Reddit mentions: The best musical genres books

Can’t comment on the Hanon, but I do have a recommendation you may be interested in. I’ve been playing classical for a while, but in the last year decided to take jazz improv on top of it. There are a few things that if you really work at then will show stellar results.

First thing is chord voicing, these are truly your bread and butter as a jazz pianist. If you ever play in a group, then these will give you a great sound with many many options to choose from.

It would take a very long time to write out a bunch of voicings, but here’s an example. For major chords there are two main interchangeable voicings which we’ll simply refer to as A and B voicings..
-A voicing is formed by starting at the root, then moving up a major third, then building a minor 7th chord. For example C root, then E minor 7. If you look at it, you’re really just playing the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th. You can drop the root once you learn minor and dominance chord voicings, but seeing not only the expanded C major chord, as well as the chord writhin a chord (E Minor 7 within the C major 9) is extremely helpful.

-B voicing is a major third up from the root, then a minor 7th chord, finally inverted twice. This will give you another voicing option so you don’t use the same chords over and over. Now for any major chord, you have three options (Root, Rootless A, Rootless B).

There are more chord voicing beyond that, but that brief example should give you an idea of what’s out there. There are A and B voicings for Major, Minor, and Dominant chords, with Dominant chords having many many options.

For now I would recommend learning you major 7th, dominant 7th, and minor 7th chords in all 12 keys. Play the root an octave lower, then with both hands play the given rootless voicing above it. This will give you an excellent foundation to build from.

Next most important thing is Modes and Scales. Each chord has a corresponding scale with notes that will sound great over a particular chord. Again due to the vast array of options, I’ll give you a starting place to go from.
-Major chords can be paired with major scales. Pretty cut and dry.

-Minor chords will be paired with the mode Dorian. Dorian is similar to a minor scale, but instead of being formed with a flating the 3rd, 6th, 7th Of any major scale, it’s formed by flating the 3rd and 7th of any major scale. So D Dorian would be all white keys.

-Dominant chords can be paired either the Mixolydian Mode. Mixolydian is formed by flating the 7th note in a major scale. So G Mixolydian would be all white keys.

Now there are many MANY options just like with chords, but this will give you a very firm place to begin improvising. As an exercise to get you playing the right scales with the right chords, play in your right hand a particular scale up two octaves and a third, while playing in your left hand the corresponding chord every 8 notes. You’ll see it line up perfectly. When you can do that reliably at 80 bpm with you major, minor, and dominant chords/scales, you’ll be in a great places.

Last but not least is basic Roman numerals theory. If you know what Roman numerals sound good going to each other, then you’ll be in a great place to not only improvise, but to even write and improvise your own songs on the fly. Again, there’s a whole lot we could cover, but to give you a taste, we’ll talk about probably the biggest progression in Jazz. The ii-V-I.

If you break it down a ii-V-I is the culmination of what we’ve talked about so far in this post. First, why this progression. Well the V-I is a common pull in music. The dominant is one of the first in the overtime series, and it’s pull to I is extremely strong. Almost if not more in some cases powerful than the pull of a vii-I. That’s cool, but what about the ii? The ii-V is actually a very strong pull in its own right. So ii now leads us into V, which then takes us home to I.

For great examples of this in action listen to Afternoon In Paris, and Take The A-Train.

Now once you have those chords in place from earlier, you can fill in the minor 7th chords for the ii, the dominant 7th chords for the V, and the Major 7th chords for the I. So in the key of C this would look like d minor 7th for ii, g dominant 7 for V, and C major 7 for I. Once you can do a ii-V-I in every key, practice playing the corresponding scales while you ii-V-I. Or you could also add rootless voicings to the ii-V-I by doing ABA voicings (Minor A, Dominant B, Major A), or BAB voicings (Minor B, Dominant A, Major B).

I would highly recommend buying a copy of The Real Book. This is a set of over 150 standard lead sheets for famous and great jazz songs. Both songs I mentioned above are in the book. Take the book, find a song, and break it down using Roman numerals. After a while things will make sense as far as what chords go where, and things will really start to click.

If you’re interested in further reading, I would highly recommend The Jazz Piano Book by Mark Levine. This book covers many many topics, and will take you far. I like the book a good bit because by any topic, it will show a real excerpt from a jazz standard of a chord used so you can see how what you’re learning is utilized.

I know this is a lot to do, but just pace yourself. You can’t build a house in a day, but if you’re patient and diligent, the world of Jazz Improve is a fun and exciting one. Best of luck, and if you have any questions feel free to comment or shoot me a dm.

Here's my obligatory write up of people in your position.

Beyond that short treatise, I figure I should touch on another thing having to do specifically with something you mentioned.

>Additionally, I do have the discipline to do scales/arpeggios.

This is great, but be careful about the approach. It's easy to get extremely technically focused as you try to "catch up" technically on a secondary instrument, to the point that you become obsessive about the scales themselves rather than their application. These also can feel very comforting and eventually... comfortable.

All to often people make the mistake of focusing on one scale to the detriment of others, say focusing on getting C major from 110 to 120 while there are other keys that are barely at 60. I suspect you know better than that, but the pitfall you're more likely to run into is trying to get all of your scales to a point... and then push that tempo rather than focusing on music.

You really need to read... a lot. You need to work on actual songs even though they will be children's songs and silly crap. At the very outset you likely won't be doing any true sightreading, but you should push to be working on that ASAP.

I think for piano more than most instruments, there's more to be learned by progressive pieces of music than with pure technical work. For monophonic (and mostly monophonic; e.g. bowed strings) instruments, you're mostly covered if you have scales, arpeggios and maybe some advanced sequences. That literally is 95% of music... fragments of scales, arpeggios, and sequences.

With piano, that doesn't even scratch the surface. You'd need to add cadential patterns to that list and those are almost infinite in a way that the rest are not. And that's still not even tackling the real issue... composite rhythm and the coordination issues it causes, especially when complicated by all of the other technical barriers.

Experiencing very small, approachable hurdles like these by working through lots of childish books really helps deal with these issues that are relatively unique to harmonic instruments.



It's easy to get complacent and feel like you're making progress by plopping down to run your scales and arpeggios daily, but I'd recommend strictly limiting the amount of time you allow yourself to spend on these. It's easy to feel like you're making real progress when really you're just mindlessly repeating them. Drills are comfortable for some of us. It sounds like they are for you and they definitely are for me, but we have to be careful not to let them be a means unto themselves.

It's much harder to sit down and really mentally work on simple songs that have small coordination hurdles for you, particularly when they don't feel inherently musically rewarding, especially to those of us who previously had a lot of experience being very virtuostic and musically expressive on our primary instruments. But this is the true path forward.

Resources
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I like this book for scales. I'd strong encourage you to avoid doing all of the scale variations it has. Simple HT 2 octave in every key should be the goal long before you worry about some of the others and I'd argue that the real value isn't even in any of the variations. You'd get more out of doing single hand 3rds and 6ths than the separated versions which you'll very rarely run into in reality. They are nice coordination parlor trick, but I don't feel like they have a lot of value and like I said, you'll get more practical stuff from working on simple songs in method books than you will bashing your head against some of these. Save them for much later (like years) if at all.

Likewise, I wouldn't agonize over the dom7 arpeggios either. There are much more common and useful patterns found in all sorts of music. However, DO focus very intensely on the cadences and triad arpeggios.

I like this method book overall. I'm not even saying it's the best... it's just one and it works. I'd honestly recommend visiting a used book store and just buying a lot of beginner books of all different series. Focus less on pushing hard toward progression in on series and more on just consuming a huge volume of different music. Or, you might work through this series of Alfred books and then use other such books are sightreading practice once you start getting better.

Get this book for sightreading as a start. It's offensively easy, but it's really where most people should start and I wasted far too much time trying to poorly sightreading much harder stuff for too long because I just didn't realize the collection of small deficits that were tanking my ability to improve despite my fairly solid technical facility.

Read with a focus on keeping your eyes on the page and reading a bar ahead. You obviously know how this works from violin whether you think of it or not, but there's a lot more notes to drink in on piano. You've got to learn to know what your pace is for reading and accurately playing. Carry these concepts over to the children's books that will be more complicated than this particular book.

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I will strongly caution you not to try to play hard music. It's such a waste of your time. Lots of people get very good at playing a handful of very hard pieces, but they are based on pure finger memory. These people have no functional skill at piano and can't prepare almost anything new with less than several weeks or months of brute forcing it into their hands.

When you let yourself jump from hard song to hard song, spending weeks or more on each, you'll eventually realize years in that you haven't actually gotten any faster at learning new material. It shouldn't be that way. I'm sure you can sightread (and would be expected to) for tons of gigs on violin. You could probably throw together some fairly advance solo rep in a week or two. Meanwhile, many pianists who've been playing for decades couldn't play an arrangement of some song they heard on the radio in less than a month. It's a sad state of affairs. It's just part of piano culture and many only end up learning maybe 5-10 pieces of new music every year.

Be mindful of the fact that much of your growth as a violinist is due largely to the ensemble experiences you've had... constantly reading tons of new music that's not at the bleeding edge of your ability. You've probably had times where you learned more music in a month that some pianists learn in an entire year, but it has made you a functional player... not someone who has to hide away and practice for 3 months to come back and have your part of the string quartet music learned.

Read! Read a ton and read easy. Your reading skill is the the specific skill that lets you be able to learn new music faster. The better you read the more music you can consume...the more you consume, the more you improve on lots of tiny thing that let you consume even more faster. Unlike almost anything else in music where improvement tapers off, with reading, you just get faster and better at it.

It's definitely a case I make for anyone wanting to make a living (or even side money) playing piano, but honestly, even just for people who want to really enjoy piano as a hobby, putting in the (fairly enormous and painful) upfront investment in good reading is what leads to a point where you can really just sit down and enjoy music.

1. Accept the fact that if you want to be any good at making electronic music it will take a lot of practice, and studying. You will have to work in order to make anything of it, otherwise your music will be nothing more than a passing curiosity to friends and acquaintances, which isn't a bad thing but should give you an idea of what you actually want from your interest and what you're willing to put in.
   
   
2. Protect your ears. They're your greatest asset. Buy earplugs, carry them with you wherever you go, and wear them when you're in a situation involving loud noise.
   
   
3. Learn to play a musical instrument. It doesn't matter which one, although piano is popular because synthesizers are often available in a keyboard-package, but note there are synthesizers available in wind (blown) and string (plucked) instrument packages as well. Gaining a skill in playing an instrument will greatly assist you in developing a foundation for creating music.
   
   
4. Learn about VST's.
   
   
5. Investigate the available audio trackers and digital audio workstations in order to choose which you would prefer to make music with. Do not attempt to learn multiple programs at once, but rather master the use of one program at a time, and then branch out to other programs as needed in order to use them with one another. It's perfectly reasonable to begin with free software and move on to commercial software at a later time, and a great deal of free software is capable of professional results. Personally I would suggest you start with either MusE or Psycle, but whatever you choose be sure to take the time to read the manual.
   
   
6. Check out Synthesizers.com, a manufacturer of modular synthesizers. Do not start by buying a product from this website, as you'll need a fair bit of experience and money before you can invest in to a modular synthesizer. The product page for each module available for sale on this website however has a section for "usage and patch tips" which can give you a really good idea about each of the individual features commonly (and not so commonly) found on a synthesizer, how to use them, and what they're good for.
   
