what are some good books about learning an instrument/song writing (not strictly textbooks)

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed

im looking for books with a narrative where the writer starts with zero musical knowledge and writes about his journey. preferably piano/keyboard (or even DAW but this is unlikely!) but please recommend any.

the only ones i've found so far are will hodgkinson's self-explanatory 'guitar man' and the more interesting follow-up 'song man'. he sets out learning how to play guitar/write songs and interviews a bunch of musicians, such as pj harvey, gaz supergrass, cat power, ray davies, lawrence felt, etc. there are a lot of interesting information and tips in there but hodgkinson is an incredibly unlikeable voice to have in your head. not in an evil murderer way, it's his fake-humility, his stubborn ageing-twat '60s uber alles' rockist outlook, the way he makes out his racist homophobic mate doyle to be some awesome viking warrior dude of dudes, the shitty dismissive way he treats his wife and kids, the way he makes out that musicians like ray davies are actually wankers (because they won't invite him to their home and give him a free music lesson), his horribly unfunny 'funny' lyrics which he pretends are serious, and oh a dozen other reasons. it's frustrating as the idea of the book is great but he practically sabotages it by being who he is.

so yeah i'd recommend 'song man' if you skip the plot and go straight to the interview sections but if anyone knows of better reads, please list them here

NI, Saturday, 2 January 2010 13:33 (fourteen years ago) link

That sounds more like pornography than anything helpful. Most musicians probably learn about "music" trying to learn "Jingle Bells" with their family and boring stuff like that.

US EEL (u s steel), Saturday, 2 January 2010 14:30 (fourteen years ago) link

hm yeah i'm not trying to learn the whole music theory via some pretty story, it's just kinda enjoyable to read about someone elses experiences at the same time as my own. tho i guess we might as well deem 99% of literature to be 'pornography'. but y'know thanks for your input

NI, Sunday, 3 January 2010 14:29 (fourteen years ago) link

I didn't mean to sound dismissive, but it just seems that the point of the book is to give people a rise by reading about private domestic dramas and to me that is a really damaging take on how people learn about music. Granted I haven't read it, maybe it is an entertaining read, actually it sounds funny, if some loser wants to make a public prat out of himself that is his prerogative. I just wouldn't misuse it as typical of how people learn an instrument.

US EEL (u s steel), Sunday, 3 January 2010 15:26 (fourteen years ago) link

It sounds like a whole "feel sorry for me I am ordinary" type of book, it would make a funny mockumentary though. I could probably learn more from some old piano teacher down the street than PJ Harvey and Cat Power.

US EEL (u s steel), Sunday, 3 January 2010 15:31 (fourteen years ago) link

im looking for books with a narrative where the writer starts with zero musical knowledge and writes about his journey.

The problem with this concept is that it generally takes years to achieve any level of proficiency on an instrument, and also that it tends to be difficult for an adult starting from scratch to really become a high-level musician. Although it might make an interesting experiment to see how good an adult could get in a year, starting from zero, through many hours of practice per day.

pithfork (Hurting 2), Sunday, 3 January 2010 15:44 (fourteen years ago) link

Not a first-person narrative, but based on case studies and interviews:

Thinking in Jazz, by Paul Berliner

Jazz musicians describe how they learned to play and improvise. You need to be in an ethnomusicological mood for this one. I did not make it through all 900+ pages, but I read the first hundred or so a couple of times and got a lot out of it.

Brad C., Sunday, 3 January 2010 16:18 (fourteen years ago) link

Books by musicians

Here are books my musicians but I'm not sure they're the kind you want

curmudgeon, Sunday, 3 January 2010 17:17 (fourteen years ago) link

The first thing I thought of, funnily enough, was The Manual by The KLF. Again, not a first person narrative, but it tells you how to write a hit single sho' nuff.

anagram, Sunday, 3 January 2010 17:54 (fourteen years ago) link

pdf of The Manual can be found here.

