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I want to learn how to read and write music, how to compose.
I got a great book on music theory: http://www.amazon.de/Neue-Jazz-Harmonielehre-Verstehen-Hören-Spielen/dp/3795751241
I also got a Piano-Bible, with hundreds of classical pieces.
I gonna get a midi-keyboard for around 600 Euros.
I do not care about technique or mastering that instrument, I am buying a silent-violin and take lessons for that, however, I like to aquire an understanding of compositions.
Have any of you encountered a book that takes one by the hand, with quizzes and step by step workthrough lessons, that they can recommend?
It should go through pieces and explain what is happening, what the thought progress is and how to develope a melodic idea into a full song, basicly practical music theory for transcribing and songwriting, with lots of exercises, learning by doing, not reading.
The book I linked is in german, but I do not mind english books at all.
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Music theory is great and all and I encourage you to read it. But also keep in mind with that thing about learning by doing, just go and write some music and then see how it goes. The most practical music theory is putting notes together that sound good.
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Get some sort of music writing software that also has build in capability to play songs that you've written, something like that would help to understand how a song sounds when it's all put together.
I believe in trying to speak a language before learning grammar, so I'd say just experiment for a while until you start writing things that sound good to you, then start going into the theory and reason behind why it sounds good.
It's been a long time since I've learned how to read music, as in the notes on the staff etc, so unfortunately I can't really help you with that.
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United States593 Posts
You should focus more on songs that you're going to play yourself; there's a certain understanding of music that you achieve only through playing it and hearing yourself play it
But all in all, music theory is wonderful! It adds so much to a performance if you know what you're doing
Writing is really fun, don't get discouraged either if your first few pieces sound shit, it's like that for everyone [except Mozart]
And I agree with the above post, except you should learn the basic of the basics first [like chords] and THEN write a bit and THEN go into music theory
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It pretty much depends what you're interested in writing and how advanced you want it to be. The Jazz Theory Book by Mark LeVine might be good, but I don't know how basic it starts off as I've only borrowed it and skipped to the bits I was interested in. It may also have too much of a focus on jazz (unless you're interested in that).
As some advice to start off with, learn all your major scales on piano/keyboard (how many flats/sharps does each scale have etc). In terms of getting a grasp on theory, it was actually the best thing I ever did (I don't play piano). Almost everything can be thought of in relation to the major scale, and although you might progress beyond that way of thinking eventually, it's really valuable at the start.
As far as transcribing goes, you need to practice a whole bunch of basic shit before you'll be able to do that with any speed. You should be able to identify each interval within an octave first (e.g. a min 2nd), then learn to hear 3 part chords, then 4 etc etc. This is stuff that you don't need books for, really. I would just get a lesson every month or something to get new stuff to work on. You can start with something like this: http://www.iwasdoingallright.com/tools/ear_training/main/
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It might be important to note that, as part of the quadrivium taught in the Renaissance, music was a study of the relations between quantities; in other words, the study was of proportions. As such, I recommend the following page for a beginner.
Harmonics
For more in-depth learning, I recommend MusicTheory.net.
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Thanks guys for your help. I probably have failed to express what I was looking for, but hiromi send me a nice pm with just the stuff I was looking for.
@hp.Shell, that intervall ear training on that side is great! Thank you so much 
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EPT
