Owesen

Hello, fairly new to max, a bit less than a year spent with it. However this is not really a max-related question.

I recently got my hands on a monome, and am thinking about setting it up as a sort of keyboard (among other things). My problem with this is that I am severely lacking in knowledge of music theory, until now i basically just turned knobs till whatever sound I was making was adjusted to my liking. For some odd reason I have been thinking about actually getting to a point where i can read and play pieces from notes on the thing.

So in order to acquire a better grasp of the basic theory I would greatly appreciate if someone could point me in the direction of what is essentially an idiots guide to music theory.

More specifically I am looking for some sort of overview of how scales work, and the different ways of organizing these.

Hello, fairly new to max, a bit less than a year spent with it. However this is not really a max-related question. 

a-shove-in-the-right-direction

There have to be thousands of pages out there that provide this basic music theory understanding that you are looking for.

keywords: music theory, scales, octave, triads, equal intonation... that should get you started... explore the search results.

Also, if you are trying to learn music theory, i can assure you that you will be a bit confused at first if you plan to use a monome as your instrument to learn on. Its not impossible to do, its just that 99% of all music theory texts will refer you to a piano keyboard, not an 8x8 grid of buttons...

Also, if you are trying to learn music theory, i can assure you that you will be a bit confused at first if you plan to use a monome as your instrument to learn on.  Its not impossible to do, its just that 99% of all music theory texts will refer you to a piano keyboard, not an 8x8 grid of buttons... 

i'd recommend getting a theory text and some staff paper as it's easier to study from a hands on manual. really, at this point, any book will do, especially if you're learning the nuts and bolts of it. just go to a local used bookstore and see if they don't have one lying around for cheap. this will help with learning to read, the mechanics of notation, basic scale, harmony, and modal theory, and some construction. after that point (roughly equivalent to college freshmen studies), you'll want to be more critical as music is mired in opinion, but for now you'll need legs in order to walk.

and i'd also take selalou10's advice, maybe drop a craigslist wanted ad for a cheap midi controller. if nothing else a keyboard is very useful for visualizing theory, that or a guitar.

i'd recommend getting a theory text and some staff paper as it's easier to study from a hands on manual.  really, at this point, any book will do, especially if you're learning the nuts and bolts of it.  just go to a local used bookstore and see if they don't have one lying around for cheap.  this will help with learning to read, the mechanics of notation, basic scale, harmony, and modal theory, and some construction.  after that point (roughly equivalent to college freshmen studies), you'll want to be more critical as music is mired in opinion, but for now you'll need legs in order to walk.  

and i'd also take selalou10's advice, maybe drop a craigslist wanted ad for a cheap midi controller.  if nothing else a keyboard is very useful for visualizing theory, that or a guitar.


Quote: ruxtomikron wrote on Fri, 14 December 2007 13:03

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> i'd recommend getting a theory text and some staff paper as it's easier to study from a hands on manual. 

I've found "Harmonic Experience: Tonal Harmony from Its Natural Origins to Its Modern Expression" by W. A. Mathieu to be a good text book on music theory.

If all you want is scales, I've heard good things about "Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale" by William A. Sethares

Try to find these in your local library, since they're heavy hardcovers with commiserate price tags.

Quote: ruxtomikron wrote on Fri, 14 December 2007 13:03
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> i'd recommend getting a theory text and some staff paper as it's easier to study from a hands on manual.  
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If all you want is scales, I've heard good things about "Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale" by William A. Sethares 

Scales would be a great thing to explore with Max, and a good project to experiment with the program... have some presets of scale combinations, then bang out random selections of the notes over time. Play them over different held bass notes besides just the tonic to hear the differences... Also stack various combinations of the scale notes to hear chord / harmony possibilities.

A good book on Jazz theory will help a ton, that class was way more instructive than my traditional Theory classes. It really delves into the possibilities, and isn't as constrained by the style (most traditional theory "rules" date from a couple hundred years back... still valuable, but by no means the whole story). The best thing it taught me was that particular chords mean particular scale patterns (i.e., a minor 13th has a specific pattern of scale degrees). Build up your chords by 3rds, and across 2 octaves you have your scale (standard-style chords, that is).

Get your hands on the keyboard, there's no better instrument for experimenting with theory IMO. Anytime I had a tough theory question I would visualize the keys, and this usually got me the answer.

i agree that jazz theory is important, very liberating, and spawns a great deal of creativity. my concern is that there is a basic theoretical musical language in western music that needs to be learned first that, in my experiences, is often taken for granted in jazz theory. that's why i suggested in my original response to just hammer out the nuts & bolts of theory and then start to direct your focus/interests. in my opinion, theory is very much shaped by the style you play. i'd even be interested in writing a book on rock theory, as the harmony, while it makes perfect sense, isn't justified by traditional music theory. it's more like a mix of jazz theory with a bunch of planing and neo riehmannism (sp?).

i always found guitar worked well for me in visualizing theory as its construction gives you natural reference points in contemplating theory, but everyone's different. the huge benefit of keyboards in this situation is the fact that midi guitar is a lot less unreliable than midi keyboards and the author of this post could seamlessly integrate max into his learning of theory.

i agree that jazz theory is important, very liberating, and spawns a great deal of creativity.  my concern is that there is a basic theoretical musical language in western music that needs to be learned first that, in my experiences, is often taken for granted in jazz theory.  that's why i suggested in my original response to just hammer out the nuts & bolts of theory and then start to direct your focus/interests.  in my opinion, theory is very much shaped by the style you play.  i'd even be interested in writing a book on rock theory, as the harmony, while it makes perfect sense, isn't justified by traditional music theory.  it's more like a mix of jazz theory with a bunch of planing and neo riehmannism (sp?).  

i always found guitar worked well for me in visualizing theory as its construction gives you natural reference points in contemplating theory, but everyone's different.  the huge benefit of keyboards in this situation is the fact that midi guitar is a lot less unreliable than midi keyboards and the author of this post could seamlessly integrate max into his learning of theory.  

A shove in the right direction