Recommend a Dictionary of Music.

[bassliner50]

My daughter wants to give me a Christmas gift. After some thought, I've been using the Schirmer pocket manual of Musical Terms for decades. There is unlimited information in that little book that is sometimes helpful and enlightening. So I'd like to suggest a replacement to my daughter. Thinking about the Berklee Contemporary Music dictionary. Hard or soft cover, I don't care. Not too expensive. What do you guys use or recommend? Thanks!

 

[MalcolmAmos]

I use the Internet. For example OnMusic Dictionary - Term
Or just Google and you'll get an answer. Wanting a book - that she could give you for Christmas, anything written by Ed Friedland will be time well spent.

My latest purchase is Pentatonic Scales for Bass. $19.99 plus shipping. Page 42:
Scale degree numbers /1-2-3-5/6-8-8-6/5-5-5-6/6-6-5-3/2-1--//

 

[BassChuck]

It depends on what you're going to do with it. If it's for contemporary music, there's a lot. If you're really interested in digging into the history of music and all that it entails, you might look at "The Harvard Dictionary of Music" or "Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians". Both are standard academic issues for music schools and really don't cost that much. Another suggestion, though not a dictionary per se is "Forsyth's Book on Orchestration".

Orchestration (Dover Books on Music): Cecil Forsyth: 9780486243832: Amazon.com: Books