- Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Manual
- Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Problems
- Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Chart
Describing Horizontal Composition, the Equal Interval System of Spud Murphy is a nearly impossible task. There are as many facets, embedded truths, brilliant theories, examples, and revelations about every known aspect of modern composition as one could only dream of. EQUAL INTERVAL SYSTEM® The Equal Interval System®, or EIS®, is an instructional course in music composition, arranging, and orchestration. The work is the expression of Lyle “Spud” Murphy’s® musical theory based on his observations of the harmonic series or “nature’s overtones” along. LYLE ”SPUD” MURPHY’S EQUAL INTERVAL SYSTEM and EIS are registered trademarks and service marks of Lilith Murphy in the United States and other foreign. But in the late 1940s, Murphy took time out to develop a 12-tone technique known as his 'system of horizontal composition' or 'equal interval system. I love Spud Murphy big band arrangements from the 30's, big fan. I have some materials from that equal interval system in a storage box somewhere in my garage. I think Quincy Jones was a big follower of the Murphy system. Here is a good CD of Spud Murphy arrangements done by Mora's Modern Rhythmists.
Q: How can I sign up for lessons?
Inquire for Lessons: HERE
Q: What will I study?
The course material is comprised of the individual lessons Lyle “Spud” Murphy created to teach his Equal Interval System ®. It was refined over his lifetime and continues to be expanded. The format is PDF with audio examples.
Q: I’m really smart and people love me. Do I need a teacher?
To study this course, yes! The goal of our teachers and Spud Core is to continue Lyle Murphy’s high standards and student success. Graduates agree that this course has a remarkable amount of knowledge and continued review of the material often results in more revelations. An EIS® teacher not only teaches you the course but also valuable insight from their successes and failures as a professional. Inquire for Lessons: HERE
Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Manual
Q: OK a teacher sounds like a great idea! What will a lesson be like?
The lesson is one on one. The student presents their homework for review. After corrections and/or compliments on a “job well done”, the teacher and student go through the material for the next lesson.
Q: Where do the lessons take place and how often?
Lessons can be in person if a teacher is in your vicinity. However, our students and teachers live all over the world. So, the teachers are available on internet communication platforms such as Skype, Zoom, Go To Meeting, iChat, etc. The optimal lesson schedule is one hour every week. Lessons twice a month is a minimal amount. Fewer lessons than that, we find require too much review and unsatisfactory forward momentum since every lesson builds upon the last.
Q: What will the experience of studying the course be like?
It can be fun. It can be amazing. Some might even say life changing. But as with many things in life, that is up to the student. We can only offer that the course has helped and been a profound experience for all of us and we want it to be the same for you.
Q: Alright, this EIS® course seems pretty neat but how long will it take to complete?
The course has many parts to it. One can stop and restart right where they left off. On average, students complete the course in a few years.
Q: Will I be able to write anything useful while I’m a student?
In only six months you will be amazed at the scope and change of your own compositional abilities. For example, Craig Sharmat used the very first lesson’s homework for a music cue on a successful TV show. The course is designed and streamlined to teach a working professional, accomplished hobbyist, eternal student, or a student proficient in basic music theory.
Q: Who is this Lyle “Spud” Murphy I keep hearing about pictures of?
See Spud’s Bio on this web site for his story: HERE
Q: Is the study of this course valuable?
One will find through proper study, the EIS® course can provide a lifetime of fertile ideas, streamlined abilities, and refinement of your individual style…along with new possibilities. So, what is that worth? Spud developed this course over his entire lifetime, teaching and modifying it over 75 years. This course is not an experimental idea. It’s success has been proven by students applying what they’ve learned to hit records, television and motion picture scores, concert performances, and other musical endeavors. Those who learn the course attribute their professional and/or artistic success to his course.
The Equal Interval System®, or EIS®, is an instructional course in music composition, arranging, and orchestration. The work is the expression of Lyle “Spud” Murphy’s® musical theory based on his observations of the harmonic series or “nature’s overtones” along with decades of applying his methods to film scores, television scores, arrangements, and original recordings. His method employs horizontal composition utilizing music intervals and many other unique concepts which also encompass traditional music thought and expand into a completely original unified theory. This system can be used to organize the sounds of any historical period of music while also providing a basis for finding new and unique sounds from the simplest to the most complex relationships possible with 12 equal intervals. Achieving success for over half a century, graduates of this course find they compose better, faster, with fewer mental blocks.
Inquire for lessonsHERE
The Equal Interval System of Horizontal Composition was developed to satisfy the working musician’s need for a theory method which would enable one to express, freely, their own musical ideas. It is a simplified and highly accurate method of counting, or spacing, all of the horizontal and vertical intervals used in modern music. Of greatest importance to the creative musician is the fact that it is designed to utilize, in every possible form, any or all of the intervals found in music including any of the structures employed in the regular systems. This makes it possible to write music in any accepted idiom or to deviate from it in any degree from slightly to completely. Therefore, it can be applied to any existing type of music or it can be the basis for complete originality… it is merely a question of musical architecture. A student of this system has a wide range for self-expression, from conforming to standard practices, or unhampered by the usual restrictions, to composing in extremely free forms.
Composing should be fun and with this method it is. We have no need of mental blocks of any kind. We are supposed to have complete freedom when we have finished the text. It will give us the most pleasure we’ll ever receive from any musical activity involving study.
A musical system, if it is to have any value to a composer, must have a unifying principal. The conventional system does this through the use of a “key” which stresses the strong intervals. But the patterns from which one has to work are limited and have been exploited to the point of exhaustion. Some modern writing is a mixture of diatonic patterns liberally sprinkled with experiments by the composer and these do not always gel, as there is no real unifying principle involved. The unifying principle of this system is the use of Equal Intervals plus upper partials and the patterns are therefore unlimited. This method is not experimental since it has proved completely successful on numerous recordings and in television and motion picture scores.
Whoever absorbs the knowledge available in the course and masters the method of producing patterns will evolve his or her own style of playing or writing music. The graduates of this system are creative individualists.
-Lyle “Spud” Murphy
Composer, Arranger, Musician, Author
“It’s a killer course. I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to seriously study music.”
“You can look forward to developing your hands, your ears and your mind. An unstoppable combination when it comes to music.”
Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Problems
“A work of this nature can only serve to aid aspiring jazz pianists to achieve more harmonies and creative avenues.”
Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Chart
“I first came to Spud with the idea of learning some simple techniques for arranging and orchestrating. Five years later, I found that every aspect of my perception of music had transformed.”
“The course takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but you get twice as much out of it as what you put into it.”
This work can only serve to facilitate and inspire journeys to new and uncharted musical terrain.”
“Spud is a music composition detective. He has discovered new ways to create core ideas that enable students to develop their own music composition language.”
“If you are a writer of words, you are limited if your vocabulary is weak and if you only know a few ways of combining those words. EIS® gives you a huge musical vocabulary.”
“EIS has increased my ability to hear, arrange and to improvise all kinds of music.”
“EIS is probably the only system that seamlessly incorporates jazz, classical and scoring into one succinct course.”
“Spud’s ideas shine like a brilliant spotlight on music of all kinds: classical, jazz, and pop. Far from posing a threat to traditional theory, Spud’s concepts expand and illuminate centuries-old musical doctrines.”