#musictheory

Please forgive the length of this post, but it does take some explaining. I am totally blind and am interested in learning to play classical guitar. The music that interests me for this endeavour is opera, Neapolitan, Italian art song, serenades, parlour songs, Spanish guitar, etc. not folk, popular, rock, country, blues, and so on. I found the following two resources for the blind. https://afb.org/aw/21/2/16906 https://letsplayguitar.org/ The problem is how they teach. I am not the sort who wants to learn a few chords and begin playing songs after my first or second lesson. I am a firm believer in learning music theory, scales, and exercises, and only after a very long while, playing actual songs. This is similar to proper singing instruction, which can take up to six years. To me, these other methods are the equivalent of Vaccai, or for those unfamiliar with him, learning a few tourist phrases of a language to get by, instead of learning via grammar, dialogues, translation, memorisation, etc. Whether or not I ever perform in public, I don't want to learn half way. I do have Harmony : its theory and practice by Ebenezer Prout for the theory, and I am using Perplexity to clean it of errors and supply the missing notation when possible. https://archive.org/details/harmonyitsthe00prouuoft Having said that, I am now researching some nineteenth-century guitar teachers. I've come across names such as Carulli, Aguado, Carcassi, Legnani, Molino, and Sor, all offering something different and for different levels of study. It seems that, for a beginner, Carulli and Carcassi, and possibly Aguado might be good choices. Despite its date of publication, I couldn't find an accessible version of Carulli's Op. 241, though I did find a good lecture about it on Youtube. However, while he plays the notes, I have no idea what fingers he is using for what. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oowE9bD_k44 I also found an English version of the English edition in hard copy on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Ferdinando-Carullis-Guitar-School-Tablature/dp/3950550283 My main problem as a blind student is notation. If he writes strictly on the staff, I won't be able to follow him, unless I could possible run the text, which I will first have to scan with ocr, through Perplexity and see if it can make sense of it. If he uses his own notation 1 through 4 for the left hand, and p for the thumb plus a through d for the right), I can read some of it. But that still leaves me with the issue of where to place my fingers on the strings i.e. first fret, second string, index finger. They offer modern tabliture, but I beleive the same problems will still exist. I don't know, as I know nothing about that system. At the first link for the blind, they mentioned an accessible chords site, but while their main page still works, their accessible one doesn't, and the main one just gives diagrams for the scales and chords with no text to read. Does anyone know where I can find an accessible course for the guitar that is more traditional, or at least a place where I can learn the scales and some exercises? #accessibility #blind #Carulli #ClassicalGuitar #guitar #music #MusicTheory #notation

Is there an utility application (or maybe a plugin for a DAW) that analyses a midi file and gives statistical data with graphs and histograms and stuff on which notes are used, how often, and when that shifts over the course of the file etc? It could be a really useful aid for music analysis. My specific use case would be deciding on bespoke microtunings for a specific piece. If any music/code/data visualisation nerds want to write such a program I'd love to collaborate on design and function. But maybe something like this already exists? I think it would be fairly easy on the coding side, but there might be some design challenges. #linuxmusic #midi #musictheory #microtuning #datavisualisation

I use Maestronom to record ideas in Muse Box — some turned into full songs already. I track my practice history, and when I'm curious enough to learn, I dig into the new Artistry section for the history of music and the guitar. It's one app, ad-free on every tier, and it's progressing super fast. Muse Box and practice history are free. Works offline for 30 days after sign-in. Grab it: go.codrlabs.com/maestronom #Metronome #GuitarTuner #MusicPractice #Musicians #MusicTheory #GuitarScales

Xenharmlib (music theory library) adds support for Just Intonation https://xenharmlib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/whats_new_0_4_0.html #HackerNews #Tech #MusicTheory

Harmony Explained: Progress Towards a Scientific Theory of Music (2012) https://arxiv.org/abs/1202.4212 #HackerNews #Tech #MusicTheory

@bazkie@beige.party @sknob@mamot.fr I’ve been thinking this morning (while it is 6.8°C *inside*) on writing music when one has little formal training. Something akin to “Structure by Ear”. I’ve listened all my nearly 6 decades to a vast amount of music but I still get hung up on the most basic concepts like Verse and Chorus. This feels like the #Grammar in #MusicTheory, and my comfort with grammar in my native language is not very significant. My response to the terms Verse and Chorus is very similar to how I respond to being asked to diagram a sentence. Instant paralysis! I want to talk to you all about music, but rely on art metaphor and cooking analogies to mask my lack of knowledge and I find this a little frustrating. On some levels I suppose it doesn’t really matter if one still creates, but I wish I had some better command of the terms and language of music. #MudicProduction #MusicEducation

Here’s a little #musictheory observation I made recently. First some set up: there are essentially only two generators of the 12 tone scale: m2 (minor second) and P5 (perfect fifth). By “generator” I mean you get all 12 notes by repeatedly moving up by those intervals. Repeat m2 gets you the chromatic scale C Db D Eb …; and P5 gives the circle of 5ths: C G D A …. Put these side by side and you get (C,C), (Db,G), (D,D), (Eb,A)… so unison, tritone, unison, tritone, … Tension and release!