Excellent read w/ loads of good ideas, altho it is very out-of-date (it's 22 years old so I suppose that's to be expected...).

p-dog, Sunday, 3 January 2010 18:04 (fourteen years ago) link

Geoff Berner has a book called "How To Play Accordian", but I haven't read it and I suspect it's mostly about drinking......

m0stlyClean, Sunday, 3 January 2010 19:01 (fourteen years ago) link

Take lessons if you want to learn the keyboard/piano. You are not going to learn much from a book. It's bloody hard work and takes a long time before you can play well.

everything, Sunday, 3 January 2010 19:07 (fourteen years ago) link

I'm looking at some of this myself after a year and a half of piano lessons. Some things I've picked up, but not necessarily bought, include:

What to Listen for in Music by Aaron Copland (anyone post excerpts of the music he discusses?)
Songwriters on Songwriting by Paul Zollo
How to Write Songs on Keyboard by Rikky Rooksby

But I've also just tried to pay more attention, particularly to rhythm. I know I like a lot of music, but know I'm trying to find out a bit more about why it is...

Goes without saying that it's probably better to just write songs than try to learn via a book how to do it. There's a quote on Late Registration where Kanye says something like "Five beats a day for three summers" (I think?), which struck me as a good way to get good at making music.

john. a resident of chicago., Sunday, 3 January 2010 20:56 (fourteen years ago) link

How To Write Songs On Guitar by Rikki Rooksby is the single best book on writing songs and playing guitar that I have ever come across. I wish I would have come across it ten years sooner because it would have saved me a decade of fucking around and not getting the results I was looking for.

It starts with scales, how to built chords with the scales you learned, how to make chord progressions out of those chords, how songs are built, then how to put everything you have learned together into a song. In the mean time it gives you examples of how every thing being shown is used in popular songs that you know.

The only downside is that it is a 10 year old book and some of the song examples would be more obscure to young readers. He doesn't give the artist just the song title, so it would be hard to youtube examples if you don't know the artist off the top of your head. At 32 I know most semi-obscure pop music from the last 40 years, but I don't think an 18 year old would. The book is also English, so much of the chart pop mentioned was obscure in the US.

The other thing is that it is based around the idea of English guitar based song writing. I think it fulfills this quite well, but don't expect to learn how to finger pick the blues from this book. It isn't such a big deal though, because once you understand the basic concepts of music, everything else is window dressing and you can pick up specifics of different styles by researching specialist books.

then I got napster and the world became a more interesting place. (Display Name), Monday, 4 January 2010 01:15 (fourteen years ago) link

That Rikky Rooksby (it's impossible to spell this guy's name right) guitar book is really good as is his Beatles Chord songbook. At some point I got the piano book too but it seems to be a pale imitation.

nico anemic cinema icon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 January 2010 01:36 (fourteen years ago) link

can anyone recommend a good book on classical guitar theory and technique?

rionat, Monday, 4 January 2010 01:56 (fourteen years ago) link

Kanye says something like "Five beats a day for three summers" (I think?), which struck me as a good way to get good at making music.

A more formal way of putting it might be "10,000 hours", which is mentioned frequently in the book "Outliers" (although it doesn't originate from there)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_%28book%29
^^^ the Wikipedia article mentions The Beatles' "10,000 hours" gigging in Hamburg as an example.

an executive by day and a wild man by night (snoball), Monday, 4 January 2010 16:02 (fourteen years ago) link

Was just thinking about the 10,000 hours.

Seems like there are two different types of good books (and more types of bad ones) the first ones that give you a lot of information about harmony, scales and chords in a well-organized fashion and the second type that tell you how to really focus and what to focus on when you practice, but I want the book that will physically make me sit in the chair and create a force field around me so no one will bother me and I can't be distracted while I practice (nointranetz) and furthermore has some sort of built-in time-machine to go back to when I was a little kid and get this process started early.

nico anemic cinema icon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 January 2010 16:15 (fourteen years ago) link

go back to when I was a little kid and get this process started early

The one thing that every successful person I've ever met/heard of/read about has in common is that they all wish they'd started sooner. So don't think about it - because that would only waste more time!
As for the "force field so that no-one bothers you", if you're a guitarist, a large enough amp will do the job. Drummer? Well drums are loud. Any other instrument, soundproof headphones maybe?

an executive by day and a wild man by night (snoball), Monday, 4 January 2010 20:44 (fourteen years ago) link

can anyone recommend a good book on classical guitar theory and technique?

You'll get a better value for the money by taking lessons here.

