Foundations of Music and Musicianship (with CD-ROM)
The strengths of this text are many. I find the prose and explanations to be exceptional in both writing style and clarity, a rarity in elementary music texts. The examples are well chosen and are based on tunes familiar to the majority of students: again, this is not always the case! On a more specific level, I am pleased with the way intervals are presented; they are tied exclusively to diatonic scales and not discussed as abstract pairs of pictures, which is infinitely more instructive to the student."This text strikes a balance between teaching goals for non-music majors as well as those for music majors who need thorough review; i.e., the text gets into harmonic analysis very much in line with what most college undergraduate music majors do."I think my students will find the new edition even more user friendly--it explains things very clearly and moves forward at a more even pace. There is a good mix of exercises, examples, and helpful hints.