Michael Mitacek is offering EIS instruction in a group setting at Pasadena City College. The courses are offered on Saturday mornings beginning this weekend.

Music 124AB covers Books 1 and 2 and is offered from 9-10 a.m.

Music 124C covers books 3 through 6 and meets from 10 to 1:30.

The positive: at $74 per class (16 weeks of instruction) plus books and PCC registration, the value is incredible.

The negative: It's group instruction. The folks in the class range from barely sober to a handful of EIS graduates who are re-taking the material. You are not going to receive the individualized attention you'd get by studying with David Blumberg.

Also, you're not doing all the assignments in the texts. Indeed, at the pace that the course moves (about twice as fast as in a private context), it's nearly impossible to do all the assignments even if you tried. Therefore, you are arguably not going to receive the entire benefit of working through the material.

For myself, I am doing both, private weekly studies with David Blumberg as well as the PCC course as a way to reinforce the material.

You can get more information at www.pasadena.edu and www.equalinterval.com

Any chance you might be able to offer more detail about the "Equal Interval System"?

The website seems to be pretty vague in terms of describing the actual material to be taught. $1184 for 16 lessons plus $300 for CDs plus $600 in books is a nontrivial investment. Studying one-on-one with David Blumberg, for instance, seems potentially quite valuable regardless of the method taught or materials used. But $2k for a community college course on music theory sounds like a lot, when the selling point is not the teacher but a secret nontraditional system regarding which they don't provide any details.

Please note that I'm not knocking it, just asking for clarification.

Cheers.

I have heard a little about this method of teaching and it seems more like an "As seen on TV" approach to music composition rather than a serious, creative method. "Even you can Compose music with only 12 simple rules" Basically, they are revamping the first 5 chapters of "Tonal Harmony" to include serial methods and slapping a new label on it.

Now, species counterpoint. It was good enough for Bach, it was good enough for Mozart, and Beethoven, and Copand, and Stravinsky, and yes even Phillip Glass (who is more of a "Chord"...guy). Why can't it be good enough for the rest of us?

Just my opinion

I'm only in Book 3 and my perspective is one of an advanced jazz pianist who is taking the course. I should also note that in the beginning of the book the author warns of "getting into futile debates" with those who aren't familiar with the material.

First of all, the course is NOT about "tonal harmony" or serialism, nor is it a gimmick. The course covers counterpoint in an original way as well, but I'm not there yet.

The cost of studying the course at PCC should be well under $2k.

I've heard EIS described as the "unified field theory of music", which I think is fitting. It doesn't necessarily contradict of traditional theory, but it defintely takes you out of the "iii-vi-ii-V7-I" tonal box immeidately and in a very logical fashion. You could use the techniques to write things that relate to the normal major/minor diatonic universe, but that's a passing consideration in the overall course. It's an original/alternate way of looking at the machine of music all the way up to the way-out 20th century techniques.

Book 2, which seems to be the 'germ' of the course, is about voice-leading. You learn to write music 'one line at a time' using a basic technique which he calls "change of position". This basic concept is explored to its limits by the end of Book 2 so that you can basically voice-lead any chord to any other chord. BTW, the method doesn't limit you to one way of voice-leading. Parallel movement is OK as well as "none of the above" voice-leading, but you have to indentify it as such.

"Equal Interval" refers to the bass notes (or "root tones"). The bulk of the assignments are a series of controlled experiments writing voice-led progressions of a single chord type over the various Equal Interval bass line movements (half-steps, whole steps, minor thirds, major thirds, perfect fourths and split-octave) both ascending and descending. Various techniques for altering the individual voices are explored along the way. I guess you could think of it as an expanded version of figured bass.

From a writing perspective, it continues to open many fresh harmonic doors that I knew little or nothing about. I've even picked up some chord types/voicings that I never thought of using before, which is no small feat for an advanced player like me. The neat thing is that it's not just the usual case of "here's a wierd chord, play it in parallel fashion through the cycle of fifths", you actually get to understand how to use those structures, resolve them and voice-lead them.

