Reading list
Small shelf. High yield. Picked for application: how songs create meaning, how harmony supports melody, how parts work, and how listeners actually hear.
Read for output
Don't "complete" books. Extract tools. Apply them the same day.
- Pick one target: chorus lift, melodic contour, harmonic motion, lyric clarity.
- Read 10 pages: then make a change to a real song or exercise.
- Build a one-page notes doc: "rules I can use."
- Revisit, don't binge: repetition turns ideas into instinct.
Songs & harmony
Harmonic choices, modal color, and compositional moves you can steal without copying.
Melody construction: contour, rhythm, phrasing, range, and how melody locks to harmony.
Listening & the mind
Expectation, memory, repetition, payoff — why certain patterns hit and others don't.
How rooms, tech, culture, and economics shape what music becomes.
Form & perspective
Musical "grammar," meaning, and structure — big-picture thinking with usable insights.
Readable history of ideas: what evolved, what survived, and why.
Guitar
Reading, fretboard logic, and coordination. Slow, steady, permanent.
Classical fundamentals that translate: hand position, tone, precision, control.
Staying in the work
Not theory. Attention and framing: how to stay open, direct effort, and keep momentum.