Customer Reviews

Music Theory for Computer Musicians Bk/Cd

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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

I've been composing music using a DAW of some sort for the better of seven years. I've been making music for ten years. My instrumentation skills and production/engineering skills are completely self-taught. Sound like you? BUY THIS BOOK! This book is phenomenal. I highly recommend it. It demystifies music theory, and now I look at music that I make and listen to in an entirely different way. Because I'm vigorously self-taught, the first seven or so chapters were just refreshers. The same kind of stuff you'd find in tutorials and music production magazines occupy the first half of the book. The pace starts at such a slow understandable rate that I would recommend Music Theory for Computer Musicians to someone that has only been using a DAW for a month, and that is all they know about music, period. For the rest of us, about halfway through is when the complexities start stacking, but as long as you've been paying attention, you can take it all in and digest it all. For anyone that doesn't really understand music, they just get by with what feels right (such as myself), this book certainly helps you look at everything that has sounded good musically and figure it all out. I am so glad I read this. The exams at the end of each chapter also are extremely helpful for gauging what you already know and what you are learning. Now I can talk theory, see theory and most importantly hear theory.

This book fills a gap between a traditional music theory course & today's 'computer musician.' Many young 'up and coming' musicians start with a downloaded version of Fruity Loops and often don't know much about music theory -- some never will. As of today's date, there are 17,955,505 free songs to listen to on myspace music.

That's a lot of competition, and understanding music theory & song structure is essential for anyone hoping to realize any income from their music.

For the disciplined student, this book is a godsend. Because it is interactive with computer software like Propellerheads Reason program and other 'piano roll based' midi sequencers, it is easier to digest than more traditional theory titles.

Lastly: For more traditionally trained OR experienced musicians looking to improve their songwriting & theory chops I would recommend all of Rikki Rooksby's books available here on amazon. They cover a gamut of songwriting topics and are all very well written. Like anything, you only get out what you put in to this craft.

It does a person no good if he/she can run a music program, but don't know how to write/ compose music. Out of the entire books I have read and purchased at Amazon, Michael Hewitt's Composition for the Computer Musician and its companion Music Theory for the Computer Musician is the most important to me... It is one thing to know how to run a music program and a totally another thing to write music. This is a must if you don't have real musicians ...

Totally awesome and recommended to the highest level

I have tried a few times to get into music theory yet the books I used in the past seemed so dense. This book is very clear and easy to read with great examples that are supplemented by the clips on the CD. This has jump started my music. I would highly recommend this title.

This is a great book. I actually just bought it because it was suggested along with a textbook I was purchasing for school, and I thought it sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a shot. Turns out is was a worthwhile gamble!

Hewitt takes a very interesting (and down-to-earth) approach to theory in this book. The premise seems to be that with the influx of computer musicians, not only is it easy to skate by without theory knowledge, it's also possible these days to not even be related to music in the form of sheet music and the printed staff. He therefore gives many of the examples throughout the book both in the form of notated music, but also in relation to the piano roll view that is common in so many music software programs (he uses Reason for examples in the book).

For me, this was invaluable, since, for whatever reason, I had never done much to connect the two realms in my head. For me, I was always either reading and writing sheet music, or I was programming music (which I usually did by ear and not by considering the theory of it) and the two worlds existed independently of one another. This book caused me to work with them side by side, which bridged the gap and strengthened my ability in both areas in the process.

It's a quick read if you're willing to work a bit (there are workbook style activities at the end of every chapter). There are indeed some typos and some strange mistakes in the answer key for the activities (which exists as a somewhat difficult-to-find pdf appendix downloadable from the publisher's website) to the extent that you might think you were crazy or didn't "get this theory thing after all" if you believed every answer in the answer key (there are only a handful of these types of mistakes, but they are confounding when you first encounter them). But those small grievances aside, this book has some really great content and is worth the trouble.

I find this book has helped me with many of my theory problems and use it regularly.
As an average piano player and BBC award winning new music producer, using such programs
as Reason, Cubase and Pro Tools i find i can quickly ascertain the sort of sound I'm looking for, using
the scales and chords described in this book. With a now greater understanding i have created more
complex and intricate tracks using larger 7th and 9th chords and going from major to minor modes to great
effect. I don't feel i will need another theory book other than Composition for Computer Musicians
by the same author which i feel gives a complete a very good level of theory to add to your music
producing skills with of-course practice and hard work.

Full disclosure: I did not sit down and read this book cover to cover.

I got this book because I have at best a loose grasp of reading sheet music. Because I compose music electronically using a computer and software, I never have a need to read sheet music. I got this book hoping it would express concepts in terms of a software piano roll as opposed to the sheet music notation given in most music theory books.

Wrong. While there are a few piano roll screen shots in this book, there are many, many more traditional sheet music graphics used to illustrate the musical concepts. Very disappointing.

In my personal opinion, this book offers very little "for computer musicians" and you are better off just getting any standard music theory book. I recommend Edly's Music Theory for Practical People or The Everything Music Theory Book.