Elementary Training for Musicians (2nd Edition)

This is by far the best book on its subject that I've ever worked with. For some reason it wasn't used until the second year second semester of Ear Training where I went to school, and I wonder why the college made us waste time and money on previous texts when this one had it all.That being said, it's definitely written without self-teaching in mind. From Hindemith's mindset, and that of many pedagogues both living and deceased, the idea of teaching oneself musicianship is about as nuts as teaching oneself surgery or carpentry. Even if it were possible, the same results could be achieved with less time and effort through proper instruction, which Hindemith sought to facilitate with this text. So if you're looking for a self-teaching text, look elsewhere - you are outside the scope of this book.My only concern about this book, and this could be simply the edition I have, is that it's in desperate need of a facelift. Taking advantage of computer layout techniques could make the exercises easier to read and the pages easier to navigate. Other than that, it's a teacher's dream for working on the nuts and bolts of musicianship.

Paul Hindemith is probaly the greatest teacher, composer, and author of the 20th Century. This Book gives insight to many students (such as myself). It is a great source of help for music theory and composition, history and literature majors. Buy the Book and I gurantee you will not regret it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm taking music lessons - one hour a week. We started on this book a little over a year ago, and I think I'm on page 14. In that year, I feel that my eyes have opened up finally (or more literally, ears). My sense of rhythm, harmony, melody, and pitch, all have improved to probably double if not triple where I was last year.I'm nowhere near god-like status, and not quite a professional level musician (though I imagine that's not far off if I keep working, which I will), but then - I'm only on page 14.One caveat, with this, as with all music books, it helps tremendously to have a teacher to point out your mistakes & do the exercises with you. My music teacher keeps telling me that a lot of teachers don't do this method because *they* have to work too with this book. They can't just sit back & watch you read the notes, nor can they give you hour-long dissertations on whatever theory they think is relevant. They have to listen, work, and there are dictations that are meant to be done with this book as well where your teacher sings or plays or taps a part & you write it down or repeat it.I work hard every week with this book, and so does my music teacher. If I master one exercise in that time great, if I breeze though 5 (yeah right!) fine - I know I'm getting the skills I need, and Hindenmith doesn't skimp, so I know I'm getting *all* the skills I need.The book is broken down (if I remember correctly) into 3 repeated parts - action, time and action-in-time. Or, pitch, rhythm, and pitch with rhythm. A fourth part is the dictations.The exercises are also inherently musical, not mindless. My teacher is constantly pointing out "that's an important interval for you to know - see how he's making you sing it?" or "that's an important rhythm for you to know..."I wouldn't reccomend this book to someone who thinks they can sit at home with a book & "get it". Though the excercises can, technically be done alone (the dictations can't), how can you HEAR something your skill level doesn't allow? How can you practice singing intervals if you yourself don't hear them? Who will bring you to the next level?Someone needs to write a computer program based on this book - tap the space bar in the appropriate way, sing into the microphone, etc. While it couldn't replace a teacher, it could give you something to work with between lessons.Interested in talking about music? Write me at [email protected]

Paul Hindemith was one of the 20th Century's preeminent composers, and was also known as a superb teacher. This book is not a textbook on harmony or composition. Rather, it is a collection of exercises intended to develop basic musicianship skills, including note-reading, and rhythmic and melodic sight-singing and dictation. The exercises start off deceptively simple and increase rapidly in difficulty. For example, a typical rhythmic exercise might have two separate rhythmic lines to be performed by each hand tapping, or by singing one of the lines and clapping or tapping the other. Melodic exercises are often accompanied by a contrasting rhythm line. Exercises are presented in alto and tenor clefs as well as the more usual bass and treble. Determination is the key to success with this book. Many of the exercises must be practiced assiduously--slowly at first, then faster as skill improves. Anyone who completes at least half the book will have improved his or her musicianship level significantly.