Customer Reviews

Music Notation (Berklee Guide)

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In this age of notation software, MIDI event views and direct wave editing, it's reasonable to ask: Is writing music manuscript by hand an archaic, dying art? I like to think not, though I have no illusions about the generation raised with electronic memo pads in their back pockets where I once carried a small spiral one.

Call me old-fashioned but the image of someone whipping out a piece of manuscript at a rehearsal or in between sets and suddenly scribbling down an idea for a harmony part or an extended jam interlude is just too familiar. When I'm writing something, with or without an instrument in hand, I find the less I have to "operate" as in clicking mouse buttons or touch pens the less distracted I am. Call it left brain intruding on right brain or whatever, we all have to find our own working
path.

Mark McGrain's "Music Notation" was written before such electronic possibilities became widespread, when communicating written musical ideas accurately and efficiently demanded correct and legible notation skills. I'd argue it's still a valuable skill to have and this book lays out the principles
in a thorough, progressive way, requiring little more than manuscript paper, pencil and straightedge.

Unlike that other notation classic "The Art of Music Copying" by Clinton Roemer, McGrain's book is geared not towards teaching you to be a professional "ink" music copyist for which, frankly, job opportunities are likely non-existent. Rather McGrain views notation skills as a valuable part of musicianship, whether in the context of studying, performing, arranging or composing.

Being a Berklee book, it's geared towards jazz instrumentation. I'd recommend Gardner Read if you're searching for a classical text, particularly 20th century techniques.

McGrain begins with rhythmic subdivisions and pitch notation within what he calls the notational grid. He combines micro-detail (how to draw note ovals and stems) with the larger
context of spacing and beaming notes in bars to achieve a uniform appearance across the score page. Articulation
and phrasing markings, tempo, divisi parts, everything you might encounter on a jazz orchestral (and frankly, quite a lot of classical scores) is not just covered, but explained.

And that's a key part of the justification here: notation software often provides you with a "how to" but often
neglects the "why to", many times forcing you into a particular formating that's counter intuitive to the way you conceptualize the music. Yes, you can often jump through hoops to get the
notes precisely the way you want them, but without the knowledge of why particular conventions are used, it's easy to blindly (blandly?) accept an often compromised solution.

Years ago there was an exhibit called "Settling New Scores" in New York at the Frick Library.
It included a gallery of music manuscripts from a variety of 20th century composers. The sheer beauty, variety, and personality that came through those pages was as impressive as any "visual art" show I'd been to. Sure, music will always be first and foremost about the ear; but as they say on the Food Network, "Presentation counts".

I was first introduced to this well laid out text as a student at Berklee. I found the step by step guidelines to be very helpful. Mark guides the reader through the process of drawing each notation symbol with a no-nonsense easy to follow approach. Each chapter concludes with a comprehensive exercise sheet. I continue to use the book as a reference text everyday.

Mark McGrain's book is the ideal reference for the musician needing access to the rules of standard musical notation in exact detail. McGrain thoroughly describes the fundamentals of contemporary notation, progressing carefully from the basics into advanced techniques, giving helpful and well-chosen illustrations of every rule along the way. Most critically, the hierarchy of rules and exceptions is laid out in plain English: this is as easy to follow as it gets.

Topics covered include: clefs, note-heads, rests, stem length/direction, the logic of accidentals, barlines, time signatures, tempo markings, flags and beams, placement of ties, holds and pauses, repeats, chord symbols, divisi parts, dynamic markings, articulation marks, ornaments, score layout, instrumental transpositions, and then some. The table of contents is nicely organized so as to allow one to quickly & easily find a specific rule in question while one is writing.

This is the kind of guide we expect to be logical, consistent, thorough, and concise, so that our creativity doesn't get delayed by technical questions for too long; this book succeeds admirably on all counts. Indispensable for the working composer/musician. Highly recommended for its practical utility.

Well, giving the book a negative review due to dislike for the teacher seems rather immature. For my part, I had the book long before I had taken a class with Mark, and found him to be a friendly, down-to-earth guy. That said, I had already found this book to be the absolute reference for all things notation. It's got a wealth of information, and is easily understood and useful for years to come.

This is one of those books you wish you came across twenty years earlier. I am not a professionally trained musician, but have been playing music for nearly 28 years, now, and reading (but not writing) music for the past 15 years. Just like a semi-literate native language speaker who kind of knows what's right and wrong by intuition, but still makes a lot of grammar and style mistakes when writing, I found that I could distinguish well written music from that poorly written, but couldn't tell you why.

Recently I was faced with learning five or six tunes and had to make charts for them. Enter this book. It's as thorough a grounding that you will get in terms of the grammar of writing music. The philosophy is that written music is a graphical language, with agreed upon grammar, style, and usage. These rules are spelled out wonderfully in this text, and ample examples of both good and bad practices are shown.

Having used the book as a guide in preparing these recent charts, I have noticed an immediate improvment in my copying skills. Higly recommended to both students and professionals alike.

I acquired this book a few weeks back, eagerly digging in to it expecting to find bundles of information on complex rhythmic notations, advanced articulations, etc. Based on the reviews and the fact that it bears the name "Berklee," I was expecting it to be dense and highly academic. It turned out to be fairly basic, more of an overview of/introduction to notation, with many of the examples clearly swiftly altered and not stringently proofread computerized notation.

I don't mean to say it is not a good text: as a basic introduction to notation, as a functional guide for the average performer it is a perfectly acceptable tool. However, as a current Jazz and Contemporary Music student at my cheap, low-end, local state college, I was hoping to find something more advanced than our notation course/texts, and instead found that the Berklee text is far more more basic. After reading it, my guess would be that it is used as a compendium in addition to more in depth texts in the Berklee program.

Anyway, for those looking for helpful reading on music notation, I would suggest as an introduction the "Norton Manual of Music Notation," as an advanced text Kurt Stone's "Music Notation in the 20th Century," and as far as applying this basis to computer notation programs, the help/reference sections incorporated should contain all relevant information.

Excellent book to start with. Altough it is not comprehensive and the exercises get you nothing more than started it covers all the basics well.

Excellent source for any notation questions you may have. I took Mark's class at Berklee in about 1991. Great. "A customer" does Mark and his excellent book a disservice. I enjoyed your class Mark... you were tough but fair. The best kind of teacher.
One thing that stuck in my head from your class had nothing to do with notation. You said words to the effect, that as students of music we should strive for greatness not only in music but in our relationships with others. Music may be of some comfort in our lives but it's our friends and family we all should remember to make time for. You cynical Sage... HA!

Last I heard about you Mark you were in New Orleans (Saw the Globe article about musicians and health care in New Orleans). Hope your rockin' good n' strong wherever you may be.
Peace, Harry Fix

It`s very basic but this book will correct you all your faults in music notation, if you are a teacher or arranger you have to buy this.

The book was very well written and easy to understand. A must read for persons wishing to progress in music. I highly recomend this book