   
7. Read all of the Synth Secrets articles from SOS magazine freely available on their website. The articles are listed, from top to bottom, from the newest to oldest, so you should start with the first article at the bottom of this page and work your way up. You may tempted to skip articles, or start with the last, but as each article builds upon the previous article you'll get the most out of them by following them in the order they were released.
   
   
8. Check out Lypur's YouTube channel. It's got several videos concerning music theory. I realize that the videos focus on classical music theory, but electronic music isn't just about sound design, but the instrumentation as well. An underlying knowledge of music theory will greatly increase your ability to execute ideas and communicate them to others. You can expand upon your music theory knowledge even further by following this online course.
   
   
9. Read Rick Snowman's Dance Music Manual. While this book doesn't cover music theory, it does cover general techniques, broken down by various electronic genres. I’ve read this book and it is highly recommended.
   
   
10. Read The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Mixing And Mastering Audio Recordings. You won't need to read this book until you've started to really put together songs, but when you have it will clearly illustrate to you how to mix your music, so that instruments sit well together in a song, and to master a recording so that it's ready to be released publically.
    

I live on the pacific coast so I can’t help with the teacher part but I have just started jazz piano about a six months ago after playing piano for a year, I feel that you should first familiarize yourself with piano in any way you can before moving into jazz and paying for lessons, once you’re experienced you should buy the sixth edition of the real book and learn how to read jazz standards. These are songs that are in the book (400+ songs) are classics that pretty much all experienced jazz musicians can pick up on and can play along to. It’ll only have the melody on the chords to go along with it, you should learn the melody and play it the way you feel is best and play around with it and then harmonize it with the chords. Once you get familiar with this you should try your best to solo over it along with the chords, you might sound like ass but you’ll have to practice to get an ear for soloing, eventually you’ll get better and pick up and learn techniques. One of my favorite jazz pianist YouTubers made a great video that gives a list of some of the easier jazz standards that are mostly in the real book, they are great for gaining a foundation in jazz. It’s important that you know how to play all types of chords to best play jazz standards, if you’re interested message me and I’ll send you directions for a good exercise for this. Lastly when learning jazz standards it’s best to listen to the song and the chord changes a lot first to get a feel for the song, learning the vocals also helps with expression. Once you get a foothold for all of these basics then you should look for a teacher, I suggest taking a few months before that.

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.

I think every theory book I've ever read has opened up my mind in some way - while always being unsatisfactory in other ways (incomplete, too dense, too little on some forms of music, etc). My experience and interest is largely in popular music of all kinds, less in classical, so that has biased my reading somewhat; but I can recommend all the following (not 100%, but worth reading):

Eric Taylor: The AB Guide to Music Theory, pts I and II - good review of the basics, aimed at pupils studying for grades. Not deep in any way but good if you're just starting out. Solidly classical, which could be a downside for some. The concepts up to grade 5 are shrunk to useful pocket size in [this] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Steps-Music-Theory-Grades/dp/1860960901/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466150641&sr=1-1&keywords=theory+of+music+grades+1-5) - 100% recommended for any absolute beginner.

George Heussenstamm : [Harmony and Theory, pts 1 & 2 (Hal Leonard)] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hal-Leonard-Harmony-Theory-Diatonic/dp/1423498879/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466150878&sr=1-2&keywords=Hal+Leonard+Harmony+%26+Theory) Usefully split into Diatonic and Chromatic. I've read a few texts on standard classical theory, and this is the most approachable, IMO.

William Russo: [Jazz Composition and Orchestration] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Composition-Orchestration-William-Russo/dp/0226732150/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151290&sr=1-1&keywords=russo+jazz+composition) Taught me more than I thought I wanted to know about counterpoint. Most of which I've now forgotten (not much call for it in the bands I played in...). But if you're not into big band jazz (at all), maybe not worth it.

William Russo: [Composing for the Jazz Orchestra] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Composing-Jazz-Orchestra-William-Russo-ebook/dp/B01EZ8OKQW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466149432&sr=1-1&keywords=william+russo) Neat little guide book on jazz arranging (NOT composition).

Mark Levine: [The Jazz Theory Book] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151006&sr=1-1&keywords=levine+jazz+theory) 50% recommended. Well written and presented, eye-opening in many ways, but beware - chord-scale theory! (controversial stuff, in ways he doesn't admit.)

Robert Rawlins and Nor Eddine Bahha: [Jazzology] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782/ref=pd_sim_14_5?ie=UTF8&dpID=41YkvVcCfEL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR120%2C160_&refRID=ZR730GKYPSZYA2THNXGT) The somewhat dry antidote to the above. 50% recommended. Should have been good, but somehow hard to read, easy to put down. Unlike Levine, no quotes from jazz standards or recordings - all music examples are written by the authors.

Dominic Pedler: [The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Songwriting-Secrets-%2522Beatles%2522-Dominic-Pedler/dp/0711981671/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151087&sr=1-1&keywords=pedler+beatles) Outlines the vast number of theoretical concepts that the fab four would be astonished to learn they employed. Includes a useful appendix on basic concepts of tonal harmony. If you like pop and rock (and theory) but don't like the Beatles, still worth reading.

But then if you like the Beatles AND theory... [Alan Pollack's site] (http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/awp-alphabet.shtml) is essential reading. (Pedler is deep, but doesn't examine EVERY song. Pollack is briefer, but does.

Allan F Moore: [Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Popular Song] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Means-Analysing-Interpreting-Recorded/dp/1409438023/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151140&sr=1-1&keywords=allan+moore+song+means) Does what it says in the title - and goes deep! (way beyond the plain old superficial harmony concepts peddled - sorry - by Pedler :-))

Walter Everett: [Rock's Tonal Systems] (http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.04.10.4/mto.04.10.4.w_everett.html) More stuff to raise the eyebrows of any rock musician. "Wow - we really do all that?"

Paul F Berliner: [Thinking in Jazz] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thinking-Jazz-Infinite-Improvisation-Ethnomusicology/dp/0226043819/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466151218&sr=1-1&keywords=thinking+in+jazz) Not a music theory book in the usual sense, but discusses how jazz musicians think about improvisation.

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.

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.
  

>But for all other pieces that can't be played prima vista, how are you supposed to learn without memorising it? No matter how you use the sheet, past the first few playthroughs of a piece (or section of a piece), you will develop muscle memory for that piece (or section).

Muscle memory is not an inherently bad thing. It's bad if it's the only thing you have to rely on, which is the case by memorizing something by just repeating it over and over and over again until it sticks. What happens when you learn while keeping your eyes on the sheet, however, is that you link this muscle memory that you build to visual cues. The muscle memory is triggered by you reading a certain shape or passage on the page. This is much more reliable than is the case with rote memorization, when the muscle memory is triggered by the last notes that you played.

Not only is it much more reliable to create these visual cues, it's also very beneficial in how it allows for future growth. The next time you'll come across a shape or passage on a page of music, the muscle memory that you linked to that visual cue gets triggered, and you can either play it instantly without thinking, or you refresh that which you've learned earlier, which allows you to execute it with very little additional practice required.

See this as building a (piano playing) vocabulary. This is what will eventually allow you to prima vista sightread. You can't expect yourself to just do something if you never learned how to do it.

>So even if you're looking at the sheet the whole time, you're not actually sight reading it, in the prima vista sense, but simply using the sheet as a reference whilst your muscle memory does the work.

Yes and no. You are relying on the muscle memory that you built over your last days of practice, but that doesn't mean you aren't reading. You're not identifying everything like you would when you're prima vista sight-reading, but you're still reliant on the sheet to play the correct notes. That's enough to gain future benefit out of it.

>Yet when I learn pieces, I generally look at the sheet whilst playing. I just inevitably find that, past a point, I stop reading the sheet and just use the general shape of the sheet as a sort of visual cue for my muscle memory.

Welp, that perfectly summarizes what I just said. This is good! This is what you want! It's like when you're reading a book, as you get better you stop reading individual words and instead start (automatically) grouping certain words, or reading while being mindful of the general context of the text.

>I'm under the impression that this is a bad way to learn.

I understand that you think this, but I think you needn't worry. For a bit of personal context, I've been playing for 1 year and 9 months now, and only yesterday started practicing my prima vista sight reading. This has been the first time I've ever focused on playing something first time, in tempo, without preparation, and without pausing for mistakes. I learned my pieces (and still learn) in a way which is similar to the way you describe. For my prima vista sight reading, I use this book (which is often recommended here), and I could play the first 40 pieces effortlessly. That's material that would've taken me at least a few days to get down a year ago.

Even though I'm just two days in, I dare conclude from this that the method that you describe works splendidly for improving both your reading and for preparing you for prima vista sightreading. You might be trying to sightread material that's too hard, or you might simply be starting on it too soon. From what I've gathered from some teachers online (whose opinions I greatly respect), prima vista sightreading is something which you should start after 1 or 2 years of study. You've still got plenty of time to get more comfortable with reading, which will automatically happen as long as you keep learning while keeping your eyes on the sheet.

I posted this in our still-being-created FAQ, hope it helps!

----

I always recommend Robert Gauldin's books on 16th- and 18th-century counterpoint, mostly because they're just what I used as an undergrad. I realize there are others out there that are just as good, but I do think Gauldin is extremely smart and knows what he's talking about.

I've also used Evan Jones's book on modal counterpoint. It's newer so not as time-tested, but it seems like a nice book. It quotes some passages directly from Fux's Gradus where they are relevant, which is nice.

Speaking of which, I don't recommend learning straight from Fux's Gradus. It was written nearly 300 years ago (in 1725) and you are not its target audience! It's an extremely important treatise in relation to the history of music theory and music in general, but it is not flawless and there are other books written with a more updated style of pedagogy that will be easier to learn from. Feel free to read Fux to supplement your work, but I would not make it my primary text.

Turning now to species counterpoint, I'd like to plug what I think is a fascinating book for academics and beginners alike: Counterpoint in Composition by Carl Schachter and Felix Salzer, two brilliant minds in music theory. The book does teach some counterpoint, but what I think the interesting part is is where they relate counterpoint to "free composition"—i.e., pieces by Beethoven, Brahms, and others who were not literally writing species counterpoint, but composing freely. Every student I've assigned readings to from this text has loved the readings and it encouraged them to keep working at counterpoint since the relationship to "real music" became that much more tangible after reading this book.

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

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

1. Work on your theory. Analyze your sheet music. What are the chords you're playing? What's the structure of the piece? Maybe you're playing a piece that has an ABA form, maybe the A section has a chord structure of something simple like I-iv-V-I. Once you have that pattern in your head, it gets harder to slip up.
   
   This book is standard for teaching music theory in college. Tonal Harmony by Kostka
   
   
   
2. Use "starting points." Pick out several logical places to just start a piece. Could be a section, a part of a section. For a Chopin nocturne, you might have starting points every 16 or so bars. For a Bach 4 part fugue, it might be every 4 bars. The point is, if you get lost, you can always jump ahead to a starting point. Try to play from the point "cold."
   
   
3. Don't take your ear for granted. Listen to the piece, hum the piece - the theme and then the bass - while you play. This will get the song in you head so you know where you're going. It can also make your line more musical because you will intuitively play more like a singer sings.
   
   
4. Practice smaller sections. This goes back to number 1. Do not try to memorize the whole piece at once. Memorize 8 bars. Memorize 16 bars. Start at the next point. Can you play that 8 bars cold?
   
   
5. Play the penny game. This game is sadistic, but it works. Take five pennies, put them on the left side of your music stand.
   
   

• Play a part - a few bars, whatever.
  
