Welcome to the Online Companion to A Short Guide to Writing About Music. In his preface, Jonathan Bellman suggests that when we write about music, we should approach it with "the same dogged practice [as we while playing and studying it] to ensure that the end product reflects balance and control." Musicians, who focus more on sounds than words, find themselves faced with various writing tasks both in school and the profession. Bellman stresses that for the music writer there exists a two-fold obligation for the writer: to express ideas with confidence, and yet to distrust what may seem to be good ideas. In essence, these obligations are the same for all writers, regardless of the discipline.

A Short Guide to Writing About Music will help you further develop those critical writing skills that will make reviews, analyses, essays, research papers, and manuscripts more thorough, and evaluative.

The book is divided into nine self-contained chapters

Chapter 1. "Writing About Music" explores the different genres of writing about music, the various schools of music criticism, and the need for writing with both clarity and restraint.

Chapter 2. "Writing About Music by and for Those Who Cannot (Necessarily) Read It" addresses the kinds of writing and musical understanding available to those who are not musically literate, such as college students in a general music course. A section also discusses popular and world musics, and the ways a writer without systematic training can approach them.

Chapter 3. "Writing Music Analysis" presents examples--both good and bad--of analytical writing, and offers approaches and guidelines clear and cogent explanations of "how music works."

Chapter 4. "Three Kinds of Practical Writing" offers suggestions for writing program and liner notes, summaries and abstracts, and press releases—the three major types of professional writings.

Chapter 5. "Opinion and the Writing of an Effective Essay" takes the reader through the steps of presenting your ideas about music in an organized and evaluative manner.

Chapter 6. "Research in Music" distinguishes between the different emphases you may encounter in writing about music. The chapter also covers the use of primary and secondary sources as well as how to properly cite and documenting those sources.

Chapter 7. "A Sample Research Paper in Music" consists of an exemplary undergraduate paper on the solo piano works of the Hungarian composer György Ligeti, with commentary.

Chapter 8. "Style in Writing" covers both the elements of standard academic style and also elements that make writing distinctive and personal, such as vocabulary, syntax, and rhythm.

Chapter 9. "The Final Manuscript" offers a checklist of all the elements that should be included in a finished paper in music.

These chapters will enrich the way you approach music and, ultimately, the way you approach writing about the music.