Art and Fear: On the Perils and Rewards of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland.
I didn’t see these in the thread:
These two books are what rekindled my interest in electronic music production after a twenty-five-year hiatus of trying to be an adult.
The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten is my favorite music book of all time. It reads like a story, is easy for anyone on any level to understand, and the wisdom is infinite. Can’t recommend this to everyone enough.
How is it? I love the band and I love 33 1/3 style books.
On the first hundred pages so far so good. You really get know Bristol as a town in the beginning and it’s music culture. I never knew my favorite graffiti writer Futura 2000 was a singer in a punk band.
Also found this old pdf in GS linking to FM programming the SY synths. Lots of basic FM info in it too
Just ordered computer music tutorial. Can’t wait to read all 1200 pages of it.
Currently reading https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07KVPQLN8 (J. Anthony Allen - Music Theory for Electronic Music Producers), it’s the first theory book that has really clicked with me and already the stuff I’ve learned about chords and voicing has helped me make better music.
Strikes a nice balance of enough detail to be useful, while pragmatic and high level enough to be an easy read. Has some good examples from popular electronic music which is quite fun, and the use of the piano roll rather than the keyboard makes it quite practical for reading on the go and using e.g. your phone to play with the concepts. Also super cheap on Kindle (free for me with Prime!) and generally reads okay on there, the illustrations aren’t the easiest to read on it is the only thing.
yep we want regular updates too
Still an inspiring book for me. Although it is more Ableton Live oriented it helps me a lot for my hardware workflow, too.
Music Habits - The Mental Game of Electronic Music Production: Finish Songs Fast, Beat Procrastination and Find Your Creative Flow
Jason Timothy
Some interesting books here. Between making music and learning more about the innards of it, I always start to get inner fights about how to spend the little time I have.
With that said, I’m eager for this to come out: https://unbound.com/books/jaki-liebezeit/ Very curious in his approach (I’m not even a drummer).
I’m reading “Ascension - John Coltrane’s quest” by Eric Nisenson, and it’s wonderful. An intimate look at what inspired and drove Coltrane, which is what I would call an obsession with expression.
That makes me inspired to express myself as well.
33 1/3 is a great series of pocket sized paper backs each nerding out on one album by one artist. each issue is written by a different author.
I loved the one about Portishead’s Dummy, and I’m currently reading the one about aphex’s SAW2.
Reviving this thread cause I have a book request:
I’d like a book that explores recording/songwriting situations of particular bands. For instance, if there’s a Pink Floyd book that talks about how they wrote such and such song in the studio and someone had an idea to do such and such.
I’m NOT interested in books that are about the lives/drama of the musicians involved.
This can go for any great, inspiring act. Bowie, Beatles (though I’ve read about them a lot via Allan Pollack), whomever. I basically want Classic Albums except I want it as a book and with more depth.
Basically I want this but as a book.
Or like songexploder if it was a book.
Take screenshots from youtube, print, make holes and bind them together. Read. Make better music!
The closest I know of for what you want regarding Bowie is Chris O’Leary’s two books “Rebel, Rebel” and “Ashes to Ashes”, based on his “Pushing Ahead of the Dame” blog: https://bowiesongs.wordpress.com/
Book details here: