(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best music theory

I'm in the process of reading a book The Inner Game of Music

Back in the 70's I believe it was somebody wrote a book the inner game of tennis (then span it out to golf / skiing etc)

The premise was essentially ways to increase your performance by decrease interference from your brain and increasing things like thrust, awareness and will.

It basically was to my understanding a pioneering book in sports psychology.

It starts off quite simple with a formula:

Performance = Potential - Interferance

Most people want better performance so focus on increasing skills / the potential. Very few take the time / effort / practice to decrease the interference part -- which it sounds quite high in your case.

The book then delves into it more, presents ideas to help understand / cope / improve it. Some exercises and all sorts.

So some music dude hooked up with the original author and wrote one for music.

It sounds like the book may be of some help. Its a little bit "miraculous" in places but its not too bad. Has some nice fundementals with practice / approach.

I think as well part of it is just becoming more comfortable with what you are doing. It almost sounds if you are sitting above yourself when you are playing rather than laying back into it, if that makes any sense.

So I'd recommend Victor Wootens book The Music Lesson a shortish book, a little odd and almost self serving at times, but its an amazing book, really is.

I'd also recommend The Art of Practicing, it goes much more into the approach to the instrument, practicing and performing. Its from a classical piano perspective, but does cater for some other instruments / the musical ideas translate well.

Its quite interesting there is a reasonable amount of overlap between the inner game and the art of practicing. I'd say the art of practicing is better written (albeit written in a little bit of a dull style) and goes into detail more but I do like the inner games interference approach.

Yeah I found these books very helpful and I have a backlog of others to read. Essentially it looking at how you approach music and connect with the instrument.

I first became aware of this when learning how to sing, alot of my blocks to singing were all in my head and changing my approach really helped my voice get better and it translated to guitar. So I started reading more into that in general.

I've played a decent amound of rock, (mostly into Wilco, Sufjan type stuff) and I feel that playing Bach helped me a lot for writing memorable parts with good voice leading. It's mostly about giving yourself a solid harmonic framework to go off of. Like building a house... you can kinda do whatever you want with the decorations, but the framework and structure has to be there. Bach gives us that framework, even for rock/pop/jazz (to an extent).

Some things of his that might help you for guitar parts: his solo violin (and solo cello) stuff. He was able to coax polyphonic sounds and a sense of harmony out of two instruments which are mostly monophonic, and you really learn how to write a good melody. For two-part structure (bass+melody, the most important voices), check out his Inventions, and for 3-part, check out the French Suites. For heavier stuff, check out the Well-Tempered Clavier or B Minor Mass. It's mostly about being aware of how you're moving the voices, and how your parts are moving melodically... thinking of harmony as melody.

Obviously, there's a huge difference between Bach and something like funk or afrobeat, which are groove-based, but I think studying him is really helpful for writing parts that "just fit" with the rest of the band, or knowing how to keep strong harmonic structure with minimal instrumentation (solo, duo, etc).

Some other books to maybe consider:

Exploring Jazz Arranging (He also talks about Bach)

Contemporary Counterpoint

Tonal Counterpoint for the 21st Century Musician

Voice Leading: The Science Behind a Musical Art

>I'm trying to put together a plan of materials to go through with the intention of becoming an "expert" (very adept, lets say graduate level) in theory over the next several years.

So, at minimum, you'll need to know tonal (Schenkerian) analysis and post-tonal analysis. The fourth edition of Joseph Straus' Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory is good for post-tonal. My Schenkerian class didn't use a text, but Cadwallader and Gagne seems to be a thing now.

At the graduate level, studies are motivated by the student's research interests. It sounds like you are interested in what Dmitri Tymoczko calls "the extended common practice."

