The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

Average customer rating:

Will Definately help you write music

O.K. follow-up to Music Theory

A good start, but lacking in places

Perfect follow-on to Idiot's Guide to Music Theory

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Composition (The Complete Idiot's Guide)
Michael Miller
Manufacturer: Alpha
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Composition | Theory, Composition & Performance | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Songwriting | Theory, Composition & Performance | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Theory | Theory, Composition & Performance | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory, 2nd Edition (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Songwriting, 2nd Edition (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

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Hearing and Writing Music: Professional Training for Today's Musician (2nd Edition)

ASIN: 1592574033

Book Description

Write the songs that make the whole world sing.

A step-by-step guide to writing music, this book shows musicians how to compose simple chord progressions and melodies, and leads them through more advanced compositional techniques and musical forms. Designed for composers of all types of music, it includes instruction on composing stand-alone melodies, using different scales and modes, themes and variations, orchestration, and composing for film, theater, and videogames.
-Perfect complement to The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Songwriting
-Includes a comprehensive glossary of musical terms, as well as an appendix of various computer-based composition tools
-Easy-to-use oversize trim

Customer Reviews:

Will Definately help you write music.......2006-06-29

This is undoubtedly the best book i've ever read on music composition. Be warned though, if you do not have a background in basic music theory the concepts in the book may be a little confusing. However, if you read Miller's other book the guide to music theory first you should have no problem picking up the concepts in this book. I cant say enough good things about Miller. This book is full of so many great things and yet he writes in such a way that even someone with just a basic background in music can understand him. If you follow what he says you will definately be able to write your own compositions

O.K. follow-up to Music Theory.......2006-03-05

This is a very good book. It elaborates on the Idiot's guide to music theory specefically in the area of composition. My only gripe is that the first half is very redundant with the previous book. Many paragraphs are identical. I would have been much happier if they had been embellished, or if the two books would have been combined into one larger volume. The book does go into much more detail later on, with topics such as rhythmic patterns etc. Still the first half doesn't even feel like a review as much as it feels like Deja Vu.

A good start, but lacking in places.......2006-02-01

On the positive side, the book is very helpful in starting composition. While at times laconic, it covers pretty much all the basic areas of composition, starting with an intro into what you can do and what you will need and going on to harmony, melody, rhythm, and even touching on atonality. It explains the key ideas behind development, the use of phrasing, and even the ranges of common instruments and notes on transposing them.

On the negative side, it often fails to explain things as well as it could. For example, while the book gives a basic explanation of atonality and minimalism, it doesn't really say much about how to really use these techniques. While development is discussed well, actually creating full-length pieces seems to have been glossed over and there is little information on how various musical forms like the sonata or concerto are actually structured (something I struggled with for a long time).

Overall, an excellent introduction, but not really a complete guide in any sense.

Perfect follow-on to Idiot's Guide to Music Theory.......2005-10-31

Just like this author's previous book, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory", information is presented in a very readable way without losing necessary details. The author presents many musical examples and each chapter has exercises with some solutions included in the back of the book. This book is designed to be read from beginning to end, and the exercises are very instructive in that by doing them you WILL learn how to compose music based on formal techniques. This book consists of 18 chapters in 5 parts, with each part showcasing a different aspect of composition. Since Amazon does not show a table of contents for this book at the time I am writing this, I shall summarize for the purpose of completeness:
Part 1 is entitled "Before You Start," and it describes different types of composition, and discusses the tools needed to start composing music.
Part 2 is entitled "Harmonic Composition," and discusses the art of composing music, chords-first. Also described is the creation of a harmonious chord progression, using both standard and extended chords, and using chord substitution to create more sophisticated compositions.
Part 3 is labeled "Melodic Composition," and introduces melody creation techniques, including scales and modes, structural tones, embellishments, rhythm, syncopation, melodic contour, flow, tension and release. Also discussed is fitting chords to a melody and reharmonizing existing chord progressions.
Part 4 is entitled "Developing the Composition," and gives instruction on transforming a composition from something basic to a substantial work. Short melodies are transformed into a full musical piece. The use of repetition, variation, and creating multiple-voice compositions is included.
The fifth and final part of this book is entitled "Advanced Techniques". The subject matter moves beyond basic composition into more advanced musical areas. Orchestration, chromaticism, atonality, contemporary composition, and ultimately songwriting are discussed.
I would therefore highly recommend that you first read the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory", and then this book for someone who wants to self-study music theory and composition. These two books are particularly valuable to someone who is familiar with the computer and would like to get into computer music but does not have a formal education in music. These two books will get you up and running to the point where you can understand what some of the computer music books written by musicians are talking about.