• Did you play it "right"? The way you wanted it? Right dynamics, articulation, memorized, whatever you're going for this time around. If so, move a penny to the right.
  
• Do it again. Made a mistake? Put the penny back to the left.
  
• Keep doing this till all the pennies are to the right.
  
  This game makes it to where you're playing the part right, the way you want it more than you flub the part.
  
  Hope this helps and good luck to you.
  
  edit: Formatting - fml.

Yeah, the particular album with Oscar Peterson isn't the best for study - as you won't be able to listen to what an experienced jazz drummer would do in those situations - but it is a great practice tool since drumless jazz recordings are so rare. In particular I love "Pennies from Heaven", it's a great mid-tempo swing to jam along with. And if you can work up to up-tempo swing, "I want to be Happy" is a serious workout. 7 minutes of 250 bpm spang-a-lang to really build those chops.

Oh, and if you haven't yet, invest in a copy of the real book and encourage your friends to as well. You can flip to almost any random page and have a great jam sesh. And with a little rehearsal you can gig those tunes as well. Not the most avant-garde stuff, but you've got to start somewhere :) Now go give that ride a good spank for me. Happy jazzing!

I hear you man...same boat. I hear a lot of recommendations for the Leavitt berklee guitar method books. These books

I'm personally working on adopting a fingering system similar to Leavitt and it's helped my playing a lot. My practice routine is:

• Warm up with scales and arpeggios and sing along to the notes to train my ear for about an hour, and warm up my voice if I'm going to work on folk music or songwriting for the day.
  
  
• Then I get some noodling out of my system by playing along to an album.
  
  
• Then if I'm working on jazz, I'll work on a basic song out of the fake books (Autumn leaves, Beautiful Love, Summertime all have good progressions with some typical jazz changes in them and are at a beginner level), and try to play the chords in different positions, inversions, subs voice-leading etc..
  
  
• Then I'll loop the chords and play the head a few times and start to improvise around the melody. Then I just play the 1-3-5-7 of each chord in different positions, to lock in on the chord tones, and then I improvise for a while until I get bored with myself and move onto another tune. Each time it gets a little better, more fluid.
  
  
  You have to take it one step at a time. Learning something new will help you recognize where the holes are in your playing/knowledge. You probably have picked up a lot over the years, but if you're anything like me it's good to start over with some basics, because your knowledge is unstructured and there are a lot of holes. Adopt a fingering system like Leavitts or similar and you will start to connect things you already know. Make sure you know all the notes on the fretboard. Learn triads all over their neck and then learn the 1st and 2nd inversions of those triads.
  
  
  Check out Frank Vignolas modern method course on truefire, it's very helpful for unlocking the neck of the guitar. He goes over basic scales, arps, intervals, and pretty much holds your hand while you learn it. So if you have ADD like me, it helps. Reminds me I need to finish that course..
  
  
  Good luck, and have fun.

While you're considering the absolutely necessary chord tone advice on this thread, also consider jazz rhythms. They are essential to improvising a good solo. Try playing straight 16th note runs or quarter notes on the beat over changes. Your bandmates will perk up immediately re: how non-jazzy your playing is. You can nail all the right scales over the right chords, but if your phrasing is all over the place, robotic, and/or not-at-all in a groove, your solos aren't going to feel right.

A fantastic resource on jazz rhythms (besides listening to great players):
Melodic Rhythms for Guitar

In my experience, knowing rhythms while not knowing all the notes has proven very helpful. You could be playing mostly outside (melodically) while hitting chord tones on rhythmically important accents and play jazz rhythms throughout and your soloing can sound totally convincing.

That said, re: chord tones I've been working on arpeggiating chords in a single position for a given standard, and working my way through a variety of positions over a number of standards. This sounds like a lot of work, and it actually isn't. If you consider trying four positions (say 3, 5, 7, & 9), you could arpeggiate all the chords in a standard in four different ways in a single hour if you were efficient. You walk away with interesting realizations like "What does a 5th position Gmaj7 arpeggio look like" and so on. Do that enough and your fluency re: chord tones grows very quickly.

Just remember that groove matters a great deal in making your solos sound like jazz.

Yes, counterpoint assumes that you have a foundation in 18th century harmonic practice, also known as "common period" practices, e.g. voice leading as practiced by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc.

Harmony by Walter Piston is very thorough, but it's a serious treatment and perhaps not for the faint of heart. Also, you may want to get an edition before the fifth as it's substantially different from a pedagogical standpoint than the earlier editions. I can also recommend Kostka's Tonal Harmony very highly, but also a serious treatment. In fact, it may be best just to start with the Kostka and pick up the Piston later if the fancy strikes you.

These two books teach harmony in very structured way, and in many ways that's the best for learning counterpoint. Eventually, depending on how serious you want to get about composition, you may want to read Schoenberg's book Theory of Harmony. It covers the same material as most harmony books, but it does so from the perspective of the composer. It's even a little philosophical (and dense). It's not unusual for graduate students to re-learn harmony using the Schoenberg text as it forces you to think like a composer. Of course it's a more difficult read, but only if you're unprepared.

If you'd like something a little more easy, there's no shame in getting the Dummies series book on harmony. It does the job with a minimum of depth. Frankly, though, it's in your best interest to start with a solid, university level textbook like the first two I mentioned if you want to tackle counterpoint. Eventually, it's a good idea to read more than one book on tonal theory anyway, so it can't hurt to start with the Kostka and just put it down and use the "Dummies" book. You can always just come back to it later.

There are a lot of resources online - youtube etc, but I prefer books so when I decided to teach myself how to play around 2 and a half years ago I used Alfred's Adult all-in-one, progressive sight reading, and Easy classics to moderns.

Once I felt comfortable enough with sight reading, I just started buying whatever I liked. I also sit down and transcribe the music I like. Just got done learning this track from pride and prejudice, and it barely took a week to learn! It's so wonderful to see my fingers flying across the keys, I can't even describe it.

You might also like flowkey.

Good luck, and I'm sure you'll thank present you for starting - say 5 years from now, when you're sitting at your piano and feeling generally amazing after a particularly good improvisation :)

Thing is, that sort of thinking doesn't really work too well in jazz - there isn't really "repertoire" in the same sense as in classical music. Some standards are more complex than others, sure, but the difficulty is really what you make of it. In jazz, you generally work from what are called "lead sheets", where all you have is the melody and the chords. Here's one for When I Fall in Love. Pretty simplistic, right? Here's Oscar Peterson playing it. The lead sheet is the basic framework for what he's playing, but all the embellishment and runs and extra chords and everything is just coming from him. So you can't really say whether When I Fall in Love is an "easy" standard or not.

As for how to learn, the single best way is to get a teacher. But if you just want to start dabbling, I would suggest getting some books of transcriptions of famous jazz pianists, just to start getting the feel and sound of it in your mind. Those books will have real performances transcribed note-for-note, so you don't need to know how to read lead sheets or improvise to play them. I would also check out Mark Levine's Jazz Piano Book to start learning the theory behind it all, and a Real Book to start practicing with. If you're good at teaching yourself things, the combination of those two books will give you years and years of material.

But I want to re-emphasize that getting some kind of teacher or mentor will help enormously. It's good for classical music, as you know, but jazz is even more like learning a foreign language, because it's improvised. If you just want to dabble for fun, that's fine, but if you get serious about jazz, find someone to guide you, even if it's just an hour a month.

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. =)

Hey friend. You ask great questions!

The issue you’re having is a great illustration of why music conservatory training is so essential. You say you’re willing to dedicate much time and effort; have you considered enrolling in a composition program? There’s much, much more to this than reading a book (or watching some YouTube videos). Deep training in several overlapping fields – theory, aural skills, music history, instrumental performance, choral singing, keyboard skills, score study, composition, etc. – all contribute to developing high level composition & orchestration skills, regardless of your styles/genres of interest.

Anyway, one place you can start on your own would be to dig into a good counterpoint treatise. Counterpoint training is about the craft of melody and of combining individually-compelling melodies to create harmony. There are many great treatises/books spanning literally hundreds of years, and everyone will have their favorites.

Knud Jeppesen’s Counterpoint is fantastic; old-fashioned, but excellent for basic principles. You can find a pdf online easily. The Salzer & Schachter book is more modern and also great. Thorough, well-organized, and I’ve found it to be effective with students who don’t have very deep musical backgrounds at the outset.

Above all, have fun with it and dig deep. Sing and play (at the piano/keyboard) everything you study and write!

If you are planning on teaching yourself (which it sounds like you are) I would highly recommend working through the Elementary Music Rudiments series. I would recommend the all incluisive one as it is more economical and allows you to advance to where you need to be. http://www.frederickharrismusic.com/FHMCsite/capricorn?para=showPage&docId=catShowProd&section=**&prodCode=TSCR&fromCatCode=CATHEORY3&actionType=show&treePath=Theory >&categoryDesc=Theory Publications by Mark Sarnecki&fromTree=Y&pageNum=&level=2&code=CATHEORY3
This book can also be found on amazon and at many local music stores.
If you're not on a super tight budget another great theory resource is Tonal Harmony by Stefan Kostka
http://www.amazon.ca/Tonal-Harmony-Stefan-Kostka/dp/0073401358/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376420694&sr=1-1&keywords=Tonal+Harmony
This was my university text book for my first two years of theory classes. It explains everything from basic rudiments (it covers it slightly) and goes through the harmony methods used into the 21st century.
If you are serious about writing music and learning about the different compositional methods I would recommend going through and doing the exercises in each of these books as they will allow you to devlop a much better understanding and you may find it allows you more creative room.
The benefit of a book is that you don't get lost in duscissions and work sheets that are way over your head as you do online (I know I got into this situation a few times).
It is very important to be very confident in your rudiments before moving on to more complex harmony study so my recommendation would be to first go through Elementary Rudiments and then move on to Tonal Harmony. That's my two-cents, hope it helps!

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.

My two cents - love that piano sound, haha. Wish I had a grand to play on. I'm an amateur myself, but I think you can benefit from more of a focus on varying dynamics during your improv and the use of some modes or dissonance to add more atmosphere and color. /u/AtherisElectro makes the case well, but varying dynamics helps tell your story more - just like if you were telling someone a story in real life. You employ this well here in the beginning. If it is all turned up to 11 the entire time, the listener may start to tune out a bit because they are becoming used to the pattern. For example, modulating to a different key with a different atmosphere (more lydian, softer dynamics, etc.) can give you a second section and more of a journey for the listener. Of course, it depends on the story you are looking to tell. An excellent book for learning some ways to add color to your improvisation is "Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians". Chick Corea is a master at this and listening to any of his innumerable albums should give you plenty of great ideas. Now I just have to start doing any of this for my own improv ; ).

I'd recommend Jazz Guitar: Complete Edition by Jody Fisher. It covers all the important topics in a fairly straightforward way and comes with a CD of examples and backing tracks. It's aimed at intermediate guitarists, but your experience should be sufficient.

The old standard was Mickey Baker's Jazz Guitar, but I'm not a huge fan. The learning curve is extremely steep and there's not a great deal of theory or explanation. It'd be a really useful companion to lessons with a teacher, but I think that most beginners would really struggle with it.

A good alternative to the Jody Fisher book is A Modern Method For Guitar by William Leavitt. The learning curve is fairly gradual, but it's tough going - everything is written in standard notation and there's no real instruction as such. It seems to be inspired by the Suzuki method. Everything is taught through progressively more demanding examples. You probably won't get stuck on anything, but you will need to do a bit of thinking to figure stuff out for yourself.

