Book ref on Sister site

"Music Theory: From Absolute Beginner To Expert: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and Learning Music Theory Effortlessly"

Obviously no hype in that title!

So, that must be it 'game over - everyone shut up - everyone go home - not another word from anyone!"

Joking aside, it's quite a nice book!

version on sis site is .epub (not my favourite) but search on pdfdrive dot com for a nicer pdf format version.

 

1 IACP Institute for Art and Culture Perception, in Paris. Founded by Alan Silva
2 I asked and received help. Even so,I was there with a much more open mind than to answer my questions. As questions are always limited by what you already know.
I learned a lot there, really very good teachers at that time (I know that the institute had changes later, and some say it was for the worst).

On a side note, I play and like all sort of music, none of the things I studied lead me to close any part of my musical mind.
I have composed what is called progressive transe and I love to do it. I love 1 chord funk music, and I compose fusion funk too, in almost all genres there is a song, or more, that I like ...

I think one trap is to get into theory without the ears. You have to listen to music. And music is not only chords and melody, it's rhythm too, and in songs the text is important too, interpretation is also fundamental.
So for me there is no such thing as bad genres, only I like some pieces more than other.

(I could explain more, but sorry, I got a play ...

 

Last edited: Dec 18, 2019

I dont know who you met, but all the jazz musicians I met or I still play with where / are quiet humble people.
There is a place with jazz jam sessions once a moth here, (not American style, so there is no accompanying band, it's true all jam), and one night a guy jumped on the scene joined the others with an electric guitar, begun to play a chord, and I could see that the others musician where expecting what chord progression he was going to play... But the guy stood on one chord... There was no problem, all the other guys begun to jam on this chord only... Pushing the rhythm ... Everything fine.

Second example, I spent time with Elvin Jones, and he was a very very humble man ...

What thing I know for sure, is that in general, people who Show Off, are blatant, are the one who know less. That's why they feel the need to show the little they know.

 

Agree 100%

 

I need to report Olymoon to Olymoon for breaking this 'game over rule'

 

This is hilarious! A friend of mine played me a very long minimal techno track he'd been writing years ago and asked for my opinion. I replied it was maybe a little boring. He turned around and said "ahhh that's because you're not listening to it right!".

 

@retroboy, You might be on to something here - thank you.
Maybe this is where I'm going wrong with MMJ theory posts??? I haven't been reading them right.
I've been silly enough to feed them into my eyes and brain. Maybe I should have been stuffing them up my butt instead.
In that proper context maybe they'd be less out of place.


====

Update: experiment completely failed; it got splattered out immediately

 

Last edited: Dec 18, 2019

I have been a performer my entire life. I come on here in Christmas break times, sometimes not at all. If you truly play then maybe spending time here is better served doing gigs and rehearsals.

 

You silly bastid , thanks for sharing I like it.

Hopefully it's okay to say this without you getting mad.
( Possibly?)
I have presented the theory in a medium where people can apply it to what their working on .
In other words instead of showing examples with 1 single rhythm component attached to a Melody attached to embellishments,
I made it with no set rhythm so they could use their own. ( And hopefully many variations per melody )

 

Last edited: Dec 18, 2019

Wow love to have a conversation with you about your experiances in those areas sometime.

 

After reading Olymoon's life story, I'm finished. I'll be totally washed up. Sir Olymoon, have pity on me; I was blind and deaf!

Loved you guys...

 

For those of you who are german natives and want to get into the basics of music theory:

http://lehrklaenge.de/index.html

The presentation is a bit outdated but it's well-structured and easy to comprehend to get you started.

@Ad Heesive: Thanks for the e-Book recommendation. This will be my hollidays lecture.

 

Last edited: Dec 18, 2019

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/g...man-culture-german-giants-of-classical-music/

I really enjoyed my time in Germany more than any other location .
The people are great, the culture was great.
The red light was great ( oops
Circa 2000
I worked in signal encryption satellite communications during that time.

 

Last edited: Dec 18, 2019

From my time working in information systems dealing with de encryption,
I have carried over some of these principles in conceptual framework dealing with music theory
However what the real challenge is ( for me anyway)

Is to take complex information system and present it's inner workings in a easily digestable way to a regular musicians.

As an example of this process I will present to you a demonstration .

Here is a tool for you to instantly create any major KEY in 3 seconds ( now matter where your currently at within your theory development).

Here is the secret .

