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Ask HN: Your favourite tutorial for total beginners?

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Re: Ask HN: Your favourite tutorial for total beginners?

#111

Post by scottmcf »

filoleg wrote: post #104
aasasd wrote: post #93

I have two requests in this regard. - If there's some way to learn playing chess beyond just the rules without memorizing an encyclopedia of openings, I'd be grateful for links. I.e. I currently can stare at a position for a while and figure out a couple next moves that should be good. I'd like to elevate this to figuring out a bit more moves. (Though I have a suspicion that it's a question of ‘rinse and repeat until…

I cannot help you with (1), but I think I can help with alleviating your fears regarding (2). Just by understanding scales and progressions you won't "start hearing them everywhere" and "fall into patterns". There are no "right" and "wrong" progressions in contemporary music, they are just there. By understanding the theory, you will see why you might like certain things and dislike others. It won't take away your en…

Absolutely. Learning about microtones was an absolute game-changer in my mental appreciation of music.

Re: Ask HN: Your favourite tutorial for total beginners?

#112

Post by aasasd »

filoleg wrote: post #104
aasasd wrote: post #93

I have two requests in this regard. - If there's some way to learn playing chess beyond just the rules without memorizing an encyclopedia of openings, I'd be grateful for links. I.e. I currently can stare at a position for a while and figure out a couple next moves that should be good. I'd like to elevate this to figuring out a bit more moves. (Though I have a suspicion that it's a question of ‘rinse and repeat until…

I cannot help you with (1), but I think I can help with alleviating your fears regarding (2). Just by understanding scales and progressions you won't "start hearing them everywhere" and "fall into patterns". There are no "right" and "wrong" progressions in contemporary music, they are just there. By understanding the theory, you will see why you might like certain things and dislike others. It won't take away your en…

> you won't "start hearing them everywhere" and "fall into patterns"

You might be right, or you might underestimate my both snobbery and laziness (◔̯◔)

Re: Ask HN: Your favourite tutorial for total beginners?

#115

Post by aasasd »

scottmcf wrote: post #111
filoleg wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot help you with (1), but I think I can help with alleviating your fears regarding (2). Just by understanding scales and progressions you won't "start hearing them everywhere" and "fall into patterns". There are no "right" and "wrong" progressions in contemporary music, they are just there. By understanding the theory, you will see why you might like certain things and dislike others. It won't take away your en…

Absolutely. Learning about microtones was an absolute game-changer in my mental appreciation of music.

See, this is really an example of what I'm talking about. You wouldn't need to learn about microtones if you didn't follow the twelve-tone standard before. I'm pretty sure that the brain by itself is pretty sloppy in regard to intervals and even more so with tones and keys.

Re: Ask HN: Your favourite tutorial for total beginners?

#116

Post by ghostpepper »

https://www.learnenough.com/command-line-tutorial/basics

Learn Enough Command Line To Be Dangerous is an introduction to some basic bash commands, but more than that it's an introduction to questions like What is a command line, how do I use it and why would I want to communicate with my computer using text rather than a GUI

Re: Ask HN: Your favourite tutorial for total beginners?

#117

Post by ghostpepper »

aasasd wrote: post #93

I have two requests in this regard. - If there's some way to learn playing chess beyond just the rules without memorizing an encyclopedia of openings, I'd be grateful for links. I.e. I currently can stare at a position for a while and figure out a couple next moves that should be good. I'd like to elevate this to figuring out a bit more moves. (Though I have a suspicion that it's a question of ‘rinse and repeat until…

Regarding music, the biggest shift in mindset for me was when I heard (and I can't remember where from now) that music theory is _descriptive_ and not proscriptive.

In other words, people have made music since the beginning of recorded history in ways that sound pleasing to them, and music theory is the language that evolved to describe the types of music that consistently sounded good to some people. It's not a set of rules that you must follow, and in fact if you stick too closely to what came before your music will probably be boring to most people.

Re: Ask HN: Your favourite tutorial for total beginners?

#118

Post by icosa »

aasasd wrote: post #93

I have two requests in this regard. - If there's some way to learn playing chess beyond just the rules without memorizing an encyclopedia of openings, I'd be grateful for links. I.e. I currently can stare at a position for a while and figure out a couple next moves that should be good. I'd like to elevate this to figuring out a bit more moves. (Though I have a suspicion that it's a question of ‘rinse and repeat until…

Re #2, keys, scales, and chords are fundamental units of Western music. You could compare them to words, which are joined into sentences. Chord progressions are sequences of chords, which only make sense in the context of the current key and scale.

Learning about keys, scales, and chords will help you understand music but not necessarily force you into predetermined patterns. Learning chord progressions will help you hear patterns in music, which may reduce your enjoyment of pop music since a handful of progressions are used almost everywhere. On the other hand, if you enjoy trope-spotting, it may increase your enjoyment.

Re: Ask HN: Your favourite tutorial for total beginners?

#120

Post by yorwba »

open-source-ux wrote: post #89

Repeating something from a previous Hacker News thread... Children's publisher Usborne have made available for free some classic computer books from the 1980s aimed at kids that use text and illustrations to clearly explain computer concepts. These books have been discussed a few times before here on Hacker News. Scroll down to the bottom of the link below to the section 'Usborne 1980s computer books' for the free PD…

Non-truncated link: https://usborne.com/browse-books/features/computer-and-codin...
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