For breadth, read journals and publications. MTO is free, Spectrum is a big one, and so it JMT. Here are the last five recipients of the Wallace Berry Award (and you can read more here):

Steven Vande Mooretele - The Romantic Overture and Musical Form from Rossini to Wagner

Daniel Harrison - Pieces of Tradition: An Analysis of Contemporary Tonal Music

Ruth DeFord - Tactus, Mensuration, and Rhythm in Renaissance Music

Jack Boss - Schoenberg's Twelve-Tone Music: Symmetry and the Musical Idea

Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis - On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind

Given your interests, I'd definitely read the Daniel Harrison book.

/u/Jay13232 mentioned Persichetti. If you're going to read it, do so after you get a handle on set theory (from Straus). It's a good book, but our modern methodology is better for describing that repertoire in my opinion. Persichetti and Hindemith are like whacking nails into a board with a wrench (using ideas appropriated from tonality to describe music that doesn't follow those principles). Allen Forte, John Rahn, Robert Morris, and Howard Hanson gave us a proper set of hammers.

>It's perhaps the least romantic gift ever

Hahahahaha! I would definitely agree, though—I think the CHWMT would be an excellent book. If she goes through any sort of History of Theory course (which most PhD programs do), I can't imagine she wouldn't use this book. Even if she didn't have such a course, this book is a collection of (with perhaps one exception) excellent essays written by top scholars on almost every major theoretical approach or issue in the history of Western music.

I won't speak for other sub-disciplines—vornska's suggestions are definitely some of the central books in present theoretical studies—but let me make some suggestions for books more oriented towards Schenkerian analysis.

Schenker's Free Composition — this is Schenker's magnum opus in which he lays out his mature theory. For any Schenkerian, this is definitely a Bible of sorts, and a must-have. Just be sure, if you end up purchasing this, to get both volumes; one volume is the text and the second is the examples. You can also find the hardcover first English edition, sometimes even for less than the price of the two paperbacks.

Cadwallader and Gagné's Analysis of Tonal Music: A Schenkerian Approach — this has become the standard textbook for teaching Schenkerian analysis, and I still find myself referring to it after years of Schenkerian studies. A somewhat dry but very clear and beneficial book.

Schachter's Unfoldings: Essays in Schenkerian Theory and Analysis — Carl Schachter is one of the greatest Schenkerians; nearly everybody who's anybody in the world of Schenkerian analysis studied with him. This book is a wonderful collection of some of his greatest essays. His writing style is exceptional and his analysis are some of the best I've seen.

Glad to hear it, thank you! And yeah I can think of a few books that really helped me.

For analog, the best book I've read is "A Practical Introduction to Electronic Circuits" (https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Introduction-Electronic-Circuits-ebook/dp/B01MSEO5HX). It's actually a terrible introduction, so the title is dumb, but if you already have a basic knowledge this book will take you to the next level. Also one of the best resources for analog is Dave Jones' YouTube channel EEVBlog (https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog). He's an excellent presenter and a real analog pro.

For digital, after you have a good grasp of C, I'd recommend Musimathics Vol. 2 (https://www.amazon.com/Musimathics-Mathematical-Foundations-Music-Press/dp/026251656X/ref=asc_df_026251656X/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312152840806&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13200640003814220797&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021581&hvtargid=pla-645450504952&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=61316181319&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312152840806&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13200640003814220797&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021581&hvtargid=pla-645450504952). The first volume can be skipped cause it's mostly acoustics and music theory related, but it's a good book too. The second volume is by far the best explaination of DSP and digital audio synthesis I've come across. If you want something a bit lighter, this is a great book as well (https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Programming-Book-MIT-Press/dp/0262014467/ref=asc_df_0262014467/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312140868236&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9994434488221753680&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9021581&hvtargid=pla-330509287619&psc=1).

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


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


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

There's also a free, Berklee Intro to Music Theory course on edX. It says enrollment is closed, but I'm still able to view the lessons once I log in.

I'm new to learning about music as well, and this book has been very helpful: How Music Works. It's written very conversationally, not too technical, with great explanations of core concepts.

Also picked up The Complete Musician, which is very technical.

For writing software, Muse Score is free.

I'd also recommend getting a midi keyboard as well, if you don't already have one.