Starting on the note C create a wholetone scale .
Step1 .CDEF#G#A#

Next begin 1 semitone higher on C# and once more create a wholetone scale .
C#D#FGAB

Step3 take the first 3 notes of the first wholetone scale .
CDE
Take the last 4 notes of the second wholetone scale
FGAB
Last step connect them .
CDEFGAB

This formula works starting on any note ! .

Watch .

We want the key of F# major .

Step 1
F# G# A# CDE
Step1
G A B C# D# F
Step 3.
F#G#A#
Step4
BC#D#F
Finished. F#G#A#BC#D#F

Using this information system principle of breaking code .
You can now create any major key in 3 seconds or less.

( A note about this conceptual framework information system. We are taking 12 equal spaced values ( frequency per second HZ
Representing this with these symbols
CC#DD#EFF#GG#AA#B
The notes with pound are representing the black keys in this layout and presentation. However you do want to be aware that enharmonic equivilents accidentals have a specific use in music )

 

Last edited: Dec 18, 2019

Here is another tool you can use that is fast simple and easy ( derived from information encryption)

Before we begin I just want to describe tonic and dominant functions quickly in harmony.
Dominant is very tense a moving motion towards a tonic. Tonic is still .dominant is motion towards a tonic.
The most simple example is G7 dominant
GBDF this sound is tense and is moving to
Cmajor CEG.
However the first concept that we need to know is that a tonic being still is allowed to exist anywhere anytime you want in your music.
Next, because a tonic is still you wouldn't really be able only have that because without any motion the harmony feels flat like nothing has happened.
Here is an example in the key of C major
Where we only have tonic chord progression.
All these chords are same function so nothing has happened yet in terms of harmonic motion .

Emin7/ Cmaj6/ Amin7/ Cmaj7/

Now if you hear this sounds are changing yes ,however the music is still no motion .
( So harmonic motion is not the same as hearing sounds change or fast vs slow notes or tempo
It is really a dimension of itself .)

Now we know a tonic can exist anytime
The next thing to understand is that any tonic can be expanded to include a dominant chord from it's 5th.
Ex 1....Cmaj7 CEGB exists as level 1 detail.
Ex2.....Cmaj7 CEGB exists allowed to add G7

Level 1 ... Cmajor
Level 2..... G7 to Cmajor .

Level 2 is simply expanding on level 1 .
( A more detailed version.)

You see how this works is that C major on its own is still and relaxed .
However when you have G7 then Cmaj7
What you are doing is creating motion so when you reach Cmaj7 it makes a powerful impact .

When can look at this information in another way.
Imagine a motion picture film a movie.

Step 1 you layout your main character your champion all their attributes . ( Tonic in music
( But if the movie stopped there you would feel like nothing happened , )

Step 2 once champion main character is established the film will create a obstacle with the villian or horrible circumstance to overcome or a journey with lessons to learn . ( Dominant in music

Step 3 main character established villian established. The last step is having the hero defeat the villian ( Dominant to tonic )
Leaving the viewer of the film feeling satisfied in that victorious moment .

This is how tonic and dominant work .


Now I am sorry for that long explanation , but let's now look at the code breaker secret I have for you based on the last comment above .

Step 1 create a wholetone scale .
GABC#D#F
Step 2 create a wholetobe scale 1 semitone higher
G#A#CDEF#

Now, any dominant chord created from placing the root off the first wholetone scale ( lets say G7

Resolves to any major or minor chord which the root is created from the second wholetone scale.
Let's say Cmajor .

Now let's see some examples


Dominant chords
GABC#D#F

Tonics
G#A#CDEF#

G7/ Cmajor .....G7/ Cminor........
A7/ Dminor......A7/Dmajor
B7/Eminor.......B7/Emajor

Those ones we know but look at these.


Dominant chords
GABC#D#F

Tonics
G#A#CDEF#


G7/...A#minor
C#7/..... Eminor
D#7/ Cminor

Any dominant top row resolves to any major or minor in the bottom row.


Lastly let's discuss how to implement the first portion. Where we discussed tonic and dominant .

When building progressions you think of your result then add in how to get there .
So the way to implement the above information ,
Is to take anything your working on where you have a tonic coming up but you have 2 bars before it.

Let's say you have this that your playing normally .


Emin7/ Emin7/ Cmaj/ Cmaj/ Amin/Amin/

This is the initial form .

Now , we are going to use the above code breaker secret.

We are going to take the middle section remove that first Cmaj / and replace it with any of these dominant chords .


Dominant chords
GABC#D#F

Tonics
G#A#CDEF#

Because we know that our Cmajor is in the second row it means we can take any dominant from first row .