If you want to learn jazz theory in depth, I'd strongly recommend Jazzology by Rawlins and Bahha. It's the clearest, most elegant explanation of how everything fits together in jazz. It's not specifically written for guitar, but the theory is universal. The Jody Fisher book covers all the theory that you really need to know, but Jazzology would be a really good supplement if you like to understand things in detail.

In your jazz guitar journey, you'll probably come across The Real Book. It's an essential reference text, containing lead sheets for hundreds of the most popular jazz tunes. It's how most of us learned our repertoire and most of us still have a copy in our gig bag pocket. Today, you have a huge advantage in learning tunes because of the fabulous iReal Pro. It's an app version of The Real Book, but it can also play backing tracks for any tune in any key and at any tempo. It's an absolute boon when you're learning to play solos.

Finally, I'd suggest just listening to a whole bunch of jazz, not just jazz guitar. You should know Joe Pass, Ted Greene and Wes Montgomery, but you should also know Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie.

If you're going to dump tens of thousands of dollars into a degree, it's usually a good idea to put it towards a degree that will help you pay it back. Unfortunately, music production is likely not going to be that for you. In electronic music production especially, nobody really "hires" you to produce music. You spend years honing your craft and, if you work really freakin' hard and are lucky, somebody will notice you, sign you.... and you still likely won't make any money off of it unless you explode into super stardom like Deadmau5, Tiesto, etc.

You're also not likely to find a public school that has anything like EDM production, so it'll be a private school... and that shit will be expensive.

Save your money and teach music production to yourself via YouTube and practice, practice, practice. Seriously, YouTube is a goldmine for music production knowledge. There's also a great subreddit, /r/edmproduction.

There are some programs that might be worth it, though. I've got a friend taking the 6-8 month (I can't remember exactly) Dubspot program for Logic, and his reports to me say that it's worth every penny... but only if you put more into it than just showing up to class and doing the assignments. There are also schools like SAE that do 6-8 week courses in different topics of music production. A friend of mine did their Intro EDM Production one (I don't remember the exact name), and it was totally worth it. What they have to teach you is nothing that can't be learned off of YouTube, but some people really benefit from having a structured learning environment like that to get them started... especially for things like music production that have such a steep learning curve. It's also much, much more affordable than a "degree" from a college. Pricey (around $2K, maybe?), but still way more doable.

Obviously the Dubspot and SAE stuff aren't available to you for the in-person classes unless you're willing to move from your hometown, but they also have online stuff that may be worth it. In the end, do a lot of research before spending your money.

EDIT: Also, check this book out: the Dance Music Manual. The specific technologies they mention are a bit outdated, but the techniques described are just as spot on now as they were 15 years ago. It's also not specific to any tool, technology, or digital audio workstation, which makes it ridiculously useful to you whichever route you end up taking software/hardware wise.

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!

1. Buy a DAW -- I like Ableton Live
   
   
2. Learn Your DAW with no specific music preference in mind. -- Check out www.linda.com for a great starter course on ableton.
   
   
3. You like electro house, so buy this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240521072/ref=oh_o01_s00_i00_details -- This is a great introduction to electro house music. It goes great with Ableton and will teach you how to create your own synths, and understand all the tools all proper DAWs come with (compressor, EQ, synths, programming your own synths, composition, etc etc). Will make you a lot less afraid of Ableton.
   
   
4. Move into more specific tutorials on sites like www.sonicacademy.com
   
   
5. Scour youtube for tutorials for your favorite sounds
   
   
6. Buy VSTs you like (I would die without Massive)
   
   
7. ???
   
   
8. Profit.
   
   
   Also, make sure to inject your own playing around in your DAW between every step. Your biggest hurdle will be becoming comfortable with the software you choose because they are HUGE.
   
   
   ps; If you pirate something, please buy it before you release a song. Don't be a leech.

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.

If you're new to guitar, don't worry about a 'routine'. Buy a classical guitar songbook, or better yet, a classical guitar lesson book. A really good one is by Noad, and has good classical pieces to learn: http://www.amazon.com/Solo-Guitar-Playing-Frederick-Noad/dp/0825636795/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317996077&sr=8-1

Rather than focus on scales (which are very uninteresting), try working through a book, or pick a few classical guitar pieces to work on. I think this is the best way to hone your chops, but also keep your interest. You want to be motivated to practice, and scales just don't do that for me.

Classical guitar, if you work at it enough, will naturally build your finger dexterity. In contrast to scales/fingerboard exercises, you are able to see improvement in very definable ways--that is, from one piece to the next. That's where the excitement and drive to play comes from for me.

Good luck!

If you want to go about it like the old masters, study counterpoint, which is basically the art of combining multiple melodies together to form harmony. Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven studied Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum for their basic training, but I would recommend a more updated method. I always tell people to get Salzer/Schachter's Counterpoint in Composition, which essentially modernizes species counterpoint, focusing on just major and minor modes (which is probably what you'll want to start with).

It might be good to pick up a copy of Kostka's Tonal Harmony to have around as a supplement. If you start from harmony, rather than counterpoint, your music is always going to be a little directionless and meandering.

The idea of being a "classical" composer today is a bit weird, in and of itself. From a historical perspective, we usually think of the Western European classical period being from 1750 to about 1825 or so. Clearly we are not living in that era now. This sub-reddit tends to lump in all Western "art music" (maybe roughly equivalent to notated polyphonic music) under the appellation "classical" as well, spanning from Perotin and Leonin writing some of the first polyphony at the Notre Dame cathedral in the 13th century to Kaija Saariaho's recent premiere in LA.

Western "art music" composers today, or composers of notated music indebted to the Western classical tradition, come in a huge variety of stylistic flavors, and they live in a huge variety of cultural ecosystems.

On one hand, you have composers in (and following) the German (Marxist) avant-garde, railing against the commodified nostalgia for Romanticism, completely breaking with tradition by abandoning everything, even pitch. On the other hand, you have an endless spiral of nostalgia plunderers, skillfully (even masterfully) dressing up the disinterred corpses of nineteenth century orchestral cliches as puppets to tell pastiche Hollywood tales. Is there a middle way between these extremes that is not totally bland? I hope so.

Almost. There are other differences between "classical" nylon string guitars and steel string. Neck width (I mentioned space between the strings, which it's related to) is one, for sure.

Another "family" difference is modern steel strings tend to have the neck intersect the body at the 14th fret. Classical guitar necks join the body at the 12th fret. This matters somewhat if you sit and play "classical style" with the guitar balanced across your left leg (if you're playing typically right handed), neck inclined at more than 45 degrees, with the headstock level with your chin. See here for examples A steel string neck will be a bit longer than the classical neck, and the guitar will balance differently. Not a huge deal (I play my steel string in a classical position), but another difference.

Here's a huge difference - the sound. The steel string guitar was engineered with steel strings in mind. The tension exerted by steel strings on the bridge is about twice that of nylon strings. The bracing, thickness of the sound board, etc., are all designed with that in mind. Lower tension nylon strings just won't drive as much sound out of your guitar as they would a classical guitar (with much lighter bracing and thinner top). Also, you'll run into a technical problem with where/how to tie off nylon strings on your bridge. Unlike steel strings that terminate in a little round thingy that is trapped under the bridge pin, nylon strings just... end. On a classical bridge they're looped around and tied off in a fancy knot.

So my original advice stands, I think. Play your guitar just as it is. If you really like playing the classical pieces, consider getting a used classical guitar.

Now, as far as your complaint re: damping strings near the top of the neck. I hate to say this but that's your technique, not the guitar itself. Yeah, it's a bit easier to not interfere with strings on a wider classical neck, but there are plenty of steel string players that need to play clean chords without any thumping or buzzing. One thing classical lessons are good for is learning efficient techniques with left and right hands - practicing from the get-go on getting your left hand fingers pressing down vertically on the strings with the tips of the fingers, not slanting the fingers, keeping the thumb low behind the back of the neck, the curve of the hand, keeping it all relaxed and ergonomically sound... There really is a reason the "classical posture" evolved to what it is - it's about as ergonomically neutral (i.e., not holding lots of unnecessary strain or twisting) as you can get playing a guitar.

I started learning on a steel string guitar, too, using Noad's Solo Guitar Playing. I played on a steel string for a couple of years in high school before getting my first classical guitar, so it's possible!

Edit: fixed link.

FL Studio is a great start in my opinion. If you've already put 10 hours in, and are making some cool sounds that you feel good about, you've already overcome one of the largest obstacles!

One way to take it to the next level is to try to re-create a song you like, or part of it, in FL Studio. Take for example this section of your first link. You could roughly recreate that in FL Studio without too much pain. Just don't give up until you get the sound you're looking for. Maybe start with the drum parts, figure out the 1,2,3,4's of it, and try to put that into a loop in FL. Then bust out the synthesizer for the saws on top of the drums. You said you don't have much synth experience, so layering some saws over your drums and tweaking things until it sounds correct would be a great exercise.

For MIDI gear, a small keyboard would be great for experimenting and learning. Maybe get one with some pads and knobs that you can map to your sweet FL saws that you were layering? I'd say skip the drum machine for now, you can do all of that sequencing in FL and 1000x better IMO. However drum pads are nice, where you can bang out patterns and fills using your hands. You could try something like the MPK25 USB controller which has keys, pads, and knobs all in one.

The main thing is to really sit down and learn. You've already got good software and the passion, that's all you need. A small midi keyboard or controller might help you get started, but don't get lost in different devices, plugins, etc. as they will just slow down your learning as they provide instant gratification while you miss out on learning the fundamentals. Books can be helpful as well, I'd recommend the Dance Music Manual. Don't lose your passion, practice or study every day. Read and watch videos! Ask questions!

Alright. Well, whenever you're ready, just PM me, and I'll get you my cell number and Skype info. This theory text has made the most sense to me — http://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Introduction-Twentieth-Century/dp/0073401358/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1450929787&sr=8-2&keywords=tonal+harmony. It'll get you through all of the basics and some of the advanced stuff as well!


As far as jumping into playing stuff like CHON, depending on your technical ability, it's not that big of a leap. But understanding what's happening theoretically is the tricky part. Most people don't understand what's happening in the music that they play. What many of those people don't realize is that having a sound understanding of the theory can help articulate the music that they make more efficiently.


Do you understand how to construct chords and determine the quality of chords? If not, I would recommend checking out /r/musictheory for now. The sidebar has some great resources for a basic understanding of chords / harmony. I would check that out; play through the major scale w/ triad chords and identify the chord qualities (Major, minor, diminished etc); then, do the same thing and identify all of the seventh chords and their qualities. That'll get you off to a good start!

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.

I'm guessing since you are learning all this theory and stuff that you want to be a good musician. Any good musician will want to possess the skill of reading music. I know us guitarists generally don't want to read, but it REALLY comes in handy when you want to communicate between other musicians (especially non-guitarists). I recommend this book for reading. Not only does it teach you to read, but it introduces concepts of music theory as you go. I'm currently on Vol. 2 and it's rough, but I can tell you right now that I know SO much more since starting this book than if I hadn't and just kept trying to do things by ear.

As for classes and sequences, it's a lot of theory, ear training, sight-singing, and melodic/harmonic dictations. I know sight-singing seems kind of trivial or even inapplicable, but it is honestly one of, if not the best things to be good at musically. To be able to sight sing well means that you can internalize notes in your head (relatively); i.e. you can hear in your head what's supposed to be playing. For that I would say that this book would be the best, it's the one that I'm using and will continue to use for some time. For theory I would recommend the guitar book (I was never assigned an actual textbook in my theory courses). For ear training I would recommend this site. And the dictations will come once you've gained some mastery in the previous skills.

