Product 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.
Hearing and Writing Music June 19, 2008 Excellent!!!! In 30 years studying music, I've never seen anything like it. Gorow has really found a brilliant and logical approach to training our ears. I recommend this book very highly.
Ron Gorow puts the cart where it belongs (after the horse) June 1, 2008 OK, so that's a cliche, and we should avoid cliches like the plague.
My limited imagination, though, couldn't come up with a better way to express the way that Gorow hits the nail on the head (oops, my bad) with his method for learning the art of music.
The thesis is that you must hear the music, then be able to recognize and communicate what you are hearing. His reasoning is tight, and the methods he suggests to improve your hearing and identifying musical elements work for me.
I can't speak to how one who reads this work without having any prior knowledge of the craft will respond, but for those who are conversant with the pedantic side of music, and who realize that there is more to it but can't really tell what that might be, this book tells you how to get your music away from your intellectual brain and get it flowing directly from your feeling brain.
The Most important book in your library March 27, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book will become the most important book in your music library!! They don't come around very often. The author amazingly manages to wrap up the "big picture" and lay it out at your feet.
Provides solid training in an easy format March 1, 2008 It took me a while to get used to the style of presentation and the style of writing, but very soon I found myself learning the material with ease. Everything is broken down into small teaching/learning units so the reader doesn't feel overwhelmed even by an unfamiliar topic. I am an amateur musician and the book appears quite suitable for my needs and very comprehensive in its coverage. I would recommend this for anyone wanting to pursue ear training.
Look no further - this is THE theory book! February 11, 2008 I don't normally review my Amazon purchases due to my busy schedule, but this book just really deserves one:
This book is a Narnia of information and Ron Gorow is an absolute fountain of musical knowledge. He has a real knack for getting straight to the point; explaining even the most complex theoretical concepts in an entirely non-frivolous and understandable manner - his average paragraph size is about 5 lines, but that's really all it needs to flick a light-switch on in your head! He's also taken the time to provide exercises to help 'drum in' the theory.
I don't recommend reading this from front to back; Dr. Gorow has provided a extensive index at the back which I use as a reference to tackle all the big problem areas, and it works! If you're problem's with rhythm, just look up Rhythm in the index and there you have it, about 20 different page numbers to help you out. A simple enough concept but SO many music books just don't have this. Granted, occasionally the pages might seem somewhat haphazardly placed, but then I guess it's primarily designed for the cover-to-cover reader and each detail is presented in order of importance. In any case, this is but a minor inconvenience considering just the amount of information you're gonna get from this. I can't have read even a quarter of this book yet and already I feel enlightened by its teachings every day!
With it's exhaustive wisdom and surprising clarity, I can tell this book is gonna be in my life for many years to come; even once completed, no doubt this will be an invaluable reference book for life. Could easily be the best $20 I ever spent.
Extensively detailed, yet to the point, I'm still struggling to put this one down! A MUST for anyone serious about studying music.
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