The best Music Composition books: crowd reviews

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Which YouTube reviewer though? What's their level of experience? How do they approach the topic of orchestration? Do they teach pupils orchestration?

Fux is a classic but I wouldn't recommend anyone try and learn species counterpoint from it because there are far better books on the market and "Learning via Socratic dialogue", while a very old technique, is a crappy way to present material when compared with modern teaching methods.

TBH I would say what's crucial is not the book you have but the teacher you have and the approach you take. If what you want is to learn "how to orchestrate in the style of ..." that's going to demand one approach. If OTOH you want to learn - for want of a better term - "general orchestration" that's going to require a different approach.

If you want a book on individual instruments then this is perfectly fine. You will get some of that in Adler & Blatter but like most course textbooks they have to strike a balance between various factors - in the case of orchestration individual instruments / instrument families, combinations of instruments and historical approaches to orchestration.

Personally I found Adler just fine (think I had a copy of Blatter as well at one point - probably gathering dust somewhere). It's not perfect but I don't think there is such a thing as the perfect book on any given musical subject. Even if it were the size of an encyclopaedia that would still be both a blessing and a curse - sometimes (especially when you're just getting started with something) what you need is less detail rather than more. And then there's the fact that technical approaches for instruments develop over time so whatever you have will slowly get more and more out of date.

(MUSIC) A while ago, I uploaded a link of what I thought to be the complete released music for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. (Released OSTs, Released Complete Score, Offical Concert album). It has come to my attention that there is one more LOTR album out there. There is an official LOTR soundtrack book, which comes with a CD, an album called the LOTR Rarities Archive. It has early demos and themes on it.

I would like to complete my collection, and the collection of others. While I have been able to hunt down elusive rare soundtrack albums, this one continues to evade me. Here is the link to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Music-Lord-Rings-Films-Comprehensive/dp/0739071572/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1506027062&sr=8-4&keywords=lord+of+the+rings++soundtrack+book If anybody out there has it, I would appreciate it if it was shared. Thanks!

Dude, what is this, 1933? Or 1983?

You have a computer, download Musescore or some other free notation program and use it!

There are hundreds examples of "staff paper" online you can just print.

"Music Manuscript Paper" has been around since like the 1600s or something.

You can still buy it online probably, but usually you can find it for free and just print it out.

http://www.musictheory.org.uk/manuscript_paper.php

https://www.amazon.com/Standard-Wirebound-Manuscript-Paper-Green/dp/0881884995

96 pages for 5 bucks, delivered to your door - by drone if you're lucky! If you've got a wallyworld nearby, the man in the brown truck probably delivers to you from Amazon.

I just looked on the 2nd stencil and it even has "customers also bought" - manuscript paper.

If you want to use old-school manuscript paper, forget the stencil and do it by hand, learning how to write neatly and make legible "calligraphy" by hand. The stencils are useless becuase they only come in one size.

But you really need to look into a Music Notation program in this day and age. It can be as simple as clicking notes onto the staff with a mouse, and the result then looks like professional published music in many cases (the more you pay, the better looking it gets!).

For getting good sound out of a home studio, I've found this book to have a lot of solid info beyond all of the basics that you'll find everywhere online: https://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Home-Recording-Second-Coryat/dp/1423454464/

I just have a resource for you.

The first is the Essential Dictionary of Orchestration. This is the best $10 I ever spent. It has the sounding and written ranges for just about every orchestral instruments you'd ever care to write for, in addition to a bunch of other qualities the instrument has that a composer should be aware of when writing for it.

Seriously I can't imagine being a composer without this thing in my back pocket. Like I said, best $10 I ever spent.

I had an entire Music Composition class where the textbook was literally just about these films' score. It was insane to see how many motifs there were!

I met a very knowledgeable organist/harpsichordist/composer/contrapuntist/computer scientist on Musescore. I had uploaded an attempted neo-Baroque composition years ago rife with errors. Looking back, it sounded absolutely horrible, and he helped me learn counterpoint, harmony, and everything else I needed. I owe it all to Bernie! Virtually everyone who wants to learn counterpoint at least considers reading this great book.

Please just buy this book.

