Description:
For 30 years, this book has provided the must-have info songwriters need to get their songs heard and signed. No matter the genre, this is the reference beginners to pros use to start and build successful careers. This updated edition features: contact info for 700+ record companies, publishers, managers, producers and more; resource listings for networking, organizations, contests, etc.; informative articles by respected authors; and even an interview with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

 

Description:
This book provides novices an easy-to-understand, step-by-step approach to mastering those elements consistently found in hit songs. Incorporating inspiring anecdotes; 30 effective exercises for practicing, honing, and expanding one's songwriting skills; and helpful checklists for assessing strengths and weaknesses, it offers a concise analysis of the six steps essential for songwriting success. This second edition has been updated, substantially revised, and expanded, including developments such as the advent of MP3s, the increase in music sampling, and more. Features a completely updated appendix with the most comprehensive and up-to-date listing of songwriter resources available.

 

Description:
A Composer's Insight, Volume 1 – with a foreword by Michael Colgrass – is the first in a five-volume series on major contemporary composers and their works for wind band. Included in this initial volume are rare, “behind-the-notes” perspectives acquired from personal interviews with each composer. An excellent resource for conductors, composers or enthusiasts interested in acquiring a richer musical understanding of the composers' training, compositional approach, musical influences and interpretative ideas. Features the music of: Timothy Broege, Michael Colgrass, Michael Daugherty, David Gillingham, John Harbison, Karel Husa, Alfred Reed and others.

 

Description:
With a foreword by Norman Dello Joio, this book is the second in a five-volume series on major contemporary composers and their works for wind band. Included in this volume are rare, “behind-the-notes” perspectives acquired from personal interviews with each composer. An excellent resource for conductor, composer or enthusiast interested in acquiring a richer musical understanding of the composers' training, compositional approach, musical influences and interpretive style.

 

Description:
A Composer's Insight, Volume 3 – with a foreword by John Corigliano –is the third in a five-volume series on major contemporary composers and their works for wind band. Included in this initial volume are rare, “behind-the-notes” perspectives acquired from personal interviews with each composer. An excellent resource for conductors, composers or enthusiasts interested in acquiring a richer musical understanding of the composers' training, compositional approach, musical influences and interpretative ideas. Features the music of: Richard Rodney Bennett, Warren Benson, Roger Cichy, John Corigliano, David Holsinger, Roger Nixon, Bernard Rands, Philip Sparke, Frank Ticheli, Michael Weinstein, and John Zdechlik.

 

Description:
Originally published in 1948, this orchestration manual is one of the cornerstone texts on the topic, but has never before been published in English. Profusely illustrated with musical examples, this manual gives technical and subjective advice about writing for each of the instruments of the orchestra. Paperback, 278 pages.

 

Description:
Create arrangements with texture and style with this complete guide to arranging for large horn sections! Now, for the first time, learn the same jazz ensemble arranging techniques taught by renowned Berklee College of Music faculty, and studied by the best and brightest arrangers working today. While the book focuses on classic big band and jazz styles, the core information about horn harmony and arranging can be used for any style, from hip-hop to ska. Arranging for Large Jazz Ensemble includes all the information you need when creating horn charts, fueling and inspiring you with the charts of esteemed Berklee professors Jeff Friedman, Ted Pease, Scott Free, Greg Hopkins and Bill Scism. The play-along CD includes more than 60 demo tracks and arrangements written in the style of masters such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Gil Evans, and performed by Berklee faculty. Covers: writing and voicing techniques; soli, background and shout choruses; special effects; creating your own style; and more.

 

Description:
This is the resource for creating truly inspired arrangements! Full of tips and tricks covering techniques for building digital arrangements in a variety of styles, including country, gospel, pop, jazz, rock, Latin and more. Teaches basic MIDI, sequencing, production concepts, and arranging techniques for a variety of digital instrument sounds. Make your MIDI sequences and grooves come alive! Also includes a General MIDI disk with more than 50 sequenced samples, helpful definitions, and more.