If you have the patience, Harmony & Voice Leading by Aldwell & Schachter, hands down.

It depends on how much of a "Beginner" you are. I went through Music Theory for Dummies before I moved on to the above monster of a textbook. The Shaping of Musical Elements and its second volume are also some recommendations. However, they also require a deal of patience (and possibly a knowledgeable friend/teacher if you'd like your work examined). The aforementioned Laitz book is also a great text worth of perusal.

I wish you the best of luck in your learning ventures!

This might sound funny but the BEST "all-in-one" theory introduction for me so far is the sample pages of a book called "The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis", on amazon. Every other place I can think of either focuses too much on one part, or misses out on a crucial part of the basics probably because they assume you aren't a complete beginner.

The aforementioned book is where I wish I had gone to on day 1.

r/musictheory also has an faq thread. I read through openmusictheory.com but it's certainly too fast for complete beginners.

The ground rules come from learning basic theory so there's no quick fix in this regard. Getting lessons is the best way to go but you could also try the autodidact route: http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-Dummies-Audio-CD-ROM/dp/0764578383

Alternatively, You could just use your instinct to compose complimentary melodies. Record yourself singing a melody and then loop it back while you experiment over with a new different melody and/or rhythm, and repeat until you feel you're satisfied. As always experiment and practice and you'll get better at it.

As far as learning to read music, Master Theory is a good place to start.

Specifically for the snare drum, I've heard good things about Podemski's Standard Snare Drum Method.

Chart Topping Drum Beats might also be a good way to learn how to read drum-specific music.

There are probably good free resources online too.

> I don't think music really can be randomly generated like this, or at least not with something so primitive.

Obviously, to write quality generative music, you need to be able to write quality music. I.e. you need to understand compositional structure, music theory, what makes a good melody, etc. You can't expect to generate good music without this understanding. Writing quality music is difficult in any medium or compositional domain.

That said, using an Nth order Markov model and a lot of analyzed music from the same style (e.g. the works of Bach, Mozart, etc) as input, you can create quality music and have absolutely no idea why or how it's quality. This would be more along the techniques successfully employed by David Cope.

However, these analysis-bases techniques don't deal with meaningful interaction or note/beat-level changes, both primary issues in interactive software (like a game). To get quality procedural/generative/interactive music in this domain, you need to employ a more directly-compositional approach. The best efforts in this area are those that use probabilistic techniques and compose music in a way that is quite analogous to traditional composition, but instead of composing particular rhythms, melodies, or structure, you compose these elements using [probability distribution functions] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probability_distribution). Until recently, there haven't been too many books detailing this approach, but now there are.

Edit: One more thing -- there may be more music than you realize that employs this sort of probabilistic approach. When it's good, you don't notice it. It just sounds like music.

You don't really need the first book, but it couldn't hurt. The Aldwell/Schachter/Cadwallader is a very good tonal theory book and I would recommend. I can also highly recommend The Complete Musician by Laitz, but it's a very hefty book at around 900 pages.

A book like this will contain lots of rhythmic source material:
https://www.amazon.ca/Music-Sight-Singing-Nancy-Rogers/dp/0205938337

Lookout for these on kijiji at the end of the school year as you're guaranteed to find a 2nd year music major unloading one.

With exercises like the ones in that book, you can practice speaking rhythms (even using simple 'da da da' or 'ta ta ta' syllables) or clapping them out. And making sure you always do that with a metronome. I found this kind of instrument-free work really helps in internalizing rhythm.

For example, when you're learning a piece (say, as a guitarist), put your guitar down. Get a metronome going and try to clap the rhythm. Try to speak it out loud. Try clapping your hands or tapping your foot to the metronome while speaking the pattern against that steady beat. Move your body to the pattern in some kind of way. When you pick the guitar back up and look at that same bar of music, you will have another level of rhythmic understanding of it. It will be memorized, and internalized independent of any muscle memory.

Also, doing work like this daily will seriously enrich your rhythmic comprehension. Like comprehending written words–where you don't need to think about each individual letter and the entire word just is what it is–eventually, even the most complex written rhythms begin to indicate specific patterns.

