Walter Piston -- Harmony

Question to those who have worked with the book: To what extent did you use it? Did you absorb most of the rules that Piston gives, or did you skim over large sections and just took the bits that you considered important?

I read it all - didn't do all of the exercises, but a few from each chapter until I understood everything. I still keep it handy and refer to it regularly. 'Tis a bloody good book.

I used it for a while just going over exercises in voice leading, and the rest I leave as reference (a great one)...for the most part the book gravitates toward pre-Wagner harmony, traditional progressions, dominant harmony, etc. So after Piston maybe study Wagner through early Schoenberg scores on your own and then get Persichetti's "20th Century Harmony"

Sounds like this book would be more useful to me than Hindemith's was, considering how I'd be applying it.