Get and keep by you a good basic theory book

[Tim Fatchen (tim_fatchen)]

I still keep on my shelf Elsie Robson's (Australia) book on basic harmony, instruments of the orchestra, form in music etc. This was an old book (though still in print) for classical study when I started learning music, and that was fifty years ago. I ignore the harmonic miseries and use it for checking normal vocal ranges, and instrument ranges.

My problem is always writing songs for my voice range (2 octaves G to G, A on a good day, what a pity its not a good singing voice...) and then finding that I cant transpose the whole thing up or sideways to accommodate (eg) a soprano without making the accompaniment sound crappy.

It doesnt matter whose publication you use. Ferret through the op-shop or the Salvation army book piles and find a discarded theory book.

Alternatively find a useful page on the internet--http://www.garritan.com/ and their music courses is good--but you must print out the ranges! When you need to know where an instruments goes or not, you want to be able to flip a piece of paper immediately to hand, not go searching the internet.

www.flyingtadpole.com (http://www.flyingtadpole.com)
www.myspace.com/timfatchen (http://www.myspace.com/timfatchen)

[David Jacklin (dj)]

Hi, Tim:

Looking at my shelves, I see:

Russel Garcia, The Professional Arranger Composer, Books I and II (long out of print). Very good books.

Samuel Adler, The Study of Orchestration, Norton. Likewise.

Aldwell and Schachter, Harmony and Voice Leading, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. Dry as dust.

Robert W. Altman, Advanced Harmony, Prentice-Hall. Even drier.

Kent Wheeler Kennan, Counterpoint, Prentice-Hall. So dry it crumbles away as you read it.

And the be-all-and-end-all is Stravinisky's On Orchestration, which I can't find right now, so I don't know who published it.

And an amazing book from the late 1940s called Underscore by Frank Skinner which goes step by step, in story-form, through the creation of the score for a Hollywood movie, including page after page of examples of scoring and orchestration.

And a bunch more, most of which I've acquired from used book stores and such. Although I think I stole the two Prentice-Hall books from my siblings, who used them in their university days.

David

[Mark Walsen (markwa)]

Hello All,

Do you think this forum needs a section on Composing and Arranging Techniques?

Cheers
-- Mark

[Tim Fatchen (tim_fatchen)]

Arranging techniques possibly, Mark, but I think composing ends up such a personal thing that it would go way beyond the main purposes of the forum.

David, I'd challenge you to duel of theory books were it not that we're still half packed up from moving house and I don't know where that part of my library is (at least, I think I do but the cupboard isn't glass fronted and the doors are blocked by cartons anyway). I know I've got the Oxford Harmony vols 1&2 and the Oxford Students Harmony, multiple others, AND "A Concentrated Course in Traditional Harmony: With Emphasis on Exercises and a Minimum of Rules" by Paul Hindemith which I discovered far too late in life and which is the best shortcourse I've ever come across.

www.myspace.com/timfatchen (http://www.myspace.com/timfatchen)
www.flyingtadpole.com (http://www.flyingtadpole.com)

[David Jacklin (dj)]

Hi, Tim:

I wasn't actually challenging you, just offering a few ideas.

We moved ten years ago this summer and I STILL have boxes of books in the closet. No more shelf space or wall space for new shelves.

"A Concentrated Course in Traditional Harmony: With Emphasis on Exercises and a Minimum of Rules" by Paul Hindemith. Sounds like Hindemith could have made a fortune with it on an infomercial.

David

[Tim Fatchen (tim_fatchen)]

David, right now I find even opening a can of sardines a challenge ;) There are stresses (which I've got), but then, there are REAL stresses, (which I don't got and for which absence I'm grateful...) so I'll stop right here...

For anyone unwise enough to be reading this thread, and who can read musical notation (I would assume anybody heading to Notation.com!) and who wants to learn USEFUL NON-ACADEMIC theory, Hindemiths little book is recommended highly, without doubt the best for a non-fulltime professional I've come across. I found mine in a Salvation Army store for all of $2. It shows up occasionally on eBay (look worldwide).

I'm embarrassed that I never particularly liked his music! Still don't...