Theme 1 – Appreciation for a clear, programmer‑oriented explanation
- JonathanRaines: “Fantastic post. You took a subject that never made sense to me and made it seem simple.”
- Fannon: “Very nice, thanks for creating this!”
Theme 2 – Skepticism that music theory is essential for musicianship; practice and ear matter more
- altmanaltman: “Practice above all. Don’t try to fit all theory into the practice but understand what you are practicing particularly using the theory. Otherwise you end up with all theory and no practice experience of using that theory and creativity.”
- jemmyw: “I agree that this isn't that helpful to being able to play, it's just an interesting way to understand why things are as they are.”
- altmanaltman: “Theory first is not a good way to learn an instrument is my qualified statement.”
Theme 3 – Recognition of individual differences in learning (age, perfect pitch, varied pathways)
- altmanaltman: “I think it gets significantly harder to learn new things as you age. It could make sense though like its significantly easier to learn a new language as a child than an adult…”
- jemmyw: “My 8 year old hardly ever practices but just looks at the music and knows the notes on piano and violin.”
- dyzone: “Your kid might have absolute pitch. Only a few percent of people have it.”
- sjrd: “Perfect pitch is not correlated with the ability to see written notes and immediately know how to play them on any instrument.”