The_Complete_Idiot%27s_Guide_To_Music_Theory

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262 Part 6: Arranging But before you go out and face the world for your first honest-to-goodness conducting session, you need to practice with other people. Gather a few of your friends, and practice with the piece you’ll be conducting—even if it’s just a few of the parts. Run through the piece a few times, and encourage your friends to tell you what you could do to improve your conducting. That first downbeat in front of a group of musicians can be daunting. Use your friends to help you get over any shyness or fear, so that you appear confident when you pick up the baton for real. (Remember—musicians, like wild dogs, can smell fear.) The Least You Need to Know ◆ Before your first rehearsal, make sure that every musician has his or her own personal copy of the music. ◆ Make sure you warm up and tune up the musicians before you start rehearsal. ◆ To conduct a piece of music in 4/4, move your right hand from the up position to the down position for the first beat, to the left for the second beat, to the right for the third, and back to the up position for the fourth beat. (That’s down, left, right, up—1, 2, 3, 4.) ◆ Although you can let your preparatory beat establish the music’s tempo, it’s probably better to count off the first measure (“One, two, ready, go”) to help everyone feel the right beat. Exercise Exercise 20-1 Put your favorite piece of music in your CD player, pick up a baton, and start conducting! Coda Thus ends this book—and your first exposure to basic music theory. I hope you’ve found the information in these pages helpful, and that I’ve passed on some of my love and enthusiasm for how music gets created. The key thing to remember (aside from all the notes and rhythms and such) is that these musical building blocks exist for you to use—however you like. We may say that there are rules and conventions, but when it comes to creating music, all the rules are made to be broken. What ultimately matters is how a piece of music sounds—to you, and to your listeners. Theory is good, but it’s just a guideline for what happens out in the real world. If you want to use parallel fifths in your harmony, go ahead. If you want to flat a fifth or resolve a turnaround to the ii chord instead of the I, do it. Some of the greatest pieces of music have broken all sorts of rules. As long as it sounds good, it’s all okay.
Just because you’re done with this book, however, doesn’t mean that your music education has ended. In fact, if you choose to make music a part of your life, your education never ends. Every song you listen to, every piece of music you hear is an opportunity to learn more about the music you love. Keep your ears open and your mind free, and you’ll continue to expand your knowledge and skills for the rest of your musical life. You can also further your music education with more reading. If you’re serious about becoming a better musician, I recommend you check out the following books: ◆ Arranging and Composing for the Small Ensemble (David Baker; Alfred Publishing; 1970—revised edition 1988) ◆ Arranging Concepts Complete (Dick Grove; Alfred Publishing; 1972— second edition 1989) ◆ Hearing and Writing Music: Professional Training for Today’s Musician (Ron Gorow; September Publishing; 2000) ◆ Melody in Songwriting: Tools and Techniques for Writing Hit Songs (Jack Perricone; Berklee Press; 2000) ◆ Sounds and Scores: A Practical Guide to Professional Orchestration (Henry Mancini; Northridge Music Inc.; 1973) ◆ The Study of Orchestration (Samuel Adler; W.W. Norton & Company; third edition 2002) ◆ Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting (Jimmy Webb; Hyperion; 1998) ◆ What to Listen for in Music (Aaron Copland; Mentor; 1939—softcover revision 1999) I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention some of the other music books that I have written. Like this book, they’re all in Alpha Books’ Complete Idiot’s Guide series, and (I hope) are as equally easy to read and follow. These books include: ◆ The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Composition (Michael Miller; Alpha Books; 2005) ◆ The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing Drums (Michael Miller; Alpha Books; 2000—second edition 2004) ◆ The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Singing (Michael Miller and Phyllis Fulford; Alpha Books; 2003) ◆ The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Solos and Improvisation (Michael Miller; Alpha Books; 2004) Of course, if you really want to learn about music, you need a good teacher. Whether you study one-on-one with a professional educator, or attend music classes at your favorite school or university, a teacher can provide the individual instruction that’s necessary to develop your own unique musical skills. There are also many music theory resources on the Internet. These tend to change from year to year, so go to Google and do a search on “music theory” Chapter 20: Performing Your Music 263
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Music Theory Second Edition by Mich
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Contents at a Glance Part 1: Tones
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Contents Part 1: Tones 1 1 Pitches
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Finding Your Way ..................