It’s only $10, and it contains as much information as you need, which is far more than any Reddit comment could do.

I highly highly recommend buying this book. It’s pretty cheap and it details the ranges, techniques, and limitations for practically every instrument.

You can get notebooks of it off of Amazon or many major music sites -- just search for staff paper, sheet music notebook, or similar terms.

L'ear training è una bella mazza, auguri. Se riesci a recuperare in qualche modo questo manuale secondo me è molto buono. Comunque devi starci sopra parecchio tempo. Strumento in mano, suona l'intervallo. Poi identifica interiormente e con la voce. All'inizio concentrati sul fare pitch matching. Una volta che riesci a cantare gli intervalli da te e sai automaticamente cosa sono riconoscerli in azione viene naturale.

Ok well that's even cooler, then. :) You have a good ear, have probably played a lot of music, and it shows because you are making some solid decisions.

A M7 chord is a chord with a note one octave - half step above the root. For instance, play an A major triad (A C# E). Then play it again with the major 7th added (A C# E G#). That's a very typical jazz sound. In fact, many people would say that's the "basic" jazz root chord in major. I would just question whether it's the right sound or whether you might be better off with (A B C# E) or even just a bare (A E). Something to think about... it jumped out to me as being a bit off style, but there's obviously an element of personal taste here.

I largely learned harmony on my own, though I had a teacher looking over my work and my compositions at the time. (A highly skilled and sensitive piano teacher, but not specifically a composition teacher.) I used the Piston text and went through it cover to cover. One other thing I did which I don't think is done often enough is that I made myself write little pieces with the concepts as I learned this. Seems to me this is a great way to learn the language of music, but probably quite difficult in a classroom setting--perhaps that's why it's not done.

There are other texts, of course, but I'd recommend working (not reading!) through https://www.amazon.com/Harmony-Fifth-Walter-Piston/dp/0393954803 cover to cover.

It's even more impressive that you wrote this piece without formal study of harmony. You have talent and raw ability, but, as one of my teachers used to say to me, that and $5 will get you a cup of coffee. (Actually, he said $0.50 but it was different times lol.) It's up to you to do the hard work to make something meaningful out of that raw ability!

the bottom is just the fundamental domain (with edge identifications) of the tessellation you drew before, at least as far as i can tell.

if you enjoy pictures like this, you will probably enjoy

https://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Music-Counterpoint-Extended-Practice/dp/0195336674

If you want to get into some basic theory AND develop your ear, I highly recommend a book called Hearing and Writing music by Rob Gorow. It starts under the assumption that you know nothing and starts with the basics (intervals, then scales and chords and all that).

I’ve never gotten through the whole thing but I’ve gotten a lot of mileage you get by learning those fundamentals. There are exercises that ask you to sing, but if you sing and add your bass into the equation, you’ll accomplish more in less time.

If you wanna check it out here’s an Amazon link:

https://www.amazon.com/Hearing-Writing-Music-Professional-Training/dp/0962949671/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=hearing+and+writing+music&qid=1571203949&sprefix=hearing+and+w&sr=8-1

Also, like many others have said, check out YouTube channels like Scott’s Bass Lessons to learn proper technique as you start out. Adam Neely is also amazing, his videos cover everything from technique to more heady musical concepts which are fun to chew on after you’ve familiarized yourself with some theory.

Learn some songs you like, and start by aiming low, but aim ever higher. The results are more than worth the effort. I’ll never forget the moment I learned Tommy the Cat by Primus, or School Days by Stanley Clarke, or The Lesson by Victor Wooten. Those breakthrough moments where you learn a new technique or style of playing will stick with you and fuel your desire to keep playing!

Good luck, have fun and most importantly...

BASS

This is the text we used for the first year theory at my college. Focuses mainly on theory leading up to and following the "common practice" period from baroque up to impressionism. 20th century modern theory is usually a separate course for good reasons, as departure from common practice theory is pretty drastic.

In addition, you would want a text guiding you through "species counterpoint". Species counterpoint is sort of a early rule set for the movement of voices both alone and in tandem that had great influence on music leading up into the common practice period and beyond.

