Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People

As a matter of fact, I am a programmer as well, and I agree with the original comment here; a multimedia experience is the best way to do it. Of course, I'm a college professor, and I give my students that experience every day in class, but having something online makes a lot of sense.

If I had time, I'd start on it right away, but as it is, it's on the Big To-Do List. However, one thing I am actively working on right now is an aural skills practice site that includes the advanced stuff (most existing sites only deal with the basics) and which uses HTML5, CSS and other open standards tech (most existing sites are flash-based). I'm also designing it with an interface that works equally well using a mouse or a touchscreen. This is, IMHO, a huge need in my field. But my project is still in it's infancy, and not ready for prime time.

You're right, it sounds great--but it's darned hard for the average singer to nail it. In any case, I'd still consider your example to be an exception to the general rule, while the augmented second is used so often that I have to believe the author meant something other than what he actually said. (To be excruciatingly precise thought, augmented seconds are not used nearly as often as minor thirds, which are sonically identical, even though they're musicographically different.)

Hi Toby, thanks for taking the time to respond and update your page, much appreciated.

With regards to open sourcing, let me make a couple of notes which might help change your mind ;)

Firstly, open source is not the same as no control, or lack of authorship. Open sourcing simply lets others use your material in their own works, and depending on which license you use you can maintain a lot of control over what those derivative works can look like. Time and time again in the open source community we see that actively maintained projects almost always stay together. With large projects where differences arise we see the project split, often to fulfil multiple different needs, but almost always the original project remains as the single source of 'truth'. In truth, there is nothing stopping someone from trying to run their own linux kernel, and some have succeeded fairly well (such as the android kernel project), however everyone still sees Linus' as the 'true' kernel project; a lot of work went into merging the work done for android back into the mainline kernel for this reason.

What does this mean for you? The fact that you are the creator of these documents immediately gives you control of how they are shaped, even in an open sourced format. By open sourcing you allow three things to happen more easily than you would otherwise.

1. Others can use your work in their own works, according to the license you provide. This is bad or good depending on how you see it.

2. You allow someone else to keep maintaining the project if and when you lose interest. This is almost certainly a good thing.

3. You make it much easier for people to provide improvements and 'bug' fixes. You have already stated this is something you are willing for people to send you. By allowing people to actually make the changes themselves, and publish them back to you to incorporate into the 'true' version, you make it easier for people to help you. You are empowering others to do your work for you. You might claim that you lose control over what gets into the project this way - you don't. If someone points out an error you will want to correct it. If they rewrite a paragraph maybe you like the general idea but not the exact wording. You can ask them to rewrite it with suggestions until you like it, incorporate part of it using your own words, or ignore it completely; the power is yours.

Lastly, open sourcing does not inhibit you from making money from the ideas. You might want to treat carefully when selecting a license, and make sure any contributors (if you have any) are aware you might make money from the idea (sharing profits or not is a separate issue, just as important to understand). This side of it can get thorny and would be the one reason I might avoid open sourcing it, or at least avoid taking large contributions.

In any case, open source can be a great tool, and you can still maintain control of your project when using it.