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Instrumental Solo .................
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Good Keys and Bad Keys ............
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During the summer of 2001, I taught
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xvi The Complete Idiot’s Guide to
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xviii The Complete Idiot’s Guide
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xx The Complete Idiot’s Guide to
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xxii The Complete Idiot’s Guide t
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Pitches and Clefs In This Chapter
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Some instruments produce a broader
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If you’re reading ahead and want
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Notes on a Piano Keyboard A good wa
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Above—and Below—the Staff The b
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The grand staff looks like this: Th
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Exercises Exercise 1-1 Write the na
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Intervals In This Chapter ◆ Chang
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Two half steps equal one whole step
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Major and Minor Intervals When you
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Beyond the Octave You don’t have
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And take special note of those inte
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Scales In This Chapter ◆ Putting
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The Intervals of the Major Scale No
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Tip When you’re playing a piece o
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Scale Notes D minor D-sharp minor E
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Scale Notes E minor F minor F-sharp
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Scale Notes F minor F-sharp minor G
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The Intervals of the Ionian Note Ha
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F Lydian mode is relative to the ke
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B Locrian is relative to the key of
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Major and Minor Keys In This Chapte
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Key Key Signature and Scale D Major
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Same as This Scale Notes Major Key
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Accidents Will Happen When you assi
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How to change to the key of C. The
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2 Part Rhythms You don’t have to
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58 Part 2: Rhythms Taking the Measu
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60 Part 2: Rhythms Definition A not
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62 Part 2: Rhythms How to count var
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64 Part 2: Rhythms Tip Another way
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66 Part 2: Rhythms Exercise 5-4 Wri
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68 Part 2: Rhythms Note Classical m
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70 Part 2: Rhythms When you have an
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72 Part 2: Rhythms Tip In most musi
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74 Part 2: Rhythms Exercises Exerci
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Tempo, Dynamics, and Navigation In
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Italian Tempo Terms Tempo Means …
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When you see a fermata, hold the no
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Two accent marks and a marcato. Mor
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Another navigation technique uses a
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writing lots of individual measures
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3 Part Tunes Discover how to put to
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92 Part 3: Tunes The complete melod
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94 Part 3: Tunes The melody for Bac
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96 Part 3: Tunes Definition A passi
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98 Part 3: Tunes A four-measure mel
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100 Part 3: Tunes A simple four-not
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102 Part 3: Tunes Note Ironically,
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104 Part 3: Tunes Simplifying a rhy
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106 Part 3: Tunes You can achieve t
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108 Part 3: Tunes Note See Chapter
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110 Part 3: Tunes Exercise 8-3 Comp
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112 Part 3: Tunes Note The notes of
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114 Part 3: Tunes Note In this and
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116 Part 3: Tunes Chord Extensions
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118 Part 3: Tunes Minor seventh cho
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120 Part 3: Tunes Seventh, ninth, a
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122 Part 3: Tunes Note In classical
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124 Part 3: Tunes Changing chords i
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126 Part 3: Tunes Exercise 9-3 Writ
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128 Part 3: Tunes Let’s use the k
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130 Part 3: Tunes Note These exampl
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132 Part 3: Tunes Let’s put toget
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134 Part 3: Tunes Note In classical
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136 Part 3: Tunes I-ii-IV-V This pr
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138 Part 3: Tunes Note The blues pr
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140 Part 3: Tunes Old Johann was ab
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142 Part 3: Tunes Writing a Melody
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144 Part 3: Tunes Exercise 10-5 Cre
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146 Part 3: Tunes Parts of a Song W
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148 Part 3: Tunes Tip When you have
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150 Part 3: Tunes ◆ Mass A vocal
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152 Part 3: Tunes Exercises Exercis
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12 Chapter Transcribing What You He
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Listening—Actively Before we get
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Hearing Intervals Lesson 2, Track 1
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Interval Song-Specific Phrase Major
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many measures long the melody is, a
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Exercises Exercise 12-1 Play each o
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Accompanying Melodies In This Chapt
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A chord sheet—no melody. Working
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Block Chord Accompaniment The easie
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The benefit of this approach is tha
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Once you’ve figured out the chord
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14 Chapter Transposing to Other Key
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These scenarios are more common tha
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The chord progression transposed to
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or hold to their original pitches.
