41–50 of 60 posts
Entire text as a 53 MB PDF: https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/hw/MusicTheory-Aug-2020.p... (from https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/ )
Entire text as a 53 MB PDF: https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/hw/MusicTheory-Aug-2020.p... (from https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/ )
Tangential but is there a reason Latex documents have such huge margins by default? Nearly 500 pages that could have happily fitted into 300.
Essentially, the theory is that longer lines are harder to read. A US Letter or A4-width page is just too wide for normal body text size according to most professional typographers. LaTeX provides typographically sound defaults.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have you seen Yogev Gabay's analyses of prog metal tunes? He did one on Bleed [1]. He uses the terms "guest" and "host" to describe complex time in the songs he analyses. So in Bleed for example, I think he'd say the "host" was 4/4, but the "guest" is definitely not. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcsAAPdJTBE
Oh looks interesting, I haven't seen that. Thanks!
May be it is just me, but I am yet to find a single book of music theory that really starts from the basics. Most pretend to, but start talking about famous clefs and what not, quickly moving on to examples that for the life of me I cannot follow the relevance of. In this book for example, in the basics chapter, he talks about .. oh there are only 7 named notes, so why does piano have 88 keys?.. I really don't think…
As for the 88 keys, Steinway once produced a grand piano with that many keys and after that other manufacturers copied this and it became the standard.
But before then the Harpsichord was mostly standardized around 60 keys (which is why you can play most of Bach on a 61 key keyboard just fine, and why many organ keyboards are only 61 keys or sometimes even less wide).
There are also larger keyboards, for instance the Bosendorfer Imperial has 97 keys, there is also a 92 key model.
And narrower pianos exist(ed) as well, very rarely you'll see these with anywhere from 64 keys and up.
So it's like many other things in music, a combination of practicality, standardization, fashion, price/economy, but not necessarily any underlying hard logic as to why it should be that way.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Leonard Bernstein has some lectures that might be helpful. This one has some good stuff about why notes an octave apart sound similar, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fHi36dvTdE
I strongly urge people to skip this and not keep suggesting it. It amounts to Bernstein being an outlier in bothering to even ask questions in the right direction while few others were doing so, and he gives lots of erroneous and speculative answers based on having no access to the rest of ethnomusicology and music cognition and other understandings that have developed in the decades since.
May be it is just me, but I am yet to find a single book of music theory that really starts from the basics. Most pretend to, but start talking about famous clefs and what not, quickly moving on to examples that for the life of me I cannot follow the relevance of. In this book for example, in the basics chapter, he talks about .. oh there are only 7 named notes, so why does piano have 88 keys?.. I really don't think…
1. Watch a lecture series that focuses on listening to music
I have been watching the following lecture series: Listening to Music with Craig Wright. This is provided as a free resource from Yale on YouTube. It will answer pragmatic questions (e.g. why 88 keys) you may have encountered.
2. Learn through workbook exercises
Believe it or not, the keyboard offers a convenient interface to learning music theory. The individual keys fit in your hand. Pressing on them makes a consistent sound. In many ways, you don't have to worry about the logistics of making noise.
With that being said, by using a simple keyboard (e.g. digital), you can start the following workbook series: Basics of Keyboard Theory by Julie McIntosh Johnson. This series is available on Amazon. You can start with BKTPREP (preparatory) or BKT1 (level one).
The idea here is to learn something new, in each lesson, and then test your knowledge by working through the workbook. What this series does is it focuses on the foundations of Music Theory without throwing you deep in the water. Like math, you don't progress unless you understand where you've been.
3. Learn an instrument with a teacher
Having a teacher will help you tremendously. While they may focus your attention on the instrument, they will also introduce you to music that applies what you are learning in theory. As you progress, you will start to identify patterns the composer uses in their music. This in turn will correlate to what you have learned in music theory.
4. Compose your own music
Just like the workbook exercises above, you will understand music more by writing it. Maybe you came up with a catchy tune while fiddling around with your instrument. What other notes would sound good with it? How should this catchy tune start and end? How can we make it sound unexpected or delightful?
Always have a goal in mind when learning music theory. Many times, that will motivate you to progress further.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tangential but is there a reason Latex documents have such huge margins by default? Nearly 500 pages that could have happily fitted into 300.
To quote Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Stlye: "Anything from 45 to 75 characters is widely regarded as satisfactory length of line for a single-column page set in a serifed face in a text size. The 66-character line (counting both letters and spaces) is widely regarded as ideal." Essentially, the theory is that longer lines are harder to read. A US Letter or A4-width page is just too wide for normal…
A gentle reminder that this is a theory of music, not "the" music theory, or more specifically Western European music theory, rooted in 17th century Germany. A problem for many "21st century classrooms" is how they VASTLY over-state the universality and "superiority" of this form of music theory. Thing about the snooty elitist vibes of the "classical" chamber music world, then realize that almost every base assumptio…
Also as an alternative, the jazz piano site has a really good intro to music theory from a jazz perspective, including videos demonstrating everything in each lesson.
A gentle reminder that this is a theory of music, not "the" music theory, or more specifically Western European music theory, rooted in 17th century Germany. A problem for many "21st century classrooms" is how they VASTLY over-state the universality and "superiority" of this form of music theory. Thing about the snooty elitist vibes of the "classical" chamber music world, then realize that almost every base assumptio…
True, but even beyond world music, as far as I can tell there is no widely accepted academic theory of modern production technique, where note-based harmonic language is secondary to general creativity in sonic landscape. This is a large part of what most people find interesting in music today, that is popular music production for distribution via sound systems, which arguably represents the current pinnacle of evolu…