Average customer rating:

Thumbs up.
not impressed
Songwriting for Everyone
I'm an idiot for buying this...
comes packed with hints and helpful insights

Complete Idiot's Guide to Songwriting
Joel Hirschhom , and Joel Hirschhorn
Manufacturer: Alpha
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0028641442

Book Description

The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to Songwriting will be the one-stop resource for all aspiring songwriters to learn: how much musical training you need (if you have none), how to put together the basics of a song in various popular genres (country & western, hip hop, Latin, adult contemporary, pop), as well as for different industries, such as television and film, and where to get the great ideas for what makes a hit and how recurring hit makers got their Midas touch. You'll also learn where and how to find collaborators, choose a publisher, and find an agent, how the Internet is impacting the world of songwriting (i.e., MP3 and Napster), and the best way to set up a recording studio in your own home and choose the best equipment.

Download Description

Song has been a part of people's culture since the beginning. From classical and rock and roll to country and jazz-- there are hundreds of thousands of budding and established songwriters burning to write the next great hit. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Songwriting is the one-stop resource for all inspiring songwriters to learn how much musical training is needed, how to put together the basics of a song for various popular genres, how to tailor songs to different industries (TV and film), how to get great ideas, where to find collaborators, publishers and agents and how the Internet is impacting the world of songwriting.

Customer Reviews:

Thumbs up........2007-05-13

Joel Hirshhorn's book is brief but concise and to the point. It covers virtually every concept in songwriting along with some sound production advice. There are some areas that it does not cover in regards to alternate or extended tunings and more experimental musical styles, however, this is not really in the scope of the book. It is meant to be easily readable, which it is, and to cover the most important areas in traditional songwriting styles, which it does. Having read many other books on this topic I would like to see other areas added, such as the ones previously mentioned, along with some futher details on various voicings, and timbre/ sonic design. Overall, I give it a 4 out of five, as it covers everything it sets out to very well, for begginers to advanced readers it makes an important reference book or light reading material for the songwriters and composers library.

not impressed.......2006-05-30

This book does not get too deep. For example, the author lists 100 chord progressions used in popular songs. However, the chord progressions are listed independently, without the songs. Also, the progressions are given in all different keys, without roman numerals or Nashville Numbers to show the relationships between chords.

You could probably find some nuggets in this book to give you ideas, but it would not be worth your time. The book is written from the narrow perspective of a person who writes songs for others commercially. Throughout this book, the author encourages you to examine the hits songs on the charts now. This would be fine, execept for the fact that most hits songs are commercially supported [...] that will not stand the test of time.

He also mentions throughout the book that he co-wrote the grammy-nominated song, "The morning After". Well, I gave it a listen. I nearly threw myself of my second story balcony- I'm lucky I thouht about the life I have ahead of me, and was able to see beyond the flood of cliches. Check out the first 6 chapters of "How Music Really Works" free oline.

