ABSTRACT

Theory for Today’s Musician, Third Edition, recasts the scope of the traditional music theory course to meet the demands of the professional music world, in a style that speaks directly and engagingly to today’s music student. It uses classical, folk, popular, and jazz repertoires with clear explanations that link music theory to musical applications. The authors help prepare students by not only exploring how music theory works in art music, but how it functions within modern music, and why this knowledge will help them become better composers, music teachers, performers, and recording engineers.

This broadly comprehensive text merges traditional topics such as part writing and harmony (diatonic, chromatic, neo-tonal and atonal), with less traditional topics such as counterpoint and musical process, and includes the non-traditional topics of popular music songwriting, jazz harmony and the blues. The accompanying companion website provides interactive exercises that allow students to practice foundational theory skills. Written by experienced authors, both active classroom teachers for many years, Theory for Today’s Musician is the complete and ideal theory text to enable today’s student to accomplish their musical goals tomorrow.

Updated and corrected throughout, the Third Edition includes:

  • Expanded coverage of atonality and serialism, now separated into two chapters.
  • Broadened treatment of cadences, including examples from popular music.
  • Substantially rewritten chapter on songwriting.
  • Interactive features of the text simplified to two types, "Concept Checks" and "Review and Reinforcement," for greater ease of use.
  • New and updated musical examples added throughout.
  • Charts, illustrations, and musical examples revised for increased clarity.
  • Audio of musical examples now provided through the companion website.

The accompanying Workbook offers exercises and assignments to accompany each chapter in the book. A companion website houses online tutorials with drills of basic concepts, as well as audio.

The paperback WORKBOOK is also paired with the corresponding hardback TEXTBOOK in a discounted PACKAGE (9780815371731).

chapter Chapter One|11 pages

Assorted Preliminaries

chapter Chapter Two|8 pages

Intervals

chapter Chapter Three|12 pages

Basic Harmonic Structures

chapter Chapter Four|10 pages

Musical Shorthand

Lead Sheets and Figured Bass

chapter Chapter Five|12 pages

Harmonies of the Major and Minor Scales

chapter Chapter Six|10 pages

Cadences/Harmonic Rhythm

chapter Chapter Seven|14 pages

Melodic Pitch and Rhythm

chapter Chapter Eight|17 pages

Embellishing Tones

chapter Chapter Nine|17 pages

Melodic Form

chapter Chapter Ten|8 pages

Melodic Principles of Part Writing

The Outer-Voice Framework

chapter Chapter Eleven|10 pages

The Melodic Factor in Four-Voice Part Writing

Voicing and Connecting Chords

chapter Chapter Twelve|11 pages

The Chorale

Part Writing with Root-Position Triads

chapter Chapter Thirteen|16 pages

Part Writing with Triads in Inversion

chapter Chapter Fourteen|11 pages

Part Writing Seventh Chords

chapter Chapter Fifteen|16 pages

Secondary Function I

chapter Chapter Sixteen|11 pages

Secondary Function II

chapter Chapter Seventeen|13 pages

Modulation I

chapter Chapter Eighteen|17 pages

The Art of Countermelody

chapter Chapter Nineteen|12 pages

The Fugue

chapter Chapter Twenty|16 pages

Mixing Modes

chapter Chapter Twenty-One|15 pages

Altered Pre-Dominants

chapter Chapter Twenty-Two|10 pages

Other Chromatic Harmonies

chapter Chapter Twenty-Three|16 pages

Modulation II

chapter Chapter Twenty-Four|13 pages

Harmonic Extensions and Chromatic Techniques

chapter Chapter Twenty-Five|17 pages

Binary and Ternary Forms

chapter Chapter Twenty-Six|15 pages

Sonata Form

chapter Chapter Twenty-Seven|21 pages

The Rondo

chapter Chapter Twenty-Eight|17 pages

Syntax and Vocabulary

chapter Chapter Twenty-Nine|14 pages

New Tonal Methods

chapter Chapter Thirty|9 pages

Non-Serial Atonality

chapter Chapter Thirty-One|7 pages

Serial Atonality

chapter Chapter Thirty-Two|14 pages

Harmonic Principles in Jazz

chapter Chapter Thirty-Three|12 pages

The Blues

chapter Chapter Thirty-Four|3 pages

Shaping a Song