Beyond that, you can start looking at songs in a dimension you never thought of before. Re-imaging a jazz standard as a waltz or in 5, looking into polyrhythmic work (where you keep two independent rhythms steadily moving), or even just changing the feel of a familiar song.

Music theory is not different on a guitar than on any other instrument. And it gets very hard to get music theory correct when it is taught by largely self-taught guitarists, because they have a tendency to think every shape they play requires a name (a trait shared by musicians on most chromatic instruments).

Go get a basic music theory book like Music Theory for Dummies or Music Theory: From Begginer to Expert. After youv'e gone through and really understood what's in those texts, you'll be ready for more advanced stuff like Mark Levine's Jazz Theory or Walter Piston's books such as Harmony or Counterpoint.

Alternately you could look at texts on arranging and orchestration at that point as well.

Stay away from instrument specific texts, particularly those related to chromatic instruments (of which the guitar is one) because you'll almost find something that is a well-intended, but mistaken, concept. Also avoid texts aimed at Berkelee school of music. While they are a great school in terms of their performance degrees, they have an odd fascination with modes that is shared by virtually no other music school in the world.

It's Ottman: http://www.amazon.com/Music-Sight-Singing-9th-Edition/dp/0205938337

Thank you for sticking with me (and hopefully some others) on this. One of my grandsons is 11 years old and I intend to help clear the way for him to become a fine musician. You have helped us both.

My friend and I were recently talking about how standard notation isn't the universal language it once was and, in learning guitar, TABs just made more sense for the learning process. I mentioned that, if anything, the piano roll should be integrated into the younger music curriculum due to how relevant it is.

Lo and behold: https://www.amazon.com/dp/069209329X

That's a great idea for introducing people to theory who aren't traditionally trained. After all, it's an awkward added step to have to mentally translate everything through treble and bass clef and then into a piano roll when standard notation isn't really a medium you'll be using enough to have it feel like anything more than a speed bump.

I don't know much about western music but your question piqued my interest and a quick search yielded this, which looks interesting:

Cool Math for Hot Music: A First Introduction to Mathematics for Music Theorists

My theory professor in undergrad wrote a book that I loved. We used it before it was published, so it was still a work in progress. But my high school didn't have music theory as a class, so I was a little behind everyone else, and this book really made a lot of sense to me. Music Theory Remixed: A Blended Approach for the Practicing Musician https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199330565/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ImVOybYGM0VRJ

Wow, thats an interesting question. I have a book on my 'to-read' stack called "Music and Probability" - http://www.amazon.com/Music-Probability-David-Temperley/dp/0262515199 - maybe you could draw some connections on your own?

not really

i don't like music for "structure" or anything either i always find that reply funny

also i think stuff like this is really ad hoc and i do not find it impressive

tbh i have mostly been listening to pop for the last 2 weeks tbh i did not like math until i was 17 or so and found proof based math and started programming tbh i still think i like music more

I can recommend a couple....

A Practical Approach to 16th Century Counterpoint is a modern work that digs into the idioms. If you want to read the theory of the era, it's hard to beat Zarlino's Le institutioni harmonische, published in 1588. If you read Italian there are three different scans of 16th century editions available free on IMSLP

I think this book by Roger Matthew Grant is pretty much exactly what you’re looking for. “Beating Time and Measuring Music in the Early Modern Era”
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/beating-time-and-measuring-music-in-the-early-modern-era-9780199367283?cc=us&lang=en&#

Also, Ruth DeFord is a specialist in this area, and has a book on rhythm in early music, albeit somewhat earlier than what you’re talking about https://www.amazon.com/Tactus-Mensuration-Rhythm-Renaissance-Music/dp/1107064724

The following sources all agree that 3/8 is a "simple triple" meter. I haven't found any yet that describe it as compound. So, yes, "compound single" would be the exception, though I acknowledge it might be conducted that way with some frequency.

https://www.amazon.com/Musicians-Guide-Theory-Analysis-Third/dp/0393263053/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_signature#Simple_time_signatures
http://openmusictheory.com/meter.html
http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/15

In one of our FAQ topics, the study of counterpoint is mentioned in the top post. There, two series of books are recommended, each with a 16th century and an 18th century component.

