Spent some time yesterday learning basic music theory on the Wicki-Hayden layout with @nff and sorry but the accepted notation is crazy!
Something that blew me away is how hard it is to find simple information like "what are the two intervals in a major chord, *in semitones*?"
Everyone shows you this stuff in musical notation where you need to know which lines have one and which have two semitones between them...
@s_ol yeah same, i fucking hate musical notation because the only reasoning for everything ever is always "because we've always done it this way" and it makes no goddamn sense
@Ludonaut some scholars understood this, now i'm really rusty on notation but Dieter De la Motte books on counterpoint and harmony screw the "those are the RULES of music" in favour of an historical (and sometimes even etnological) perspective on the musical customs of various different times and authors in the western tradition, those books are really good and they makes lots of sense
@npisanti @s_ol YES, exactly. it's never "music theory", it's always "music theory as defined by white european musicians since the 18th century"