A List of Music Recommendations and Gear I Use

I get asked rather often what I use in the studio to create music, or if I have recommendations for books and such for younger composers. So, I decided it might be helpful to have all of those things together in a single list.

Books

Music Theory

Music Theory and Composition: A Practical Approach (Textbook)

Theory of Harmony (Schoenberg)

Music of Lord of the Rings (Douglas Adams)

Music History

The Oxford History of Western Music (Taruskin - 5 volumes)

A History of Western Music (Burkholder - single volume)

Composition

Behind Bars: The Definitive Guide to Music Notation (Gould)

The Study of Orchestration (Adler) (if you only get one book, I’d get this one)

Fundamentals of Music Composition (Schoenberg)

Choral Arranging (Ades)

How to Write for Percussion (Solomon)

Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory (Strauss)

Scholarly Articles (Free Online)

SMT Online - a quarterly journal for Music Theory and Music Analysis, usually has about 7-10 articles per edition.

AMS Journal - This journal features articles in musicology.

Supplies

Ticonderoga Pencils 

G2 Pens

Archives Manuscript Paper

Softwares

Logic Pro X

Dorico

Adobe Creative Cloud

Equipment

Arturia MiniLab 3 - Keyboard

Focusrite Preamp/Interface

Blue Microphones

Shure SM58

Shure SM57

Yamaha HS5 studio monitors

Taylor Acoustic guitars

Morgan Monroe Mandolins

Canon R7

Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens

Canon 50mm f/1.4 lens

Vanguard Alta Pro 263AB Camera Tripod

Rode VideoMic GO II Mountable Microphone

GoPro Hero 10

Macbook pro

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