• Robert Gauldin's A Practical Approach to xth-century Counterpoint (16th and 17th components)
  
  
• Peter Schubert's Modal Counterpoint: Renaissance Style and Baroque Counterpoint.
  
  These are really the two standards of counterpoint teaching today. Fux is often read as well, but I personally don't really recommend reading historical treatises as a first introduction to a basic concept. I've been taught from the Gauldin 18th century book and am about to teach from the Schubert Renaissance book. I think I would have to say that I prefer Schubert as a classroom textbook, but I'm honestly not entirely sure which one I would prefer as a self-study text.

There are tons of companion books published through Piano publishers who make graded material. Get Bastien's, or Alfred's, etc. theory books. They are designed to go with the lessons books, though she would have to do some "catch up" to the playing level. But you can do that in an ongoing manner in weekly lessons.

The "Master Theory" is also a good one.

https://www.amazon.com/WP205-Bastien-Basics-Theory-Primer/dp/0849752701

https://www.amazon.com/L173-Master-Theory-Book-1/dp/0849701546/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1549472583&sr=1-1&keywords=Master+Theory

I'm not sure if this helps, but I've seen this book being mentioned in a somewhat similar thread => The Inner Game of Music. I've just started reading it, so I can't really tell you a lot about it aside from the description:

> The Inner Game of music is that which takes place in the mind, played against such elusive opponents as nervousness, self doubt, and fear of failure [...] Green begins by discussing what makes up a good performance. He invented the formula P = p - i, where P is the level of the performance, p is the potential of the performer, and i is the level of mental interference during the performance. He explains how to decrease the amount of i (interference) in order to bring the level of P (performance) as close as possible to p (potential).

That being said, you really shouldn't be so harsh on yourself. It's said that you are your biggest critic. Sometimes that's a good thing. But if it gets to a point where it affects your performance, maybe you should take a step back, take a break and find time to rediscover the pleasure of singing. I've been playing guitar for quite some time and sometimes I really get bored of it and become stuck in the same riffs and same songs. So I let it go for a while and do other things. When I come back, it's almost always a breath of fresh air.

PS: virtual hug \^_^

It's like he skimmed David Lewin's book on group theory for musical analysis and misunderstood large chunks of it. Which, to be fair, is relatively easy to do given how Lewin writes out some of his mathematical statements...

That's not to say that Lewin's ideas aren't good or interesting, but his writing style seemed to me to be too 'unclear' for mathematicians and too confusing for musicians (unclear referring to how I recall him notating some mathematical concepts). And I certainly don't remember him drawing such a hamfisted connection between group and music theories.

Check out this book: (full disclosure, I am the author).

Music Theory for Electronic Music Producers: The producers guide to harmony, chord progressions, and song structure in the MIDI grid. https://www.amazon.com/dp/069209329X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Brx8AbH0F0BJX

The "Master Theory" series of workbooks is what I got started on back in middle school. I'm looking through it right now and it should translate fine for adult learners too!

Here's the first one. If I remember correctly you probably won't need anything past book 3, after that it focuses on arranging.

Autogenerated.

I just published a book called, “Music Theory for Electronic Music Producers.” AMA.

Here is the book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/069209329X

A little more info: I’m a college professor, PhD in music composition, and Ableton certified trainer. I started Slam Academy, and have a bunch of online classes about music theory and Ableton live.


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I don't know much about it, but you may want to look at The Topos of Music.

The topos of music is a famous example of this. Topos theory is as abstract as you can get in mathematics and there seems to be a lot to be said using this language.

I can't really comment on this since I haven't read it, but maybe someone else can chime in.

Enjoy.

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

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

Check any real music theory books

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

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

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

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

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