Songwriting for Everyone.......2006-03-08

Many of us have dreamt about writing a hit song, right? How many actually have? Yip, I too, have tried my hand at penning song lyrics but found out that there's much more to it than writing a few rhyming lines. Two-time Oscar winner ("The Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno) Joel Hirschhorn, gives us the necessary tools to write a song correctly. He emphasizes the need to think visually, to find ideas, become a storyteller, and "how to analyze hit songs and song titles to see what works and why". One's emotions are a huge well of inspiration if we learn to write about them. This book is divided into five parts and covers all aspects from collecting song titles to hooks and from country to the stage and movie songs. He also covers working as a collaborator and about royalties and payment and copyright. Throughout this book you'll find references to some great songwriter or other as well as hints and tips, which I found very interesting. There's a comprehensive glossary and appendix which is extremely helpful, with names and addresses of record companies, publishers, and competitions. The best news is that you don't have to be musically inclined to write songs. It helps but is not a requirement!

I'm an idiot for buying this..........2005-03-24

I have played guitar for a few years and thought that writing/singing songs would be fun. So I popped into the bookstore and got this. I thought it would be about songwriting. It's mostly not. Much padding, like long lists of titles, that help get the authors point across. Eg: "Use colors in your titles" Pink Cadillac, Red Red Wine, Blue Monday etc etc etc. In columns to fill space.

In short, most of the book is a pep talk, about how you, the reader, "have what it takes", if you change your outlook on life. Watch movies, read books etc all while trying to see the songwriting angle. This is sad, I'd think.

All i wanted was the craft side of it. The "structural rules", verse chorus verse, nuts and bolts. And some analysis of great songs. None here. Just boring namedropping, and "I'm a successful songwriter, who keeps an eye on other songs". He quotes some truely awful songs/artists, which is also off putting.

Avoid.

I dont want to write a commercial mega-smash for radio, sung by a plastic pop star. I want to write campfire ditties. This book discusses some obvious little "cheats" (which is how they feel), to get your songs to appeal to the masses.

To be honest, anyone who truely has the right stuff to be a mega-writer, probably won't need a book. (let alone one with the label IDIOT on the cover)

Rubbish

comes packed with hints and helpful insights.......2004-08-07

So you know how to come up with a song, and you're no idiot - but you're confused by the challenges of rhyming, steady logical beats, and all the elements which translate lyric to music. It's time for the updated second edition of Joel Hirschhorn's Idiot's Guide To Songwriting: a 'bible' to developing lyrics and melodies which go together. From analyzing the elements of a song to understanding dynamic lyric elements and writing for specific musical genres, this comes packed with hints and helpful insights.

Book Description

Find yourself in the midst of a heated battle over a sitcom laugh track. Learn to get away with spectacular crimes. Get lost with the reindeer people in the mountains of Mongolia.

In Lost in Mongolia a collection of Tad Friend's most original, witty, and wide-ranging articles and essays from The New Yorker, Esquire, and Outside we are taken on a cultural tour of global proportions. Friend reports from the entertainment mecca of Hollywood on topics that range from the life and death of River Phoenix to the widespread plagiarism of movie ideas, to why celebrity profiles are always dreadful. He critiques the larger American culture with articles such as White Trash Nation, In Praise of Middlebrow, and a brief rumination on what it means when your girlfriend steals and wears your favorite shirt. Readers will also journey to foreign lands and American outposts, as Friend goes on the trail of the Marcos dynasty in the Philippines, is harassed in Morocco, and digs up buried treasure in Sun Valley.

Lost in Mongolia is a one-of-a-kind collection from a refreshingly candid and well-traveled journalist.

Download Description

In Tad Friend's Lost in Mongolia -- a collection of the journalist's most original, witty, and wide-ranging articles and essays from The New Yorker, Esquire, and Outside -- readers are taken on a cultural tour of global proportions. Friend reports from the entertainment mecca of Hollywood on topics that range from David Lynch's war with ABC, to the life and death of River Phoenix, to why celebrity profiles are always dreadful. He also critiques the larger American culture with articles such as White Trash Nation , In Praise of Middlebrow, and a brief rumination on what it means when your girlfriend steals and wears your favorite shirt. Readers will also journey to foreign lands and American outposts, as Friend goes on the trail of the Marcos Dynasty in the Philippines, is harassed in Morocco, and visits the College of the Cows near Death Valley. Lost in Mongolia is a one-of-a-kind collection from a refreshingly candid -- and well-traveled -- journalist.