 

Description:
This book is an essential manual of techniques for recording a song. It explores arranging essentials such as grouping instruments effectively, using multi-track recording, artfully layering parts, achieving a good mix, and creating unusual arrangements using common techniques. The accompanying CD illustrates all of the techniques presented in the book. Guitar chord boxes are included for the CD tracks where appropriate.

 

Description:
Learn music theory based on over forty years of music theory instruction at Berklee College of Music. Whether you already play an instrument, or are looking to expand the depth of your musical knowledge, understanding the fundamental concepts of music theory is essential for advancing your performance skills and writing music. This book features rigorous, hands-on, “ears-on” practice exercises that help you explore the inner workings of music, presenting notes, scales, and rhythms as they are heard in pop. jazz and blues. You will learn and build upon the basic concepts of music theory with written exercises, listening examples and ear training exercises. The included CD will help reinforce lessons as you begin to build a solid musical foundation.

 

Description:
The second in a two-volume series based on over 40 years of music theory instruction at Berklee College of Music. This volume focuses on harmony, including triads, seventh chords, inversions, and voice leading for jazz, blues and popular music styles. You'll develop the tools needed to write melodies and create effective harmonic accompaniments from a lead sheet.

 

Description:
Bruce Springsteen is one of today's great songwriters, with a style that is all his own. This book uses his work as the starting point for a master class in the art of writing powerful – and successful – songs. Songwriting guru Rikky Rooksby takes Springsteen's songs apart and shows how the common techniques they use can help you: structure intros, verses, choruses and bridges • write songs using anything from two to seven chords • arrange instruments for maximum effect • mimic the sound of Springsteen's chords • write lyrics that ring true and hit home. This book will change the way you listen to Springsteen's songs and revitalize the way you write your own.

Bruce Springsteen (Artist)
 

Description:
An essential resource for both students and professionals, offering shrewd insight into the business, process, and art of writing music for film and TV. Interviews with top film scoring professionals add the priceless insight of the wisdom that comes with experience.

 

Description:
Eartraining is a vital (and sometimes neglected) skill that enables musicians to “hear ahead” in their playing and writing. These unique, modern courses have been used by hundreds of students (from beginners to working pros) at the acclaimed Grove School of Music in Los Angeles. These methods use SOLFEG (the syllables Do, Re, Mi, etc.) to apply the techniques within a key-center based “relative pitch” framework. Level One works on hearing and transcribing melodies, rhythms, intervals and bass lines and moves on to identify triads and simple progressions. Level Two covers hearing and transcribing triad and four-part chord progressions, key changes, chromatic tones, modal scales, and combining melodic and harmonic dictation.

 

Description:
The Music Theory series is designed from the ground-up to explain the terminology and musical structures needed for modern applications. Level One is an introductory course which covers music notation, key signatures, basic scales, intervals, modes, diatonic relationships and 3-and 4-part chords. Level Two is an intermediate-level course covering larger chord forms, “definitive” chords in major and minor keys, substitutions, analysis of key centers in tunes, “upper structure” chords, voiceleading, and pentatonic and blues scale applications. Both levels include reference appendices, a complete glossary of terms, and hundreds of written theory exercises with answers.

 

Description:
The Music Theory series is designed from the ground-up to explain the terminology and musical structures needed for modern applications. Level One is an introductory course which covers music notation, key signatures, basic scales, intervals, modes, diatonic relationships and 3-and 4-part chords. Level Two is an intermediate-level course covering larger chord forms, “definitive” chords in major and minor keys, substitutions, analysis of key centers in tunes, “upper structure” chords, voiceleading, and pentatonic and blues scale applications, a complete glossary of terms, and hundreds of written theory exercises with answers.

 

Description:
The Berklee in the Pocket Essential Songwriter is an accessible reference guide that will quickly lead songwriters to ideas that are at the heart of countless hit songs. The tips and strategies jam-packed into this concise guide will help you tackle writer's block and gain fresh insight into the songwriting process. Includes: the 17 chord progressions that are at the heart of the most popular hit songs, guitar charts and keyboard chords showing how to play progressions in all 12 keys, tips to customize essential chord progressions to suit your own songs, contact info for businesses and organizations most important to the working songwriter, and more!

