Getting It Down Cold Music Theory Course review?

[cj31387]

Hi i came across this site http://www.musiclearningworkshop.com/mu ... ourse.html Its a 800 page book on music theory. It seems pretty interesting but i see NO reviews anywhere on it. Has anyone bought this book and tried it? This one kinda looks like a scam, if anyone could find a review on it I'd like to see it. What are your guys thoughts? Yeah this really looks like a scam i just tried multiple google searches and hes very good at getting tons of search results on this product and his name, but there is no one showing a review.

[tapper mike]

Honestly, Pass on the books and take lessons. A teacher is going to sit you down and have you prove what you know or don't know. It's a way of getting rid of bad habits and replacing them with good.

[jancivil]

The more I read, and I spent maybe a whole minute, the more preposterous the claims are. Sure you could provide all the information it claims in *some books*, but it's still just information, it isn't going to compete with a teacher and become knowledge magically because it's more comprehensive. I've already written too much here on that issue to go into it. Suffice to say I think:

"You can easily spend over $1,200 USD per year ( simple math four 1/2 hour lessons per month at $25/ lesson).
After 4 years you've spent nearly $5000 with music books and other things.
(And I don't even want to talk about college tuition if you go that route.)"

Is a false economy even if it's true. To pose a curriculae in these cut-and-dried $ terms is anathema to me and should be a red flag, along with 'get it down cold'... in a year? with 15 minutes a day? C'mon.

as far as a scam or not, I googled the guy's name and found:

Brad Chidester » FRAUD-BLOCKER.INFO »
Brad Chidester | BLOG-REAL.INFO |

^ a link that gets you to that 'Music Theory Course' by him. So someone thinks it's a scam to the degree these results came up #6 and #9 on my search.

Suckers are born every minute I guess. Caveat Emptor. I think there are no books tbh.

[cj31387]

Well by teacher do you mean a local college or a personal tutor? I'd love a personal tutor but don't make that much a month. I found this because i was actually going to look for a college music text book and try to teach myself, maybe buy one off chegg. Although my reading comprehension kinda sucks i get distracted very easily and start thinking of other things while i read and don't absorb what i read that well. Does anyone know of a college textbook i could get and go through that can be learned just from the book? Because that is what i probably will HAVE to do because i don't think i could afford a private tutor/teacher.

[jancivil]

In general, a community college course is what I would advise. Particularly if you get bored reading.

Mike's point that a teacher will make you show what you understand is a point to heed. We kid ourselves too easily. I didn't grab my chops out of my ass, I was schooled and criticized and graded, I had to step up to the plate.

You could pick up Piston's "Harmony". Should be in the public library to have a look at, and gain familiarity somewhat.

NB: when I said 'there are no books' I meant from Brad there. As I look at it, that's basically intro to theory material anyway, no one spent 5 years on that shit. You could gain most of that in Music Theory 101 at the community college. Scamola.

his hook: "...there is one problem with these books. They tell you theory they don't help you learn music principles." What books? Straw man argumentation.

If dude can't find a comma to put in that sentence, I don't so much trust his ability to write a book.

[tapper mike]

This is exactly why you need a teacher

Although my reading comprehension kinda sucks i get distracted very easily

If you read a book and can't comprehend the idea then you're not going to get the idea till someone explains it to or proves it to you. If you read something and get distracted you'll forget what you read even if you did comprehend it.

On the other hand if you are expected to perform/demonstrate your ability/knowledge it will internalize the idea via re-enforcement and you'll have it for life not just a day.

You get out what you put in. If your not putting in you won't be getting it out.

[cj31387]

Yeah i plan to put A LOT in and really sit down and go through it but so far the music books i got talk about like random crap that has nothing to do with music. I can't even explain it. I want a Pure music theory book that is like a step by step process with exercises or something like a algebra book is with math. Not a story about the guy who wrote the book, for half the book, and has barely any teaching. Also is there a book that attempts to categorize chords or chord progressions into emotions? That would be really helpful. And finally I'd like to know what Beethoven read before he started composing.

