Music Theory for Computer Musicians Bk/Cd [Paperback]

Michael Hewitt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2008

Many DJs, gigging musicians, and electronic music producers understand how to play their instruments or make music on the computer, but they lack the basic knowledge of music theory needed to take their music-making to the next level and compose truly professional tracks. Beneath all the enormously different styles of modern electronic music lie certain fundamentals of the musical language that are exactly the same no matter what kind of music you write. It is very important to acquire an understanding of these fundamentals if you are to develop as a musician and music producer. Put simply, you need to know what you are doing with regard to the music that you are writing. Music Theory for Computer Musicians explains these music theory fundamentals in the most simple and accessible way possible. Concepts are taught using the MIDI keyboard environment and today's computer composing and recording software. By reading this book and following the exercises contained within it, you, the aspiring music producer/computer musician, will find yourself making great progress toward understanding and using these fundamentals of the music language. The result will be a great improvement in your ability to write and produce your own original music!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dr. Michael Hewitt was born in South Wales in the United Kingdom. He earned his bachelor of music degree at London University and a master's degree and doctorate at the University of North Wales, Bangor, where he specialized in musical composition. He is a classically trained musician, composer, lecturer, and author on musical subjects. He also writes classical scores as well as soundtracks for various television productions both at home and abroad. He is currently working as a music technology tutor at Coleg Harlech in North Wales.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (April 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598635034
• ISBN-13: 978-1598635034
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #4 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Recording & Sound

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mistakes lead to confusion when trying to learn, August 15, 2008

By 

Greg A. Tirevold (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music Theory for Computer Musicians Bk/Cd (Paperback)

I had high hopes for this title. A book about music theory that is centered around the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) rather than the more traditional approaches used. The layout of the book is a chapter topic, with examples and illustrations followed by a 2-3 page section of review and application questions.

My first gripe was that the answers for the chapters were not included with the book. They are a pdf file you must download from the publisher. Normally I'd be ok with this except that when I bought the book in late May 2008, a month after its release, there was no answer download available. My email to the publisher was never answered leaving me to wonder if there ever would be a set of answers. Not even a canned "form letter response" ever arrived which would have at least acknowledged a receipt.

The first few chapters were fairly easy and the "official" answers were not really needed to know if you had answered correctly. As I got to the end of Chapter 7 on Meter I ran into questions that, to me seemed to be misprints, as the listed meters did not match the illustration of notes. This was the formation of my second big gripe. Standard 4/4 time is easy to understand and read but the author delves into 9/16, 2/4 and 3/8 time which takes the new theory student (i.e. me) some time to figure out how to interpret. The questions in this chapter had duplications and errors that were very confusing as I was trying to understand the topic and answer the questions while the questions themselves contained notation errors.

The answer download is available now, some 5 months after the book's release and sure enough chapter 7 answers show that the questions posed there had several misprints and errors. By this time I had already gone on to other books on theory and been able to correctly identify the mistakes. The problem is many new students to music theory will simply hit a confusing brick wall at this point since they are trying to answer "fill in the missing note" questions that have the wrong time signature to start with.

Now had the answers been available at the time of publication or, better yet, included with the $35 book, when I ran across these areas of seeming mistakes I would have been able to save myself any confusion and see it was just a misprint. Instead I had to go to other sources of music theory instruction to see if I was mistaken or misunderstanding the book. Not good.

I went on after chapter 7, but as the material became more complex I became less confident in the questions even being asked correctly. It is hard to learn from a source that you believe contains printing or content errors because as a student you simply can't tell if what you are being told is right or wrong. As the complexity rises you rely on solid examples and questions to understand and without a set of answers available I put the book away and went elsewhere.

It is a shame because the layout and writing style were good. The book got off to a good start but the problems in Chapter 7 and lack of official answers made further progress difficult.

Since the answers are out now and show the corrected questions perhaps the 2nd edition of the book will be able to fix the mistakes. People with the 1st edition can see the mismatches right away now instead of wondering why they can't seem to get a firm grasp on a topic.

I blame the publisher and editor of the book rather than the author. The author seems to have a good command of theory and put together a timely book. Unfortunately the failure of the publishers and editors made this a waste of money for me at the time. If you buy it now, since the answers are out, you may have a much better experience with it. I feel a bit like a beta tester honestly.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple but clear explanation, September 8, 2009

By 

symon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music Theory for Computer Musicians Bk/Cd (Paperback)

I recommend this book as a reference to music teachers and everyone who is novice, but want to understand music. Not only this book helps readers who cannot play any instrument, as long as they know enough computer knowledge as self-described by the title, it also clearly explains the foundation of music. After making people understand the pitch and duration of notes on the staff system, it explains the way of measuring interval and then the definition or feature of each interval, base on semitone measurement. After assuring the readers about the perfect harmony of the fourth and the fifth interval, the author explained why this leads to the dominant and sub-dominant quality of the chord. The mode, the scale and the key signature are usually confusing, but the author explanation started from the simple C Major and then compares with A Minor, and then leads to the understanding of scaling system, major and minor of the seven diatonic, including the complex scale. Within the process, the author explained how to establish various key signatures based on a particular scale, not just the cycle of fifths.

Thanks again, to the author. This is really a godsend.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars; A must have for Computer Musicians, October 11, 2009

By 

DjSharperimage - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music Theory for Computer Musicians Bk/Cd (Paperback)

This is a really great book;

Very easy to understand since its uses the "piano roll" to explain the concepts; instead of just using the "sheet music format" alone like with traditional lessons

Just that one factor makes learning music theory a billion times easier

I highly recommend this for all computer musicians;

Reading this book was like getting a deluxe set of 1000 crayons when i used to have only 1 crayon to color with