This is probably just a crafty attempt to expand my music reading, but I am also interested in books that other musicians feel have given them most food for thought or some mind-blowing ideas in how to approach their music-making.
If possible, please are you able to provide a short explanation as to how or why a particular book has left such a great mark on your thinking.
Avoidance of long lists with little in the way of comment will be much appreciated, thanks.
Don't worry if one of your books is quite narrow in its focus, or if it tackles an issue or genre that is not very well known. Sometimes the lesser known topics and books provide the greatest interest.
For me, the books that I keep on going back to and taking new lessons from are:
1) Arranging Techniques for Synthesists by Eric Turkel:
I'm not the most advanced of musicians, so this book about how to build better compositions and arrangements is a great one to return to, particularly when creating a song in a genre that I'm not so familiar with.
The book starts with Rhythm, Styles, Melody, Harmony, Advanced Harmony Substitution and voice arrangement etc. Then it takes a structured look at the different sections of the band (Rhythm, Brass, Woodwinds, Strings). It explains how each works, instrument ranges, how to write parts for each etc.
Very useful.
2) Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae by
Michael E. Veal:
This is the best book on dub reggae imho, and dub reggae is my favourite genre.
The book covers not only the historical and cultural context of why Jamaican dub arrived, but also extremely usefully it analyses many well known dub tunes by masters such as King Tubby and Lee Perry, showing where and why certain effects were used to help build the sonic landscape of the song.
It doesn't limit itself just to the golden era of Jamaican dub (1970s-1980s) but looks before / after this time and also outside of the country, it gives a decent account of early Jamaican soundsystem / studio operation and features many insightful quotes by well known dub producers too.
3) Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio by Mike Senior:
An excellent book that provides a vision and strategy to enable your mixes to compete in the commercial sphere. It offers great tips about how to achieve mix stability and how / why certain techniques and effects work towards this.
Comments from renowned producers / engineers serve to highlight lessons within the chapters and also to provide different thoughts about the mixing process.
For anyone wishing to learn more about mixing - or just to seek some new angles on information that they may already know - this book is a great help.
Thanks for all your suggestions and interesting books.
Doug
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