2nd Edition

The Craft of Contemporary Commercial Music

By Greg McCandless, Daniel McIntyre Copyright 2025
486 Pages 471 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

486 Pages 471 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

486 Pages 471 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

The role of the commercial composer has grown to include a wide range of new responsibilities. Modern composers not only write music, but often, they also need to record, and market their own works. The Craft of Contemporary Commercial Music prepares today’s music students for their careers by teaching them to compose their own music, produce it professionally, and sell it successfully. The... Read more

Introduction: The Contemporary Commercial Composer and the Digital Audio Workstation

 

Part I.  Fundamentals of Music and Audio

        

Part Ia: Fundamentals of Music

         Chapter 1: Introduction to Pitch

         Chapter 2: Introduction to Rhythm

         Chapter 3: Introduction to Harmony

         Chapter 4: Melody and Counterpoint

 

Part Ib: Fundamentals of Audio Engineering and Sequencing

         Chapter 5: Introduction to Audio and MIDI

         Chapter 6: Manipulating Rhythm in the DAW Environment

         Chapter 7: Introduction to Acoustics

         Chapter 8: Melodic Sequencing

 

Part II.  Music Production Essentials

        

Part IIa. Composition Essentials

         Chapter 9: Functional Diatonic Harmony

         Chapter 10: Expanding your Harmonic Vocabulary

         Chapter 11: Form and Development

         Chapter 12: Basic Orchestration

              

Part IIb. Audio Engineering Essentials

         Chapter 13: Introduction to Mixing

         Chapter 14: Recording and Editing Live Instruments

         Chapter 15: Mixing and Processing

         Chapter 16: Final Mix Considerations

 

Part III.  Producing Music for Media

        

         Chapter 17: Scoring for Short-Form Media

         Chapter 18: Scoring for Longer-Form Media

 

Part IV.  The Business of Music Composition

        

         Chapter 19: The Business of Music Composition

 

Glossary

Biography

Greg McCandless is an Associate Professor of Music Theory at Appalachian State University, USA.

Daniel McIntyre is an Associate Professor of Contemporary Writing and Production at Berklee College of Music, USA.