Question about books and autodidact composers...

Hey,

I play the saxophone and like jazz, rock and weird music in general. I plan to compose for this family of instruments... The thought of actually writing something aside from a 3 chords blues song never crossed my mind until I started improvising...

Can you suggest me books that can teach proper composition for the general musician (I don't intend on becoming the next Mozart, but maybe the next Moondog) so nothing too strict or outdated. I have a basic grasp of music theory. I have a book named "Musical Composition: A New Approach"- it's minimalism oriented and I started studying with it, but more advices for general stuff would be appreciated.

Can you name-drop composers who are largely or completely self taught? I know of Zappa, Danny Elfman etc...

Thnak you very much for your time and effort, this is a great community... It's kinda odd that there are so little composition forums per-se...

Hello Rasputin and welcome

Can you suggest me books that can teach proper composition for the general musician

here are some:

Zeitlin P, Goldberger D - Understanding Music Theory - 1981

It starts from the biginning of music theory and it has jazz scales, chords etc.

Another one is Jamey Aebershold How To Play Jazz And Improvise

All about improvisation

And if you are interested about rythms...

Polyrhythms - The Musician's Guide

It has many jazz and world rythms generaly and a Cd with audio examples.

Can you name-drop composers who are largely or completely self taught?

I'm self taught composer :w00t:

Ok I know that Zbigniew Preisner has never got formal lessons and he is from my favourite film composers.

Hope I helped...

Here are some great books:

Mark Levine - "Jazz Theory Book"

Barrie Nettles & Richard Graf - "The Chord Scale Theory and Jazz Harmony"

My recommendations are based on your musical interests as I see them. However, I think you should try to learn as much as you can about music and sound - also classical harmony and counterpoint. Even readings on acoustics could prove beneficial.

Film composers Zbigniew Preisner, Mark Isham, Hans Zimmer are autodidacts. As for composers from the classical world - Poulenc, Schoenberg, Telemann, Elgar, also Mussorgsky, though he has had some lessons with Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev. Korsakov himself was largely self-taught.

Thanks!!!

I heared that Balakirev was also autodidact, and that Mussorgsky got really bad reviews in his day (for the opera Evgeny Onyegin, if I remember correctly) for not knowing harmony, which sounds rather insane, speaking from a casual listenet's perspective...

I have the Aebersold book and the Mark Levin book, but is there something that's not stylistically oriented?

Like this book: Musical Composition: A new approach is like that, but I can feel the minimalist leanings already and I can't say I like it very much... I'm more into music that feels odd, surprising and humoristic- and I would say that the basic rhythm for me is at least odd as 5/4.

Speaking of 5/4- check this great Russian animation with the Dave Brubeck soundtrack!

I heared that Balakirev was also autodidact, and that Mussorgsky got really bad reviews in his day (for the opera Evgeny Onyegin, if I remember correctly) for not knowing harmony, which sounds rather insane, speaking from a casual listenet's perspective...

Well, all the Russians of the "Mighty Handful" (Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Borodin) were pretty much autodidacts. The others took sort of "lessons" from Balakirev, but he didn't actually have a much greater knowledge than his pupils to begin with. This was mainly because prior to that time there simply didn't exist any form of official music education in Russia and it only began to slowly come up during their time.

Oh, by the way.: Evgeny Onegin is by Tchaikovsky, not by Mussorgsky.

Mussorgsky's works are often reorchestrated and rearranged. Just sayin'.

Rasputin, are you talking about William Russo's book? I think I've seen that one.

Well, all the Russians of the "Mighty Handful" (Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui, Borodin) were pretty much autodidacts. The others took sort of "lessons" from Balakirev, but he didn't actually have a much greater knowledge than his pupils to begin with. This was mainly because prior to that time there simply didn't exist any form of official music education in Russia and it only began to slowly come up during their time.

Oh, by the way.: Evgeny Onegin is by Tchaikovsky, not by Mussorgsky.

But form another point of view, he probably acquired a lot more knowledge than the average aspiring musicians this days coming from a well developed country, don't you think? He was well read in the classics, and he got education... Not to mention that back in the days, a Russian playing an instrument was something so ordinary, like being born with a belly-button!

Yes, I am talking about the Russo book. Made progress with it, but I still doubt it... It's very simplistic.

Any opinions on Musical Composition by Reginald Smith Brindle?

I also checked Composition for Dummies, but it seemed to me too simplistic and abstract... No exercises if I remember correctly.