Theory is a six-letter dirty word to most musicians, but hey, musicians love dirty words, right? And just like all the other dirty words, theory is easy to learn and fun to use! After studying 'popular' and 'classical' music theory, Ray Harmony created a unique approach that he uses to compose his songs, which feature multi-platinum Grammy winners Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), and many more. Ray Harmony is an award-winning music lecturer and multi...

This is a hacks-only version of Part 1 in the series: Hack Music Theory. Each hack delivers all the vital info you need to know about each topic. Read through all these hacks in a half hour, and you'll be making good music in less than an hour from now. However, you'll miss out on a bunch of bad jokes and deep insights that are only revealed in its companion, so go grab a copy at HackMusicTheory.comRay Harmony is an award-winning music lecturer and multi-instrumentalist, who draws ...

In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music—its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it—and the human brain.Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin poses that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ...

This book presents a complete methodology for learning how chord progressions work and how to apply these principles to your own creative endeavours.Any chord progression can be seen as a combination of tonic, dominant and subdominant chords.We employ 12 frequently used combinations which we call the core progressions. The first chapter demonstrates the core progressions in their simplest form using three major chords. Chapters 2-7 show which chords can be ...

Bob Dylan is the most influential songwriter of our time. His lyrics have inspired more than one generation to challenge received social and spiritual concepts about the world they inhabit. It is in this context that John Burns examines Dylan's 'big' lyrics, the 'vision songs' that have changed the way we see our world. Considering all Dylan's major albums from the 'sixties to the present, Burns looks at the ideas, philosophical, spiritual and musical, that influenced his vision and how he tr...

During the last few decades, most cultural critics have come to agree that the division between "high" and "low" art is an artificial one, that Beethoven's Ninth and "Blue Suede Shoes" are equally valuable as cultural texts. In Who Needs Classical Music?, Julian Johnson challenges these assumptions about the relativism of cultural judgements. The author maintains that music is more than just "a matter of taste": while some music provides entertainment, or serves as background nois...

Carl Schachter is the world's leading practitioner of Schenkerian theory and analysis. His articles and books have been broadly influential, and are seen by many as models of musical insight and lucid prose. Yet, perhaps his greatest impact has been felt in the classroom. At the Mannes College of Music, the Juilliard School of Music, Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and at special pedagogical events around the world, he has taught generations of music...

A one-of-a kind survey of rap and hip hop history from 1973 to today by Chuck D, arguably the most influential rapper in the world.In the more than 40 years since the days of DJ Kool Herc and "Rapper's Delight," hip hop and rap have become a billion-dollar worldwide phenomenon. Yet there is no definitive history of the genre-until now.Based on Chuck's long-running show on Rapstation.com, this massive compendium details the most iconic moments and influential ...

This comprehensive and groundbreaking book describes the effective use of songwriting in music therapy with a variety of client populations, from children with cancer and adolescents in secondary school to people with traumatic brain injury and mental health problems.The authors explain the specific considerations to bear in mind when working with particular client groups to achieve the best clinical outcomes. All the contributors are experienced music therapy clinicians and resear...

The guitarist and composer Pat Metheny ranks among the most popular and innovative jazz musicians of all time. In Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975-1984, Mervyn Cooke offers the first in-depth account of Metheny's early creative period, during which he recorded eleven stunningly varied albums for the pioneering European record label ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music). This impressive body of recordings encompasses both straight-ahead jazz playing with virtuosic small ensembles and...

Taking a cognitive approach to musical meaning, Arnie Cox explores embodied experiences of hearing music as those that move us both consciously and unconsciously. In this pioneering study that draws on neuroscience and music theory, phenomenology and cognitive science, Cox advances his theory of the "mimetic hypothesis," the notion that a large part of our experience and understanding of music involves an embodied imitation in the listener of bodily motions and exertions that are involved ...

Bob Dylan is the most influential songwriter of our time. His lyrics have inspired more than one generation to challenge received social and spiritual concepts about the world they inhabit. It is in this context that John Burns examines Dylan's 'big' lyrics, the 'vision songs' that have changed the way we see our world. Considering all Dylan's major albums from the 'sixties to the present, Burns looks at the ideas, philosophical, spiritual and musical, that influenced his vision and how he...