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5 Part Embellishing Discover how to
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188 Part 5: Embellishing Note This
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190 Part 5: Embellishing A common c
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192 Part 5: Embellishing Making Har
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194 Part 5: Embellishing Definition
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196 Part 5: Embellishing The lower
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198 Part 5: Embellishing Avoid exte
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200 Exercises Part 5: Embellishing
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Chord Substitutions and Turnarounds
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Altering the Bass Here’s another
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Replacing the I chord (C Major) wit
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Substitution Example (for the G7 ch
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Page 242 and 243: 218 Part 5: Embellishing Tip If you
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Page 246 and 247: 222 Part 5: Embellishing Exercise 1
Page 249 and 250: 18 Chapter Composing and Arranging
Page 251 and 252: Voice Range (Concert Pitch) Write I
Page 253 and 254: Brass Brass instruments typically a
Page 255 and 256: Transposition Range Sounds Instrume
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Page 259 and 260: Instrument Range (Concert Pitch) Wr
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Page 263 and 264: Exercises Chapter 18: Composing and
Page 265 and 266: Lead Sheets and Scores In This Chap
Page 267 and 268: Make It Simple Even simpler than th
Page 269 and 270: A typical chord sheet. Chapter 19:
Page 271 and 272: A four-part choral arrangement. Jaz
Page 273 and 274: A score for big band. Note A marchi
Page 275 and 276: A score for full orchestra. Chapter
Page 277 and 278: Today, thanks to computer technolog
Page 279 and 280: The Least You Need to Know ◆ Lead
Page 281 and 282: Performing Your Music In This Chapt
Page 283 and 284: That means you need to know a littl
Page 285: 3 1 Conducting in three. Finding th
Page 289 and 290: The Complete Idiot’s Music Glossa
Page 291 and 292: The Complete Idiot’s Music Glossa
Page 293 and 294: key A combination of a tonic and a
Page 295 and 296: pitch The highness or lowness of a
Page 297: transposition Translating pitch. tr
Page 300 and 301: 276 Appendix B
Page 303 and 304: Answers to Chapter Exercises Here a
Page 305 and 306: Exercise 2-3 Exercise 2-4 Exercise
Page 307 and 308: Chapter 4 Answers to Chapter Exerci
Page 309 and 310: Exercise 5-7 Exercise 5-8 Chapter 6
Page 311 and 312: Exercise 9-7 Exercise 9-8 Chapter 1
Page 313 and 314: Exercise 14-2 Exercise 14-3 Exercis
Page 315: Exercise 17-7 Chapter 18 Exercise 1
Page 318 and 319: 294 Appendix D 11. Lesson Two: Inte
Page 320 and 321: 296 Appendix D 31. A 32. C 33. G 34
Page 322 and 323: 298 Appendix D Scale Exercises (Tra
Page 324 and 325: 300 Appendix D Melody Exercises (Tr
Page 326 and 327: 302 Appendix D Chord Exercises (Tra
Page 329 and 330: Index Symbols/Numbers I chord, 130-
Page 331 and 332: preparations, 257-258 rehearsal rou
Page 333 and 334: Lydian mode, 40-41 lyrics melodies,
Page 335 and 336: performing music, conducting 2/2 ti
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tacet (dynamic marking), 83 tempo,
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