#000484
Music Theory for Computer Musicians
Michael Hewitt
Traditional music theory, rebuilt for people who learned music through software rather than a teacher. Michael Hewitt covers the real fundamentals — notes, scales, intervals, chords, keys, rhythm — but teaches them through the MIDI keyboard and the recording software a modern producer actually uses, showing concepts in piano-roll and keyboard form as well as notation, with song examples and end-of-chapter exercises. It assumes no prior theory and no ability to read a staff, which is precisely why it clicked with a generation of self-taught producers who'd hit the ceiling of what they could do by ear. Work through it like a textbook, at your gear. The software references age; the fundamentals are permanent. The natural first step in Hewitt's series for computer musicians.
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The author
Michael Hewitt is a Welsh composer and educator with a doctorate in composition from Bangor University. Recognizing that a new generation was learning music through software rather than traditional instruction, he wrote a series translating conventional theory into terms that computer musicians could immediately use.
The book
Music Theory for Computer Musicians covers the building blocks of Western music theory — notes, scales, intervals, chords, keys and rhythm — but teaches them in the context of the MIDI keyboard and modern recording software. Concepts appear in piano-roll and keyboard form as well as notation, reinforced by song examples, a companion CD and end-of-chapter exercises.
How to read it
Work through it like a textbook, at your gear, doing the exercises. It assumes no prior theory and no ability to read standard notation, which is exactly why it clicked with self-taught producers. A second edition updates the material; the fundamentals it teaches are permanent.
For more context
Follow it with Hewitt's Composition for Computer Musicians and Harmony for Computer Musicians to continue the series.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Michael Hewitt
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Music
- Location
- Colorado