No, I'm not a teacher, so I don't get time off in the summer. But a lot of you are, and by my count it's halfway through 2016 so I'd better get started on those New Year's resolutions.
Wait, you mean you're supposed to start those in January? That can't be true, because it's June and I'm just getting started.
Disclaimer: this list is not meant to be a Buzzfeed style TOP 5 BOOKS ONLY FAILED MUSICIANS DON'T READ type of article. Please feel free to take my suggestions, but music and learning isn't one size fits all. Some people get a lot from Rimsky-Korsakov's book on orchestration, and some of us think he's just a little bit long winded. Different strokes for different folks, etc etc so on and so forth.
1. Music for New Media by Paul Hoffert
Since I haven't read past the first chapter yet, I can't vouch for it as being the END ALL, BE ALL of video composing like Winifred Phillips' book is. This one appears to be more exercise based, with a goal to give you a working digital music portfolio at the end of working through it. It does seem a tiny bit dated in its references to mobile gaming as "up and coming" but on the whole it seems like useful information. You can find it on Amazon for not that much cash. (Note: don't buy a copy that doesn't come with the included cd!)
2. Words Without Music by Philip Glass
I'm about halfway through this book, and I already think it's great. Glass is one of my favorite composers, and this book gives an amazing insider view to his upbringing and how he finds inspiration. He's a pretty progressive guy, and that's obvious from this book. It's not too edited, either: he's pretty honest about the grittier events. No, you can't borrow my copy - after I leant a copy of Essays on a Sonata by Charles Ives to a colleague and never got it back, my personal library is chained to the wall. But you can buy yourself a used copy on Amazon for a few bucks.
Guitar for Dummies
This is probably the book that will make people say, "BUT ANGIE I DON'T WANT TO LEARN GUITAR. I ALREADY PLAY THE HORN, THE FLUTE, AND THE DIGIRIDOO." Cool, don't learn it. Didn't you read the disclaimer?
Yes, it's simplistic, but you can skip past all of the learning to read music parts and still learn a fair bit from this book. It is by no means on earth a "one guide fits all" for learning guitar, rather, it's one weapon in the musical arsenal. You can get a copy on Amazon, or, like, support your local bookstore or something. Interact with your fellow humans. Or don't.
The Music Instinct by Philip Ball
Think piece style books on music are usually either amazingly mind blowing, or terrible. Your Brain on Music was amazing, but The World in 6 Songs is oversimplified garbage. This could go either way - but there's cool headphones on the cover and it has 4 stars on Amazon, so I'm hopeful that I won't be rolling my eyes so hard that I go temporarily blind. Still, there is one particularly eloquent review that simply reads, "Sh*t."
What are you reading this summer?
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