Michael Pilhofer - Music Theory for Dummies

Music Theory For Dummies, 2nd Edition

by Michael Pilhofer and Holly Day

Music Theory For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River St.
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that was not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011937913

ISBN 978-1-118-09550-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-16926-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-16927-8 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-16928-5 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Authors

Michael Pilhofer teaches music theory and percussions at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has worked as a professional musician for more that 20 years and has toured and recorded with Joe Lovano, Marian McPartland, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Holland, Bill Holman, Wycliffe Gordon, Peter Erskine, and Gene Bertoncini.

Holly Day is a writing instructor at the Open Book Writing Collective in Minneapolis. She has written about music for numerous publications, including Guitar One, Music Alive!, Computer Music Journal, The Oxford American, and Mixdown magazine. Her previous books include Music Composition For Dummies, Shakira, The Insiders Guide to the Twin Cities, and Walking Twin Cities.

Dedication

To Wolfgang and Astrid, with much love.

Authors Acknowledgments

Special acknowledgement goes to all the musicians and composers who took the time out of their very busy schedules to share their thoughts on writing music with us: Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Irmin Schmidt, Barry Adamson, Jonathan Segel, John Hughes III, Nick Currie, Andrew Bird, Rachel Grimes, Christian Frederickson, Pan Sonic, Mark Mallman, and the late Dr. Robert Moog. A huge thanks to each one of you.

A big thank you also goes to the staff at Wiley: Corbin Collins, our project editor for the first edition, Elizabeth Rea, our project editor for the second edition, acquisitions editor Stacy Kennedy, copy editor Jessica Smith, and technical reviewers Karen Ladd and Kyle Adams. We thank our agent, Matt Wagner, as well.

Special thanks goes to Tom Day for mastering and producing the CD for the book and to rock poster artist Emek for continuing to inspire through his works.

Publishers Acknowledgments

Were proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Vertical Websites

Project Editor: Elizabeth Rea
(Previous Edition: Corbin Collins)

Acquisitions Editor: Stacy Kennedy

Copy Editor: Jessica Smith

Assistant Editor: David Lutton

Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen

Technical Editors: Kyle Adams, Ph.D., Karen Ladd, Ph.D.

Vertical Websites: Rich Graves, Doug Kuhn

Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker

Editorial Assistant: Alexa Koschier

Cover Photos: iStockphoto.com/Rubn Hidalgo

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Nikki Gee

Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers

Proofreader: Susan Hobbs

Indexer: Christine Karpeles

Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher

Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director

Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel

Publishing for Technology Dummies

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services