 

Description:
Following in the footsteps of the popular Hal Leonard Pocket Music Dictionary, this handy pocket-sized book is the most contemporary music theory book on the market! A step-by-step guide to harmony and theory for every musician, it includes thorough, yet to easy-to-understand analysis of: intervals, rhythms, scales, chords, key signatures, transposition, chord inversion, key centers, harmonizing the major and minor scales, extended chords, modulation and much more.

Packed with info from the Harmony & Theory course at Musicians Institute!

 

Description:
If the muse seems to have lost your address, or a big writer's block has hit you squarely in the head, the Hal Leonard Pocket Rhyming Dictionary may be just the inspiration you need to get your words to once again flow freely!

A treasure trove of 30,000 entries organized alpha-phonetically to maximize word choice and minimize cross-referencing, this concise and user-friendly new resource is ideal for singer/songwriters, writers and poets, whether serious or recreational, professional or amateur. Encompassing standard vocabulary, proper nouns, popular expressions and much more, this is by far the most contemporary rhyming dictionary on the market. Includes a foreword by Nashville songwriting legend Buzz Cason!

The Pocket Rhyming Dictionary follows in the footsteps of these other handy resources from leading music print publisher Hal Leonard: The Pocket Music Dictionary (HL00183006, ISBN 0-7935-1654-4) and Pocket Music Theory (HL00330968, ISBN 0-634-04771-X).

 

Description:
An excellent workshop from the assistant chair of the Ear Training Department at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, this DVD is a vital intro to the topic for songwriters and performers looking to improve their listening skills and become better musicians. You'll learn to: recognize chord progressions quickly and confidently, and incorporate them into your writing and performing, listen to music more analytically, and apply this knowledge to all of your projects. 73 minutes.

 

Description:
You've written what you think is a great melody, what you hope is a strong lyric, and you've cut what sounds to you like a killer track. But how do you know if it's a hit? And what do you do with it if it is? Your only option is How to Be a Hit Songwriter, essential reading for advanced songwriters.

Molly-Ann Leikin is the award-winning songwriter/songwriting consultant who helps good songwriters all over the world become hit songwriters. Whether your work just needs a little rewriting, polishing or some strong connections, Leikin will guide you step by step to the top of the charts. In How to Be a Hit Songwriter she offers expert advice and exercises, including “Seven Easy Steps to Writing Hit Lyrics.” The book features inside information that can turn your song into a potential hit. What's more, she's interviewed music industry power players who share tips that are essential to all developing artists.

 

Description:
How to Write a Hit Song is the only complete guide to composing lyrics and music – and getting your songs on the air. It covers everything aspiring songwriters must know to be successful, from creating memorable lyrics, composing the melody, and crafting song structure to collaborating, finding a publisher, and recording a song. This revised edition includes a new section on marketing your music on the Internet.

“Interested in songwriting? Here is a book written with verve, dash and humor that will tell you what you need to know. Bravo!”

– Will Jennings, Academy Award-winning songwriter for “My Heart Will Go On” and “Up Where We Belong”

Molly-Ann Leikin (Artist)
 

Description:
Now anyone can write and play their own songs on the guitar – with no prior training! This inspirational handbook teaches readers how to play guitar, while providing a solid foundation in songwriting techniques, using well-known songs as examples, easy-to-follow text, and graphics that explain and demonstrate lyrics, melody, harmony and rhythm. This book's straightforward style will have even those who've never played a guitar or written a song making music with ease.

 

Description:
This book helps both keyboard and guitar players to find and develop interesting chords and chord sequences on a keyboard, and then use them to write their own songs. Rather than trying to teach intricate pieces of music, the book breaks things down into a simpler style and concentrates on basic chords and ideas, starting with a simple three-chord song and gradually adding more complex structures. A visual system that virtually eliminates the use of standard music notation allows guitarists who are used to using guitar tablature to feel totally at home. Songwriting issues are also analyzed, including key changes and writing songs in minor keys. The straightforward style of this book will have musicians writing on a keyboard with ease – even if they never have before.

