Synopses & Reviews
Now in its 2nd edition, How Music REALLY Works!: The Essential Handbook for Songwriters, Performers, and Music Students, is the classic 'how-to' manual for anyone interested in playing, singing, or writing emotionally powerful music. The book focuses on specific techniques a player, vocalist, or songwriter can use to seize the attention of listeners and move them emotionally. For the benefit of the majority of musicians (amateur and pro) who do not read music, the book contains no music notation. Instead it provides in-depth, visually-oriented, easy-to-understand (and humorous!) text and graphics covering every important aspect of music-making. At 890 pages, including nearly 600 bibliographical references and a 21-page index, the book has 4 major divisions. Part I: The Big Picture, begins with Chapter 1, 'What Music REALLY Is, Who Makes It, Where, When, Why,' a substantive treatment of the evolutionary roots of the human ability to make music, focussing on why music is such an emotionally powerful way of communicating. Chapter 2, 'What the Popular Music Industry REALLY Is, and Where It Came From,' takes the reader on a tour of the major genres of Western music: folk/roots, classical, musical/film, jazz, blues, ragtime, country/bluegrass, gospel, swing, R & B/soul, rock/pop, reggae, dance/electronica, and hip-hop. Part II: Essential Building Blocks of Music, begins with Chapter 3, 'How Tones and Overtones REALLY Work,' covering topics such as the harmonic series, how the various types of musical instruments work (including the voice), and the emotional effects of pitch, loudness, and tone color. Chapter 4, 'How Scales and Intervals REALLY Work,' discusses the emotional effects of various types of intervals. Topics include scales used in the West, including blues and pentatonic, as well as scales used in the Arabic world, India, China, etc. Chapter 5, 'How Keys and Modes REALLY Work,' covers the major and minor modes, and also the 'Church modes': Dorian, Phrygian, Lyd