If you are learning theory to be a "working" musician much of this information would be unnecessary, but if you have an interest in classical music it can provide some good insight into it's inner workings. If you have a local university that has a music program you could maybe sit in or audit a Theory I class, or intro to theory and see if it floats your boat!

This book was very popular a while ago:

A Geometry of Music: Harmony and Counterpoint in the Extended Common Practice

"In this groundbreaking work, author Dmitri Tymoczko describes a new framework for thinking about music that emphasizes the commonalities among styles from medieval polyphony to contemporary rock. Tymoczko identifies five basic musical features that jointly contribute to the sense of tonality, and shows how these features recur throughout the history of Western music. In the process he sheds new light on an age-old question: what makes music sound good? A Geometry of Music provides an accessible introduction to Tymoczko's revolutionary geometrical approach to music theory. The book shows how to construct simple diagrams representing relationships among familiar chords and scales, giving readers the tools to translate between the musical and visual realms and revealing surprising degrees of structure in otherwise hard-to-understand pieces. Tymoczko uses this theoretical foundation to retell the history of Western music from the eleventh century to the present day. Arguing that traditional histories focus too narrowly on the "common practice" period from 1680-1850, he proposes instead that Western music comprises an extended common practice stretching from the late middle ages to the present. He discusses a host of familiar pieces by a wide range of composers, from Bach to the Beatles, Mozart to Miles Davis, and many in between. A Geometry of Music is accessible to a range of readers, from undergraduate music majors to scientists and mathematicians with an interest in music. Defining its terms along the way, it presupposes no special mathematical background and only a basic familiarity with Western music theory.

The full title is “The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of Howard Shore's Scores”

here is the Amazon link.

It’s a beautifully printed book and contains loads of sheet music excerpts

Yeah! They came with this book: The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films: A Comprehensive Account of Howard Shore's Scores (Book and Rarities CD) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0739071572/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_eXWPDb2SDB29K

This isn’t an affiliate link, but I HIGHLY recommend this book. IIRC the author interviewed Howard Shore during production (so it wasn’t done well after the fact) and the book gets pretty technical so it’s not a fluff piece. It’s not a biography of any kind, it’s about the music (and development of it) for LotR. The book came out... 3-4 years ago?

Anyway the book is fantastic and it includes a CD with MIDI mock-ups, including a few themes that ended up not making the final cut. There’s also like 20 minutes of interview audio with the author and Howard Shore.

I would say print it yourself too - but only if you have access to a copier that you don't have to pay for!

Because yes, ink is so unethically expensive today that it's probably more cost-effective to buy it from Amazon.

When I was in college we were required to by 11 x 17 paper and there used to be one company that made it on really nice paper - very thick so you could erase and wouldn't lose your staff lines or wear a hole through the paper. And that's why printing it yourself is still good - because you can customize it - put it on the paper you want, size you want, and so on.

But if you just need "standard" basic paper, yeah I'd buy it in bulk (they do also make manuscript paper books with spiral binding).

I printed out something from my printer last night and we've bought a little heavier paper because I'm tired of the way-too-thin paper being used everywhere now to save a penny.

But when I wrote on it with pencil, I could barely see it. Either the paper is too glossy to abrade the lead off it, or the lead material in the pencil is no longer the quality pencil lead used to be (most likely the case as everything now is just made cheaply and poorly and quality is nothing).

This:

https://www.amazon.com/Standard-Wirebound-Manuscript-Paper-Green/dp/0881884995/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=manuscript+paper&qid=1567876609&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Usually covers it.

Go with the Archives or Carta brand if you want something a little nicer.

Though I want to say, even though blank manuscript paper still has it's place, you should really be becoming an expert in Finale or Sibelius in this day and age if you want a career in music, especially given you're in college.

There is also this book available for purchase. I am willing to buy this am also saving money to do so. What do you think of this?

https://www.amazon.com/Music-Lord-Rings-Films-Comprehensive/dp/0739071572

I forget what we used in school, but our professor was the only one who had the actual book. He taught his lessons from it and we all just took notes.