Sorry for the long post, I kind of got ahead of myself there. But one last thing - if you just keep drilling the theory and reading, even when it gets hard, you'll progress. There were times when I just looked at a piece of music that I had to have down by the following week and thought to myself, "there's no way in hell I'm going to be able to play this." But some determination and time will get you there.

> 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.

You say you play an instrument so I'll work under the assumption you have a basic understanding of chords/chord professions.

There are many different types of "jazz" music and ensembles- big band, Dixieland, Latin fusion, etc. but based on your question I'm guessing you're asking more about small combo-improv-heavy Jazz.

The basic idea is that you have a chord progression and typically a melody is played once or twice, then followed by improv solos. These solos work within and around that same chord progression.

A good way to get started is to pick a song you like, find the chord progression, and start practicing the notes on repeat. Don't try to play in tempo, just go through each chord and play the scale. Then start over and do the same thing but do scale in thirds instead. Then do arpeggios. Then start to embellish a little. Another great learning technique is to listen to pros solo on a song you like, then try to mimic their licks.

If you're looking for a good place to find chord progressions for pretty much every jazz standard, get yourself a [Real Book](The Real Book: Sixth Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0634060384/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_sI1oxbFVNBDBW)

Fair warning: improv has a VERY long learning curve. You'll probably suck at first. That's okay.

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.

Root For The Villain: Rap, Bull$hit, and a Celebration of Failure by J-Zone (who, if you're familiar with his music, is equally funny in his book)

Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor (it's a graphic novel focusing on the early days of hip hop done in the style of 90s Image comics)

How to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC by Paul Edwards (this is full of interviews with some of the greatest of all time discussing every single aspect of rapping)

The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop by Dan Charnas (haven't read this one yet, but I've heard great things about it.)

Also, if you're interested in books on specific albums, the 33 1/3 series has quite a few: Illmatic, Paul's Boutique, Donuts, People's Instinctive Travels And the Paths of Rhythm, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. If you're a Nas fan you may enjoy Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas's Illmatic, which is a more scholarly approach to Illmatic

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.

Rapper here: yes, for many reasons.

• The lyrics will often follow the mood of the instrumental (or directly contrast it). Dark beat? Brooding subject matter. Does the beat sample the Beach Boys? You'll probably rap about a day on the beach.
  
• BPM. Beats Per Minute is very important to your flow - take a rap song at 78 BPM and try to rap it along to a track that's 90. Some of your more intricate flows might not translate very well. Naughty By Nature's rap style wouldn't go well over a slow beat, and likewise Gucci Mane probably wouldn't do well over a sped-up boom bap production.
  
• You're not just "reading" poetry. You're creating rap, literally "rhythm and poetry." It's a performance, much like singing, and you need to be able to follow the instrumental and work with it, build off it, or choose not to (but have it work in the song). That'll only happen to its fullest potential if you write something to a certain beat (though, like I said, BPM is the most important to begin with).
  
  If you're literally just beginning to start out with rap, don't worry about finding original beats just yet. Grab some of your favorite instrumentals, write to them and record them into Garageband. See how you sound, and work on what you don't like. Practice, practice, practice. It'll take years to begin to get comfortable with your own voice in hip hop, but if it's something you love, you'll find it.
  
  edit: I also recommend reading "How to Rap", you can get a cheap copy there. It's the perfect book to explain the basics.

Lessons are always a good thing, so definitely do that. You can always go bargain hunting for an 88-key weighted keyboard and get something cheap and used for the time being, then really invest in a nice keyboard/piano once you're further along. Check out the sidebar for more info.

It sounds like you're fairly interested in learning pop tunes, so getting some basic knowledge of theory will be very handy for reading and understanding charts. You can do all sorts of research into music theory on your own online or you can pick up a formal textbook to really dig in. Here's the book I used to learn theory for example. There are music theory subreddits too where you can ask any questions that may pop up for you.

Piano, like any instrument, is what you make of it. If you give yourself some clear goals, you can then carve yourself a path. Having at least a general idea of how good you want to be and which types of music you want to play will help you select an appropriate teacher for the job as well. If you're unsure of your own interest, talk to more musicians, watch videos online, and keep plucking away until something clicks.

What isnoreyoudrive and landonllama have said is correct. For now you've got to take those charts home and woodshed the crap out of them. Reading music on guitar can be super frustrating at first but it's better that you learn to do it now rather than later.

I recommend you get a copy of a book called Melodic Rhythms for Guitar by Wm. Leavitt. and start practicing from it daily. It's going to sound obvious but the only way you improve is to practice daily for a period of at least a few months, but realistically for the next couple of years to get it solidified. Even as little as 15 minutes daily will go a long way towards that goal of being able to read fluently. Also, when learning the rhythm groups and studies in the Leavitt book (or any other music you're learning) it's super important to count the rhythms. Do this as slowly as you have to - it doesn't even need to be in time at this point - just plug away while audibly saying the rhythms, such as "one and two, three and four" for two 8th notes, a quarter note, two more 8th notes, a quarter note, etc. If this is confusing talk to your band director or a good reader in your jazz band to help you with it.

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volume/dp/0876390130 I really recommend looking at this series of books here. It will teach you fundamentals in scales and harmony (not just the standard chord shapes, but harmonic voice leading), as well as get you used to reading music, and thus fully understanding what it is that you are doing on the guitar. If you can get through the first volume at all, it will have you set for jamming with just about anyone if you're playing rhythm, the other volumes will just simply get you to be a better player.

EDIT: If you're going to pick up this book, I recommend getting the berklee jazz song book to compliment it so that you have some real songs to apply what you've learned. You don't have to tackle the songs right away, but once you feel comfortable it is a definite plus.

Practice everything at all different speeds on the metronome

Get your hands on some improvisation books. Doesn't necessarily mean they all have to be just guitar books...jazz theory books will come in handy for any musician. Get your hands on a Real Book Listen to great performers - I'll suggest Pat Metheny, John Scofield, and Herb Ellis for starters. Become really familiar with their music and the way they improvise... when you hear little bits and pieces of things they do and you like them, write them out - transcribe. Hearing and practicing these will enable you to incorporate them into your improvisation, and the more you study and 'shed your heart out, the more you will pick up on how great improvisors do their thing.

Also, practice all your scales... slowly. When you are transcribing, you'll be surprised how much easier it is when you have a good understanding of every type of scale and how they are used (theory books will explain).

Hope this helps. Cheers.

If you're trying to work towards a particular genre or styling of music I'd highly suggest hitting the books a bit. Experimenting in FL Studio will get you far, but after a certain point I found it helpful to read more about music theory and structure as it applies to the type of music you want to produce.

For example, recently I was struggling with a house remix I've been working on - because I don't usually make dance music. At someone else's recommendation I picked up this book and I've already learned so much that has helped me improve my music.

I'll also agree with another poster that picking a particular song (it helps if the song is in a genre you want to compose in, so you'll be able to keep your interest) and trying to recreate it is a great learning tool, but reading about how different types of music are typically constructed is also helpful.

This 1999 review of Mark Lewisohn's excellent Beatles studio diary book where many of The Beatles recording engineers and tape operators and their producer George Martin are interviewed (and it shows how truly innovative,brilliant and creative especially John and Paul were in the recording studio),The Beatles Recording Sessions titled, Behind The Creative Genius Of A Groundbreaking Band by a musician himself says it all, he says that as a musician he found Mark Lewisohn's portrayal of The Beatles genius and in parenthesis he says, especially that of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, to be completely thorough and accurate, as well as insightful. He then says if you are to buy any one Beatles book,buy this one.












https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3EHW182TIHFQ2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1454910054







And this reviewer RAS who became a big Beatles fan after he read The Beatles Recording Sessions book,said,I think The Beatles ARE BRILLIANT and he said he despairs what his life would be like without The Beatles!! He said that when he first saw this book,he said Oh another garbage Beatles book.





http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Beatles-Recording-Sessions/product-reviews/1454910054/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_paging_btm_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=helpful&pageNumber=2








Here is a very recent great review by another musician Steve,






https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3R5JDL0D5RMYP/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0600635619







Here is another great recent review by a huge Beatles fan and a musician,





https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3R5JDL0D5RMYP/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1454910054







Here is a more recent great review by a huge Beatles fan and musician,





https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3R5JDL0D5RMYP/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1454910054







The great book music diary,The Beatles Recording Sessions book by Mark Lewisohn originally came out in 1988 but it was re-released in September 2018 and it's already # 1 in Music Reference on Amazon.com

Well it sounds like it's time for you to learn a new skill: accompaniment. Just because the melody is written out for you doesn't mean that you have to play it.

Start by playing bass notes in your left hand and two or three note chords in your right hand. Find a fakebook (or some online leadsheets) and figure out how to play from chords. You need to start moving away from printed sheet music and towards understanding how chords and accompaniment work.

If you find a specific song you would like to work on, feel free to post it and I would happy to talk you through how to approach accompaniment.

I'd probably suggest this one, or maybe this one

In terms of walking bass, the only to get better at it is unfortunately just to keep working at it. Start on a not-too-complicated tune such as Satin Doll, or something else with lots of II-V-I progressions in it, or a 12-bar blues, and work up to more complicated charts.

Here's a "quick and dirty" method to work out some walking bass lines. It's a bit simplistic perhaps, but it will at least get you started, and it does work. Assuming a 4/4 time sig:

ON BARS WHERE THERE ARE TWO CHORDS PER BAR:

Beats 1 & 3: On the beats where the chords fall (1 & 3) play the root (at least at first).
Beats 2 & 4: On the other beats (2 & 4) play an approach note that gets you to the root of the next chord, so a note either a half-step or whole step above the note you want to get to. Use your ear to judge which is best. So if the chord on beat 3 is G7, on beat 2 you could play either A, Ab, F# or F.

ON BARS WHERE THERE IS ONLY ONE CHORD PER BAR:

Beat 1: Play the root (again, at first)
Beat 4: Play an approach note as above, so either a half or whole step above or below, whichever sounds best.
Beats 2 & 3: You have a few options:

a. outline the chord notes. For example root, 3, 5 then, or root, 3, 5 then to your approach note.

b. move by step (don't be afraid of chromatic notes, you'd be surprised how often they work). So going from Dmi7 to G7 you could move up be step playing D, E, F, F#.

c. Try going from the root on the first beat up or down to the 5th on the second beat, then keep going in the same direction to the root an octave above or below on the third, before hitting your approach notes.

d. Do something else entirely.

So a sample bassline for the first 8 bars of Satin Doll might look something like this. Note that in the last bar it moves completely by step while in the three bars before that it uses that root-fifth-root pattern. Obviously that's just one way to do it. When you're new to walking bass and learning a tune don't try and go right through straight away. Get from bar 1 to bar 2, then from 1 to 4, and so on. Build it up in stages, and try different ways to get there. If you can figure out how to get up by step to the next chord, then try moving down by step the next time.

Now, before anyone tells me that I am the awful spawn of satan and I have killed Jazz by explaining things this way and thus downvoting me to the diminished 7th circle of Hell, I know it's a very simple way of explaining it, I also know that walking bass can be a wonderfully nuanced thing with infinite variety. But we've got to start somewhere and the above will work. As with everything, the ear has to be the final judge.

