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Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

cadenceguitar.com

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Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#31

Post by babblingfish »

The design looks nice!

I think the pitch needs some work. If you're an intermediate guitarist, then memorizing chords and practicing absolute pitch won't make you better at playing guitar. Theory does not equal practice. Gamification apps like Duolingo can trick people into thinking they're making progress on a hard skill when they're really doing something tangential and easier.

Harmony guitarists don't construct their chord progressions using music theory. It's done iteratively with a guitar, maybe with a band, by playing the actual chords and seeing how it sounds.

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#32

Post by kantbtrue »

I really like the language-learning inspiration here — music theory really is its own language, and repetition is what turns knowledge into instinct. Curious how you decided on the difficulty curve for the challenges. That’s always a tough balance to strike.

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#33

Post by flessner »

I started learning the guitar years ago, but lost motivation once I got into university. Maybe I'll give it another shot and use this as a refresher on the theory!

Anyway, one small nitpick on the website: When on German language the word "FUNKTIONSHIGHLIGHTS" overflows on mobile. I would replace it with "WICHTIGSTE FUNKTIONEN" as that is two words.

Good luck, the website and App look nice!

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#34

Post by username223 »

Interesting. I was a fairly serious amateur guitarist in a former life, and the physical skill was the hard part. Playing a Bach lute suite, or something like this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQXvMWojs28), takes an incredible amount of strength and precision. With 1-2 hours per day of practice, learning that kind of material took weeks or months.

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#35

Post by motoxpro »

rideontime wrote: post #13
TomJansen wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was actually happily surprised that you can continue without making an account

The duality of Toms.

If you imagined the sound of tom - tom - ride on drums, its a nice punchline to your joke :)

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#36

Post by epiccoleman »

xcf_seetan wrote: post #26
epiccoleman wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience with ear training is that you really need to connect it to your instrument. If you're on the train where you can't play, obviously it can't hurt to train interval recognition and chord quality - but the ultimate point of training your ear is to build that connection between what you hear in your mind and what comes out of your fingers on the instrument. If there's one "secret trick" exercise for guitar…

The only "secret trick" to play guitar that I know is practice, practice, practice. Nothing beats everyday practice, even it is for 10 minutes. Not even telling what you can achieve with 4 hours daily practice. The continuous interaction with your instrument, will make you learn that when you hear a sequence of musical notes, your fingers would naturally went to the correct position on the neck to reproduce it, even…

Agreed, and I slightly hesitated to use that phrase, but I do think the "sing and play" exercise is a uniquely good thing to practice, practice, practice. It just seems to really work to connect the part of your brain that comes up with melodies to the part of your brain that runs the fingers. YMMV, of course.

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#37

Post by epiccoleman »

zozbot234 wrote: post #20
epiccoleman wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience with ear training is that you really need to connect it to your instrument. If you're on the train where you can't play, obviously it can't hurt to train interval recognition and chord quality - but the ultimate point of training your ear is to build that connection between what you hear in your mind and what comes out of your fingers on the instrument. If there's one "secret trick" exercise for guitar…

The closest thing to a "secret trick" on guitar IMHO is to learn (1) the diatonic intervals (!), and (2) the fretboard, i.e. how these intervals happen to interact with the guitar tuning you're currently using. Start by singing ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la (solmization) and find the notes on the fretboard as you do so. (You may notice that we don't use ti or altered solfège syllables: that's because it's convenient to kee…

I think we're largely advocating for the same thing, though your method is more formalized.

Either way, my bigger point is: connect "ear training" to your practice on the instrument, and don't neglect the speaking portion of learning the language in favor of the hearing.

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#38

Post by apizon »

flessner wrote: post #33

I started learning the guitar years ago, but lost motivation once I got into university. Maybe I'll give it another shot and use this as a refresher on the theory! Anyway, one small nitpick on the website: When on German language the word "FUNKTIONSHIGHLIGHTS" overflows on mobile. I would replace it with "WICHTIGSTE FUNKTIONEN" as that is two words. Good luck, the website and App look nice!

Thanks for the feedback and I hope the app will be useful to you!

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#39

Post by thomask1995 »

This is the app I was begging for a few years ago!

Ended up buying a ton of Ear Training books and using those little web apps.

This would have been so much better.

I just started using it,

I will say, I feel we can skip the chords annotations and stuff if the ICP is intermediate guitarist.

Or do a quick survey at the start and see what fundamentals they know.

For intermediate guitar, I think the main gaps are:

- Ear training (unless they were taught early) - triads + inversions - Music theory beyond basic pentatonic shapes - Synchronization at higher speeds (this was my biggest one by far) - Chords beyond basic ones and M/m 7th.

I feel you could add little quiz or survery to see if they are already familiar with some of these.

just my 2 cents

Overall, love this. Very happy someone took the time to do it.

Re: Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app

#40

Post by apizon »

babblingfish wrote: post #31

The design looks nice! I think the pitch needs some work. If you're an intermediate guitarist, then memorizing chords and practicing absolute pitch won't make you better at playing guitar. Theory does not equal practice. Gamification apps like Duolingo can trick people into thinking they're making progress on a hard skill when they're really doing something tangential and easier. Harmony guitarists don't construct th…

Thanks for the feedback!

I can't argue the fact that playing the guitar will always be the best way to improve. The app come as a complement and is especially meant to help memorize shapes and more importantly recognize how different chord types, intervals or scales are related. Although it probably won't improve playing feel or technique directly I hope it can give a kind of "lightbulb" moment to some people in the way they view the fretboard.

As for the ear training part, the app actually focuses on relative pitch which is a very useful skill to have and one you can actually learn as an adult unlike absolute pitch. E.g. recognizing a major 7 sound from a minor 7 one, not a Cmaj7 from a Dmaj7.

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