Harmony

When I was a young music student at a University in Florida, I asked my teacher which book he recommended for music theory. Without hesitation, he said this book. He wasn't wrong. I studied this book every night for a couple of months, doing the exercises at the end of the chapter. By the time I had finished this book, I thought I knew everything there was to know about harmony and chords and music theory. And you know what? I pretty much did. My edition was the old one, so it did not have the modern, up-to-date material that students today need. But I understand that the book has been updated. The old book stops at about 1900, the end of the COMMON PRACTICE ERA. The big change since then has been that people no longer consider much music to be dissonant. Our ears have gotten used to hearing all kinds of harmony. So go ahead! Play a Cmi7add9 and no one will bat an eyelash. One thing that I had not considered until recently was that if you lived before 1900, you didn't have much chance to hear music at all. Where did you hear music back then? There were no record players. There were no radios. There were no movies. There was no recording of any kind. The only place they hear music was in a church. Occasionally an orchestra would play a concert, but this was rare. We don't realize what we have today. Technology has brought the wonder of listening to music anytime of the day or night. And it is completely our own choice. It's funny I never heard anyone else say this. But it's true. What a luxury to live in our technological wonderland age. So, if I am extolling the virtues of today, why am I recommending a book that's over 50 years old? Because, except for what we consider dissonance, music theory has not changed much. The major chords still sound happy, the minor chords still sound sad, the leading tone still creates tension and wants to resolve to the tonic. Scales in different countries are still different. The Asian countries could not use this book at all. Their concept of harmony and their ears are different than Westerners. So, my recommendation is to buy and study this book I'm sure you will find it as wonderful in 2018 as I found it in 1980. And I'm sure students in the year 2050 will also find it a big help.

When I first learned Harmony in the ninth grade, I was taught on an aged and practically antique fourth edition of Piston's Harmony. The first thing I noticed is that the fifth reworked some of the chapters and the order they are in. For example Chapter 10 in the 4th edition was Cadences, but the 5th it is the six-four chord. After many years away from practice and learning harmony, I came across it again and was tempted. Should I buy it? Would it be changed after all those years? I am glad to say that it's like an old friend came by. Despite some of the chapters are different in order, the structure remains the same. Piston uses a lot of musical examples to show what he is trying to teach. He starts out with very easy concepts (positions of notes in a chord and intervals). It is assumed that the reader can read music and knows the difference between a whole note and a quarter note, etc.) The concept of inversions is covered quite thoroughly, giving the reader time to ingest and start to feel comfortable with first inversion, he gets into the second. Finally, in the section on dominants, he gets into third. In between there are chapters on harmonization of a melody, cadences (the old ii-V-I, etc.), triads, modulation, seventh chords, textures, Neapolitan sixths, etc. One of the greatest strengths of this book is the musical examples that it is drawn from. Once you start getting into triads, etc. you start seeing output from actual composers (usually keyboard reductions) for teaching the works with a piano or keyboard. If you are a reader interested in learning the craft and the technique of composition, Piston's book will not steer you wrong. It is good to welcome back an old friend.

As the other reviews make clear, you'll only like this book if you truly want to study harmony! Those who do tend to give the book high marks.I read the book on my own, because I was finding that in my other reading about classical music I was encountering ideas and terminology that I didn't understand. For this purpose, it really helped me a lot to read Piston. The examples, taken from throughout the history of classical music, are intriguing and helpful as illustrations.

If you feel that your knowledge in harmony is incomplete, that is the right book for you! It is very systematic and not hard at all(even for me: english is not my mother tongue) Some people complain about the fact, that it is dry.Well what do they expect from a harmony book? It gives you all the knowledge you need starting from zero, building it gradually to more sophisticated exercises. You really don't have to be super-intelligent to be able to understand it, you just have to work on it systematically and with discipline, you might even enjoy it (I did) By the time you finish the book, you will not feel anymore that your knowledge in harmony is insufficient, on the contrary the word harmony will be more associated as a friend than as an enemy.

Interesting to read the reviews about this book. Just because a book is "hard" or confuses you doesn't mean it's a bad book. Look, I'm a professional musician, composer and teacher. This book is the most complete and best harmony text out there. There's plenty of room for personal preference, and it's probably not fair to say one book is better than another. This book, however, is truly exceptional, and the 5th edition is the best so far.BTW, I taught myself harmony from this book when I was in high school (with the guidance of a teacher reviewing my exercises) and tested out of all theory at a prestigious university. Basically I got the equivalent of an undergrad theory background from studying this text.

Interesting to read the reviews about this book. Just because a book is "hard" or confuses you doesn't mean it's a bad book. Look, I'm a professional musician, composer and teacher. This book is the most complete and best harmony text out there. There's plenty of room for personal preference, and it's probably not fair to say one book is better than another. This book, however, is truly exceptional, and the 5th edition is the best so far...