Elvis Telecom, Monday, 4 January 2010 20:55 (fourteen years ago) link

Getting proficient on an instrument and songwriting are really separate things, like learning a language versus writing a novel/poetry. Only caveat with piano is that learning to have your hands work independently gets harder the older you are and the less plastic your brain is - this shouldn't matter if you're going for, say, Beatles/Elton John stuff. Songwriting is a whole different thing - I find it very hard to talk about and give any coherent insight - it's more like solving a riddle or converging on a solution to an equation.

ecuador_with_a_c, Monday, 4 January 2010 22:14 (fourteen years ago) link

Songwriting and learning an instrument complement each other though - you can deliberately write songs that you can play, but also push you a bit further in terms of learning chords/etc..

an executive by day and a wild man by night (snoball), Monday, 4 January 2010 22:18 (fourteen years ago) link

Maybe not what yr after and maybe not wholly good, BUT David Sudnow's "Ways of The Hand" is pretty interesting at least (coming from someone who's only dipped in so far). "A review of his hands learning how to play jazz piano", a guy with a background in phenomenology writing about the developing consciousness of his hands movements on the keyboard as he learns to play in his 30s. Sort of horribly written, but pleasingly detailed and with lots of diagrams and action shots of the famous jazz-hands.

ogmor, Monday, 4 January 2010 23:00 (fourteen years ago) link

for classical guitar "pumping nylon" is a must buy

my old tutor graham wade has some good books out on mel bay publishing i do believe

the big fernando sor book is also really good, lots of pretty classical pieces that target different techniques

the abrsm pieces chosen for uk music grades are good pieces to start learning

but really, don't bother, it's a shitty instrument to play, it's pretty hard to be average and near impossible to be any good and do justice to the repertoire. watch all the great guitarists on youtube- always fucking up. learn flamenco or something more suited to the stupid bloody instrument.

Crackle Box, Monday, 4 January 2010 23:22 (fourteen years ago) link

i haven't finished it yet, but bill bruford's autobio seems to mostly be about getting more musically insecure and less creative as he gets older, even as his technique gets better.

hey trader joe's! i've got the new steely dan. (Jordan), Monday, 4 January 2010 23:24 (fourteen years ago) link

books on this stuff are mostly a waste of time, if you wanna be good, practice a lot.

if you want to be really good, find some indian classical music lessons. a lot of the stuff they learn is incredible for getting you fluent on any instrument, also very good for your ear and it's all a lot of fun to play.

Crackle Box, Monday, 4 January 2010 23:24 (fourteen years ago) link

"The Inner Game Of Music" has some interesting psychological ideas. It was originally published as a book, but there a website with some articles.
http://www.innergameofmusic.com
Particularly good are the bits about being aware of the position of your body while you're playing to make things easier and less tiring - for example, for guitar/bass players, being aware of the position of the elbow and forearm relative to the neck of the instrument.

an executive by day and a wild man by night (snoball), Monday, 4 January 2010 23:25 (fourteen years ago) link

Also, depending on how your brain works, writing music could be easy and lyrics hell. Or vice versa.

ecuador_with_a_c, Monday, 4 January 2010 23:28 (fourteen years ago) link

If you're going to mention The Inner Game Of Music, you might as well mention Effortless Mastery, by Kenny Werner.

Also:
books on this stuff are mostly a waste of time, if you wanna be good, practice a lot.
^^^this

nico anemic cinema icon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 January 2010 23:34 (fourteen years ago) link

some helpful stuff on here so far, thanks a lot. just to clear things up, i'm all about learning about how to create songs and music on a DAW, so technical skill isn't a priority though i understand the two overlap. i'm not looking for a cheat's shortcut into how to write songs - though if anyone out there is, as mentioned above the klf's 'manual' does this brilliantly - more of something to have alongside. for instance while reading those 'guitar/song man' books, there were plenty of moments where he described things and it *clicked* in my mind, so a few more of those would be handy. but yeah, personally this goes alongside regular lessons and hours of daily practice.

i think i'll check out that rooksby guitar book next, i've heard a lot of good things about him. love the kanye west '5 beats a day' thing too

Although it might make an interesting experiment to see how good an adult could get in a year, starting from zero, through many hours of practice per day.