As far as in improvisational concept, that has been a little slower on the uptake for me. 99% of my jazz playing has been centered on the iii-vi-ii-V7-I/major key/minor key/blues/standards universe. The closed position structures used in the book (3,5,7,9; 5,7,9,11; 7,9,11,13; etc,) are basically rootless structures, but they're not used in the way you'd typically play on "Autumn Leaves", so my normal muscle memory is useless in this context. This dog's gotta learn some new tricks with the left hand. However, once it's comfortable I'll be doing things that'll make Fred Hersch drool!

The system also uses several unusual scales, again, not part of my vocabulary yet.

This is a link to a homework assignment I wrote at the end of Book 2: http://www.audiorecordingandservices.com/Page_100.mp3

The solo is a throw-away and doesn't have anything to do with the course per se.

If you want to hear some music done by some graduates of the course you can go here: http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=961

Peace,
J

"getting into futile debates" with those who aren't familiar with the material.

I don't think any debate is futile when it comes to learning music.

Book 2, which seems to be the 'germ' of the course, is about voice-leading. You learn to write music 'one line at a time' using a basic technique which he calls "change of position". This basic concept is explored to its limits by the end of Book 2 so that you can basically voice-lead any chord to any other chord. BTW, the method doesn't limit you to one way of voice-leading. Parallel movement is OK as well as "none of the above" voice-leading, but you have to indentify it as such.

Interesting, sounds like 20th century counterpoint, which is neglected in some theory programs.

"Equal Interval" refers to the bass notes (or "root tones"). The bulk of the assignments are a series of controlled experiments writing voice-led progressions of a single chord type over the various Equal Interval bass line movements (half-steps, whole steps, minor thirds, major thirds, perfect fourths and split-octave) both ascending and descending. Various techniques for altering the individual voices are explored along the way. I guess you could think of it as an expanded version of figured bass.

Okay, you got me...Tonal Harmony Chapter 6

I'm sure this method takes a fresh approach to the material, I don't know by your description that I would call it innovative, It just takes a different door to the same destination (though it sounds like it neglects completely the historical approach of most theory methods).

And I withdraw my "As seen on TV" remark...sorry

ORIGINAL: jsaras
... You learn to write music 'one line at a time' using a basic technique which he calls "change of position". ..."Equal Interval" refers to the bass notes (or "root tones"). The bulk of the assignments are a series of controlled experiments writing voice-led progressions of a single chord type over the various Equal Interval bass line movements...The closed position structures used in the book (3,5,7,9; 5,7,9,11; 7,9,11,13; etc,) are basically rootless structures...

Great description. Thanks for the detail.

I'm nowhere near Pasadena, but I have heard rumblings of the system, never knew what it was. Your description does a good job of indicating how this could be a more style- and rule-neutral approach to theory in a substantive way.

Cheers.

  Music 124A (EIS Books 1 and 2) and Music 128 (EIS Orchestration Books 9 and 10) are being offered this fall semester.

Note that the PCC website is currently screwed up and makes it appear that every level of EIS is being offered concurrently (NOT the case), that every class section is closed (also incorrect) and that Music 128 is not being offered (also incorrect!).

The class meets Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to 12:10. The first hour of the course will be dedicated to Books 1 and 2. The remainder of the time will be dedicated to orchestration.

If you wish to attend you must register as a student at PCC. You will then be "added" to the class during the first class session.

There are plans to offer nearly the entire EIS sequence online beginning with the Spring 2011 semester.

As I stated previously the PCC courses are not be the same as studying the material privately. All the material is not covered and the homework requirements are MUCH lighter than would be expected in a private setting. Therefore you will likely not reap the full benefit of EIS as you haven't invested the "sweat equity" to ingrain the material into your psyche. That said, it is a great environment to get your feet wet in the EIS system.

Cheers,
J

There's nothing like resurrecting an old thread like this, but I've finally gotten around to editing some short clips of the Equal Interval System mostly in jazzy contexts: https://jonasaras.wordpress.com/music-equal-interval-system-eis-examples/ 

Cheers,
Jonas