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Hearing and Writing Music: Professional Training for Today's Musician
In this book you will discover: Transcribing techniques. How to maximize your creativity and productivity. How to develop your craft by consolidating techniques. How to read music with your ears. How you can write music without using an instrument. How to write music spontaneously, as your ear guides your hand. How to communicate accurately through music notation. Why you don't need "perfect pitch." Tools to develop your music perception. 140 exercises, many music examples—models for a lifetime of study. Resources for composing, orchestrating, film scoring. Working in the music business. Where to find supplies, organizations, information, inspiration. A definitive guide and reference for composers, orchestrators, arrangers and performers.
448 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 5, 2009
For the past 6 months or so, I've been devouring books on music. All kinds - from books on practicing ("The Art of Practicing", "The Inner Game of Music"), Music History ("The Rest is Noise"), Music Appreciation and Enjoyment (Bernstein's "The Joy of Music"), Composition (Messiaen's "The Technique of My Musical Language"), but I have never found a book that is as eminently practical and eye opening as the book I'm reading now. In my opinion, this is one of the few books all serious musicians should own.
Ron Gorow's "Hearing and Writing Music" link is a book that attempts to give the amateur musician many of the tools of the trade: the ability to hear chord changes, transcribe music, compose, arrange and orchestrate music, and even the basis for improvising.
The basis for these skills is knowledge of the musical intervals and the tuning systems. Essentially, Gorow believes that by training the ear to recognize the qualities of the different musical intervals, and being able to use one's "mental recorder" to slow down the music, one can easily gain these essential musical skills. Before you start rolling your eyes and think this book is esoteric; it isn't. He clearly articulates the qualities of the intervals and relates them to music. For example, he writes of the fourth:
"Everyone hears the lower tone of a fifth as the root. However, a fourth may be perceived with the root above, as it appears in the harmonic series, or with the root on the bottom, independent of harmonic context. This ambiguity has caused theorists to disagree for centuries over the function of the fourth. However, we need not be concerned with the role of the fourth. Our goal is to recognize the sound of the interval in any situation."
Building on the skill to recognize intervals, Gorow moves on to recognizing scales and modes. He believes that by learning the scales and modes and chords, the right brain is much more free to do the more creative parts of music:
"While your right brain is composing, improvising, intepreting, your left brain is busy with the nuts and bolts of music - intervallic relationships which are transformed into notes. This transformation - the process of hearing and writing (or performing) depends on your ability to manipulate music."
This view is clearly the opposite of what many musicians think: The more theory you know, the more limited you are. Not so - by learning these nuts and bolts of music, you free the mind to use these unconsciously and increase the limitations of your music. I think this is refreshing to think that knowledge can only help you, not hurt you as so many of us think in music.
From here, Gorow moves on to transcription and understanding musical phrases - by understanding the intervals and their relationships underlying the chords and scales, Gorow believes you can really own the music. He champions learning transcription for many reasons, one of the most compelling which is to be able to "notate your own songs, and well as transcribe songs that intrigue you to discover the the secrets that attracted you'. Music becomes something that you can manipulate and own and vary to your own liking.
The book ends with discussions on how to go from "perception" to "notation" - communicating your musical ideas clearly to others, whether it is for arranging, or orchestrating, as well as discussions on preparing music for publishing and copyright.
Anyhow, this book has gotten me excited to learn and relearn the fundamentals of music, and I think it can fill in the gaps for many musicians who'd like to learn more about theory and the underpinnings of music.
Ron Gorow's "Hearing and Writing Music" link is a book that attempts to give the amateur musician many of the tools of the trade: the ability to hear chord changes, transcribe music, compose, arrange and orchestrate music, and even the basis for improvising.
