Contemporary Musicianship presents traditional music theory and analysis in an innovative way for popular music, jazz, and music business/industry students. The text introduces students to the basic principles of music theory using the great works of classical performers and popular artists. Through creative projects and composition opportunities, Contemporary Musicianship shows the two-semester Musicianship or Introduction to Music Theory student that music theory is more than just notes and math; it is a musical experience that evolves throughout the life of an artist. Features * A contemporary approach bridges the gap between classical music and popular music * "Artist in Residence" features help students see how concepts in the text apply to the real world * Real-life scenarios in both creative projects and textual explanations show students how to think like industry musicians * Composition opportunities encourage students to apply what they have learned to their own original music * Aural skills exercises at the end of selected chapters are accompanied with studio recordings made specifically for this text * Coverage of chord harmonies using roman-numeral analysis (the traditional keyboard method) and lead-sheet symbols (more common in popular and jazz music) teach students alternate systems commonly used by professional performers in the commercial music world * A Companion Website with links to YouTube videos points students to relevant performances for analysis and critique and interviews with songwriters and performers

Except for the most conservative music departments, most colleges and universities have instituted music major programs to accommodate the contemporary student whose interest lies in current practice, e.g., popular music, music business and/or industry and music production. Those involved in the creation of popular music are usually more aurally oriented, and create music based on what sounds as that which is accepted as popular music. These students typically attempt song writing, and perform either as soloists or with bands. Music business and industry majors demonstrate interest in pursuing careers in music production, recording, publishing, management, promotion, and essentially any area that does not involve primarily the creative aspect of composition or performance. However, regardless of a music major’s primary area of interest, he or she is still required to fulfill certain departmental musicianship requirements. While traditional majors in performance, composition or teaching for example, must successfully complete historically established musicianship courses, the current trend in musicianship offerings is an attempt to be more accommodating to various needs and concentrations. Musicianship for the Contemporary Musician, which can be completed in two semesters, will satisfy this alternative approach and still fully prepare the graduate to move freely in other facets of the profession. The author is a classically and formally trained pianist, composer and theorist, who has spent many years as a performer of classical, jazz, popular, rock and liturgical music, touring and studio musician, and professor of music. He is a multiple-charted and award-winning songwriter, commissioned composer, producer, arranger/orchestrator and lyricist (Billboard, et. al.), and a published author, composer and songwriter. His works—popular, piano, choral and instrumental—have been recorded and published by numerous record companies and publishers in the United States and abroad. The author speaks from dozens of years of experience in the music profession.

A biographical and critical guide to performers and writers in a wide variety of musical fields, including pop, rock, rap, jazz, rhythm and blues, folk, New Age, country, gospel, and reggae. Each biannual volume covers 80-100 musicians.

This volume represents the second proceedings of the Royal Musical Association’s (RMA) Music and/as Process Study Group. It is not surprising that a large number of the contributors to the Music and/as Process Study Group are active practitioners in the performance and composition of contemporary music. The collaborations documented here represent the bringing together of disciplines, joint work between practitioners who contribute their own specific areas of expertise to a composite creative activity, and work that crosses disciplines in order to make a critical comment in each of them. In this collection, these three types of collaborative work describe an increasing amount of contemporary music practice. In addition to the increasing involvement of practice in research, the understanding and prevalence of practice methodologies in the form of practice research has also increased in musicology. This volume reflects these concerns through contributions from authors who are all active practitioners in their respective fields of music performance, composition, improvisation, and conducting. The diversity of these contributions shows the variety of processes and practices that are currently being undertaken by proponents of the field of contemporary music. These essays provide a snapshot of the current collaborative and distributed processes that are employed by today’s contemporary music practitioners. The chapters contained in this volume reveal the varied nature of the approaches to creativity in music making, and the ways that these are distributed across its practitioners during each stage of the development of musical works.

This anthology of essays, interviews, and autobiographical pieces provides an invaluable overview of the evolution of contemporary music—from chromaticism, serialism, and indeterminacy to jazz, vernacular, electronic, and non-Western influences. Featuring classic essays by Stravinsky, Stockhausen, and Reich, as well as writings by lesser-known but equally innovative composers such as Jack Beeson, Richard Maxfield, and T. J. Anderson, this collection covers a broad range of styles and approaches. Here you will find Busoni's influential "Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music"; Partch's exploration of a new notation system; Babbitt's defense of advanced composition in his controversial "Who Cares If You Listen?"; and Pauline Oliveros's meditations on sound. Now updated with fifteen new composers including Michael Tippet, György Ligeti, Gunther Schuller, Ben Johnston, Sofia Gubaidulina, and William Bolcom, this important book gathers together forty-nine pieces—many out of print and some newly written for this volume—which serve as a documentary history of twentieth-century music, in theory and practice. Impassioned, provocative, and eloquent, these writings are as exciting and diverse as the music they discuss.

(Piano). 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. Includes reference appendices, a complete glossary of terms, and hundreds of written theory exercises with answers.