Let's select F7 for now
Starting form
Emin7/ Emin7/ Cmaj/ Cmaj/ Amin/Amin/

Insert F7
Emin7/ Emin7/ F7/ Cmaj/ Amin/Amin/

Or insert D#7
Emin7/ Emin7/ D#7/ Cmaj/ Amin/Amin/

Or insert B7
Emin7/ Emin7/ B7/ Cmaj/ Amin/Amin/

Now that we have tried it in that small instance

We can do it for the other tonics in this progression

G7/ Emin7/ F7/ Cmaj/ B7/Amin/
Or
C#7/ Emin7/ D#7/ Cmaj/ F7/Amin/

Please excuse the length of this comment box .
It is because I took into account considerations suggested in the comments.
I want to describe each aspect enough to understand while also moving on to get to something exciting provocative and creative and useful. I hope you enjoy this and it inspires you maybe in a different direction than you are use to .
Remember, apply this to things you already are familiar with to see the power of it.

( Please note that a further in depth explanation of how any particular dominant chord over a tonic , differentiates between a dominant chord and "Dominant" function.
For example in the KEY of C major Bb7 or A#7 as I write sometimes is s dominant chord but a subdominant function related to the C minor keys Fmin chord . Another example is F#dim7 is the #IV diminished a Subdominant function for C major KEY this means that if you take F#dim7 F#ACD# , the 4 dominants contained in it F7, G#7, B7, D7 are all subdominant non Diatonic substiutions related to C major . Therefore it is important to distinguish between the name " dominant chord" and Dominant function. However this information does not negate the above comment which keeps a simplified form .
All it means is that some dominant chords are a dominant function to say C major ( any tonic )
And other dominant chords are a subdominant function to that tonic.I wanted to keep the information focused on putting new things into real use that's why I didn't go into a long explanation about how each dominant chord functions to each tonic otherwise it would be too difficult to get the to point , however please explore these deeper understandings . "

 

Last edited: Dec 18, 2019

in the US you need a suit to play jazz.....i guess they want classiness of 1920ies but looking more like white's2.0 with their slicked hair..

i guess in the us they are so dress code afine cause they want to seperate from this and that...

 

Last edited: Dec 18, 2019

for instruments...mhh...i guess yes but james brown didnt could read notes

for electronic music its subtile...

 

Hello friend , hope it's alright to respond thank you for your thoughts.

With the suit thing, I can only speak from my perspective I want to wear a suit to play jazz because it's about the music not me or being celebrity or rebellion the focus is on the music itself as top priority .

There's people all different goals short term and long term done goals related to music
And lots of goals not connected to music at all like celebrity it just depends .
To me professional music different than popular music ( whether selling self and music as product )
Or if the music is purely artistic expression or a mix .is the goal to get better at music everyday!
To learn all about it ?
Or is music secondary to just selling something where your around people and performers?
James Brown only had small amount about him music related .the rest was about culture message idea .for his goals he did not need a whole lot of music

 

Last edited: Dec 18, 2019

It's a new world ,
Everyone can film things and record sounds .
Almost 8 billion humans can do this now very easily.
So what do you want to do with that?
There are many paths.
Do you want to
Use things as tools where being known and respected culturally is the focus ?
Use those things to dedicate to music itself ?
Do you want to have music be a vehicle for your personality ? ( We're Were you and other people are the actual goal music just another tool to accomplish it )
Do you want yourself to be a vehicle for music ?
Studying learning everything you can about music , striving to make music on its own terms the best you can ?
There's so many ways to go with it however , whatever you decide is going to impact how shallow or deep you want to or need to go .
If you just want to make music that's danceable , you really don't need a advanced understanding about anything .
If you listen to the billboard charts and want something like that lifestyle there's no need to focus on music Barely at all just ficus on personality making connections image popularity basically human attributes culture etc.
If you listen to Bach and Beethoven and all the greats throughout history you want to be a composer and performer who makes music of that caliber then you need to deep study as a lifestyle every day and make sacrifices to cultural things etc.
This is why it's so important to set your goals know what you want , even at the level of go start recording a song after you have written the song and got it perfectly set in mind how it needs to be.
Do you want to create already existing music ?
Do you want to create music thats never existed or heard before ?
Make a more generic music?
Make a more original music ?

If you build a shack in the woods to camp a night then your fine that it's just disposable.
If you want to build a giant pyrimid out of granite and stone it's because you want it to last eons.

 

Last edited: Dec 18, 2019

thx for reply didnt want offend someone