(Keyboard Instruction). Legendary jazz pianist Oscar Peterson has long been devoted to the education of piano students. In this book he offers dozens of pieces designed to empower the student; whether novice or classically trained; with the technique needed to become an accomplished jazz pianist.
#249911 in eBooks 2015-10-20 2015-10-20File Name: B00FJ3AF2G
Review
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Third Timersquo;s the Charm in a Well-Deserved RevisionBy frankp93I received a free item to review.I own the first edition of Moylanrsquo;s lsquo;The Art of Recordingrsquo; (its original title) and often tried to convince audio friends it was a lsquo;much better book than it readrsquo;; with little success.The knock against it was the academic tone that seemed especially at odds with examples drawn primarily from Beatles recordings. The lack of hands-on exercises and audio excerpts left the impression of a dated; less-than-practical; lsquo;abstract theory of recordingrsquo; that failed to address contemporary tools; techniques; and methods of working.Irsquo;m glad to report this third edition keeps what I feel are the bookrsquo;s strengths while the editorial revamp and new material ndash; both written as well as downloadable audio resources - greatly improves readability and focuses the book more effectively on teaching how to critically evaluate recordings and draw upon those skills to create your own.To be clear; lsquo;Understanding and Crafting the Mixrsquo; is gear and technology-neutral ndash; and that doesnrsquo;t mean screenshots of four or five different DAWS as opposed to one.There are no screenshots. Moylanrsquo;s goals far outweigh that kind of lsquo;now click thisrsquo; tutorial approach. The book is best treated as a creative resource to be studied and applied deeply over time and referred to for practical guidance and inspiration - keep it close at hand right next to your more gear-specific titles.Moylan wants readers to develop and fine-tune the most precious pieces of gear everyone owns - their ears and creative sensitivity. The book teaches you to listen critically to recordings ndash; after explaining precisely what that means; the various criteria and methods of capture/analysis; and preparing the ground with hands-on exercises ndash; not simply for you to become some golden-eared guru who can reflexively identify frequency content like a party trick - but to uncover and express your artistic viewpoint as a recordist and musical artist who treats the studio (however modest or luxurious) as an instrument in its own right.Does that mean lsquo;Understanding and Crafting the Mixrsquo; is devoid of technical specifics and nothing but rumination and esthetics ndash; far from it. Moylan does an admirable job keeping the prerequisite math and acoustical science to a minimum. But when measuring and evaluating recorded sound in lsquo;non-subjectiversquo; ways therersquo;s a technical and graphical vocabulary you should be comfortable with and Moylan formulates and presents it in clear; straightforward language.A real strength (and something less-apparent to me in the first edition) is Moylanrsquo;s own perspective as a musician and composer.As an example; Part One; lsquo;Defining the Art of Recordingrsquo; begins with lsquo;The Elements of Soundrsquo; - the familiar lsquo;pitch; loudness; duration and timbrersquo; found in many audio engineering and acoustics-related books.But fewer authors discuss duration in the context of the metric grid and of human limitations in distinguishing durations at the extreme boundaries of perception. In similar psychoacoustic terms; Moylan discusses time as consciousness of the perceptual lsquo;presentrsquo;; along with the effects of short and longer term memory.These are issues many contemporary composers grappled with for much of the last century and continue to explore. Moylan invites readers to view the recording process itself as part of that exploration; rather than merely a dry; technical lsquo;servicersquo; provided unobtrusively to clients. This perspective permeates lsquo;Understanding and Crafting the Mixrsquo; and I think it really sets the book apart.In later chapters on evaluating musical elements in the context of recordings Moylan makes use of various grid notations that were a bit novel when I first came across them years ago; but I think theyrsquo;ve aged quite well. Irsquo;ve seen similar examples since then in musical texts on form and analysis as well as electronic music production. I think anyone comfortable with a modern DAW will navigate Moylanrsquo;s graphics quite easily.The evaluation techniques ndash; ways of listening for and notating time; pitch; dynamics; sound quality and spatial properties make up the heart of the book and define the toolkit Moylan delivers to readers. By developing focused listening to discrete elements we gain both a big-and-small picture perspective Moylan feels is fundamental to evaluating - and by extension - creating cohesive and effective recordings.The most interesting parts of the book for me are the chapters on those spatial elements of recordings that make use of the audio examples.In addition to the classic model of the stereo image; sound stage; pan and foreground; considerable information on surround sound production has been added since the first edition. Moylanrsquo;s discussion of depth and separation is one of the clearer presentations Irsquo;ve come across in any mixing book.The final section of lsquo;Understanding and Crafting the Mixrsquo; guides the reader through an lsquo;over the shoulderrsquo; exercise/discussion meant to illustrate typical thought processes/workflows utilizing the skills developed throughout the book. The actual information on tracking; mixing; and mastering is not as comprehensive as what yoursquo;ll find in texts dedicated to each of those topics. But the value here is in applying Moylanrsquo;s ideas and concepts to the experience.Moylan acknowledges in the intro taking some heat over the years for focusing on Beatles recordings ndash; and necessarily omitting countless quality examples from subsequent decades. With the Beatlesrsquo; catalog long remastered and digitized (and arguably more influential than ever thanks in no small part to Sir Paulrsquo;s continued performing career) - I think Moylanrsquo;s original intuition and focus have been vindicated.Finally donrsquo;t confuse this book with Bruce Bartlettrsquo;s lsquo;Art of Recordingrsquo; by the same publisher (perhaps that had something to do with the title change). Theyrsquo;re both excellent; but written with (I think) different goals in mind.