[thechat] Structural Music Theory - wuz - RE: ice cream songs

[M Kelsey]

>> Joel Canfield lamented:

>> Somehow I feel like I left the room for a minute and when I came 
>> back everyone was speaking a different language. 

> If it helps any ... it ain't 'just you'.  Nagrom and Martin have a very 
> solid understanding of structural music theory.  [I certainly don't.
<sigh />]

Ugh, and what a lot of good it's done for me in life...

Not everyone has parents who care enough about them to insist they go to
college and learn something USEFUL, like mathematics, or computer science,
YOU BOOGER!

Seriously though Joel, 
It depends what you want to learn. Everything pretty much depends on what
the bass player is doing, (as far as what chord comes out into the air).
Yes, your friends might not like it if you play an E under their B, or
whatever, because they're expecting the B.

I play jazz piano, and have found that the most useful thing I learned in
school was probably counterpoint. But I really like 12-tone theory too. 

The best way to learn is to listen to lots of stuff, and study with the best
player you can. Ronny's right, there's tons of great books out there too.

My personal favorite, is Arnold Schoenberg's "Theory of Harmony", but it can
be pretty overwhelming if you're new to the game. Hindemiths "Elementary
training for musicians" is an old standby that everyone seems to enjoy. "The
Study of Counterpoint" by Fux is one of the oldest textbooks ever (and
really boring, but man, once you know the 'Fux D Minor Species' you'll never
be normal again)

If you want to learn to play like a jazz-bo, check out "Tonal and Rhythmic
Principles" by John Mehegan, or, uhhh, crud I forget what it is, "The
Lydian-chromatic method" (or something) that basically says music theory has
been wrong forever, because the Cmajor scale should *really* be 
C D E F# G A B C (Lydian)

But really, it's about listening, and experimenting, and practicing, and
let's face it, you and Ron are way to old for any of that :p


Nagrom-the-ever-aging-wise-ass