Forgot to post the last few days, so I just included everything in this post. Kinda long...
This chapter should be interesting, since I don't know that much about music. I feel like it may be a bit intimidating, but i think it will be fun and I will learn a lot. I have a basic understanding of music already, but I think that I will understand it much better after this chapter.
Section 3.1 - Context
This section gives a basic introduction to some of the concepts and some music history that will be studied in this chapter.
Section 3.1.2 - Tones and Notes
This section focuses on defining several of the different musical terms and concepts that will be discussed later, such as tone, note, overtone, octave, sharp, flat, major, minor, etc. I knew much of the information, but learned a few new things here. I was a little bit confused as to why there are both flats and sharps and I was hoping there would be some sort of an explanation for that somewhere in the text, but I couldn't find it in the text. Fortunately, Elizabeth was in the room when I was curious and she explained this concept in greater detail. I think adding a little more explanation of why we use both flats and sharps would be better, instead of just saying that any semitone to the left is a flat and semitone to the right is sharp. To a non-music major, I've always been curious about that.
Other than that, the rest of this section is pretty straight-forward.
Section 3.1.3 - Music Versus Noise
I thought this was an interesting section. Reading about the science of why we find certain type of music to be more appealing than others is something I find fascinating and enjoy reading about. I could read a book about that just for fun, so this section was fun for me. Also, the discussion on the ADSR and the amplitude envelope was interesting.
3.1.4 - Scales
There were several interesting concepts in this section, and learning about the different types of scales was kind of fun. I know that the music majors were annoyed about the use of 1 and 2 instead of whole-tone and semi-tone, but I didn't have any trouble understanding it. On the other hand, using whole-note and half-note would be easy to understand as well and would annoy music majors less. Since the CS students don't know any other way of doing this, most likely, it wouldn't hurt them to use whole-/semi-tone instead of numbers and all of the music majors are probably going to find this annoying. Because of this, I would probably go ahead and change the usage of 1 and 2 to whole- and semi-tone.
3.1.5.1 - 3.1.5.4
I already knew all of this content, so it wasn't difficult to understand. I think it was written well and I didn't notice anything that needed to be changed.
Max Demo - Recognizing Notes
This is a pretty fun supplement. It is helpful and entertaining. It works decently, but the score does not work, and it will just accept whatever answer you give it. definitely needs to be worked on. It also says that it is from Chapter 2
Flash Supplement - Beats in a Measure
This was a fun game. It does a good job of testing knowledge of time signature. There should be a level at the beginning where there is no time limit. Also, there should be an option at the end of each level to retry or to go to the next level.
3.1.5.5.1 - Key Signature
Honestly, as a computer science major with little musical experience, this section is dense, long, confusing and frustrating. While I have been fairly interested in most of the other music related sections in the book so far, I simply couldn't maintain concentration while reading this section. I think I understand it after reading through a few times, but I'm still pretty confused about it. I think with a lecture this would be better. Perhaps some worksheets for practice would be beneficial as well.
Flash Supplement - Key Signatures
This was kinda fun, but it moved really fast for a beginner. Even the early levels were too fast. I'll say the same thing about this supplement that I said about the Beats in a Measure supplement. I think it would be good to have a level at the beginning that allows you to choose the correct signature without having the time limit. That would make it less stressful and beginners would probably like it better. Also, if the student fails a level, they should have to redo it until they are successful. Ideally, at the end of each level there should be a button for retry and a button for next level.
At the bottom of the screen where it says which chapter and section the supplement is from, there is an alignment error.
3.1.5.5.2 - Circle of Fifths
The opening line to this section is awkward. Since this is still part of Section 3.1.5, it should say something like "In Section 3.1.5, we have been showing how keys are distinguished by the sharps and flats they contain," or whatever the proper grammar is there. Past tense doesn't work there.
Since I was not entirely comfortable with key signatures, I was a little confused by this section still, but I understand the concept of the section. If key signature is understood, then the Circle of Fifths doesn't seem too difficult to understand.
Flash Supplement - Circle of Fifths
This supplement doesn't add anything to the learning process and everything found in it is explained well in the text. I really don't think it is necessary.
3.1.5.5.3 - Key Transposition
This is pretty simple and easy to understand.
Flash Supplement - Transposing Keys
This is a good supplement. It is simple and easy to understand, but ensures that the student has a good understanding of the concept and does a good job testing them.
3.1.6.1 - Historical Context
In the first line of the first paragraph, where it says BC, there is a random period ("BC. the Greek..."). Either there should be one after the B as well, or there shouldn't be any period there.
While interesting, this section sort of seems like it is just randomly thrown in there. I don't have any problem with it, but it doesn't seem like it adds all that much.
3.1.6.2 - Intervals
"An understanding of melody and harmony in Western music composition begins intervals." This sentence needs to have "with" added before interval. It is the first sentence in the section. In the thrid sentence on page 25, "you’ve change the interval to a smaller one because..." should be "you’ve changed the interval to a smaller one because..."
This section seemed fine. It is fairly easy to understand, it just has a decent amount of content to get through.
Max Demo - Ear Training for Music
This is a really cool demo and I can see it being helpful, but the scoring doesn't work again. It doesn't tell you whether your answer is correct or incorrect and your score is always 100%.
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