Music Theory books based on Piano Rolls not Staffs?

[skot-e]

Hey all, does anyone have any experience in reading books that teach music theory on piano rolls and not a typical musical staff? I may sound like a complete narrow minded noob but i have no interest in reading music or writing it onto staffs.

So do they exist

[deleted]

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[tibah]

Maybe a market niche?

At least YT tutorials, directly out of DAWs might cover this area. Depends on what you want to learn. Warbeats got some tutorials on theory directly out of FL studio using the piano roll, if that's enough for you.

AcePincter does some great *modern* theory tutorials, using various things that FL offers. My favourite tutorials. Sadly no uploads since a year.

[skot-e]

Maybe a market niche?

Ha Ha, IM GONNA BE RICH!!!

Ill check out those peeps on youtube then, cheers dude.

To be honest i feel that for music producers, it just makes sense???

[tibah]

To be honest i feel that for music producers, it just makes sense???

Yes and no. I know some producers and musicians who don't know anything about music theory. But it for sure does help. You can spend some time clicking around, trial & error your way or you already know which chord progression going to lead to a certain mood.

The Secrets of House Music Production by Sample Magic is a book that covers some basic theory on a piano roll too. But it's like 4 pages. A good example for a book for the modern EDM producer but not really covering all the things involved.

[skot-e]

The Secrets of House Music Production by Sample Magic is a book that covers some basic theory on a piano roll too. But it's like 4 pages. A good example for a book for the modern EDM producer but not really covering all the things involved.

http://www.samplemagic.com/products/pro ... music.html

Looks very interesting indeed, Wolfgang Gartner , but im thinking on a more compositional point of view. Im getting more and more into Film music from the likes of Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Danny Elfman etc.. Focusing completely on harmony and melody. Most of these guys compose on DAW's, which ive only just found out so i really wanna learn how they do it.

[coquillo]

Hey all, does anyone have any experience in reading books that teach music theory on piano rolls and not a typical musical staff? I may sound like a complete narrow minded noob but i have no interest in reading music or writing it onto staffs.

So do they exist

Not yet

Until then, only use the black notes.

[tibah]

Im getting more and more into Film music from the likes of Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Danny Elfman etc.. Focusing completely on harmony and melody. Most of these guys compose on DAW's, which ive only just found out so i really wanna learn how they do it.

Because they know how to do it It's not really about the DAW or a piano roll, these are just tools.

Aiming high like that you definitely have to put a lot more effort into it and learn theory, even if that means not on piano rolls.

[jplanet]

People have an irrational fear of reading music - it's really not hard at all, in fact, it would be much more difficult to read a piano roll than a staff. The treble and bass clefs were designed to be easy to read, and have withstood the test of time as the best way to write/read keyboard notation for centuries. The clefs are designed so that your eye does not have to travel far for a reference, whereas a piano roll would force your eyes to keep zipping to the left side of the page to see what note it is.

I think a lot of people end up jumping through more hoops than they have to in order to avoid learning to read music, when ultimately it's the fastest way. There's a reason it is still the standard, because nobody has come up with anything better.

Guitar is another story - the treble clef does not take into account what position to use on the fretboard, and the same notes occur in a few different places on a guitar. For this reason, I do think that tablature is a better way to write guitar music. But, for keyboard, each note only has one location, and the clefs take care of that accurately.

[skot-e]

People have an irrational fear of reading music - it's really not hard at all, in fact, it would be much more difficult to read a piano roll than a staff. The treble and bass clefs were designed to be easy to read, and have withstood the test of time as the best way to write/read keyboard notation for centuries. The clefs are designed so that your eye does not have to travel far for a reference, whereas a piano roll would force your eyes to keep zipping to the left side of the page to see what note it is.

I understand where your coming from and i definitely have a fear of reading music, but at the same time, i dont want to read music, i want to write it.

I suppose im gona have to learn like everyone else if i want to get to an advanced level. Cheers for all your responses guys.

[coquillo]

People have an irrational fear of reading music -

Indeed, but the OP is asking about music theory not sight reading. I assume he will be using a mouse as his instrument.

I'm interested to know just what he how much he wants to know.

[Sepheritoh]

In my hunble and obscured opinion - you would not want to do that. jplanet has said it all.

Piano roll are noted everything in half steps. If you study theory on pianoroll you will constantly have to think about which intervals are half steps and which ones are full steps, etc. Staff notation already took care of that. At least doing it that way you will know your augmented and diminished intervals pretty well. It will just take you a much longer time to get there.

[jancivil]

music theory is music theory. there is no 'music theory for guitarists' or for piano roll... it must be objective, not made subjective to people with a fear of learning a new trick.

I am expert in piano roll composition, I write directly to it and do not bother notating beforehand (sometimes after) but I would never confound it (or tablature) in teaching the mechanics of music theory. it's quite an absurd notion.

the notion that you're going to learn composition on a computer and ignore the real deal is just silly.

as far as tablature I question the 'a better way' to compose for guitar. It will be instructive for a non-guitarist to take a serious look at it, no question; as it will be difficult to write for the instrument in detail without an understanding of the layout. I've known the guitar for over 40 yrs and I have never used tablature in my life. I never found it easier than reading music, I guess because I learned to read music first (on another instrument, this is an objective basis).

Tablature shows you one way of placing the notes on the fretboard; so if that's one's basis, one is depending on someone else to make that decision beforehand and I don't think that's so wise.

[jancivil]

In my hunble and obscured opinion - you would not want to do that. jplanet has said it all.

Piano roll are noted everything in half steps. If you study theory on pianoroll you will constantly have to think about which intervals are half steps and which ones are full steps, etc. Staff notation already took care of that. At least doing it that way you will know your augmented and diminished intervals pretty well. It will just take you a much longer time to get there.

Right, and people with only piano roll see everything in terms of sharps, which is very ignorant, you'll lack context as to key, you'll lack context for the meaning of intervals.

If someone comes up with such a book, they're looking for suckers to chump.

[jancivil]

To be honest i feel that for music producers, it just makes sense???

Sure, these are people that think they will avoid the whole process of becoming a musician and jump to the front of the line, the top of the heap. but they'll cheat themselves in the bargain.