Music theory for nerds (2016)
I really don&#x27;t understand all the hate in the comments for this article. This seems like a really fine introduction to a lot of the concepts. I had to scour the web a long time before understanding that the scales were constructed because of the simple&#x2F;reduced ratio of root note to the others, which is clearly spelled out in this article.<p>Music theory is, in my experience, typically taught as a list of facts to remember. Deriving it from first principles, insofar as it can be, is not common. This article is attempting to start that process.<p>Some commentators are saying that the article doesn&#x27;t address why we have 12 notes but I wonder if they even know why (one answer is because it&#x27;s a good compromise between number of notes and that have simple&#x2F;reduce ratios to each other [0]). I&#x27;m also skeptical of music theorists that can&#x27;t even attempt an answer to basic questions about note length frequency, why some chords are &quot;sad&quot; or &quot;happy&quot; and other basic questions. It&#x27;s difficult because music theory is a hodge podge of theory that&#x27;s attempting to describe what&#x27;s effectively an evolved language (with different music evolution for different regions), but there are some basic tenets that probably apply.<p>I don&#x27;t claim to have deep knowledge but there are a few key facts about music and music theory that are really obscure unless you know where to look. Any attempt at coming to music theory from a more rigorous foundation should be encouraged.<p>[0]  &quot;Measures of Consonances in a Goodness-of-fit Model for Equal-tempered Scales&quot; by Aline Honigh (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;abetusk&#x2F;papers&#x2F;blob&#x2F;release&#x2F;Music&#x2F;measures-consonances_honingh.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;abetusk&#x2F;papers&#x2F;blob&#x2F;release&#x2F;Music&#x2F;measure...</a>)<p>EDIT: corrected spelling (thanks for the comments pointing it out)