Ask HN: Tools to learn music theory?
I grew up in a family of classical musicians, got a degree in music, and was briefly a professional classical musician myself.  So my advice may be very out of touch with the experience of someone learning for the first time, but my experiences learning beyond European classical music theory left me feeling insulted.<p>The basics of music theory are presented as though they are the foundations upon which all subsequent music is derived.   In fact, teaching scales and chords is like teaching that the electron orbits the nucleus - a 'simplification'.  There _are_ real psychoacoustic truths, alongside equally fascinating historical forces, that underpin music theory.<p>Learn the language and idioms of music theory, by all means, but don't think of it as being in any way true. Its a syncretist  cargo cult of hacks and rules of thumb handed down by centuries of men with dubious motives.<p>I recommend Adam Neely on YouTube, he illustrates music theory concepts clearly, engagingly, and with an appropriate skepticism for received wisdom.<p>Here's his discussion of some more political criticisms of music theory: <a href="https://youtu.be/Kr3quGh7pJA" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/Kr3quGh7pJA</a><p>I recommend Sethares' _Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale_ to anyone interested in the underpinnings of why some notes sound good together and others don't.<p>[2]<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287019948_Tuning_timbre_spectrum_scale_Second_edition" rel="nofollow">https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287019948_Tuning_ti...</a>