 

Description:
Presenting a remarkable selection of songs ranging from vintage rock 'n' roll to today's electronic dance music, this book analyzes in fine detail the writing and recording techniques behind 100 selected singles and album cuts to see exactly what makes a great track great. Whether you're a musician looking for inspiration or creative tips, or a music lover who wants to get the most from your record collection, Inside Classic Rock Tracks is a unique combination of critical appreciation and hands-on insight. Readers will discover exactly how different sounds within songs are achieved, and the various ways engineers throughout the history of popular music have arranged and recorded them. Analyzes music from the worlds of funk, folk rock, surf, blues, disco, country, hard rock, Britpop, R&B, reggae, psychedelic rock, punk, Motown, techno and more.

 

Description:
For those who want to learn the inner workings of music without, as author Dave Stewart notes, “getting bogged down in a lot of fearsome technicalities,” this is an enlightening exploration of the theory and practice of music. Picking up where The Musician's Guide to Reading & Writing Music leaves off, Stewart uses the same amusing style, clear examples, and practical advice to encourage readers not just to read music, but to write some of their own. The book sheds light on tonality, chord sequences, scales and modes, tempo, rhythm, improvisation and composition, chords and chord voicings, MIDI, and more. 128 pages, 6 1/8″ x 9 1/4″

 

Description:
When you think of jazz composers, who comes to mind? Jelly Roll Morton, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Bob Brookmeyer. This book is about what they (and many others) do. Jazz composition has evolved into a disciplined art that often evidences great emotional depth and breadth of sophistication. Berklee College of Music legend Ted Pease demystifies the processes involved in writing jazz tunes and in composing episodic and extended jazz works. Jazz Composition: Theory and Practice is a by-product of Pease's 25 years of teaching jazz composition. The accompanying CD helps demonstrate melody, harmony and rhythmic elements of jazz and also includes a variety of music-writing exercises focused on learning these same elements to help you begin producing your own effective jazz compositions.

 

Description:
A one-of-a-kind book encompassing a wide scope of jazz topics, for beginners and pros of any instrument. A three-pronged approach was envisioned with the creation of this comprehensive resource: as an encyclopedia for ready reference, as a thorough methodology for the student, and as a workbook for the classroom, complete with ample exercises and conceptual discussion. Includes the basics of intervals, jazz harmony, scales and modes, ii-V-I cadences. For harmony, it covers: harmonic analysis, piano voicings and voice leading; modulations and modal interchange, and reharmonization. For performance, it takes players through: jazz piano comping, jazz tune forms, arranging techniques, improvisation, traditional jazz fundamentals, practice techniques, and much more!



Customer reviews on amazon.com for Jazzology average a glowing 5 stars! Here is a typical reader comment: “The book's approach is so intuitive, it almost leads you by the hand into the world of jazz. Certainly jazz is freedom of expression, but you have to know what you're doing and this book is the tool for that ... (it) should be standard in every high school with a jazz program and every college lab band.”

 

Description:
Lyrics sheds light on all aspects of lyric writing for music and will make songwriters feel more confident and creative when they tackle lyrics. It's perfect for all songwriters: those who don't like their own lyrics and find them difficult to write, experienced writers looking for a creative edge, and those offering lyrics to set to music in a partnership. Topics include channeling personal experiences into lyrics, overcoming writer's block, the right lyrics for a bridge, the separation between lyrics and poetry, exploring imagery and metaphor, avoiding clichés, and more. The book also offers tips on the various styles of lyrics, from protests, spirituals, and confessionals to narratives and comic songs.

 

Description:
Countless musical examples and a running text guide the reader through using chords and changes to create musical arrangements for folk, rock, pop and jazz. Includes information on blues and modal harmony changes, how melody makes harmony, harmonizing a minor melody, and much more.

Eric Salzman (Composer)
Michael Sahl (Composer)