Customer Reviews

Understanding the Formula of Music

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

 

 

From the Musician's Workshop

This instructional program first came out in 1998 on video, and has been reissued now on DVD. Dan Huckabee has gone to great lengths to demystify how music works. And if you're willing to listen to him, he will succeed in presenting this for you.

One of the more unusual aspects of this product is that there is no book. With no book to supplement the information. Huckabee challenged himself successfully with the task of presenting this information in a way that could be understood as you hear it. He suggests a series of exercises to put these musical concepts to work immediately. And when you apply what he says it can and will make sense. He effectively emphasizes using your ears. His insightful method blends a traditional theoretical approach to understanding music, with the grassroots aural tradition that is common among folk, blues, rock players.

This is a very extensive work, over two hours long covering elementary music fundamentals--scales, chords, harmony. And it expands into more advanced matters of ear training, inversions, intermediate chords, and arranging. In the DVD format, it immediately becomes not only user friendly, but fun to visit and revisit.

Huckabee himself has an extraordinary background--a music degree from the University of North Texas; 1976 National Dobro Champion: toured with the Allman Brothers: and has authored 250 instructional music products. Here's a lifetime of diversified and powerful musical experiences, distilled and clearly presented in two hours.--MM

I've been playing guitar and banjo for just about a year now. I own more than a half dozen instructional videos. Besides this Huckabee dvd, I have others by Kaufman, Grossman, Sokolow, Keith, and Star. Although I have found them all to be helpful, I would have to say that the most valuable of the lot is "The Formula of Music."

This set of lessons is very well thought out and executed. Huckabee emphasizes the fundamentals of music theory rather than providing tabs of particular songs. He shows how listening and discerning the orderly structure of music is critical to the development of a good musical understanding. Because his approach is truly foundational, it adds leverage to all one's other efforts to learn an instrument. By teaching the art of music rather than simply presenting particular songs, Huckabee fosters independence in his students.

Pay no attention to the review with the narration commments, I almost didn't buy this DVD becuause of it.

I'm really glad I did. The delivery is fine *and,* this is as user friendly and clear as you are likely to get .

It starts with a simple, step-by-step approach with enough review that you start to get it after a few minutes.

It's shot in split screen so you see keyboard and guitar examples as he's playing them.

Just have your keyboard or guitar there with you as you watch and hit pause when you want to practice a bit.

The basics are presented in keys and numbers so you see the relationship between chords, notes and keys easily.

This is a very thorough DVD. Moving from the basics to pitch, harmonies 4ths and 5ths...and it will definitely spice up your playing and create new ideas for songs.

I am not a professional musician, but this was a huge help for me in understanding how to become a better songwriter, and what to look for when trying to learn new songs.

Also, I got a keyboard for Christmas but didn't know how to play it. Though this is not a "how to play piano" dvd, I am learning enough to hack my way through a song.

The only critism I could give is that the song examples are not exactly current material. I assume this is to avoid copyright and royalty issues.

Regardless, the melodies are clear enough and the instruction is straight forward and to the point enough that you will understand music theory and if you play any instrument it will help your playing tremendously.

This is absolutely great. I'm 56 and this is putting a lot of things together for me. Absolutely clear and simple. Things are starting to make sense.

If your concerned about delivery don't get it. If it's about information try it.

It did more for me in regards to understanding the structure and "why" of music than the stack of books I previously purchased. It helped me to understand where chords come from. The majors and minors and their progressions.

I'm a beginner.

A good narrator is essential for tutorial videos like this. Unfortunately, this narrator 'teaches' this course with the passion of a 95-year-old pensioner on double dose sleeping pills. Really, I've never seen such a wooden delivery, with monotone voice throughout, strained smiles as he gets to the point in his detailed script where, presumably, it tells him to smile. And, worst of all, how irritating is it to have a narrator looking at you, but in fact looking a few inches below screen level reading (and I do mean reading - you can follow his reading almost with finger on the page) a script. Did he have to read word by word? Couldn't he have improvised and been a bit more spontaneous?

I honestly can't say much about the content, because I was sooooo put off by this dreadful, dreadful narrator.