The Craft of Musical Composition, Book 3: Exercises in Three-Part Writing

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Paul Hindemith is a master of methods for those who wish to practice rhythm, whether as a drummer, percussionist, pianist, bassist, or guitarist. His approach is effective and gets straight to the point.

Musical harmony has seen some innovations that were not widely accepted in Europe, such as the use of lowercase letters to denote minor chords (ii, V, I) and the significant contributions of Stephen Kostka, particularly regarding the notation of diminished chords and half-diminished chords "ø". However, for those who understand the only form of harmony that has consistently worked throughout history, it is traditional harmony that serves as the foundation of everything we listen to—from Baroque and Classical to Modern, Jazz, Pop, and Rock music. This traditional harmony has never required modifications to the empirical framework that has always been effective. Nonetheless, I acknowledge and respect innovations like those introduced by American Stephen Kostka. As for the rest, I have chosen to disregard it.

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Hindemith created many to explain the harmony of music, but all of this went down the drain, because in this author's desire to innovate, to recreate what is native, it makes learning even more difficult. It is no coincidence that the entire world did not adopt this system of symbols:

Symbols like; 'cut dots vertically, horizontally', cedillas above and below the dot, up and down arrows '↑ ⬇' different types of letter N with ridiculous decorations. (see on page 5)

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Hindemith made even more complicated what should be so simple.
Schoenberg, in his book Harmony, which in my opinion is the best of all, compares the manual work of a simple craftsman who makes a text out of straw with that of a musician who elaborates his harmony.

Another person who tried to be innovative was John Mehegan, in his book published in 1959 for the Juilliard School of Music in New York, the dominant chord being represented by the letter X did not catch on anywhere.


For me, Kostka's "cut dot (ø)" contribution will predominate and will be the one that will stay for centuries to come, as it is much easier to write: the chord "m7♭5" with a single symbol "ø".


Unfortunately, there are still people who believe in a false reinvention called 'Functional Harmony,' even though the German author Hugo Riemann himself recognized his mistake and abandoned the project, not even publishing the second book. That’s why I have great respect for this musician.
However, his first book was published and continues to be read by a few idiots who fail to grasp its content, and worse, some of them still attempt to reformulate and solve something that is inherently impossible.

My perspective is this: if you want to reformulate, create something new, do so without resorting to the terminology of the past, not even Roman numerals.