Hi Audio_Byte,

I posted this in the "I cringe at my own lyrics" thread, but it seems like you might benefit from it as well:

I'm actually working on a web app to help people with this very problem: Rhymecraft. It isn't ready yet but in the meantime my #1 tip for you is to read How to Rap Volume 1 and Volume 2. If you want me to email you when my app is done, send me a private message with your email address or just let me know you want me to send you a PM on Reddit.

What I've learned from studying lyrics is that usually there isn't one thing that makes lyrics good or bad; it's a collection of lots of different things, and your job as a lyricist is to understand what all of those factors are and make sure they're all working in your favor. Reading "How to Rap" will give you a good intro to what some of those factors are.

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

Music exists to be made and that's all there is to it.

You missed 2-8 years of constant exposure, performance opportunities and lots of cool classes, but if music is something you love just do it as much as you can. Ear training, sight singing, transcription, these are very important tools but it takes the repeated application of them to make you "better." I have a BM, it was 4.5 years of immersion. I can tell you that most of the things I "learned" I could point out to you in a few minutes each. Lots of little tricks and tips, neat combinations and things like that. Figuring out how to really apply them is what's so difficult.

If you want a good introduction to harmony and tonality, Tonal Harmony is very thorough.

Make what you want. Fuck everybody who says you can't.
Edit: phrasing

I highly recommend doing some keyboard practice by transposing! I'm currently going through this https://www.amazon.com/Progressive-Sight-Reading-Exercises-Technique/dp/0793552621

There are 500ish examples that are quite easy I spend about 10 minutes on it everyday and I transpose the exercise i'm reading into all keys going up semitones. This forces you to read and feel hand positions and read in intervals rather than notes as you're transposing. Instead of thinking G > C> D in the original key of C you think I'm playing a perfect 4th and a major second after that and then you play it in every key from sight. I think it would be of much benefit to get into this kind of thing early.

Several years ago, I was in your same position. I finished my classical training and wanted to learn to play exactly this same kind of music I had been hearing in my head for years. Sadly enough, it's not as easy as it sounds...

You already have a basic understanding of music. This is really the basics. When you are going to play jazz, you need to know a lot more: chords, scales, chord progressions, chord substitutions, fillers, rhythm (and playing out of rhythm while having an inner rhythm), ear training, ...

You can't learn that from sheet music or even books about jazz. Find a teacher! He will most likely talk about The Real Book that is filled with this kind of music. You will first learn to play exactly what's on the sheet, but then the important stuff starts, knowing how to change the sheet so that it becomes your own jazz piece with improvisation and things like that. It will take years to get there, believe me. But it's absolutely worth it.

Good luck with it! Don't waste your time (cos that's what you will do) and find a teacher!

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!

Learn harmony. Study all you can about it.
Don't just learn the chord shapes. Understand them.
Once you get a sold harmony base, start soloing THINKING about the chord tones. Always be conscient about EACH note you are playing.


For example. You have a classic Dm7-G7-CMaj7 thing going. When playing over the Dm7 chord be conscient about the role of each note and how the roles changes when the chord changes.
Start with just the chord tones and try to connect them in such a way that your phrases make sense. Then add some more notes.
Also play with linking the notes with some chromatic ideas.


Harmony, harmony, harmony.

Get this book, it's really really helpful http://www.amazon.com/Jazzology-Encyclopedia-Jazz-Theory-Musicians/dp/0634086782

If you're serious about fingerstyle playing, enough to spend some money, I recommend picking up Solo Guitar Playing Vol. 1 by Noad. I haven't come across a more comprehensive analysis of technique, down to hand placement and individual movement of the fingers. I picked the book up after 8 years of playing and was learning fundamental techniques described within the first few pages. It's also a great introduction into reading sheet music, not quite as fast paced as Modern Method for Guitar, the other commonly recommended book.

I second the JustinGuitar recommendations. His Practical Music Theory and Chord Construction Guide eBooks are great introductions to music theory.

I recommend Noad. There are two volumes. This is a classical guitar book, but covers almost everything.

You'll also need a dedicated fingerstyle blues/folk book. These tend to be more fast and loose, and hence they can be light on actual instruction. Best is probably the Tommy Emmanuel technique book.

I also really like Pumping Nylon by Scott Tenant.

The all-time best right-hand exercises are by Mauro Giuliani and Fernando Sor. Some of these are included in PN.

There are some great books about writing melodies, but I would recommend starting to study counterpoint. Grab Fux's book and start there. Not only does he give great guidelines for learning to write counterpoint, but in the process, you start learning what makes up good melodies. From there, I would start looking at the Salzer book and applying those principles.

"Harmony" comes from counterpoint... Remember - Music theorists didn't start writing about functional harmony until the 19th century.

I don't know how much reddit cares about jazz, really, but no movie could ever compare to "Miles: The Autobiography". If you are interested in jazz, this is one of the most entertaining and informative books you will ever read. Miles was square at the center of most of the major stylistic movements in jazz, and he has incredible stories to tell about not only himself but also some of the most famous jazz musicians ever. I read this book from cover to cover at least once a year, simply because it is a total page-turner.

Miles's speech is like poetry - completely profane, totally real, absolutely raw. I learned what a versatile word "motherfucker" is from reading this book.

Don Cheadle is an amazing actor, but man. This movie cannot possibly measure up to the visceral thrills of this book.

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.

This coloring book is certainly unique!

I love subtle humor in comic books. Not slap-stick, falling down stairs/hitting each other/blah blah blah - I like when the characters are obviously comfortable with each other, and they pick at each other in a teasing way. I like jokes that you might miss if you're not paying attention - it draws me into the story more.

Thanks for the contest!

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.

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.

I started DJing first then have recently been doing some production. Here's my recommendation in priority order:

1. Get decent headphones. Spend most of your budget on this.
   
   
2. Don't buy tutorials or sample packs. There is more free stuff out there than he will ever possibly need. If you're going to spend money on learning material, buy the Dance Music Manual (2nd Edition). http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Second-Techniques/dp/0240521072 It teaches you all of the foundations of EDM Production.
   
   
3. Pirate Ableton as you said. I use Reason but that's just because it's what I learned. Many many people use Ableton so there are more modern tutorials out there for it (in my experience) and there are a wealth of VSTs. If I had to start again I'd start with Ableton.
   
   
4. For DJ gear, stick with what he has and get some CDJs and a cheap 2 channel mixer when you have more money.
   
   Finally just a word of advice: stick with it, take your time and believe in yourself. Try to resist copying whatever is the most popular and make what you like the sound of. Find your sound and your DJing style. :)

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

The progressions

I IV vii° iii vi ii V I

and

i iv VII III VI ii° V I

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

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

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

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

> How do you practice sight-reading?

Get a book like this and make your way through it slowly.

> Read it through, play it, and never sight-read it again?

Pretty much, yeah... playing through it too many times means you start to memorize what it should sound like.

> Is it okay to bring down the tempo than from the marking?

Absolutely

> What if I'm just making too many errors?

The goal is to choose something easy enough and play it slow enough that if you make an error you can continue playing the rest of it. Error recovery is it's own skill, and you need SUPER easy pieces to start out with. The book I linked to starts off very very simple.

I think this is what's meant:

https://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Fake-Books-Leonard/dp/0634060384

It's a book full of literally hundreds of 'standards' and songs for around ~20 dollars. I am also starting to learn some jazz, and it's one of the most helpful things I've found. What I like to do is find versions of the songs on YouTube, and listen to how the bass player fits in their line with the other parts, and try to play along -- even if it's just the root notes from the chord diagrams!

The history of the book is fascinating, too - Adam Neely has an interesting vid on YouTube.

Have fun!

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.

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.

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

There is no one size fits all bible of music theory. To be extremely well rounded you need to look at a few different books:

For just starting out in the sense that you don't know how to build chords or intervals, Carl Fischer's grimoire books are excellent.

For classical harmony this is the book I used in my classes:
http://www.amazon.com/Tonal-Harmony-Introduction-Twentieth-Century/dp/0073401358/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1465247193&sr=8-2&keywords=tonal+harmony

For jazz harmony:
http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Theory-Book-Mark-Levine/dp/1883217040/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465247235&sr=8-1&keywords=jazz+theory

For deeper classical/counterpoint:
http://www.amazon.com/Counterpoint-4th-Kent-Kennan/dp/013080746X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1465247274&sr=8-3&keywords=counterpoint


Also, try to get lessons with a university teacher because none of these books are comprehensive or perfect.
I remember in one of my beginning classes we went over the omnibus, and the deepest the book went was "this is an omnibus".
It wouldn't be until college where a professor ACTUALLY explained to me what the omnibus is and how to make one.

Also, the mark levine book can probably be condensed into 20 pages of meaningful material. He uses a lot of filler/examples...

So many people seem to have this idea that they're just going to "learn theory." Like that's it.

Like there will be this AHA I NOW KNOW THE MUSICAL THEORY I CAN NOW WRITE THE MUSIC.

But in all seriousness. Yeah you will learn theory. If music is going to be a life long pursuit you will never STOP learning theory. Unless you're not serious about it. Then you might just learn what I IV V means write some pop songs and stop there. I digress..

First thing. Learn to read music. DO NOT READ TAB. Learn all the notes on the fret board. Not like you can count up to it and realize that something is a C. Like you KNOW IT. Point to it and you know what note it is. Start reading music here.

Another good way to learn the notes on the fretboard is to pick 4 triads of different qualities. One major, one minor, one diminished, and one augmented triad and play them in all inversions in all positions on the neck while saying the note names. And then pick 4 new triads the next day. Do not just learn the shapes. This will probably take you 2 hours on your first day if you're as thorough as you should be.

If you don't know what any of that means that's fine for now. Those are some pretty basic concepts that you'll learn pretty soon if you're serious about this.

This guy knows his shit. Learn from him. Take it slow. Don't just watch the video and go "Yeah that makes sense." You need to KNOW IT. Drill the concepts a few hours a day.

You could buy a music text book.

Or get an actual guitar teacher. I'd recommend learning jazz because unlike a lot of rock or pop players they actual know their shit about theory and their instrument. You kinda have to know your shit to play jazz. Either that or classical. But jazz theory is more in line with modern music.

Segway: Buy a Real Book

Start off in there with Autumn Leaves or something else easy.

If you're really beginner-y start here.

While that guy's course is good it really focuses on technique. You learn basically no theory from that guy. Just shapes and tabs. Doesn't even use standard notation. His jazz course is ok. It's on his side bar.

This guy's stuff is good for a beginner in jazz. But a beginner in jazz is not exactly beginner level for some other genres. I think you need a pretty solid level of understanding to understand what he's talking about.

That should get you started..

[Edit] Some people have this disconnect. They think that learning theory is somehow separate from song writing. Learning theory will open so many doors to you and show you why and how things work. So that you can actually understand what you're doing.

If I wanted to build a house I could just jump in and start building a house. I'd probably come across a lot of problems. My first house might suck and have a leaky roof or bad plumbing or something. But I could probably learn a long the way. Maybe after I build a ton of crappy houses I could figure out for myself why things work.

Or.. I could look through the writings of the millions of house builders that came before me and see what they found out works and what doesn't. Then maybe my first house will have some issues and it might not be so easy to pull off but I'd be better off learning from the people who came before me than trying to figure it out myself. By doing this I have just saved myself the time of trying to rediscover the wheel so to speak.

That's what learning theory will do for you.

