practical music theory books.

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know any?

i think i want "this is a ninth chord and THIS IS WHAT IT IS GOOD FOR", mostly, if that helps narrow it down. written with specific reference to keyboard instruments or guitar is good, with reference to proper orchestra instruments maybe less so.

the best one i've had so far was 'musician's guide to reading and writing music', by one dave stewart (the hatfield and the north one, not the eurhythmics one) (i guess); actually apparently he has another one. i might start there.

also i might try asking on IMM.

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 5 May 2006 07:32 (nineteen years ago)

I like Mark Levine's books a lot. "The Jazz Theory Book" and "The Jazz Piano Book." Obviously it's based on jazz, so you get a lot of talk about how various jazz standards use this or that mode and harmonies and how it all hangs together. Good stuff. And while it doesn't feel dumbed down, he doesn't make any leaps or assumptions that make it hard for neophytes like myself to follow.

So Stewart had done theory books eh? "Rotters Club" is one of the best things to come out of Britain, and prog epics don't get much better than "Mumps," so I have a good deal of respect for him. I'll have to give his books a try some day.

― Øystein (Øystein), Friday, 5 May 2006 08:30 (nineteen years ago)

yeha it has endorsements from like bill bruford 'n' shit! it took me a while to place who it was. it's all very basic, though.

do you need to like know the standards in question? i'm not good with standards. i could kinda do with picking up basic jazz piano, tho.

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 5 May 2006 09:51 (nineteen years ago)

Nope, you don't really need to know anything going in (except how to read music, I suppose)
I'd like to buy the books myself, I've only had a little time with them through Interlibrary loan. ILL's probably a good way for you to try a few of the books you end up getting recommended.

― Øystein (Øystein), Friday, 5 May 2006 10:56 (nineteen years ago)

I've been working out of this one. It definitely assumes reading ability and basic theory, but it's pretty alright.

I could use a really practical book on chord building and progressions.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 5 May 2006 12:44 (nineteen years ago)

What do you mean, you don't know the standards? Hello, slsk! ;-)

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 5 May 2006 14:18 (nineteen years ago)

what are you, raggett now

anyway e.g. i just ended up with a bad country/soul hybrid called 'heart and soul' and joy division's 'heart and soul', neither of which are you know 'heart and soul'

"chord building and progressions" is perhaps an apter summary of what i want than is "practical music theory"

keele library is lacking in everything mentioned thusfar so ILL may be the way to go.

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 5 May 2006 15:05 (nineteen years ago)

p.s. "JAZZ THEORY": good EP title?

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 5 May 2006 15:07 (nineteen years ago)

Btw I had one of those Mark Levine books and it was pretty good (then I lost it).

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 5 May 2006 15:30 (nineteen years ago)

Do British geeks not just know how to play Heart and Soul on the piano the way American geeks seem to? What the hell else do you do with your friends around a piano, if not break out into a four hands rendition of Heart and Soul? Seriously, I logged in HOURS of that song in high school whilst cutting class and hanging out in the abandoned auditorium.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 5 May 2006 22:28 (nineteen years ago)

HONEST TO GOD chris my american geek friend m. gave me a worryingly similar spiel there - which was what prompted my looking for it -

"Allow me to try and type out the rhythm:
do-do-doo-doo, do-do-doo-doo, do-do-doo-doo, do-do-doo-doo--and then someone
(or if you're really talented, you) plays the melody:
doo-doo-doo...do-do-do-do-do-do, doo-doo-doo, etc."

i really like all names/titles of the form "jazz (apparently incongruous noun)". it's a thing, i dunno.

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 5 May 2006 23:53 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, that's about it for the rhythm: 1 & 2 3, 2 & 2 3, 3 & 2 3, 4 & 2 3. While the melody is 1 2 3, 1 & a 2 & 3, 2 2 3, 2 & a 2 & 3, 3 (2) 3, (3) 2 & a 3 &. etc.

― Jaq (Jaq), Saturday, 6 May 2006 00:31 (nineteen years ago)

Well, except it's not in 3.

― Jaq (Jaq), Saturday, 6 May 2006 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

Time for more gin, less posting.

― Jaq (Jaq), Saturday, 6 May 2006 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

I think perhaps you've had enough gin.

Perhaps I went to HS with m. Or perhaps not.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 6 May 2006 00:42 (nineteen years ago)

I was a bit surprised, a few years later, to learn that there are parts of Heart and Soul that don't go like that!

Isn't H&S what they play on the foot piano in Big?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 6 May 2006 00:44 (nineteen years ago)

I dfon't know about aht,but I saw q video once of a guy juggling it on a keytobard liek in Big.

Mr Jaq says surely someonne has written it down, but I say it's in our o llective unconscientiousness. It's primal.

― Jaq (Jaq), Saturday, 6 May 2006 01:39 (nineteen years ago)

Operation Gin: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 6 May 2006 02:07 (nineteen years ago)

TS: Heart & Soul vs. Body & Soul

― Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 6 May 2006 02:48 (nineteen years ago)

I second "The Jazz Theory Book", which is excellent. Jerry Coker's "Jazz Improvisation" is a good & much briefer summary of much the same material & succinctly covers functional harmony which is the bit that you seem to be most interested in. Some of Coker's terminology is a bit dated now though & his main virtue compared to Levine is brevity - in every other respect Levine is better.

― frankiemachine, Saturday, 6 May 2006 16:26 (nineteen years ago)

Does anyone else have this Mel Bay The Jazz Theory Handbook, by Peter Spitzer? I haven't really hunkered down with it, but it seems to have some good information in it.

― Redd Temple Player (Two Headed Dogg) (Ken L), Saturday, 6 May 2006 17:39 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

Just found this Bert Ligon book that seems pretty good.

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 24 December 2007 15:37 (seventeen years ago)

is there a site/book out there that can for example list a chord or a note and say "this sound makes you feel like [ x ], and it was used in [ y ] by [ z ]" or somesuch? just some basic intuitive info about sounds and music for real beginners

― s.rose, Sunday, 6 January 2008 22:29 (seventeen years ago)

one l. jaggerz is working on just such a site.

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Monday, 7 January 2008 02:07 (seventeen years ago)

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