This is absolutely fantastic. I've lost my guitar teacher's notes where he wrote out the modal scale patterns, and the ones online are not good for developing this kind of intuition. Perfect example of just the right amount of information while still remaining simple to digest. A+
Show HN: Guitar Dashboard – Open source music theory explorer for guitarists
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Re: Show HN: Guitar Dashboard – Open source music theory explorer for guitarists
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Got quite a collection of intro books, but nothing on theory really. I had hand surgery on my frett hand a few months ago and still do physical therapy twice a week - just now getting some strength back so while I recover, trying to learn more music theory since my practice sessions are limited by a screwed up hand. I tell ya what though, practicing guitar is better than most of my PT exercises :)
That's alright, I've had to relearn my technique after a coma. It's easier the second time around. I really recommend doing legato exercises to strengthen the fretting-hand. Look up any neoclassical shred guitar book and they should have some guitar acrobatic exercise on legato. A good one is the Frank Gambale warmup instructoinal video. Another is a Paganini for guitar book put out by Greg Howe in the 90s if I recal…
Wait. A coma? What happened? What has the journey back been like?
Re: Show HN: Guitar Dashboard – Open source music theory explorer for guitarists
#43For those of us scrubs just learning guitar, do you have a guide on how to use this? or a link to a good guide?
My favourite book on music theory is 'Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles' by Dominic Pedler. The title doesn't do it justice. It's a magnificent treatise on music theory and song writing using the Beatles songs as examples. If you're a Beatles fan like me, it's a must read!
Re: Show HN: Guitar Dashboard – Open source music theory explorer for guitarists
#44For those of us scrubs just learning guitar, do you have a guide on how to use this? or a link to a good guide?
While these tools are useful, I recommend oldschool hard copy books to get started properly, if you're relatively serious about it. There are some great books for guitar put out by Berklee, I don't recall the names right now, but I do remember a series that had 4 books from intro to advanced. I spent a lot of years learning guitar technique while not progressing much on the music theory side until I started reading M…
I'd agree. For beginners, Guitar Dashboard is probably overkill. I really wrote it for people like me, who'd been playing guitar for a while and know all the basic chords, but want to get deeper into the underlying theory.
Re: Show HN: Guitar Dashboard – Open source music theory explorer for guitarists
#45Great job! One idea: Have some tracks ( from Spotify api?) to play along that matches the selected scales. I've found that playing on top of songs works pretty well, improvising up and down is very easy if you are playing the safe notes of the scale, finding how the singing melody fits the scale, then how the solo fits the scale..etc is a funnier way to memorise the scale.
I've found a looper pedal a fantastic tool for learning theory. Play some chords from a particular scale, then try improvising over it. You get a real feel for how the different modes sound.
Re: Show HN: Guitar Dashboard – Open source music theory explorer for guitarists
#46Just wanted to say thank you as well for this. Great tool! What are you future plans for it?
Right now, I just want more people to know about it and get some good feedback on what works and what doesn't. I'd be super happy if guitar teachers and other music educators pick up on it. It'd be great if I got some good pull-requests too. I'd like to make more YouTube videos, relating Guitar Dashboard to the theory and showing some examples. I'm not a keyboard player, but Piano Dashboard seems like an obvious addition :)
Re: Show HN: Guitar Dashboard – Open source music theory explorer for guitarists
#47I will spend some time on this later next week. At first glance my preferred D standard tuning (DGCFAD) does not seem to be available.
It's very easy to add new tunings. I'll collect all the ones from the comments here and add them in the next few days.
Re: Show HN: Guitar Dashboard – Open source music theory explorer for guitarists
#48This is great!
A suggestion: show pitch constellations[1]. Piano/violin music theorists have written me that these were helpful in [2]. (I'd offer you code, but it's so ancient that it's probably not helpful :-( )
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_circle#Pitch_constel...
Re: Show HN: Guitar Dashboard – Open source music theory explorer for guitarists
#49This is amazing, thank you! I've been playing guitar for a while now and am now beginning to understand the importance of theory, but I'm kind of at a loss on how to go about learning and applying it. Does anyone have a book/mooc that they'd recommend with lots of exercises and accompanying songs? I've gone through a few sources but most of them relate everything to a piano. I understand the underlying theory is most…
Another thing, I really do recommend learning music theory on the piano/keys as well as your primary instrument. Doesn't have to be a fancy keyboard, any cheap midi thing just to visualise the way the way chords and scales are structured. I've found that learning other instruments become a lot easier once you know a little bit of theory and how they're laid out on a keyboard.
Or maybe a melodica? They're cheap and fun to play. (I started out on piano.)
I think each instrument's UI has something to teach. The stradella bass on an accordion with its circle-of-fifths layout is pretty interesting.
Re: Show HN: Guitar Dashboard – Open source music theory explorer for guitarists
#50Heh, I am reminded of a little exploration I did a few years ago: http://mirkules.com/blog/music-theory-for-guitar/
I wish I had this tool back then!