Hearing and Writing Music: Professional Training for Today's Musician 2nd edition, revised and expanded

Survey of New Teaching Materials, Jazz Educators journal
A myriad of practical information. Comprehensive ear training, important because aural skills are among the most overlooked in music education.


The Score, Society of Composers and Lyricists
A kind of finishing school for those who wish to pursue a career in composing, orchestrating, arranging or performing.


New books, Jazz Educators Journal
A wonderfully systematic approach to ear training . . . neatly designed and structured, it just flows. Direct and easily understood.


ITG Journal
A synthesis of the author's vast knowledge and his quest to define the question, "How do we hear?"


Book Description
A self-training manual as well as a classroom text, this book is a complete step-by-step course to develop the musician's ability to hear and notate any style of music. Personal training, thoery and exercises produce techniques which are combined in an integrated craft which may be applied to composition, orchestration, arranging, improvisation and performance.


From the Publisher
In this book you will discover: Transcribing techniques. How to maximize your creativity and productivity. How to develop your craft by consolidating techniques. How to read music with your ears. How you can write music without using an instrument. How to write music spontaneously, as your ear guides your hand. How to communicate accurately through music notation. Why you don't need "perfect pitch." Tools to develop your music perception. 140 exercises, many music examples—models for a lifetime of study. Resources for composing, orchestrating, film scoring. Working in the music business. Where to find supplies, organizations, information, inspiration. A definitive guide and reference for composers, orchestrators, arrangers and performers.


From the Author
This book is designed to help you develop and refine your perception and your ability to communicate with music—to know what you are hearing and to express your thoughts through music notation or performance. In this second edition, we have added new material including Creativity and Productivity, Working in the Music Business, and outlined a plan for developing and consolidating your techniques into an integrated craft. There are updated resources for your investigation into all areas of music, as well as expansion and clarification of material in response to readers questions and comments. In these pages, you will find guidance, inspiration and information to help you clarify the abstract aspects of music, make the intangible tangible, and perhaps spark your interest to further explore some of the vast realms of music. Along the way, we will explode a few myths that have continued to confuse and discourage students of music. We will encourage you to develop the musician within to the fullest, so you may achieve mastery in all areas of music that you choose. The studies in this book require a fundamental knowledge of music. You should have the ability to read notes on a staff and be familiar with clefs, keys and meters. This book does not attempt to duplicate the many existing sources of basic music skills. Rather, it will enhance and expand the knowledge and techniques that you have developed thus far. You’ll gain the confidence to allow your musical decisions to be guided by your ear, experience and intuition, rather than someone else’s rules. Igor Stravinsky said, "I had only my ear to help me; I heard and I wrote what I heard. I am the vessel through which Le Sacre passed." Many musicians, artists, actors have expressed the same thought with different words: "I am merely a channel/conduit/vessel/instrument; my art flows through me." This work is concerned with that moment when music flows through you.


About the Author
Ron Gorow has consolidated his 40 years experience in Hollywood as a composer, orchestrator, arranger, copyist, music engraver, score proofreader, musicologist and teacher to develop the techniques presented in Hearing and Writing Music. He is a member of Professional Musicians Local 47, Recording Musicians Association, International Association of Jazz Educators and American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers.


Excerpted from Hearing and Writing Music: Professional Training for Today's Musician by Ron Gorow. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
This book is about you, about music, about your personal relationship with music. It is designed to help you develop your perception, perfect your musical skills, and to communicate your musical thoughts. This book will prepare you for a life in music, whether you wish to create your own music or participate in the working world of music—the professions of composing, arranging, orchestrating, music preparation and performance. Our goal is to provide the tools, to save your precious time and to point you in the right direction. The emphasis is on hearing. Music is, after all, sound. All things visual and intellectual (notation, theory, etc.) merely serve or support the making of musical sounds. Contrary to most music theory books, we emphasize learning (or re-learning) music according to what it sounds like, rather than what it looks like. In fact, the first half of the book avoids notes, note names and music notation as much as possible so that we may learn to perceive music in the air before committing it to notation or producing sound from an instrument. We will augment, rather than duplicate, information that is already widely available, and show you how to combine the principles of music theory, composition, orchestration and transcription into one coordinated system of integrated techniques.


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