it's one of the best chronicles of the origins of the movement/music/culture. DJ Kool Herc was definitely the father of it all.

The book even traces the exact day he took to the turntables at a dance hall for his sisters birthday. Hip Hop history is truly amazing.

I had guitar lessons and learned there, so I'm not too sure. For a start, subscribe to the music theory subreddit and maybe look a little on there for help. I would highly recommend buying the book 'The AB Guide To Music Theory Part 1' by Eric Taylor. It's pretty cheap and not too much of a long read, but is very clear and will help you loads.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Guide-Music-Theory-Vol/dp/1854724460/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345727330&sr=8-1

This is UK, but I'm sure the American website has it to.

30 min. of practice just on technique is not much. I do 1 hr and it seems like peanuts. I'd say endeavour for 2 hrs. with 1 hour playing what you want and 1 hr of music theory. Throwing in 30-60 min of aural training is pretty ideal as well. Head over to /r/musictheory . And I'd also recommend this book to learn music theory.

Here's a great site that explains the CAGED system, which in turn explains the fundamental layout of the fretboard very well.

http://www.cagedguitarsystem.net/

A great all-around book is "The Guitar Handbook" by Ralph Denyer. It has everything from Theory to construction to influential players and the history of the guitar in one handy resource.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751

For Jamie XX and Four Tet at least, going into dance music history could help. Going deep and trying to find inspiration from all over, in that nerdy/connoisseur way, can help. In Colour always struck me as kind of love letter to dance music. Not just listening, but reading more and researching dance music in an academic way, might bring you a similar vibe.

Try this book, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, if you're looking for some more detailed material. I haven't read it in a long time but I remember enjoying it.

If you're in to dance music, The Dance Music Manual is densely-packed, but still easy to read and fun.

Reason 101 has a "visual guide to the Reason Rack" that's really good. PM your address and you can have mine. The type is too small for my eyes to read.

I really enjoyed this book, the rest in the series are a bit blah, but this stood out as helping me a lot.

https://www.musicroom.com/product-detail/product332583/variant332583/guitar-springboard-technical-workout/

Also the popular Guitar Aerobics book might be what you want. I dont own this one, but I will buy it eventually, some friends have it and seemed to really improve when they stuck with the 52 week thing,
When i borrowed it i just went through it at my own pace which might not be best, as I cant remember most of it.

https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Aerobics-One-lick-day-Maintaining/dp/1423414357

It's great, huh? Once you get some lead guitar going, then this book is pretty much the ultimate.

http://www.amazon.ca/Beatles-Complete-Scores/dp/0793518326

It's not without the wrong note here or there, but the level of transcription is pretty much beyond what you get in most books. Every guitar part, every piano part, bass guitar, drums, embellishments. It's pretty much all there.

This is what you'll see:

http://jaygoodmanbass.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/somethingpg1.jpg?w=497&h=321

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

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

Tonal Harmony: Kostka-Payne - Tonal Harmony

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conducting 1 - Notion Conducting

Conducting 2 Notion + Stravinsky's Petrushka

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

This has a bunch of easy standard tunes with everything, including the bass, written out:

http://www.shermusic.com/new/1883217156.shtml

Plus it'll give you scales and arpeggios for all the chords for each tune.

Here's a sample:

http://www.shermusic.com/samples/cold-duck-time.pdf

It's great for getting a handle on how Jazz works and also for starting up a combo.

Also, Ed Friedland's excellent book can help you:

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Walking-Bass-Lines-Builders/dp/0793542049

This is a great book once you get technique down. I've been playing professionally for about 8 years now and this book really took me to another level about 4 years ago, I wish I'd known about it sooner.

But first and foremost is technique. Learn good habits and everything else will be a lot easier.

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.

1. Notice what I said? It's my undergrad textbook. That means I had to learn theory. Talent will only get you so far. If you want to study existing music, you need to put time into seeing what the contemporary theory is.

One of the best papers I've read on this topic that gives a comprehensive review on the policy, history, and urbanization of racial ghettos is this one (its really really dense and goes in depth on a lot of material but its extremely comprehensive).

On general matters of race and civil rights, you can't go wrong with The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

If you want a more hip hop based approach, I recommend Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop . This one is more of a history on the hip hop generation in general but gives a great background on how hip hop rose out of racial conflict.

I'm a composer by trade (now working toward a PhD in Composition) and I don't know one book that introduces composing well, or at all. I got started in high school, just writing little pieces for myself and friends to play. I just kept at it all these years, through college, grad school and now.

What I found helpful along the way was to learn and be the pro at music theory. After all, music theory is a bunch of rules formulated based on what other people people from long long before have written. One thing to work hard on is counterpoint. It's a step by step on how to write good lines, good secondary lines and basically gives you a very rough idea of what works and what doesn't work. Of course, this is based in the tonal tradition. This is my recommended book. It's written in the socratic style, so just beware. Otherwise, this is what people use in school today.

Again, orchestration is important if you want to write for acoustic instruments. See my comment below~

My advice would be to JUST START WRITING! If its bad, you will know it is and why it's bad. Sometimes, you need a little help. PM me if you want me to look at some things you've done.

Glad to see that you're on the road to guitar independence. It's great because nobody can know better how you want your guitar to play than you! This book has everything, it is indispensable. The Guitar Handbook

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.

Pure theory alone will not improve your technique on any instrument, but will enable you to understand the mechanics of the music being played, and communicate it to another musician. You might consider applying your knowledge to extended chords and harmonies available in Jazz. Books by the following would be useful:

• Mickey Baker - Book 1 and Book 2;
  
  
• Ted Greene;
  
  
• Mick Goodrick;
  
  
• Frank Gambale - Book 1 and Book 2
  
  ---
  An answer with useful music theory resources that I gave recently:
  
  https://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/4h5i2y/question_which_book_should_i_read_to_understand/d2njtxs