Customer Reviews:

a terrific book.......2001-05-21

Tad Friend's gift as a journalist comes through on every page. Each piece in this collection has a fresh and original point of view. And Friend is a pleasure to read. His writing is smart, lucid and thoughtful. And he can be exceptionally funny.

The travel story, Lost in Mongolia, is a gripping, sad journey. White Trash Nation is as hilarious as it is disturbing. And the chapters on Hollywood have forever altered the way I view television.

Masterpiece.......2001-05-10

What a great book. Interested in Hollywood? Travel? Backstabbing in the media world? It's all here, and brilliantly rendered. One of the many wondeful things about Tad Friend's writing is the glorious sense of humor that sparkles on every page. This book is full of Friend's wonderful comedic gift; the reader will laugh and learn in equal measure. I've given this book as a gift a number of times and have garnered nothing but raves. Do yourself a favor and buy a copy today.

Lost In Mongolia.......2001-05-05

Someone gave me "Lost in Mongolia" as a gift, assuming that my love for the New Yorker would translate into an appreciation of Mr Friend's work. But Mr. Friend writes in that hipper-than-thou style so fashionable among young journalists these days that, frankly, I loathe. There is a self important smugness to Friend's writing that suggests a certain barrenness of Spirit, no matter how fertile the terrain he visits. As for the celebrity profile--it is a sub-genre characterized by a potent mix of fawning and gotcha sensationalism. If this is the new generation New Yorker writer, color me bereft. I'll stick with older writers for whom the life of the mind has a deeper reasonance.

i didn't like this book.......2001-05-02

bad writing. superficial. a waste of time.

simple minded and superficial.......2001-04-29

This book is poorly written and superficially researched with almost no basis in reality and overhyped and overjuiced. I want my money back!

Lost In Mongolia - Travels In Hollywood And Other Foreign Lands

Average customer rating:

Lost In Mongolia - Travels In Hollywood And Other Foreign Lands
Tad Friend
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Mongolia | Asia | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000MGO5NK

Book Description

Cosmetics and tobacco are two of the 20th century's most fascinating fashion influences, for they inspired new accessories for the well-dressed woman. This book highlights the evolution of popular vanity cases by investigating materials from compact, cigarette case and lighter manufacturers. The book begins with a history of cosmetics, and their impact on society, and goes on to show how compacts evolved to hold cosmetics and who fashioned them. The tobacco-related containers are also traced from their beginnings to the establishment of a new line of accessories for both men and women. Through her newly revised text and hundreds of color photographs and advertising pieces of examples arranged chronologically, the author provides a wealth of information in this growing collector's field.

Book Description

The definitive guide to designing and deploying Cisco IP multicast networks

Clear explanations of the concepts and underlying mechanisms of IP multicasting, from the fundamentals to advanced design techniques
Concepts and techniques are reinforced through real-world network examples, each clearly illustrated in a step-by-step manner with detailed drawings
Detailed coverage of PIM State Rules that govern Cisco router behavior
In-depth information on IP multicast addressing, distribution trees, and multicast routing protocols
Discussions of the common multimedia applications and how to deploy them

Developing IP Multicast Networks, Volume I, covers an area of networking that is rapidly being deployed in many enterprise and service provider networks to support applications such as audio and videoconferencing, distance learning, and data replication. The concepts used in IP multicasting are unlike any other network protocol, making this book a critical tool for networking professionals who are implementing this technology.

This book provides a solid foundation of basic IP multicast concepts, as well as the information needed to actually design and deploy IP multicast networks. Using examples of common network topologies, author Beau Williamson discusses the issues that network engineers face when trying to manage traffic flow. Developing IP Multicast Networks, Volume I, includes an in-depth discussion of the PIM protocol used in Cisco routers and detailed coverage of the rules that control the creation and maintenance of Cisco mroute state entries. The result is a comprehensive guide to the development and deployment of IP multicast networks using Cisco routers and switches.