Silk and steel strings may help you achieve your technical goals. You don't need a nylon string guitar to learn the method. The most significant gain of going that route is the generally larger string spacing.

If you do go for a classical guitar, a pro setup on the least expensive solid top guitar you can find, with some really good strings should hold you over for a long while. Just make sure it has an adjustable truss rod. Upgrading to a bone saddle/nut will improve the tone of the best or worst guitars for a very low price.

This book: Solo Guitar Playing - Book 1, 4th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0825636795/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6XrmDbNG3FF0H

Probably the most commonly(successfully) taught/learned classical method book ever to have existed and is geared towards a total beginner.

Rock on dude. \m/

The GuitarCardio tip is golden. It's really good at getting you away from a plateau because of the random nature of the exercises. So, I'd definitely recommend that. It'll give you a really wild variety of things to do.

Other people mentioned a lot of great videos/books, too, but the one that helped me a lot (not a natural musician by far), is Melodic Rhythms for Guitar:

http://www.amazon.com/Melodic-Rhythms-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013327/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375977326&sr=8-1&keywords=MELODIC+RHYTHMS+FOR+GUITAR

It's useful both for learning to read music and getting used to offbeat timing, both of which I had problems with. Doing exercises from it to a metronome is great.

I would suggest you print out blank sheet music and put dots all over it don't worry at all about what it's going to sound like in fact the worse it sounds the better. Don't worry about rhythms at this point. Now play the "wild notes" that you made over and over again everyday, when your comfortable with it, play it backwards make sure to use all the different keys and all of the neck positions this will familiarize you with all of the notes on your fretboard. The next step is to buy this book. It will teach you any rhythm that you will need to play, use a metronome to practice. You can work on your jazz band piece while you do this reading a piece is like anything, it's mostly about practice.

My suggestion is to focus on the backing track stuff first. Know the backing tracks forwards and backwards, pick a particular idea and stick with it to nail it down. If you want to improve your musicianship chops, write out the part you are going to play. Like on staff paper and everything.

I am not the best person to give advice on improv, because I have always sucked at it. If anyone has any tips for how you can learn to improv effectively in 5 weeks, I'll be quite interested in their advice as well. Though one thing I have learned about improv is that nothing is truly improvised. Building a library of licks and stringing them together on the spot isn't the same as pulling notes out of thin air. Even the most impressive improv musicians have a basic idea in their head before they start.

To practice sight reading, get a Real Book and run through it. Sight read the melody lines, and then build bass lines from scratch over the chords. Learn the style and tempo terminology. Understanding the directions at the top of the page is as big a part of sight reading as the notes themselves.

Aim to be completely prepared one week before the actual audition. Then spend that last week running through it all again. And again. And again. You want to let muscle memory kick in when the nerves start fighting you in the audition chair.

My favorite musical aphorism: "Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can't get it wrong."

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.

Read this or anything else you can get your hands on that explains the creative process some professional rappers use to write lyrics. It would probably be especially helpful for you to find interviews of your favorite artists where they discuss their inspirations.

Also, you don't have to write with a beat in mind or while listening to an instrumental. The lyrics can come first and then you'll find or make a beat that fits them.

Lastly, don't let your dreams be dreams. Stay focused and work hard for what you want and don't let anyone discourage you with their negativity. At the same time, don't let compliments get to your head and tell you you're the greatest and then get complacent with your work. Always be your own worst critic.

Lastly lastly... Enjoy yourself! If you're not enjoying it, it'll show in your lyrics and delivery and then nobody else will enjoy it either

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.

David Oakes' book on Sight Reading for Guitar is a decent one for learning how to sight-read if you're a beginner:

https://www.amazon.com/Music-Reading-Guitar-Complete-Method/dp/0793581885/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466625720&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=David+Oates+sight+reading

If you get through that one, try out William Leavitt's Melodic Rhythms for Guitar. This one is really solid:

https://www.amazon.com/Melodic-Rhythms-Guitar-William-Leavitt/dp/0634013327/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466625895&sr=1-5&keywords=William+Leavitt

I've not looked through this one, but if you're interested in combining classical guitar and sight reading, it might be worth a shot:

https://www.amazon.com/Sight-Reading-Classical-Guitar-Level/dp/0769209742/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_cp_15?ie=UTF8&dpID=514XaC6KshL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_SL500_SR103%2C135_&psc=1&refRID=0E43T3ND9D1TG4KDPZVE

Good luck!

Many years ago I had to "teach" (clients or young engineers) on occasion.

The best "basic" tool I had was a photo of an orchestra, with the louder instruments "in the back," and the quieter ones "up front."

Sinatra was photographed a lot in the studio, and many of these photos illustrated variations on microphone placement, gobos (acoustic isolation panels), etc.

Another really important tool was found in early Motown (or similar) recordings where instruments had to often perform "double duty" due to the limitation in number of tracks. Session musicians, like Tommy Tedesco, would often play "secondary parts," or provide subtle noise effects, in addition to performing their primary parts. Often, these additions were not written on the score or chart. Following a specific instrument, such as a guitar, can be a real eye opener. These instruments were often panned hard left or hard right, and were easy to follow.

I think getting kids to overdub, and literally "sing with themselves," would provide the biggest "wow factor" that kids could relate to. I would be easy to recreate that "kids chorus" from Another Brick In The Wall (Pink Floyd), and the kids would have a blast.

Isolated vocals, like this or this.

Books, such as Good Vibrations or the Beatles Complete Recording Sessions are often more inspiring than the "how to recipe" books. I think kids could probably relate to the idea of the Beach Boys recording in an empty swimming pool.

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!

I just got Mikes Downes' Jazz bassline book and it's amazing! It has tons of transcriptions and lots of very clearly laid out ideas to learn from. http://www.amazon.com/The-Jazz-Bass-Line-Book/dp/395481000X

Also I'd suggest listening to a lot of jazz and playing along with tunes you like. If you want a book of jazz standards I'd suggest something like The Bass Clef Real Book which has hundreds of lead sheets to lots of often played tunes.
http://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Bass-Clef-Sixth/dp/0634060767/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453667062&sr=1-1&keywords=bass+clef+real+book

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.

This is a really interesting story. I had heard about it but really got it when I read: http://www.amazon.com/Hip-Hop-Family-Tree-Book/dp/1606996908
If you like going deep into the start of hiphop, I really recommend that comic. It's great.

To be quite honest, that's what makes it so appealing to me.

The fact that he tells "a pretty generic hood story" as you put it but manages to make it sound so god damn smooth.

Imagine any other artist, writing this song without the rewind concept. It would be the most boring-ass, generic rap song. Nas turned that into a classic.

This song was even talked about in How to Rap: The Art and Science of the Hip-Hop MC. It's a pretty interesting read btw, I recommend it to anyone on /r/hiphopheads/

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

There are a ton of fake books out there, I would suggest buying one called The Real Book Sixth Edition. It's the most popular one to my knowledge and is a great resource. I'd say its a little better for developing harmony than it is melody (since most melody that actually gets played in jazz is soloing), but it's a great tool for familiarizing yourself with jazz standards as well as seeing what kind of chords appear in jazz and how they function

hey man
first thing is, practice. Start small and build up. use single syllable rhymes and try to get a feel for what a "bar is". then from there get more complex.

 


Start with a simple flow and rhyme scheme

 


just walked in the crib 1

look at my Asian chick 2

she hella thick, do a split, 3

she don't take no shit" 4

 


this is a simple rhyme scheme with all single syllable rhymes. You will notice. the rhyme does not always end on the end of the line. If we were to continue this. my rule is to change the flow every four bars but I tend to change it up a lot more than other people. My first indication would be to change the flow right after

 


I ain't seen her in a min-ute 1

I miss her...this love 2

really ain't a gimmick 3

..I fall to pieces when i'm in-it* 4

 


This is an example where the rhyme scheme becomes more complex and the rhymes can increase to more than one syllable.
There are plenty of resources online about how to rap. there's even a book! [How to Rap!] (https://www.amazon.com/How-Rap-Art-Science-Hip-Hop/dp/1556528167/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480085264&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+rap)
Best of luck to you little homie. holler if you got any questions

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.

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.

BTW - sight reading is when you attempt to play a piece of sheet music you have never seen before. Thats different from learning to play a piece and reading through it several times.

I had played guitar for a while before taking high school concert band. While I didn't like playing the french horn, the class was rewarding enough that I stuck with it for 3 years. I learned music theory and how to read music notation, and I can't stress useful it is. However, it is a slow, frustrating process.

My suggestion is to buy a beginner theory book, and then something like Jazzology. A teacher would probably be a huge help. You won't believe how fast you improve with a teacher.

The word you're probably looking for is "accompaniment". However, you probably don't want to search using this term.

Any popular music that is published is usually arranged for "Piano/Vocal/Guitar", and I don't really know of a standard term for this type of sheet music. For what this looks like, check out any of the popular sheets on http://musicnotes.com. These are arranged so that you can play the song as a piano solo if you want, but if you want to just accompany someone else or play in a band, you would just look at the guitar chords placed above each line of music (e.g. "G", "Cm7", "D", "Bsus4").

The other type of notated music used for accompaniment is called a "lead sheet". This has only the solo line (the tune/melody of the song) and the chords. So it's basically just the top half of what you see in a "piano/vocal/guitar" arrangement.

The other term you'll see is "Fake Book". A Fake book is just a book containing a large number of lead sheets. If you're playing jazz, the most popular book of lead sheets for jazz standards is called "The Real Book".

Finally, on many "guitar tab" sites, you can find just the chords for songs (although there are often lots of errors). Look for versions that say "chords" instead of "tabs". Here's an example

No matter what type of sheet music you're looking at, if you're playing with others, you'll need to learn to play by reading chord symbols instead of notes on a staff. When searching for music, you'd want to include one of these terms: "chords", "tabs", "sheets", "lead sheet", "fake book", "piano". Don't worry too much exactly what type of sheet music you get, even if it's for solo piano; as long as there are chord symbols on it, that's all you need.

Here is a list of links for you to get started:

• /r/musicnotes - please see all of the links in the right-hand sidebar, which contain many sheet music resources.
  
  
• Ultimate Guitar - guitar tabs & chords for almost any song
  
  
• The Ultimate Fake Book - 1200 songs (all genres, up to the '90s)
  
  
• The Real Book - 6th edition - Amazon (Jazz standards)
  
  
• http://www.wikifonia.org/ - online lead sheets
  
  
• http://musicnotes.com - purchase popular piano/vocal/guitar sheets

Hi. I'm sight-reading at a reasonable level now on both guitar and piano after 2 years hard work. I've done it by looking at LOTS of sheet music and analysing how it works. That has mostly been following along with the textbook The Complete Musician. I've read it cover to cover nearly twice now. It IS expensive and I'm sure there are alternatives to it. I also can't really recommend it as it has a LOT of errors in its exercises and text. Either way, get a good theory textbook that goes from scales -> chords -> harmony -> counterpoint. Follow and PLAY all the exercises on keyboard.
I should add that it was a real uphill struggle starting that way, especially as it doesn't have guitar music in it!
As far as guitar focus goes, try the Berklee Guitar Method. https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-1/dp/0876390130 That helped me a lot. Other than that Guiliani's 120 arpeggio studies are a good starting point.Free -> http://www.classicalguitar.org/freemusic/exercises/Giuliani120.pdf
Over all this I want to add a massive disclaimer that is sure to open a can of worms for some. I don't actually recommend using traditional sheet music for guitar at all. TAB is superior especially if you can have the sheets alongside it for the rhythm notation. The way the fingerboard works and how fingering works on guitar does NOT lend itself well to sheet music. TAB was actually invented before sheet notation in the middle east somewhere in fact!

