Customer Reviews

Inside the Music - Guide to Composition (Softcover)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very readable and accessible book for anyone. It covers the basics in an unintimidating way and has a chapter on composition and improvisation. It doesn't assume the reader has a Masters degree in music. It's very good and I highly recommend it to anyone.

For those of you who haven't heard of Dave Stewart, the author of this book, he was the keyboard player for Egg, Hatfield and the North, National Health, and Bruford, all seminal British progressive rock bands. There are few people with better credentials to write a book like this. Want to write music that's harmonically and melodically interesting? Get this book.

This book is similar to Mick Goodrick's "Advancing Guitarist" in some ways. The tone is generally humorous and easy to understand, and Stewart treats music as something to be explored. The written examples are great, but they're given to provide a starting point for your own explorations. There are plenty of books that give exhaustive listings of scales and voicings. This isn't one of them. Stewart distills the material down to what he finds useful and what sounds good to his ear, and focuses on giving you a good understanding of the concepts.

The five sections on chord voicings are pure gold.

Highly recommended!

After many attempts at "understanding" written music or music theory I can actually say that this book has brought it alive for me.

This was the perfect book for me at the time I needed it. It doesn't bog you down on stupid complications or mood points. Provides just enough info to teach you what you need to know and how to find out more on your own (how to figure it out for yourself).

Light hearted, easy to read and understand, and loads of info, coupling that with Stewart's humor, made this the first really influential book that helped me study, understand, and appreciate music.

This is the follow-up book to "The Musician's Guide To Reading and Writing Music". It is written well and it's easy to grasp.