Customer Reviews:

Great Intro to IP Multicast.......2006-01-31

I come from a routing shop - never having a customer need for Multicast. This book brought me up to speed very quickly on the both the beauty and ease of Multicast. As a tool for my CCIE studies, I felt the first 200 pages were of immense value at helping my studies. I felt Chapter 5 (on DVMRP) was not nearly as valuable as Chapters 6 and 7 (on PIM-DM and PIM-SM).

Some typos I was able to pick out:
page 144 - 2nd line from bottom should read "...it too sends a Graft message to Router C" - not Router D.

page 168 - 3rd line on the 1st paragraph should read "...SPT to pull the (S2, G) traffic down to the RP..." - not (S1, G).

There are some other typos, but they are few and far between (but I'm not an expert on multicast!). I have heard of this book being talked about as the 'bible' for multicast - I can see why.

I give this book 5 pings out of 5:
!!!!!

A good overview.......2005-08-10

Multicast has for several years been used in LAN environments to easily exchange information among users, especially in educational and academic research environments. The advent of audio and video conferencing has increased its use in these environments, and it is now making its presence known in WAN and Internet environments. This book gives an overview of the how to implement IP multicast on Cisco devices, and does a good job in that regard. Readers with a general knowledge of networks, even those who have not administered Cisco devices explicitly, can gain much from the book. This reviewer was not interested in the actual implementation of Cisco multicast networks, which is covered in Part 3 of the book, and so this review will concentrate on the other three parts of the book. These parts are mostly descriptive, but they do discuss some of the performance issues involved with the deployment of IP multicast, although nowhere in the book are test cases discussed, even though their inclusion would have been extremely helpful. Multicasting by itself is not a complicated phenomena to understand and use, but when it is deployed over Layer 2 or when coupled with QoS some interesting issues can arise. This reviewer was mostly interested in traffic engineering in multicast environments, and the author spends an entire chapter on this topic.

The book begins with a history of multicast and the MBone, the latter of which is a collection of Internet routers and hosts that are interconnected and are able to forward IP multicast traffic. IP multicast is of course an unreliable transmission mechanism, based as it is on UDP. Along with stating the assigned scope of the multicast addresses over IP, the author also reviews the scheme for multicast MAC addressing. The MAC address mapping will cause a CPU performance hit though since the CPU will have to be interrupted in order to deal with all 32 of the IP multicast groups. This arises since the IP multicast address information cannot be mapped into the available space of the MAC address space. There is a 32:1 address ambiguity when an IP multicast address is mapped to a MAC address.

One can summarize the properties of the multicast routing protocols discussed in the book straightforwardly:

PIM (Protocol Independent Multicasting) can run in three different modes, namely Dense (DM), Sparse (SM) and Sparse-Dense. A router will always forward multicast traffic on a dense mode interface unless all the PIM neighbors of the interface prune themselves from the multicast tree. Multicast traffic will be forwarded on a sparse mode interface only if at least one of the PIM neighbors explicitly joins the multicast tree. In sparse-dense mode, the interface can be running in sparse mode for some groups and dense mode for others. There is a "hello interval" for PIM multicast which is the frequency at which the router will send PIM query messages, the latter of which are used for selecting a PIM designated router. The PIM designated router is responsible for sending IGMP (v1) queries. Bootstrap messages can be forwarded from an interface in PIMv2. This allows all PIM-SM routers in a domain to dynamically learn all Group-to-RP mappings.In PIM-DM, the multicast traffic is periodically forwarded even on pruned interfaces of a source-based distribution tree. This allows the learning of membership changes. This 'state-refresh interval' can be configured on the first-hop routers of the multicast source, allowing the interface to periodically send a state refresh control message down the source-based distribution tree. When doing multicast in an NBMA (NonBroadcast MultiAccess) network, a router will replicate multicast packets for all neighbors configured for broadcast (actually pseudobroadcast to use the author's characterization). To avoid this, one can configure the router in NBMA mode, which will then only allow the replication of packets for PIM neighbors. NBMA mode is only supported by Cisco for SM networks.