^ would make a great blog, surprised no one has done anything like it yet

NI, Tuesday, 5 January 2010 16:18 (fourteen years ago) link

rooksby's 'sampling is theft' rant at the beginning of his 'how to write songs on the guitar book' is pretty lol:

The charts are full of "virtual music" created entirely on computer-music that has never moved a molecule of air. Anything programmed has no expression at the point of execution, even if it has expression of design. Our minds are much more sophisticated in hearing music than many believe; we register the difference. The triumph of the silicon chip over the human spirit is nowhere better heard than in the chopped-up sampling of a singer's voice, done so a single vocal phrase can be manipulated on a keyboard. Sampling replaces the old crime of plagiarism with a new, more thorough-going one: the stealing not only of an idea but the performance and real-time expression of that idea.

NI, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 21:45 (fourteen years ago) link

this is awesome too, raging madness with a hint of geir:

Click tracks and drum machines impose a rhythmic tyranny in which an unrelenting beat is perfectly in time. The groove is lost, and techniques such as the crudest sudden division of the beat into smaller units to create pneumatic-drill snare-rolls and a twist of e.q. replace the continual invention of a good drummer. Rhythm is exalted over melody, harmony, time, tempo and key changes.

NI, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 21:46 (fourteen years ago) link

last one:

Why record a I VI IV V or a I V II progression when you can sample a couple of bars from 'Every Breath You Take' or 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door', copy them identically, sing something different over the top, and pass it off as a "song"? Why create a mood when, with an act of musical vampirism, you can suck one from a record that already exists in collective memory? Have all writers and performers grown so cynical? Is this all they think a popular song can be? Do they really believe in this soul-less vision? Or do they gohome after every TV promotion and listen to Aretha or Al Green with a sense of relief? I think the popular song is capable of much more than this impoverished parody of itself.

if rikky ever read 'the manual' i do rather believe he'd explode in a fit of righteous copyright rage

NI, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 21:48 (fourteen years ago) link

Wow, Rooksby should never study classical music, compsers steal shit from each other (and themselves!) all the time

ah ah oh ooh ooh oh ah ah ah ah ah oh ah ah aha ooh (HI DERE), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 21:50 (fourteen years ago) link

(although it reads like an over-eager response to the birth of sampling 25-30 years ago all the above was written in 2000! he must have been livid for years)

NI, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 21:52 (fourteen years ago) link

i love the idea that music has to move 'molecules of air' to be of value

NI, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 21:53 (fourteen years ago) link

"A more formal way of putting it might be "10,000 hours", which is mentioned frequently in the book "Outliers" (although it doesn't originate from there)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_%28book%29
^^^ the Wikipedia article mentions The Beatles' "10,000 hours" gigging in Hamburg as an example."

I call bullshit on this - that would be a three hour gig almost every day for ten years.

pithfork (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 21:54 (fourteen years ago) link

i've wondered how that actually breaks down for musicians, since the 10,000 hours is supposed to include practicing, listening, & thinking about music, right?

hey trader joe's! i've got the new steely dan. (Jordan), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 21:56 (fourteen years ago) link

Guys, why are you trying to talk about interesting stuff when we have this Guy Who Wrote The Guitar Book Is A Rockist shocker to address?

nico anemic cinema icon (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 7 January 2010 01:46 (fourteen years ago) link

you mistake shocker for chuckles, silly

NI, Thursday, 7 January 2010 10:51 (fourteen years ago) link

I call bullshit on this - that would be a three hour gig almost every day for ten years.

In Hamburg they played eight hours non-stop for eight seven days a week. The 10,000 hour total also includes practice sessions, songwriting, listening and analysing other people's songs, etc.. 10,000 hours at eight hours a day = about three and a half years. The Quarrymen formed in 1957, and Lennon was playing banjo from the age of 11 or 12. It's a bit of a stretch, but it's possible.

an executive by day and a wild man by night (snoball), Thursday, 7 January 2010 12:17 (fourteen years ago) link

Doesn't explain how the many other bands who followed the same routine as the Beatles never acheived their greatness. Gladwell tries to address this in his later book which has "right-place-right-time" as the equation for success. He's full of shit I think.

Anyway, some instruments are way easier to learn than others. 10,000 or more to be an awesome piano player sounds realistic. If you have a sense of rhythm you could learn the ukelele in a couple of days.

everything, Thursday, 7 January 2010 18:05 (fourteen years ago) link

i love the idea that music has to move 'molecules of air' to be of value

It's true. Music's useless underwater, and also in the icy vacuum of space.

ecuador_with_a_c, Thursday, 7 January 2010 21:40 (fourteen years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.