Listen While You Surf!

   Think of a song that resonates deep down in your being. Now imagine sitting down with someone who was there when the song was recorded and can tell you how that series of sounds was committed to tape, and who can also explain why that particular combination of rhythms, timbres and pitches has lodged in your memory, making your pulse race and your heart swell every time you hear it. Remarkably, Levitin does all this and more, interrogating the basic nature of hearing and of music making (this is likely the only book whose jacket sports blurbs from both Oliver Sacks and Stevie Wonder), without losing an affectionate appreciation for the songs he's reducing to neural impulses. 

   Levitin is the ideal guide to this material: he enjoyed a successful career as a rock musician and studio producer before turning to cognitive neuroscience, earning a Ph.D. and becoming a top researcher into how our brains interpret music. Though the book starts off a little dryly (the first chapter is a crash course in music theory), Levitin's snappy prose and relaxed style quickly win one over and will leave readers thinking 
about the contents of their iPods in an entirely new way. 

 

The Essentials:  Listening Booth
 

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COMP_CREATIVE_PROCESS

The Song Decoders   -   NY Times    -   By Rob Walker

Note; This is a 6 page article exploring the incredible phenomenon  -  The Music Genome Project  -   which you know as Pandora   |   Author: "Pandora, is convinced that by pouring this information through a computer into an algorithm, it can guide you, the listener, to music that you like. The premise is that your favorite songs can be stripped to parts and reverse-engineered." 

   "Hearing and Writing Music", by Ron Gorow, is a superb book. It makes a simple and elegant presentation of the internal process by which we hear sounds and music, how we recognize intervals, chords, melody, harmony, counterpoint, and the timbre of instrumentation/ orchestration, how we can develop the skills of listening, auditory memory and imagination, and how to use these skills to hear and to write down music of any sort. 

   The hallmark of an expert is the ability to explain the basics of his field as simply as possible. By that standard, Mr. Gorow has proven his expertise in this book. I note that the other reviews, both for Amazon and in musical journals, tend to limit the importance of "Hearing and Writing Music" to ear training. I believe that Mr. Gorow's book is valuable for much more than ear training. I have studied it, and as a result of that study, I believe that my auditory memory and imagination and my abilities in score reading have improved enormously. 

   Further, I have been able to use the skills in this book to transcribe melodies, harmonies and counterpoint almost effortlessly, both those that I have heard, and those which existed only in my imagination. This book has opened many doors for me. I believe that it can do so for many others. 

   On a personal note, for the last 30 years, I have been able to hear and compose music in my imagination. Unfortunately, I have been almost exclusively self-taught, and I despaired of ever being able to write down what I heard. Mr. Gorow's book, and my use of it, has changed all that. I have just completed the first movement of a symphonic tone poem, and I intend on continuing to compose for the rest of my life. 

   I have studied many books on music theory, and have listened to and studied many pieces of music. If I may make an analogy, my studies had formed the equivalent of a crystalline solution. "Hearing and Writing Music" was the equivalent of a seed crystal, which put everything into order, and transformed me from a listener to a composer. 

   I cannot recommend it highly enough for those who wish to become songwriters, arrangers, or composers, or those who wish to improve their skills.

 
 
 

Artist Song Name Composer Composition Instrument

 

Music Instrument Directory
 

Gen Instruments	Accordion	Alto Saxophone	Banjo	Bass Guitar
Voice Solo	Violin	Viola	Tuba	Trumpet
Bassoon	Cello	Clarinet	Drums	Dulcimer
Easy Piano	Fiddle	Flute	French Horn	Guitar tab
Harmonica	Mandolin	Oboe	Organ	Other Percussion
Piano Solo	Piano/Vocal/Chords	Recorder	Tenor Saxophone	Trombone

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Music Artists Alphabetical
 

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

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Music Genres
 

Broadway	Choral	Christian	Christmas	Fakebooks
MusicMinus One	CD Sheet Music	Guitar Tab	Wedding	Children
Jazz	Rock	Teach Yourself	School Teachers

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Sheet Music Publishers
 

Alfred	Baerenreiter	Bastien	C. F. Peters	G. Henle
J Aebersold Jazz	Mel Bay	Schirmer	Gift Ideas	Bestsellers