Best book on Theory for

[jancivil]

to combine tapper's 'lot of ear' and 'capture the style' with solfege/interval recognition -

I advise to pick things off of recordings by ear. Within a style you embrace there is going to be particular things that crop up all the time, approaches to voicing a chord or what-not, and you get a sense of intervals in context of the music.

When I did get around to music theory 101, Wiggins' way was to show obviously identifiable intervals from known songs. "Maria" from West Side Story for the tritone: Ma RI a = 1, #4, 5 (Do, Fi, Sol). For the major sixth: Way, UP, high from "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" = 1, 6, 5 (Do, La, Sol).

If I have a melody in my head and there is no computer, I recall it by syllables, ie., a type of solfege; I would tend to carry a notepad and jot down the ideas by the syllables, rather than note names. Particularly as I don't necessarily know what key it is; solfege means the relationships of notes, no need to transpose, I can decide on key later. It's about the shape of the object.

[pc999]

Not sure if this is what you are looking or just straight foward music theory (already nice option and that KVR link will really help if you are starting) for but give a look at their Dance Music manual it is quite nice some other cool offers too.

http://www.focalpress.com/audio/

[kittenz]

For just starting out I'd recommend "Music Theory for dummies", really well written as opposed to majority of stuff on the internet. Read it in 1 day and then it makes a good reference to come back to.

[peter269]

AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.

I teach this and it depends on where you want to start.

If you have music notation reading skills here are three books to consider:

1. Schoenberg Theory of Harmony (Amazon)
2. Material Used in Musical Compositions - Percy Goetschius (books.google.com)
3. My book, Applied Professional Harmony at Alexander Publishing.com.


If your goal is to write mostly pop music, then choices 1 and 3 are worth exploring. If you want to go beyond pop music, then choices 1 and 2 should be explored.

Peter Alexander
www.alexanderpublishing.com (http://www.alexanderpublishing.com)

[Proxima4]

I've only got one book, as I've always found the 'See and Do' practice of YouTube the easiest way to learn.

However this book may help compliment what your doing in your lessons, as it teaches the basics of music theory but also includes some cross over's and applications to the DAW domain.

http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/M ... edir_esc=y

I look at music and producing music from multiple angles as I never had any formal training, so looking at music as sound with mathematical structure is helpful to incorporate into keyboard skills, especially when considering synthesis, harmonics and midi device plugins, it depends if your willing to be a bit flexible with your direction and or possible direction in music.

a musicians evolution is down to a number of factors and experience over a given time.

[wrench45us]

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywor ... 5g6aom5j_b

dance music manual

covers theory for a variety of electronic dance genre (and more)

so as it has direct application you may find it, or something similar, useful

[sammy24]

There's a book called Jazz Ears by Thom Mason which covers this

Excellent book, +1.

Some stuff in it is more basic, and some is more advanced. I especially liked some of his ideas for how to vocalize certain articulations (grace notes, falls, etc.)-- this kind of thing really helps you sing written music, and make that connection between musical performance (actual music) and written music.