The basis for these skills is knowledge of the musical intervals and the tuning systems. Essentially, Gorow believes that by training the ear to recognize the qualities of the different musical intervals, and being able to use one's "mental recorder" to slow down the music, one can easily gain these essential musical skills. Before you start rolling your eyes and think this book is esoteric; it isn't. He clearly articulates the qualities of the intervals and relates them to music. For example, he writes of the fourth:
"Everyone hears the lower tone of a fifth as the root. However, a fourth may be perceived with the root above, as it appears in the harmonic series, or with the root on the bottom, independent of harmonic context. This ambiguity has caused theorists to disagree for centuries over the function of the fourth. However, we need not be concerned with the role of the fourth. Our goal is to recognize the sound of the interval in any situation."
Building on the skill to recognize intervals, Gorow moves on to recognizing scales and modes. He believes that by learning the scales and modes and chords, the right brain is much more free to do the more creative parts of music:
"While your right brain is composing, improvising, intepreting, your left brain is busy with the nuts and bolts of music - intervallic relationships which are transformed into notes. This transformation - the process of hearing and writing (or performing) depends on your ability to manipulate music."
This view is clearly the opposite of what many musicians think: The more theory you know, the more limited you are. Not so - by learning these nuts and bolts of music, you free the mind to use these unconsciously and increase the limitations of your music. I think this is refreshing to think that knowledge can only help you, not hurt you as so many of us think in music.
From here, Gorow moves on to transcription and understanding musical phrases - by understanding the intervals and their relationships underlying the chords and scales, Gorow believes you can really own the music. He champions learning transcription for many reasons, one of the most compelling which is to be able to "notate your own songs, and well as transcribe songs that intrigue you to discover the the secrets that attracted you'. Music becomes something that you can manipulate and own and vary to your own liking.
The book ends with discussions on how to go from "perception" to "notation" - communicating your musical ideas clearly to others, whether it is for arranging, or orchestrating, as well as discussions on preparing music for publishing and copyright.
Anyhow, this book has gotten me excited to learn and relearn the fundamentals of music, and I think it can fill in the gaps for many musicians who'd like to learn more about theory and the underpinnings of music.
August 3, 2008
A very systematic and well organized book.
There are some really great perspectives in this book
I believe. I love the section about sound waves.
If I were teaching Composition, I would definitely use
this book as one of my texts.
There are some really great perspectives in this book
I believe. I love the section about sound waves.
If I were teaching Composition, I would definitely use
this book as one of my texts.
January 27, 2014
This book assumes you have at least a basic music theory knowledge. The focus is mainly on ear training, which is something I never learnt or developed during my music training. It really brought home the idea of how essential it is to be able to hear intervals and chords and different voices/instruments. You begin to rely on your ears more, and less on your eyes and your instrument.
It was also great to have all the intermediate and advanced music theory put together in such a concise way. I finally understand music notation, chords and symbols completely. It has inspired me to develop my ability in transcribing the music I love into notation.
It was also great to have all the intermediate and advanced music theory put together in such a concise way. I finally understand music notation, chords and symbols completely. It has inspired me to develop my ability in transcribing the music I love into notation.
November 1, 2010
This is a great book, a SERIOUS ear training text, with a very big portion dedicated to learning notation and transcription. It is easy to read and thorough, with lots of practical exercises. I think I will be working through this one for a very long time!
September 25, 2017
Bible for a transcriber, this book talks a lot about what it takes to be a student of music. Very well balanced between the philosophical and the practical aspects of music.
February 12, 2017
Great book for the serious musician.
April 9, 2016
A tremendously useful book for aural skills, not so much for the writing part, though.
It is however well written and motivating and providing the musician with techniques to improve her or his hearing; an aspect of the craft that is most overlooked, despite its importance.
The formatting of the book is suboptimal. It is really massive and could have been made significantly handier had a smaller font and less white space. Most illustrations are too big as well and some in my opinion are quite unnecessary.
It is however well written and motivating and providing the musician with techniques to improve her or his hearing; an aspect of the craft that is most overlooked, despite its importance.
The formatting of the book is suboptimal. It is really massive and could have been made significantly handier had a smaller font and less white space. Most illustrations are too big as well and some in my opinion are quite unnecessary.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews