Cover -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 The Keys to Music -- Music Theory Is Not Music -- The Language of Music -- Getting Organized -- Why Are We Doing This? -- Singer, Sound, Song -- The Singer -- The Sound -- The Song -- Frequently Unanswered Questions -- I Can't Sing. Am I Tone Deaf ? -- Do I Need Dots? -- Do I Need to Pick Up Music by Ear? -- Chapter 2 A Sense of Scale -- Making Scales Make Sense -- Cooking with Music -- Turning on the Gas -- Finding the Flavor -- And One More Thing…Modes -- Making Modes -- More Patterns -- The Story So Far -- Chapter 3 Chords and Colors -- Using Scales -- Making Shapes -- Building Simple Chords -- Tricks, Tips, and Progressions -- Beyond Simple Chords -- Those Other Intervals -- Upside Down -- Exotic Colors -- Harmony Stahp! -- Substitutions -- Secondary Dominants -- Jazz Harmony -- Free Harmony -- The Story So Far -- Chapter 4 The Pulse -- Where's the Groove? -- Where's the Beat? -- The Point of That Last Section -- Notes and Grids -- Counting Beats -- Duration Variations -- Groove Architecture -- Where's the Downbeat? -- Groove Logic -- Swing, Shuffle, and Threes -- Unusual Rhythms -- Counting to Six -- Why Go Weird? -- And One More Thing: Rap and Poetry -- The Story So Far -- Chapter 5 The Bass -- What Is Bass? -- Bass Patterns -- Really Simple Rhythm Patterns -- More Complex Rhythms -- Simple Pitch Patterns -- Beyond Simple Bass -- Bass Riffs -- Bass Styles -- Rock Bass -- Synth Bass -- Reggae Bass -- Recent Bass -- And One More Thing: Extreme Jazz Bass -- The Story So Far -- Chapter 6 The Hook and the Solo -- How Do They Do That? -- Up Front and Personal -- The Riff -- The Motif -- The Hook -- The Lick -- The Solo -- Lead Materials -- Understanding Hooks -- Building Lines and Hooks -- Understanding Solos -- Creating Licks and Solos -- And One More Thing…Counterpoint -- The Story So Far.

Chapter 7 The Shape -- Making an Arrangement -- Laws of Form -- Many Levels -- About Time -- Adding Surprise and Detail -- Now, Example -- Your Turn -- Ways of Change -- Form Surprises -- Sound Surprises -- Getting Complicated -- Really Complicated -- Not So Complicated -- And One More Thing: The Mystery -- Making Movies -- And Other Monsters -- No Cheryl, It's Not Obvious -- The Story So Far -- Chapter 8 Examples and Clichés -- Gotye: "Somebody That I Used To Know" -- Content and Context -- Sound and Music -- Putting It Together -- Now It's Your Turn -- More Songs… -- The Story Starts Here -- Appendix A: Chords, Scales, and Modes -- Not Quite an Encyclopedia of Scales -- Start Here -- Continue Here -- Lose the Plot Here -- Jazz Here -- Blues Here -- The Ultimate Chord God/dess Cheat Sheets -- Basic Chords -- Intermediate Chords -- Extreme Chords -- Popular Clichés Chord Progressions -- Standard Progressions -- Dance Music Progressions -- Cadences and Turnarounds -- Appendix B: Ears, Dots, and Math -- Playing by Ear -- Step 1: The Groove -- Step 2: The Bass -- Step 3: The Lead/Melody -- Step 4: The Chords -- A Brief Guide to Dots -- Staves and Clefs -- Key Signatures -- Time Signatures -- Math Geekery -- Where Do the 12 Notes Come From? -- Why Use 12 Notes At All? -- Appendix C: Glossary -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- V -- W -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.