Music theory for nerds
Why is this at the top of HN? While the author is right that western music notation has shortcomings, almost <i>none</i> of the (admittedly poorly understood) reasons they list are a factor in that.<p>&gt; [Key signatures] completely obscure the relationship between the pitches, though.<p>Nope, they exactly allow the notes to show <i>scale degree</i> relationships. Without key signatures, music in any major scale other than C would be very confusing as the regular scale notes would be marked with accidentals.<p>&gt; I don’t think I entirely understand this, because it still seems so convoluted to me. You have to mentally translate that C to a C, and then translate the C to however that particular note is actually played on your instrument.What does this accomplish?<p>Same. Because at some point a player stops playing by translating the exact pitch to a fingering (for example), they start playing on a scale. They practice the scale by itself, and other pointless &quot;music&quot; in that key and it&#x27;s the fingerings of the scale that they learn. I.o.w. this system allows them to think at one higher level of abstraction.<p>&gt; I’m a bit out in the weeds from here on. C major is identical to A minor, and I don’t understand why we need both.<p>This whole section reads &quot;I don&#x27;t understand this so the world must be stupid to have come up with it.&quot; Rest assured that C-major and A-minor are <i>not</i> the same. Yes they have the same pitches, but a different starting point (root). A note&#x27;s relationship to the root of they key of the piece is much more important than the exact pitch. Fur Elise in C-major would sound just like it sounds in A-major. Not A-minor.<p>&gt; I only looked into this because I want to compose some music, and I feel completely blocked when I just don’t understand a subject at all.<p>Here&#x27;s the bright point: You don&#x27;t need to understand notation to compose music. Just understand scales and chords (and their progressions), and use whatever notation makes sense for you.