The randomness kind of bothers me. People don't write music randomly, and composition isn't just following some mechanical process and seeing what comes out. This method might get you music that <i>sounds</i> nice, but it can't stand up to music that is actually composed.<p>If you really want to learn about music, I think it's better to study good music. If you thought adding rhythm had surprising effects, this video will blow your mind: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0ZE38BQmvQ" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0ZE38BQmvQ</a> It's an analysis of Mozart in Leonard Bernstein's Norton lectures at Harvard.
Very practical, which is great. It is very easy to stay motivated when the tutorial is so focused on producing something that you like.<p>The only thing that I thought was missing was a discussion about micro and macro pulses in 4/4 versus 3/4 versus 6/8, because it is a simple concept that is easy to teach but offers the student much more variety of options in choosing a time signature. As a music teacher, I usually approach the issue by having students count 4/4 aloud ("<i>1</i> 2 <i>3</i> 4, noting that 1 and 3 are accented slightly) and 3/4 aloud (<i>1</i> 2 3, noting that beat 1 is accented). This teaches not just the structure of the time signatures but helps the student internalize them, which I've found speeds up learning and understanding without sacrificing the student's ability to understand what principles make rhythms work the way they do. (This would have made syncopation a <i>lot</i> easier to teach later in the article-- it can be defined as simply rhythms that don't conform to the usual micro/macro pulse of a time signature, i.e. <i>1</i> 2 3 <i>4</i>, etc)<p>Also, one of the easiest ways to grok the time signature concept is to say the signature aloud like it's a fraction. i.e., 4/4 is "four fourths", 6/8 is "sixth eighths" etc. It really is that easy, and this approach <i>combined with</i> the understanding that the lower value gets one beat and there are x of them per measure usually makes time signatures one of the easiest sections of my theory courses.<p>Still, it's hard to criticize a tutorial that has you producing music so quickly.
Here is the thread for part 1 <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2326502" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2326502</a> and the direct link <a href="http://www.whitakerblackall.com/blog/music-theory-for-beginners/" rel="nofollow">http://www.whitakerblackall.com/blog/music-theory-for-beginn...</a>