Fretboard Memorisation with Modular Arithmetic https://ohaodha.ie/blog/fretboard-memorisation-with-modular-arithmetic/ #HackerNews #Tech #MusicTheory

Never lose your musical ideas again. Muse Box in Maestronom lets you record, name, and save your riffs instantly. Backup to Google Drive keeps your ideas safe and organized. Try it free today. #Maestronom #Metronome #GuitarTuner #MusicPractice #Musicians #MusicTheory #GuitarScales #PracticeRoutine #MusicApp #CodrLabs

No matter how much musical theory you know, there's still new horizons to be learned. A week or two ago, someone here casually mentioned the augmented sixth chord and its function as a predominant. This is something that I never got up to in my formal music theory education, so off I went to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_sixth_chord) I'm now out of the rabbit hole (hi) and I'm seeing these chords _everywhere_. I'm particularly pleased that I now understand the chord enharmonically marked "E7-5" in the bridge of this lounge arrangement of "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" that I like to play. It's a (French) augmented sixth on the ♭II of the scale, which resolves outwards to the I chord of the next verse. So, thanks, Fedi. #music #MusicTheory

New video by Ethan Hein on 5/4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mz0u9wtPirw #jazz #musictheory

Ever wish your guitar could just tell you what scale it’s in? Point Maestronom’s AI Scale Detector at a backing track—no voice, just notes—and watch it name the scale, mode, and root in real time. Works fast, even on quick changes. Built for musicians, by musicians. Unlock with PRO. #Maestronom #Metronome #GuitarTuner #MusicPractice #Musicians #MusicTheory #GuitarScales #PracticeRoutine #MusicApp #CodrLabs

I loate the people who act like music theory is all these things but a fucking study about concepts that appear in music. “Michael Jackson didn’t know theory and he was famous!” Yeah but he did, he wouldn’t have been able to keep up in his adult life with guys like Quincy Jones who leveled up his arrangements thanks to ____ theory. Guess the blank. “Theory holds you back, all the best producers today don’t know theory.” I guarantee you they somewhat do. They just don’t experiment in pop music because the modern listener can’t handle dominant chords or substitutions. It’s also not an excuse to say your own productions have a chance because other people supposedly didn’t put in the work to have a higher musicianship. If the peak of your musicianship is half of every possible rhythmic interpretation in 4/4 and diatonic chords, you’re far from the beginning. Your arrangements will suffer and all your music will truthfully sound like you’re doing everything right to prove competence. The amount of time wasted on learning how to pull off advanced concepts is time wasted. #MusicTheory #MusicProduction #MusicCreativity

The 4-chord trick that powers 80% of pop music: I - V - vi - IV In C major that's C - G - Am - F. Learn it once, play thousands of songs. Music theory doesn't have to be complicated. #musictheory #guitar #chords #songwriting

“The Science of Musical Creativity: Bridging Intuition, Cognition, and Artistic Expression” Since the research for my planned book on this topic is taking longer than expected, I am publishing an essay on the subject today. Consider it a piece of weekend reading for anyone interested. Musicians and music creators who reflect on how to establish a meaningful connection with listeners might find the article worthwhile. The essay examines how insights from cognitive science help illuminate the way listeners perceive rhythm, harmony, expectation, and emotional tension in music. It looks at how intuitive creative decisions often correspond to perceptual mechanisms studied in neuroscience and music psychology, and how this knowledge can support composition, arrangement, and production without reducing music to formulas. The aim is to show how artistic intuition and scientific understanding interact in shaping musical experience. https://tomkolbe.com/2026/03/06/the-science-of-musical-creativity-bridging-intuition-cognition-and-artistic-expression/ #Music #MusicTheory #MusicCognition #Neuroscience #Creativity #MusicProduction #Composition

Updated with chord diagrams for each degree—see your shape as you click. https://training.statecollegeguitarlessons.site #guitar #chords #modes #musictheory

I've been wracking my brain for a mnemonic to remember the order of sharps in a key signature. The usual ones are crappy. So I've come up with my own: First Coffee, Get Donut. An Eating Bonanza. #musicTheory (Yeah, I used one of the common order of flats mnemonics as inspiration.)