# Books 1 and 2



## John Perkins (Jan 6, 2005)

I decided to undertake EIS, even though I only do music in my spare time these days and thus it will take me forever to get to the end of the course.

My question is how much time should I spend with books 1 and 2? I'm going to take some private lessons over the phone with an EIS grad, but I want to do some of the preliminary work on my own first. Since I already have a solid music education and worked professionally as a composer, I'm pretty much feeling that books 1 and 2 are just prelim and explanation of things I already know from another point of view. 

I guess I could phrase the question this way. What would be a good test for me to know if I've grasped all the concepts FROM THE EIS standpoint in books 1 and 2 before moving on.

John
http://afterpostmodern.com


----------



## Frederick Russ (Jan 6, 2005)

Here is a repost from an earlier topic regarding EIS:

There doesn't seem to be an easy way to explain EIS unless you are in the course because without some key basics it seems mysterious. EIS is Equal Interval System, developed by Lyle "Spud" Murphy, which is a simple yet very accurate system of counting and spacing the horizontal and vertical intervals used in modern music, yet remaining architectually correct compositionally when examined using more traditional forms. It doesn't teach style but a method to arrive at virtually all styles of music. 

The course begins with a series of Horizontal Root Lines which are based on Equal Intervals where every Root Tone is a Tonic. As students go through the course they embark upon Advanced Theory in a complete Equal Interval System which involves all intervals, vertical as well as horizontal, in all possible combinations. It goes without saying that this allows an unprecedented freedom in the compositional process while still remaining architectually correct. Later lessons involve advanced orchestration and arrangement techniques in the EIS system. 

EIS graduates have a complete grounding in the Equal Interval System - many of them are working professionals from virtually all genres of music applying EIS to their music on a daily basis. 

Craig is our resident forum EIS guy. Be sure to check out his spotlight page - there are some mp3s that I think you'll really like:

*Spotlight: Craig Sharmat*

There are also some interesting work found around the forum by Spud Murphy, Mary Eckler and some of the newer students as well. Hope this helps.


----------



## Frederick Russ (Jan 6, 2005)

I should point out that the earlier lessons are crucial in laying the foundation for the later lessons as not only is the language of EIS learned but the fundamentals that can be built upon in later lessons. It's not like standard theory and although its possible to draw some parallels, you can begin to apply EIS principles from lesson one on.


----------



## Craig Sharmat (Jan 6, 2005)

Hi John,

When I started the course, i also had a fairly strong theoretic background and had already worked on quite a few T.V. shows. I found my prior history of theory to be of some use but not as much as I had hoped. In the end this was a good thing because it forced me to grasp Spud's approach. His was far more comprehensive than the conventnal way I had been taught. 

Quite simply, the way to tell how fast to move is by doing the assignments the way he suggests. If the assignments are done correctly and the grad says they are fine, then you both can proceed. Remember you are learning the language of the course as you go. This is an important foundation for future material. You may also be surprised at what looks simple has far more information than what is on the surface...maybe not...but time will tell.

Anyway if the grad feels you are grasping the concepts quickly, it is his perrogative whether to speed you along.

oh and welcome to a EIS!
It's a great journey.

One more thought....this course was originally taught only to working composers. Almost everyone who started with Spud had to already have working knowledge to start the course. There are people who started with Spud with masters in theory degrees, Oscar Peterson,etc,etc and we all began the same way. Just something to think about. 

I found this statement written by grad Tom Griepe and think it is worth posting here.

"Spud's course is the best. I wish I had studied with him before I went to college. I learned more useful things from his course in a few months, than the many years I spent in undergrad and graduate school. Maybe I wouldn't even have needed to go to college if I had studied with Spud first. As the co-director of the Film Scoring Program at USC for several years I saw a lot of young composers who could have benefited from a little of the imagination that Spud's course automatically injects into each of his student's composing skills. Because Spud was so meticulous in the way he created and taught this course, and the way everything is written down, I think it is possible for anyone to study it without even having met him."


----------



## John Perkins (Jan 6, 2005)

Frederick Russ said:


> Here is a repost from an earlier topic regarding EIS:
> 
> There doesn't seem to be an easy way to explain EIS unless you are in the course because without some key basics it seems mysterious. ...



Precisely the opposite impression I am having. It is not seeming mysterious at all yet.

What I am saying is that I have the whole course and have thumbed through a lot of it. Read book One completely. Have started reading book Two. While the later books definitely get into some details and points of view that I will need to study and write practice compositions to grok the particular system, book One does not seem to contain anything that I already didn't know in some related way. When I was at Grove's back in the day we called this type of stuff in book one "symmetric harmony". But it was exactly the same idea. So, I am very familiar with this concept. Also, the voice leading stuff, while put in a nice succint manner, is nothing that most good composers don't already do. I mean having contrary motion between the bass and at least one other voice makes for more interest. Holding common tones makes smoother leading. Moving voices as little as possible and in accordance to their natural tendencies to resolve up or down harmonically is also nothing new to me.

Reading book one was good for me because it reminded me intellectually of concepts that I internalized long ago. I can also see how there is a foundation building for explaining his larger concept, which I fully buy so far as a GOOD THING. I am excited about learning Spud's approach for certain.

I guess the best thing to do would be get in touch with David and start talking about this stuff and see where we should start. Maybe indeed I should do every excercise in book One, but it doesn't seem that way to me looking at things from here at the start.

John


----------



## rJames (Jan 6, 2005)

*The blind leading the sighted.*

John, I am a beginning student (with only self-taught background in music theory) so havent' anything terribly relevant to say to you, but I just read this in book 2 a few days ago.

"Remember this choice little item:The diatonic system normally employs only one thirteenth chord that has no altered tones. We have 36 of them- so far!!- and no altered tones,of course."

FWIW...


----------



## Frederick Russ (Jan 15, 2005)

John - looking forward to hearing how EIS is impacting your music! I've heard some of the stuff on your site - really nice!  If you have some projects with EIS on them please post them!


----------



## John Perkins (Jan 16, 2005)

Frederick Russ said:


> John - looking forward to hearing how EIS is impacting your music! I've heard some of the stuff on your site - really nice!  If you have some projects with EIS on them please post them!



Thanks Frederick! Will post something once I get into it further.

John


----------