DVMRP (Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol) does neighbor discovery, where network routing information is exchanged between neighbors. This information consists of Route Report messages that advertise a source network and a hop-count. DVMRP generates two routing tables, one is a multicast routing table to the receivers and a unicast routing table to the sources. When forwarding, a DVMRP router will use the unicast table for RPF (Reverse Path Forwarding) checks and the multicast table for forwarding multicast packets. When doing unicast routing, the router will use the unicast table for the RPF check, but will use a different multicast routing protocol for forwarding multicast packets. There is a metric value associated with a DVMRP unicast route, which is the sum of the interface metrics of a route between the router originating the report and the router in the source network.

For multicast traffic, one can control bandwidth with: 1. Aggregate rate limiting, which sets an upper bound for all multicast traffic being sent on an interface. 2. Mroute table entries wherein each individual multicast stream is set to a maximum rate. 3. `Scoped zones' and multicast boundaries, which prevent multicast traffic with a high rate from traveling outside the provisioned regions. Doing actual multicast traffic engineering is complicated do to the need for calculating the proper RPF (Reverse Path Forwarding) interface (and not the destination IP address). The author discusses in detail some of the techniques that can be used, such as GRE tunnels and `pseudo load-sharing.' GRE tunnels are used to do load-splitting of multicast traffic, which cannot be done otherwise since multicast is allowed only one incoming interface. He also describes how to do traffic conversion between broadcast and multicast, this being allowed for Cisco IOS 11.1 or later. This is a useful capability for networks where the source or the receivers, or both, do not support IP multicast.

May well be the best multicasting book available.......2004-06-19

Multicasting is truly a technology solution in search of a problem. Excepting highly specialized conferencing applications (a few of which are mentioned here) it is difficult to see how multicasting can be a money-making service for carriers and providers, and the protocols have yet to really penetrate to wide deployment. That said, knowledge of this separate realm of IP networking is a must for any professional in the telecom space.

I'm glad to say that this book rewards determined scrutiny. As a technical writer supporting a very complex product line that has recently added PIM-SM to its bag of tricks, I've found this book painstaking and tremendously informative. You will need to understand IP networking before approaching this title; on the assumption that you do, you will fully understand shared trees, SPTs, and their combination in PIM to an absolute fare-thee-well. My focus when reading this book was on IGMP and PIM-SM, so I have not read absolutely every page of this title. However, Williamson breaks the processes down packet-by-packet for each protocol in the multicasting suite in almost excruciating detail. Advanced coverage of topics such as registration, pruning, and Rendezvous Point behavior means that you will have complete mastery of Cisco multicasting, and for any platform that conforms to the standards, by the time you are finished.

This is an excellent, excellent effort in what I think is a consistently solid networking series.

Absolutely the best Multicast book available.......2004-05-24

This is the best multicast book on the market. It is a must have whether you are preparing for the CCIE Lab or just want to understand multicast.

The explanation was simple and clear. There are tons of configuration examples covering pretty much all kinds of scenarios. The author actually explained every single line of the configurations.

I bought this book for my Lab exam, and after two days of reading, 99.99% of my questions were answered (the only one I still have is I actually made PIM-DM work in a hub-spoke frame relay network. The prune message from one spoke was actually seen by the other spoke, I don't know why the hub would forward it out).

I have to admit this is one of the best books I've read for a long time. Just like Jeff Doyle's TCP/IP Routing is the Bible of IGP, this book is the Bible of Multicast.

Simply A "Must-Have" For Lab Prep.......2004-02-27

Beau's book is indeed the true Multicasting Bible. I was totally new to multicasting when I began my CCIE studies, and having achieved that certification yesterday, I can tell you that Beau's book really opened the door for me on a topic that just isn't covered well elsewhere.

The only recommendation I'd make to readers is that if the first 10 chapters aren't quite sinking in, go through the actual configuration chapters (they're at the back of the book), and then reread the theory chapters. It worked for me.

Chris Bryant
CCIE #12933

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