I think my best approch would be finding a music theory book that progresses deeper and deeper. But i just sit down and read and read and read the same stuff over and over till i have it down, then when i feel I'm ready to move on move to the next lessons repeat till I've got it all memorized.

Im 24 i have been writing music since i was 12 I've got my own formulas for writing pretty good songs but don't know why or how they work, i just come up with melodies after i make a chord progression and usually ends up good, but i want to know why it sounds good mathematically.

Yeah i totally thought "Get It Down Cold" was a scam while i was posting the original message but it opened the conversation on what i should do. Ill check out Pistons Harmony Thanks. I found a book called The Basis Of Music F. Horwood, it is exactly like what i would want for later theory. There is no bullcrap filler in it, its straight to the point and tells you everything with as little words as possible.

[jancivil]

no, if you're easily distracted to the point you said so publicly, you can't trust yourself to be your own music theory teacher. And it's not about memorizing something, it's about using it and making something work, you're exposed and can't hide. you cut it or <<FAIL>>.

this whole idea of staying at home like you're going to get it by your lonesome is kind of novel actually, and an internet phenomenon I guess.

When I first took first year theory, I also took second year (chromatic harmony, Wagner to Schoenberg, et al) and didn't get caught out, ok. I had some information going in.

What I didn't know was part-writing procedures, which is the first thing I was after, I knew that what JS Bach was doing wasn't something I wasn't cutting...

I knew my way around harmonizing, I was the arranger for a band that did harmony vocals, for a Beatles to Yes-influenced songwriter, and I arranged and produced some songs, string charts, the whole nine yards, that got some label interest. I wasn't the greenest person in my town and I'm a quick study, and focused, reading was a strong suit...

I get into the two classes, needing that part-writing knowledge (NOT information, knowledge, 'does this thing work') in a hurry. [Yeah, I boned up on that 1st yr textbook.] Organist Webb Wiggins, brilliant teacher, knew how to get results... One day, Webb drew a nothing little tune on the board with what he called a 'weak progression' (meaning stepwise changes or thirds as opposed to strong 4th or 5th movement) and indicated 'make it work, get around the problem I have given you and do something with it'. I used what I knew about sonorities, 7ths, 9ths and this jazz, and went for notes in passing to get these things in legally, to get away with what I could in this restricted M.O. I had *some music* when he played it for the class, 'Publish it!' went the class, it sounded Debussyian, practically. There is NO WAY I would have pulled that out of my ass looking at some book by myself. Having to make something the class was going to hear presently... this development in me happened in short order because the teacher knew his gig. INVALUABLE. Me left to my own devices with the same book, not so much. Later I went off to CCM and had another teacher that honed my chops in the discipline with brutally difficult problems, all the time. Made us sight sing new material every morning, made us execute things we'd never heard of, pushed us daily. PRICELESS.

What did Beethoven do? He was a pianist first and got a rep. He left home and studied with Haydn; 'Haydn's teaching was based mainly on Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum, and his customary method was to teach the rules of counterpoint before making the student work through exercises in each species of counterpoint in two voices, then each species in three voices, then in four, resulting in about 300 exercises altogether.'
which he didn't like much and got a new teacher, Schenk. And some more teachers... very stubborn apparently, but he had some teachers diss him some and he got true religion.

[cj31387]

Well i talked about my reading comprehension because that is the predicament I'm in. And I don't have money to pay a teacher. So I don't know what to do. I don't know what it is, i can read ALL kinds of stuff on forums and the internet like news or articles and absorb it all very well but traditional books i don't absorb. What i meant by memorizing is, I first need to memorize the very basics like how to read music. Know what each note is on a staff ect... I do get distracted and don't absorb well but i have a bit of free time and if i just sat down and wrote down my goals and kept going over it i think i could get the basics done. I want to pursue music as a career so I am going to put a lot in.

[jancivil]

I hadn't got that you were truly at the beginning.

