Name: The Complete Musician
ISBN: 9780199742783

The Complete Musician

Beginning with music fundamentals, this text covers all the topics necessary for a thorough understanding of undergraduate music theory by focusing on music in context. The text links each of the tasks that comprise a tonal theory curriculum, explicitly connecting written theory (writing and analysis), skills (singing, playing, and dictation), and music-making outside the theory class. Distinctive Features: • Presents an outstanding quality, quantity, and diversity of exercises geared toward real music and real music situations • Explores not only standard four-voice harmony, but also other musical domains including melody, counterpoint, and a multitude of textures; the result is a text with applicability and relevance to all musicians • Includes almost 4,000 musical examples from the common-practice repertoire in the text and workbooks, more than 90 percent of which are on the MP3 files included on the CDs with text and workbooks (all music is performed, recorded, and engineered at Eastman) New to this Edition: • Revised with beginning students in mind, this edition contains more basic exercises as well as solutions to selected exercises in the text. Longer and more difficult exercises have been moved to the workbooks.

What Hacker News says

ofalkaedMar 2023

A teacher is by far the best way to go, failing that The Complete Musician is the best book/source I have seen for self study. The problem with self study is that the basics of harmony/triads seems very simple and people plow through it and think they understand than get completely stuck. Everything is built on harmony and if you do not understand it you will not progress. If you go with self study remember that if you are stuck it means you did not understand what came before, go back and figure out what you missed, which is where a teacher is very handy since they will have a much better idea about what you missed than you do.

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avetiskDec 2019

You should definitely check reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/musictheory/

There are specific resources given for beginners.

Personally I went with the large The Complete Musician by Laitz as most recommended it, and I’m quite happy with my choice.

It goes very deeply into all aspects of playing and composing music as well as understanding it.

The style Is a bit academic but the overall level is quite accessible and very clear.

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TheAceOfHeartsJul 2025

Suno is incredibly fun. I've realized there's ton of lyrical and topical niches that nobody is exploring in the music space, so AI generated tools are really good at helping you scratch your own itch. The iterative loop still feels like it has a lot of room for tightening up, especially when you want to start refining minor details to match more closely with the idea you have in your head.

Personally, I had some experience learning to compose music from a college course, and I've been trying to relearn some of what I'd forgotten by trying out this textbook: The Complete Musician, but progress is slow. And even if I'm able to put together a musical piece, I wouldn't be able to afford hiring the people needed to bring it to life.

I wonder how far we are from AI tools where you can just start describing and humming your idea out, and it'll give you samples that can be mixed in real time. Sort of like being in a studio with a full support staff of professionals with a lot of improvisational experience. Vibe mixing and composing in real time.

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spekcularAug 2022

Again, I am confused by your claims. The species system taught by Fux is, as far as I recall, the exact same way that counterpoint is introduced in, e.g., Gauldin's "A Practical Approach to 18th Century Counterpoint." (Gauldin goes into much more detail on other things, but the approaches are consistent.)

The fact that the upper voice goes 2-1 or 7-1 and the bass 5-1 at cadences is one of the first things taught in a counterpoint class. The rule of the octave is in most theory textbooks. The first example that comes to mind is Laitz, "The Complete Musician."

You're right that these textbooks don't teach how to improvise an accompaniment from a figured bass, but I'm not sure that's a good use of time for a theory class.

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theOnliestAug 2015

Sure. I'm always on the lookout for new things, because I'm unsatisfied with most solutions out there. The best way to learn/practice ear training is to find someone who's decent at piano and play through some progressions you'd find in a theory book.

(Diversion on theory textbooks...) Though I didn't pick it, at my school we use Steve Laitz's The Complete Musician (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Musician-Integrated-Approach-...) and its associated workbooks. I wouldn't recommend it for self-study, because there are a lot of little errors in it a student likely wouldn't notice, and it's prone to confusing people. What might be better for learning on your own is Gary Karpinski's Manual for Ear Training and Sight Singing (http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Ear-Training-Sight-Singing/dp/0...) and the CD that goes along with it. Finding ear-training books is kind of difficult, since most are designed to be used in a class with a teacher. I have more opinions on textbooks but I'll save that rant for now.

Online, this site is pretty good for basic intervals and chords (as I said above), and http://www.musictheory.net/ also has some pretty basic exercises. It avoids a lot of the problems I mentioned above by simply not having those exercises for ear training. I think it's pretty good for people who don't know anything and want to learn, but I usually don't recommend it to my students because it tends to fuzz some specifics as it gets more advanced. I often recommend this software called Practica Musica (http://www.ars-nova.com/practica6.html), which we have installed in the lab at school.

(Background: I teach at a liberal-arts undergraduate institution, and the theory curriculum focuses on common-practice tonal music in the Western tradition. There are probably other more specific sources for particular genres, but knowing the basics of common-practice tonality is a good foundation for most other Western musics.)

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