Well that was far too nice and now I feel kinda bad. Honestly, I love when people analyze hip hop and rapping specifically, so this was just me being kind of contradictory for the sake of it. Who are some of your favorites, or people who encompass most/all of these aspects to you?

Edit: Also, the guy that recommended How to Rap (https://www.amazon.com/How-Rap-Art-Science-Hip-Hop/dp/1556528167) is definitely right in the fact that I think you'd enjoy the read.

No problem, it's actually really common for people to ditch the distinction since in electronic music so many producers also dj and they may even have "Dj" in their name.

For production, I think the best place to start is with tutorials on youtube and a DAW (Digital Audio workstation) which is just a software client for making music. Also, if you are near a bookstore, try going there and reading this http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Second-techniques/dp/0240521072/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1310497354&sr=8-3. It is a great guide, and very thorough, but it's a bit pricey so I recommend reading it at a bookstore before you consider buying it. A lot of production is just finding your own way and style, but it is hard to overestimate the value of a good resource when you are starting out.

Also, try some good subreddits. There is /r/synthesizers, /r/edmproduction, and /r/Wearethemusicmakers. All of them are really receptive to questions, I find. Starting out you will probably have lots of questions, so don't be afraid to ask.

Do it!! And dude, high five for being a jazzer.

Composition resources... I have a few things that I enjoy using: The Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns (sidenote: the best shed dictionary ever), an orchestration book or wikipedia the instrument you're looking for a range on, IMSLP also known as "so that's how that works", and jazz theory/harmony... though I don't have a book to recommend on that one, as I learned it in a trial by fire sort of way. As far as notation software goes, I'm a big Finale junkie, though there's little advantage to Finale over Sibelius until you get to doing weird things with the software. I've heard some really good things about Reason, though haven't tried it personally because my computer doesn't spec for it. Since you're probably more theory minded, I'd suggest starting with jazz and reverse engineering yourself a tune/chart from a progression you like. It's sorta like writing a solo, but with an eraser. //rambling...


Theremin?! That's so awesome.


Yeah. I totally hear you on that one. I have like nothing to add to a discussion about some fancy new microphone or being in a cover band.

Madlib and his influences: Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Lee Perry, Melvin van Peebles etc. Every one can use a sampler but it's what you put into it that matters. I recommend studying workflow, discipline and inspiration rather than the technical side of things. This is a good start.

http://www.amazon.com/Miles-Autobiography-Davis/dp/0671725823

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

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

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

You can find more recommendations in the FAQ, but I would personally recommend taking a look at the Alfred series if you need to brush up on the basics (maybe start on Book 2 or something). If you feel you made it past the point of needing method books to the get the basics down (again?), I recommend the following:

1. Start going through your major and minor scales (hands parallel, for now). This book is essential for this and many other things.
   
   
2. Work on sight reading (I can't recommend these exercises enough)
   
   
3. Start with some lower level classical pieces, this is a book a like.
   
   Happy learning!

Once again, thanks for the fantastic reply! I understand perfectly fine now (I think). I hadn't heard of this Real Book you mention at the end, I assume it's this one: http://www.amazon.com/The-Real-Book-Sixth-Edition/dp/0634060384 ? Is it just jazz chord sheets with the melody written on or how do they work? Because I suck too hard to improvise the rest anyways so it's probably not worth it anyways in that case haha

My standard advice for this matter is to avoid any guitar-specific theory books. They tend to focus on the wrong things, teach everything in a confusing manner, and overemphasize modes in a nonsensical way.

This is a great general introduction to tonal harmony, which is where you want to start. It might seem a little stuffy and tangential to guitar, but learning a solid foundation from this point will help you have a great understanding of music.

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

How to make a noise is a great free ebook to start you off learning synthesis. The dance music manual is another great book with a section on ambient and chill-out

Thanks for your reply. I remember reading a Hunter Davies book decades ago when he shadowed them for a while during the making of Revolver, which was quite interesting.

There is also the Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, which is an exhaustive record of every one of their studio sessions based on recording logs and the author listening through master tapes. I have this book and love it...it's available again here https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Beatles-Recording-Sessions/dp/1454910054

I haven't read this but looks like a very interesting read https://www.amazon.ca/Beatles-Recording-Reference-Manual-1966-1967/dp/1727146980/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1727146980&pd_rd_r=c213ebd9-ee80-11e8-b8bf-2d5ac68107a8&pd_rd_w=jolIq&pd_rd_wg=u3gmZ&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=A3DWYIK6Y9EEQB&pf_rd_p=f2db799a-cb6a-4ff5-b84b-b317891b94a8&pf_rd_r=AQJG2ARARZDJK4JGE2ZE&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=AQJG2ARARZDJK4JGE2ZE

I also agree with this! They have 4 volumes (Realbooks) for bass clef. I’ve done gigs with these with a guitar friend, lots of fun!

Here’s the first one with a lot of popular standards:
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Bass-Clef-Sixth/dp/0634060767

Studying Jazz lead sheets is the most helpful, and the most commonly used book is the Real Book. The real book has Jazz Standards, and it gives the lead sheets with the melody written in sheet music, and the chord symbols written above the staff.

​

Looking at chords is mostly seeing what the quality of it is (minor, major, dominant, ect.), and then just looking at the extensions. Once you understand the types of chords, everything else is pretty simple.

​

I've made a guide to reading chord symbols, and it goes over all the common types of chords with common extensions. Here you go: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G9GsGFRwS_2VqbyKma1JL8nti3OMTHZm5eGZ7nTU1zY/edit?usp=sharing

​

One last thing, you want to figure out chords yourself, or you'll never be able to completely understand chords, but if there are just some things that you can't figure out, here's a book I use that has chords galore in all keys: https://www.guitarcenter.com/Proline/Picture-Guitar-Chord-Pocket-Guide-Book.gc Think of it more as a something that helps, not your go-to thing for figuring out chords.

​

Hope this helps!

That's a really interesting characterization to me, because Sgt. Pepper is probably their most labored and intricate recording session. That's also so different than my own appreciation for that album, which is justifiably their most important but not my favorite (UK Rubber Soul for me, please).

If you're at all interested in this sort of thing, this book is well worth the money:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Beatles-Recording-Sessions/dp/1454910054

It's quite possible to teach yourself, of course. The question is really how quickly do you want to progress? A teacher is your single best resource as they can give you feedback that a book or video just can't. So, if you can find a teacher in your area that teaches the style you want to learn, I would definitely go that route.

With that being said, as far as books are concerned, anything by Fredrick Noad will be helpful - especially his 2 book series on solo guitar playing.

Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Solo-Guitar-Playing-Book-4th/dp/0825636795

As for playing the classical guitar using an acoustic guitar approach, keep in mind you're conflating a couple of different things. A "classical" guitar is the instrument - nylon strings, wider neck, lighter body. Classical guitar is a style of music (and differs from Spanish guitar, but that's another conversation practically).

So, yes, you can learn to play folk, blues, jazz and any other sort of genre on a classical guitar. And you can learn classical guitar music on an accoustic (or even electric) guitar, though it won't sound the same and might be a bit more difficult.

http://www.amazon.com/Solo-Guitar-Playing-Volume-1/dp/0825636795/ref=pd_sim_b_1

I've been playing classical for about ten years, and I'm currently studying it at a conservatory. This is what I learned out of, and I think its a great method. There are plenty of methods out there if you don't like this one: Shearer, Duncan, Tennant, and others. If you want something older look at the methods by Sor, Giuliani, or Carcassi. There are tons more, just look around for what you like. All of these require being able to read music, if you want to really do classical guitar, you have to start reading it. Don't let that discourage you, though, classical guitar is well worth the effort.

Oh, good point. It would amount to a lot of import tax depending on where you live.

If you're really just starting, have you exhausted all the stuff in The Real Book yet?

https://www.amazon.com/Real-Book-Hal-Leonard-Corporation/dp/0634060384

I'd at least expect Girl From Ipanema, Speak Low, and some Bacharach tunes to be in it.

As another starting point, learn how to finger shapes like Amaj7 and Amaj9 and such, but still be able to finger or open string play the root and fifth as your own bass line. What makes it tricky is that the bass is playing root-5 quarters while the other strings are playing the clave. You'll want to have this down before you play a song.

If you don't know how to play fingerstyle, I'm not sure how to teach that in a Reddit comment.

This is definitely not a rule for how to write music now, just a rule for how to write music in the style of Bach/Mozart/Beethoven/Haydn etc. If you're interested in Tonal (read: Common Practice) Harmony, here are a few good theory books used in Freshman/Sophomore college music curriculums (in my order of preference):

The Complete Musician


Techniques and Materials of Music


Harmony and Voice Leading


Tonal Harmony

I'm also a composer, and I tend to write more modally (and sometimes without a strict tonality), so I just teach these, I don't necessarily follow them in my own writing.

sorry for the late reply! well nearly all books will have some rhythm learning which is excellent. [Berklee's A Modern Method for Guitar - Volumes 1, 2, 3 Complete] (http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volumes-Complete/dp/0876390114/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410004474&sr=8-1&keywords=Berklee%27s+Modern+Method+for+Guitar+123) By William Leavitt
as for more books focused on rhythm some good ones are:

[Rhythm Guitar: The Complete Guide] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rhythm-Guitar-The-Complete-Guide/dp/0793581842) by Bruce Buckingham and Melodic Rhythms For Guitar

Autumn leaves!

Seriously though, this is a hard one to say what the "bread and butter" progressions are. Everyone has their own taste. I would do what theStork said and get yourself the Real Book and start there. Vol. I and II are usually what most musicians have, but there are other real/fake books too. That, combined with listening to lots of jazz should help a lot.

You might also look into getting some of the Aebersold books or some other guitar books on voicings, they would help you out getting started. Finally, a good mentor/teacher is irreplaceable...

In my experience, it's just a lot of playing. Do you read music? If so, that's the way to go. It's definitely going to suck at first and it'll be really slow, but it's worth it. Just find some melodies to read through.

I've been working through this book over the past school year (I'm at college for guitar) and I've noticed so much improvement in my reading and just knowing what notes I'm playing.

A Modern Method for Guitar - Volume 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0876390130/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_kJH0AbDWK011W

It starts out low on the neck, but I think by the end it goes all the way up to the twelfth fret (I'm not all the way through it yet). A page a week is what I've been doing and I think that's a reasonable goal.

My other advice would be to learn octave shapes. This is how I check myself when I'm not sure about the note I'm playing. You probably know a lot of the notes on the fifth and sixth strings from playing barre chords. If you know what an octave looks like, you can take any note you're not sure about and move up or down and octave to a note you know so that you can check it.

Hope this helps! Learning notes will take a while but it's so satisfying once you start to get it.

The Dance Music Manual is a great resource for this type of analysis of other genres:

http://www.dancemusicproduction.com/index.php/dance-music-manual-3rd-edition

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Music-Manual-Tools-Techniques/dp/0415825644

I don't think the book contains anything specific to progressive house. There's a DVD for it though. I have not watched it but I would trust it based on their other stuff:

http://www.dancemusicproduction.com/index.php/tutorials/genre-tutorials/progressive-house

The advice to just experiment isn't wrong but it also doesn't seem to acknowledge that you have to start by imitating something, and it helps to know what you're imitating. I think this is a good question.