I don't remember learning to read music, I was in the fifth grade and had band class. I remember when I realized that sheet music was not generally written for trumpet, a transposing instrument pitched at Bb and things were out of key a lot of the time when it wasn't transposed for me like the band class material... and that I figured that one out on my own EVENTUALLY. I didn't have a private teacher and I wasn't the only kid in band class...

treble clef: 'face' for the spaces, Every Good Boy Does Fine for the lines.

treble clef is a G clef, the curlicue encircles 'g'. above 'middle C'.
bass clef is an F clef, the note between the 2 dots is 'F'. below middle C.

then there are C clefs which indicate middle C with an arrow between 2 C-looking shapes. they're movable. I didn't mess with C clefs until college I think.

[tapper mike]

I remember learning to read notation because I was a late bloomer. I picked up this very small book about reading notes and read it everyday. I got note values down but tempo and meter was a bitch. Yeah I could find my way to the notes but it took forever. Meter and chords really messed with me. Although I had some guitar playing experience the most I could do was play a few progressions. I bought every book I could get my hands on but didn't get that much better as a player or a writer. Finally I started taking lessons from a great teacher. My playing and knowledge skyrocketed. I learned more in 6 months then I did in 5 years of trying to figure things out by myself. My timing improved dramatically and I could actually sight read notation. Someone could drop a sheet in front of me and I could go. My song writing improved as well as my improvasational skills. I could sit in with people and jam. I could also perform live. This was long before the internet. The 5 years I tried to do it all by myself were a waste.

As I got into the learning process with this one teacher who put expectations upon me I got more confident and looked for other instruction to further my knowledge and skillset. I was never a natural. I worked for everything. Hell I'd work two jobs just to pay for classes and lived in a dump eating ramen noodles. But it paid off. Through out the 80's I became a go to guy for session work. TV commercials in small markets made up the bulk of my income. I also did the touring band thing. I never made the big time. But I opened for acts like Glenn Frey, Hall and Oates, Bob Seeger and others. I would have never gotten there if I didn't prepare myself for the journey.

[jancivil]

I had drum lessons from 11 or 12 for a little while. I remember an early band practice before I was in lessons and something was in 3/4 on the page and I realized my little 4/4 surf patterns, or what-have-you didn't work.

My drum teacher was pretty awesome. At some point when I had basics, rhythmic notation, reading down well enough, he asked me what drum parts I wanted to get but couldn't yet ("Fire" by Hendrix!. I could do the "Mary Mary", Monkees beat but this was the next step) and made me learn it by notating it, broke it down to kick, hat, snare on the drum stave and then made further exercises in that kind of syncopation; keeping a steady ride on the hat or ride and demonstrated how the kick and snare interlocked as parts.

So I was writing drum parts at around 13, 14. I tried to make my father learn drum parts I wrote so I could do a guitar part or something, but he wasn't cutting it. .~)

Then somehow there were two cassette players in my hands and I tried to get some kind of overdubs going, but couldn't get them to sync no kinda way. But I digress...

On [electric] guitar, I taught myself. I went to every show that came through there and stood at the front of the stage and watched the lead guitarist. I showed up the afternoon of the show and talked myself in for free when I could, help carting or whatever. There was a lot of blues on tv, public tv in NC and I watched that, followed that closely. I was converted to electric guitar after seeing Hendrix on May 9, 1969, my mom went with, I wasn't even 13 yet. I wore out records copping the parts off 'em. I set out to learn every part off Abbey Road, but wore the thing out before I had everything... everything I could hear on my kiddy turntable from radio shack that is. Bass parts, keyboard parts... I did get most of the guitar parts I could hear. So by the time I had any theory materials I knew how stuff fit. The first solo I copped was the one on Badge, Cream, which still really moves me. There was a kid in my neighborhood that was a lot more advanced (had lessons!) that could totally do that, which was upsetting.

[cj31387]

Well thanks for the advice jancivil and tapper mike.