This seems like the most likely edition that he used. Reviews suggest that the translation is a bit rough.

https://www.amazon.com/Study-Counterpoint-Johann-Joseph-Parnassum/dp/0393002772

This book is one of the best for laying out the rules and reasoning as to how you build counterpuntal melodies, and build harmonies in musically sound way.

Things like avoiding parallel fifths etc.

Get a copy of The Essential Dictionary of Orchestration. I absolutely love this little book. It has all the information you need to compose for just about every orchestral instrument. Seriously it's amazing how much information is crammed into $10. It has information concerning descriptions of timbre, range, dynamic capability, scoring, technical considerations, and individual quirks about individual instruments. It sounds like this is exactly what you need. 100% worth the $10

​

Diatonic modes and the exotic modes of other scales were used in classical and film music last century, so your friend just lied to you or was probably thinking only about 18th century classical (later and earlier music was not exclusive major-minor). Today you will find rarely major-minor system used - it is mostly natural minor (aeolian) and some looping chord changes.

The book you listed is not expensive compared to the typical music theory textbooks published in Western countries (yes, they are most of the time overpriced).

Indians and Arabs have very well developed modal systems, maybe check them, if you want to compose modal music.

I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Geometry-Music-Counterpoint-Extended-Practice/dp/0195336674

It has some good insights on modal and tonal styles.

I've recently been learning about and using French horns in my orchestration practice. They are so versatile it's amazing. They blend well with just about every instrument it seems like based on my research, and they have a particularly wide range in order to do it with. The French horn might be a good instrument to start learning how to link things together since they compliment everything so well.

idk, like I said I'm still learning about them myself but like it's worth a try? even in midi?

Edit: I forgot to add but I recently came across this amazing piece of literature that has catapulted my understanding of orchestration. It is, like, everything an orchestral composer needs to know about basically every orchestral instrument, costs $10, and fits in your pocket. Worth every goddam penny.

Let me start by saying that I know you aren't consciously using these "formulas" as a crutch. They're a cure for writers block, or a starting point for some inspiration. For me, the best progressions come from trying to tell a story. I think it's because I know what feeling I want at that point in the progression or song. And typically I've heard that change before so I have a reference somewhere. Then it's just about finding it.

I also try to transcribe a song every day, preferably by request so it isn't something that I listen to a lot. Even if it's something you could just look up online. Transcribe it first and check it. This exercise will help you feel more connected to the changes and give you better relative pitch. Write them down on something, preferably manuscript paper ( I use this one... ). Then when you're writing you won't have to hunt around for that perfect chord. You'll know around where it is or you'll know what song it was in, then just have to play with the color tones (3rd, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th) until you have what you are hearing.

As far as those chord extensions go. Take those transcriptions and reharmonize them! At least for me, this is when I mess around with extensions the most. Because playing the song as written just sort of gets boring.

Sorry I didn't give you the exact answer you were looking for. But I've found that harmony is just so personal that whatever resource you use needs to have a deep personal connection to you otherwise it won't be very helpful. Hope this helps!

If you're serious, and want to learn some theory as well (vital to speeding it all up imo) then I would really check out this bible of a book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hearing-Writing-Music-Professional-Training/dp/0962949671

https://www.amazon.com/Hearing-Writing-Music-Professional-Training/dp/0962949671

This book goes pretty in depth on the subject of hearing well enough to write and transcribe without an instrument. You can search online for a copy.

I really found this book to be helpful...

https://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Home-Recording-Second-Coryat/dp/1423454464

Not an exhaustive resource, by any means, but it explains a lot of essential concepts in a very rudimentary way.

A while ago, I uploaded a link of what I thought to be the complete released music for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. (Released OSTs, Released Complete Score, Offical Concert album).

It has come to my attention that there is one more LOTR album out there. There is an official LOTR soundtrack book, which comes with a CD, an album called the LOTR Rarities Archive. It has early demos and themes on it. I would like to complete my collection, and the collection of others. While I have been able to hunt down elusive rare soundtrack albums, this one continues to evade me.

Here is the link to the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Music-Lord-Rings-Films-Comprehensive/dp/0739071572/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1506027062&sr=8-4&keywords=lord+of+the+rings++soundtrack+book

If anybody out there has it, I would appreciate it if it was shared. Thanks!