Lies My Music Teacher Told Me: Music Theory for Grownups

by Gerald Eskelin

Book by Eskelin, Gerald

Genres: Music, Education, Nonfiction, History

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1996

Reviews

[Joomi Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe this would be a good book for me to look at.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book is about harmony and how equal temperance, while great for pianos, is a bunch of baloney when it comes to tuning chords for choirs or any other continuous-pitch orchestra.

This I agree with entirely.

His style, however, is wayyyy too conversational, and completely failed to lighten the heavy theory at all (what I can only assume was his purpose in being so casual).

I've heard that the second half of the book, regarding rhythm, is a bunch of BS. I wouldn't know, since I put it down never to pick it back up again after I got tired of listening to him try to be chummy.


There are probably better books out there for debunking equal temperance.

[Anthony Bello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eskelin attempts to portray himself as a teacher and vocalist combating the half-truths of equal temperament, but comes off sounding merely cantankerous.
Intermediary comprehension of equal temperament and of the limitations of time signatures are the best conceivable consequence of reading this book. For the personal outrage and bitterness, I would suggest watching "The Werckmeister Harmonies" instead. Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wisTI-...

[joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, amusing book about teaching and learning music. It mostly focuses on major/minor as a system and the problems inherent in well-tempered keyboards. There is a major section on rhythm and meter signatures, too.