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 | | Thesaurus Of Scales And Melodic Patterns (Text) by Nicolas Slonimsky ISBN-10: 9780825614491 ISBN-10: 0-8256-1449-X ISBN-13: 9780825614491 ISBN-13: 978-0-8256-1449-1 Paperback 1975-12-11 Amsco Publications Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Since its publication in 1947, great musicians and composers of all genres - from Arnold Schoenberg and Virgil Thomson to John Coltrane and Freddie Hubbard - have sworn by this legendary volume and its comprehensive vocabulary of melodic patterns for composition and improvisation. | ||
Reviews | ||
Melodic Scales Very technical, obviously. Not for the faint of heart. But if you have some theory background and want to fill in some of the gaps, this is a great resource. I am still learning from it. | ||
This is the worst book ever written. I am an extremely serious composer and theorist. The ONLY reason one would be impressed by this book is because they don't understand its contents and therefore assume it must be saying something profound. I do understand its contents and can attest to the fact that Slonimsky has created a book which hides his intentions behind big words of his own design. Ex: he says "dodecaphonic" instead of 12 note scale. Other ridiculous terms are "intra-ultrapolation" and Sesquiquardritone progression which means "Major 6th". I can assure you that while many talk about how wonderful this book is, no one is using it. They are merely leaving it on they're coffee tables for people to talk about. Aside from severely inflating the books worth with big words, the drills themselves are useless. He has deliberately sought out every obscure and "bad" sounding pattern for the sake of making the book modern. None of the patterns are usable. Even on the chance that there is a pattern or two that is usable, the book is so long at 244 pages with literally THOUSANDS of thorny, awkward tongue twisty patterns, you will never find those few examples that may be useful. I dare anyone to say that they have really spent time practicing with this book, or have done more than one or two of the exercises. This is the single worst example in history of a man who was a musicologist yet dreamed of being a composer. He applies his mathematical ability to the task yet reveals that he possesses not taste or sense of art whatsoever and therefore did not bother to edit his ideas. | ||
Great book - but for the more advance. I purchased this for a friend, so I know very little about the book. All I can comment on is the reaction I got when he received it. He was quite inpressed by the book and it's detail. He spends hours going over the book and using it as a practise guide. I can only assume that it's helping him in his quest to master "Scales And Melodic Patterns". | ||
modernist musical architectures This book is a collection of phrases and scales with the purpose to present some raw material for modern/avantgarde composers, or etude material for the musician preparing themselves to play such ouevres. From a contemporary composer's view, it's probably old news. If you are an improvisor, it is quite interesting stuff, because it contains mainly stuff beyond what you might know as scales from jazz theory. On the other hand be warned, there is nothing of "real" musical "meaning" in it - most of it is just symetrical, mathematically constructed stuff, similar to the diminished scale or whole tone scale. Up to you how to make sense of this material and incorporate in your playing. | ||
Mind-bending book for the serious and curious musician. Nicolas Slonimsky's "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" is a mind-bending book filled with harmonic morsels for the curious and self-motivated musician. Although this book is usually described as a musical "reference" book, it is much more than just a few hundred pages of specific licks to spew over specific chords. There are plenty of books in print today to buy if that is the type of book you are after. Slonimsky's "Thesaurus," however, is in a totally different vein. The concepts are just as deep, interesting, and fresh today as they were in 1947 when the book was first published. For anyone who has tackled the ins and outs of conventional harmony and wants something more interesting to think about, this is the book. It is true that Slonimsky does not come right out and say how to specifically apply these concepts and phrases. Instead, he leaves little clues (many of which are in the Introduction) to help guide and provide the reader with a few different options of harmonizations and applications. Quite simply, with the "Thesaurus," you get what you put into it. If you spend time analyzing, applying, and considering the things in this book, it will over time become clear as to what it is all really about. One of the great things about this book is it inspires an individualistic approach; you learn to develop your own way of thinking as you work through it. This makes everyone's appplication of the scales just a bit different from the next person. Two people might approach the same pattern in a totally different way, therefore making the applications constantly evolve and change. A few things should be said to those who might be thinking of purchasing this book. First of all, if you can't read musical notation (treble and bass clef), learn that first, as you will get nothing out of this book if you can't. Also, if you are thinking this book will provide a "quick fix" for your playing, or make you sound like Coltrane, don't bother buying this book either. One should also be well aquainted with both classical and jazz harmony before working through this book (for those interested in jazz theory, a good place to start is "The Jazz Theory Book" by Mark Levine). Besides the contents of the book there are a few other nice things about it. There is an explanation of terms, which is most helpful as the musician learns Slonimsky's terminology. It is also extremely well organized which lends itself well to an individual curriculum. For the musicians that are ready, and are motivated enough to put in the required time and effort, it will be well worth it, and the musical rewards will compensate the price of buying the book many times over. Slonimsky states in the Introduction, "There are 479,001,600 possible combinations of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale. With rhythmic variety added to the unbounded universe of melodic patterns, there is no likelihood that new music will die of interval starvation in the next 1000 years." Good news for musicians and audiences, eh? Also recommended: For a book in a similar vein, check out Wayne Krantz's "An Improviser's OS," available through his website. | ||