Customer Reviews

Modern Music Systems: A New Perspective On Music Scales, Clefs, And Chords

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

 

 

Modern Music Systems is most interesting. The three systems offered are all practical. There are gems to be found in this short book. I suspect that once these systems have received enough exposure, they will be incorporated into most musicians toolboxes.

The System C Clef System invites little review: either you like it or you don't. Personally, I like it.

The Scale Phrase System is the system I like best. The reasoning is that the author simply took the traditional "tetrachord" system, which has been around for ages, and revamped it. The simplicity is striking. New students will be relieved to know that they don't have to memorize all of the old traditional scale names.

System 2000 is really interesting. This system denies the user any excuses for presenting an ambiguous chord symbol. The only thing that might irritate professionals who currently use their own systems is that System 2000 doesn't allow the use of "sharp" or "flat" signs with modifiers. This might annoy some performers, but teachers will probably want to start new students off correctly from the beginning, so they might like the choice of modifier symbols that are allowed.

Overall, I recommend this fine work. I think these systems will be here for a long time.

.

Totally misleading hype suckered me into buying this book. True rating negative 1 star.

This is *NOT* an easy way to learn anything.

The good news is that the book is small.

The bad news is that that makes it like a puzzle where you have to really dig to figure out what is going on unless you know so much already that yuo dont need this book.

.

This is a solution in search of a problem.

JLD provides his own nonstandard unique way of doing music notation.

Like the guy who invented a new keyboard for a typewriter that was "better". No thanks.

I touch type just fine with the current one. Not going to learn a new system cause you claim it is better. What good is a theoretical speed increase when I am limited by the crappy computer keyboards. I could touch type at 3x the speed on an electric typewriter with a good keyboard. What good would 4x be if the keyboard slows me down.

I just dont have time to learn some new music notation that nobody else uses. Would not do anything useful for me. And it was not easy for me either to figure it out.

.

If you know anything about music this book will not help you much , if at all.

If you don't know anything it will be like a grade school student in a PHD seminar. You will be lost and confused.

.

If everybody already used his method it may or may not be easier. But if you learn this you will be all alone and not be able to read music as everybody else shows it.

.

This book would be a fun read for a PHD professor of music. It might be used in a graduate seminar.

If you play for money (or even fun) this book will not help you at all.

.

JLD knows his stuff. But reading this book was like reading the math texts in graduate school that had been translated from Russian. Way too condensed and terse. Everything was an exercise left up to the student to fill in all the missing steps.

.

If you want to be impressed by his knowledge then read this book. If you want to learn something useful skip it.

If you want to know all the alternate names for the various modes/scales/whatever they are here.

The minor augmented carian has about a dozen listed. Whoop de doo. That was useful. I can now play music so much better. NOT!

.

The book includes his new notation. Useless.

Also Phrases. Incomprehensible to me. Maybe if you were a music major. If he meant scales , which is what they look like, he did a poor job of explaining them.

Finally a new chord notation. If you dont know one then this might be good for personal use. Unless you have to understand the *standard* notations.

.

This is not a useful learn it yourself guide.

.

This book is to show off JLDs knowledge and discuss his solution in search of a problem using his new esoteric methods.

.

If he had expanded the part on chords and really explained them then that might have been a useful pamphlet.

.

This book looks self published.

It has some errors. EG table 15-1 is missing.

At least the label is missing if it means the material preceeding the reference. Not sure.

Extremely precise definitions are used but in places he seems confuse them himself; At least he confused me.

The layout is spartan as is typical with self published paperbacks.

The typology is unpleasant except for the music notation which was done very well. Too bad it is so confusing.

.

Read this at the library if you must.

Not worth buying.

.

Modern Music Systems makes the study and understanding of chords, scales and clefs so easy. I wish I would have had access to this book when I first began studying piano years ago. It's written in plain, concise language and is so logical that it will be appreciated by students and teachers of music. Anyone who is open-minded to new ideas will be blown-away by the author's approach to scales, chords and clefs.

Debbie Beamer, owner, Mechanicsburg Mystery Bookshop

For those trained in standard music theory, this is a fun new view, if they like to see an object (or a piece of "truth") from various angles. Music theory is full of delightfully subtle (yet sometimes perplexing) similarities and contrasts. I've seen new theory texts mapped around one or two small changes in how to look at those. Mr. D'Agostino tackles three big ones head-on: standardized clef notation, a comprehensive approach to 8-note scales and a logical system of chord-labeling.

At age 12, I attempted my own rudimentary notation system, but gave it up when I ran into problems, and when I decided I'd spend more time trying to get others to use it than in perfecting it. Some will assume D'Agostino's book is the over-reach of a dabbler, proceeding without careful thought or investigation. They will be wrong. If his suggestions do not soon come into common use, I would be disappointed--as they would be most helpful--but not greatly surprised. We creatures of habit have to bump into improvements (or be replaced by new creatures who are willing to establish new habits).

My only criticisms of the book have to do with those "new creatures." There's much that's well-crafted for the novice, but there may be a few small problems as well. I wonder if a student would struggle to see a difference between the book's definition of "scale" and "mode," or if a young composer might be made to feel he cannot use more than 12 divisions per octave, or more than 8 notes for his own synthetic scales.

For a young tonal composer, the fascinating, colorful catalog of eight-note scales could be a deep well of inspiration. For the practicing musician or the old theory buff, the book is a useful and fun new view of old bits of truth, put together in a clever way.

This book is neatly laid out and well written. The author takes you step by step into what turns out to be three new systems for students. When I graduate as a music teacher, I would gladly teach these systems. I especially like the scale phrase system. I can't imagine an easier way to teach students to how to learn scales. there probably isn't one. The nice thing about the scale phrase system is that you don't need to memorize a whole bunch of archaic names. You just call them what they are.

The clefs are ok. Might take some getting used to. And the chord notation system will probably be appreciated by jazz musicians because they often use complicated chords that the ordinary musician wouldn't fool with. As the title states perspective, I thought this might turn out to be mostly jibber-jabber on theory, but, I was amazed how much useful tools and information are in this 1oo paged book.